Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
Hi Luis, I deal with these sort of requests at least once a week, in addition to never ending requests from theater and dance companies. Here are a few things to consider...and I don't know your exact situation so they might not all apply... TIME First of all, no matter how simple a license, the time you spend thinking about it, emailing, negotiating, and drafting up documents...that is your valuable time lost. If you give your music to someone for free, it's like *you* are paying *them*. This might be hard for them to grasp, but imagine if you were to get requests like this almost every day then you'd be spending all your time doing this. Sometimes a well-organized production company sends you a nicely spelled out license where all you have to do is add a few bits and send it back. But often, it is left to the composer or their representative to draft a license, and this takes time. PUBLICITY In my experience, very few films make it past the festival stage, or even into any major festivals. Even when they do, the creator of the underscore music is not usually feted (other than by other musicians!). Yes, it is great for your resume and if you want to grow your list of credits, but I find that directors and producers highly overestimate the amount of publicity a composer will get for contributing music. Composing the entire score is entirely different.... BUDGET The budget is always tight. I've worked on some Hollywood films, and even they claim the budget is very tight. No one wants to pay anyone if they can help it but would they not pay their crew? What about their lawyers? Music should be, and is, budgeted for in the production costs, just like any other service...unless they are clueless amateurs (in which case you should educate them). The equation to keep in mind is: your music in exchange for X. X = publicity, or money, or resume building, or a combination of the three. So think about what X is for you. There are cases where it really is worth it to give someone music for social, or creative, or you really love someone's movie, and in those situations you feel good about giving your music away. Just examine your motives and make sure that you're not giving someone your music because you are flattered, or it makes you feel validated. CONTRACT A simple approach is to offer your music for a limited term festival synchronization and master license for a small "honorarium". The license allows them to use your music music in their film for 1 year (or sometimes 2 years). Pricewise, a label like Nonesuch might quote $500 per track for a 1 year festival license for a well-known artist, and then the publisher of the song might also quote $500...for a total of $1000. If you are both the publisher and the record label, you can be "nice" and offer a 1 year master/sync combined for say $400 ($200 sync + $200 master). That is my low floor. You can write up the contract to be automatically renewable, so they pay you every year. What comes after a festival license is more complicated...a buy out? Royalties per DVD? In my experience, very few films make it past the festival stage, although every director thinks theirs will! I've had it written up in the festival licenses that a second "option" will be exercised if the film is bought, or it goes to dvd, etc. Sometimes that 2nd option is spelled out in excruciating detail, and sometimes it is just stated that a good faith negotiation will occur. COPYRIGHTS Make sure in any license that you are designated owner of all copyrights and state your affilation (ASCAP, BMI, etc). Specify in the contract how and where you should be credited. I didn't specify this when I started out and was amazed at several films, who said it would be great "publicity", then didn't credit me at all....so no one knew it was me! I work with an entertainment lawyer based in Portland named Peter Shaver. He is very reasonable, friendly, an all around cool dude, and specializes in working with bands on these issues. When I have something that comes up, I just write to Peter and he can vet a legal document or create a new one in a matter of hours. His email is pvshaver (at) hotmail.com Hope that helps. It's in all our interests that this stuff not be mysterious! celloly, Zoe On Feb 12, 2008, at 7:10 AM, L.A. Angulo wrote: > Hi gang, > I got t a call today from a fellow film producer in > England that would like to use a song from one of my > CDs as a sound track he heard in Itunes for a film > currently being produced in Havana Cuba. > This particular track is an old remake of mine of a > very old tune whos publisher is registered and being > sold at CD baby.According to him this is his first > production and is being filmed by a cuban crew with > him as a producer and the film is being sponsored from > different independent sources and the budget is very > tight,so he asked me if it would be ok to use it > without financial ties or agreements on my part,once > the publisher agrees for them to use it.The film also > will be sent with high hopes to all of the film > festivals like in europe and around the world. > Ive never done anything like this and so i thought id > ask this list,because he wants to send me a contract > form for me to sign, is there anything i should be > aware of before doing this,and are there rearrangemet > royalties or CD percentage fees or anything like that > even when youz are not the author of the song?or would > it be wise to let him use it which will perhaps > increase CD sales for us? > thanx! > cheers > Luis > > www.myspace.com/luisangulocom > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > ______________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs >