meon media index

cue the music... is a three part series examining the options available to amateur and semi-pro audio/visual producers who wish to incorporate music in their productions. Part one examines the process of clearing copyrighted music. Part two offers 5 alternatives to using copyrighted music. Part three examines the process of using royalty free music.

choosing music for short film projects... addresses how much of the film making process requires ingenuity & frugality. One priority is matching the mood and atmosphere of your story with the right music. In the article, we spoke to directors and short film makers about how to get the best music for their movie score without blowing the budget.

Extract from Cue The Music

Sample collections have improved immensely in recent years as more and more established music producers make their self produced samples and loops available on commercial releases. Quite often they will offer entire ready-mixed tracks that can be utilised as music beds with little adjustment. The loops are normally categorised by genre, tempo and key which would certainly help to find suitable music that needed to be of a strict predetermined speed or duration.

However, the ability to manipulate these loops or create your own music beds will require a degree of musical know-how and the ability to operate dedicated music software. You will need to have a sound knowledge of composition, mixing and layering to get the best results. Playing around with loops and samples may be the last thing you need to be doing if you’re on a tight deadline.

Extract from Choosing Music For Short Film Projects

Music is a powerful tool in filmmaking. And choosing the right mood is an art in itself. Professional film directors work directly with composers to produce music & sound design that integrates perfectly with the imagery on the screen. They will often choose published songs to connect with the audience adding emphasis to certain scenes. But there’s a high price to pay. Top composers working with professional orchestras can ask for seven figure salaries. Perhaps more shocking is that the use of a single published work by a major artist can sometimes match or exceed that figure. Take for example the rights to use Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ on the recent movie, ‘Lords Of Dogtown’ which cost the producers a cool $3 Million!
But typically the score for a major movie represents around 8 percent of the total budget.
With short films, this margin is greatly reduced. Often there will very little money or no budget at all. The filmmaker will need to think of all kinds of creative ideas to get the music he wants.