Finding your film’s sountrack: What Do Music Supervisors Do?

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What Do Music Supervisors Do?

A movie without a fantastic soundtrack will never win awards. Let’s face it – it’s the music that makes a movie shine. That said, have you ever wondered how the music winds up on a film in the first place? That comes down to music supervision. So, what do music supervisors do?

A music supervisor job is a coveted position for those who are passionate about music and have a talent for placing it perfectly into media that includes television programs, movies, commercials and video games. These sought after individuals also need to be able to handle less exciting parts of the job, including the administrative aspects, including nurturing vital relationships.

A successful music supervisor communicates well, excels at negotiations and understands the need for sensitivity when it comes to the egos of the rights holders, artists and directors involved. Even more important, they make it a point to realize the message the director is trying to get across in his film. They arrange and negotiate the appropriate licensing for the songs that will be used in films

Experience Required
Like the majority of music professions, there’s no clear path when it comes to being a music supervisor. Some who have chosen to go after a career as a music
supervisor take music business classes to learn all the ins and outs of music licensing rules which can definitely help. In addition, most look for music industry internships, which provide the perfect opportunity to learn the ropes, make important connections and eventually obtain paid work. Those who are new to the career
field are often willing to start out by accepting low or “no pay” positions in orderto add to their portfolios. For example, a lot of new music supervisors do freelance work in order to present their experiences to potential clients.

Another important asset for any music supervisor is to be well-versed in a wide variety of musical genres. To succeed in this field, it’s important that you stay current, so you will want to go out to the clubs, comb the trades every day and listen to current music genres online. Taking a few music history courses would be invaluable as well.

The Licensing Process
When the producers have specific tracks in mind or only have a basic idea of the style of music they want or think they want, they call on their music supervisor.
Then, the supervisor sets out to find the appropriate music and starts the licensing process. In some cases, a number of licenses are required per song, and the final approval can’t occur until filming has been completed. In addition, music supervisors will only have a small window of time to acquire licensing before a movie’s
release date.

Salary
Music supervisors characteristically get paid flat fees for their services and the amount of money they make is based on the project’s budget. For example, the majority of television music supervisors earn a few thousand dollars per episode, while on the other hand the most popular music supervisors earn around $200,000 for their services when they take part in major film productions. In some cases, music supervisors negotiate soundtrack royalties and are given bonuses if the productions they’re working on exceed pre-determined earning thresholds.

So, What Do Music Supervisors Do?
If they’re good at what they do and are lucky enough to lead a handful of high-profile projects to successful conclusions, they’ll enjoy financially rewarding careers. They have a key role acting as mediators between Production  and composers, music publishers, labels or record companies. They research and obtain all legal rights to source music for films. 

The music supervisor is the number one person responsible for all the musical aspects from creative to legal copyrights. They provide a unique service to the director to find the perfect music that are right for the film.

Their have the Legal knowledge of music copyrights and licensing agreements necessary to succeed and exist in the music industry.

We’ve compiled a list of the best music composed recently …
pretty much the highest aspiration any composer can want out of their new tracks.

Enjoy 🙂

Preparing for battle

Season of change

Epic motivation

Alive

The universe

We will win

I’m Happy

Eternal justice

Colors of the world

Second chance

8th wonder

Footsteps from here

Inner beauty

Something creative

We are strong

Moment to shine

Royalty free music at no cost for Colleges, Universities, Film Schools and Film Festivals.

We offer Royalty free music at no cost for Colleges, Universities, Film Schools and Film Festivals.

Our program is for accredited state schools, colleges and notorious film schools only. Individual students do not qualify.

In order to help students, faculty and staff prepare for success, we’re providing Free Royalty free music to you free of charge.

You may qualify
• If you belong to an accredited state school (elementary, High school, college or university ).
• If your school website ends with .edu (example: http://www.umd.edu/)
• If you are a nationally known film/video school ( examples: American Film Institute, USC, New York University Tisch School of the Arts…)
All we ask in exchange for free music is a link pointing to http://filmtv-tracks.com// on your school’s site.
Put the link on your media home page or resource page, this information should be easily found.

You can use the following example
Premium royalty free music from Filmtv-tracks

Send us an email with full details of your project and tell us how our music will be used.

To get your Royalty Free Music follow these simple steps:

• Name
• Contact
• Email
• Address
• Telephone
• film school or college/university,
• Website URL(the home page to your school)
• Linking URL(the page in which you have placed our link on your schools site)

This program, offered as educational program, is available to all Film and Television students/teachers fully registered in universities and colleges.

Thank you for following these guidelines

The team

Composer Ennio Moricone of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ” gets his Star in Hollywood

Italian Film composer Ennio Moricone gets his star on the Hollywood walk of Fame.

 

The ceremony was held feb 26 to honor his prestigious carreer that has included writing original motion picture sountracks  for more than 500 films including that legendary western spaghetti “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino were among the Guests.

Tarantino said. “To bring this bit of ‘Italia’ to Hollywood Boulevard is a really wonderful thing.”

 “The Hateful Eight” received the best original score, a film produced by Moricone.

Moricone composed the scores for legendary movies “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” “Once Upon a Time in The West” to name a few. He has worked with Sergio Leone on numerous movies. He had a deep esteem for John williams, composer of Starwars and The Schindler’s list.

Moricone has been nominated at least  five times before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He wrote his first concert at the age of 22, then started to work as a composer for the Italian national TV RAI.

The 5 Most Anticipated Movies of 2016

 

2016 has already started off to be a great year for movie fans, celebrating everything from directors, writers, actors, songs, costumes to special effects. There are plenty of “must see” comedies, dramas, kid friendly movies, action packed thrillers and more to look forward to. This year has already seen several movies that were great, whether they won an award or not, like Deadpool, Zoolander 2, Straight Out of Compton and the Hateful Eight. Following are the 5 most anticipate movies for 2016 that we still have to look forward to.

1. Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
Director: Zack Snyder
March 25
Batman, fearing the actions of Superman if left unchecked, takes the superhero on in Dawn of Justice, as the planet tries to figure out exactly what kind of a champion it really needs. Because of the battle between the two icons, a new threat is born – Doomsday, created by nemesis Lex Luthor. Now it’s up to Batman and Superman to settle their differences and stop Doomsday, along with help from Wonder Woman, before they destroy Metropolis. What’s not to love about a superhero movie like this?

2. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau
April 15
This Disney, star studded new version of the Rudyard Kipling tale is sure to be a hit, thanks to a live-action Mowgli in a jungle packed with incredible CGI creatures voiced by mega stars that include Bill Murray, Christopher Walken, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o among others.

3. The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
April 22
Chris Hemsworth returns to fight evil Queen Ravenna, played by Charlize Theron, who was resurrected by her Ice Queen sibling, played by Emily Blunt. The brave hero also falls into a forbidden romantic relationship with Sara, played by Jessica Chastain, a fellow huntsman.

4. The BFG
Director: Steven Spielberg
July 1
Legendary director Steven Spielberg is bringing us a new fantasy adventure July 1st, the adaptation of the BFG, a popular novel by Roald Dahl. The story is about a young Londoner named Sophie (newcomer Ruby Barnhill) and a mysterious giant (Mark Rylance) that introduces her to the perils and amazing wonders of “Giant Country”. Bill Hader, Michael David Adamthwaite, Jemaine Clement, Chris Gibbs, Daniel Bacon and more also star in what should be a fun movie, appealing to kids of all ages.

5. Bourne 5: Jason Bourne
Director: Paul Greengrass
July 29
The suspenseful film series that delivered plenty of chills and thrills will be returning with “Jason Bourne” and Matt Damon, its fifth installment and sequel to the Bourne Ultimatum released in 2007. In this film, the CIA’s most deadly former operative is drawn out of the shadows. Additional actors include Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander and more.

There’s an abundance of buzz going around this year for every kind of movie fan. If you love movies as much as we do, you should definitely plan on seeing the film listed here. So, whip open your calendars and pencil in the dates listed here because you’re definitely going to want to see them all.

5 Editors that Broke the Hollywood Studio System

arriflex-416-become-a-film-producerIn the late 1960s, the United States’ Hollywood studio system found itself in a transitional period. The younger generation began to make a significant connection to music, film and art. This connection led to the growth of young, innovative filmmakers that were different than any that came before them. Talented filmmakers/directors like Lucas, Spielberg and Scorsese grew up watching movies and were so passionate about the industry that they diligently studied them. By the time the 70’s hit, these young directors were smashing box office records due in part to the help of incredible editors.

The following 5 editors transformed the film industry and help turn a new generation of inspired young filmmakers into household names.

Anne Coates
Anne Coates started to fulfill her dream of being a film editor with the Religious Film Company that in time led to a position at Pinewood, on the cutting room floor, where J. Arthur Rank, her Uncle, was a founding member. She worked on several projects prior to attaining her first screen credit for « The Pickwick Papers ». In 1962, Anne worked with director David Lean, editing the legendary film Lawrence of Arabia, a life changing opportunity. In 2015 Anne edited popular « Fifty Shades of Grey » which has been nominated for 5 Oscars.

50ShadesofGreyCoverArt.jpg

Thelma Schoonmaker
Thelma began her career in the biz at the New York Times as an assistant film editor. While taking a film editing course she met a young Martin Scorsese and went on to edit Scorsese’s first feature film in 1967, « Who’s That Knocking at My Door ». In 1980, Scorsese had her edit his film « Raging Bull ». Schoonmaker went on to earn 7 Academy Award nominations for « Best Film Editing » for Gangs of New York.

Dede Allen
Dede Allen began her career in the film industry at Columbia Pictures during the 1940s, starting out as a production runner. One of her first assignments as an editor was the 1959 film « Odds Against Tomorrow ». In 1967, Dede Allen became the first film editor to receive a solitary opening credit on the film “Bonnie and Clyde”. Additional films Allen worked on include « The Breakfast Club » and the « Addams Family » in 1991. It is said that Dede’s work broken from traditional Hollywood editing practices.

Verna Fields

Photo credit: cherrycadaver.wordpress.com
In 1968, Verna Fields made her directorial debut with « Journey to the Pacific » the documentary, hiring two editors to help her with it, George Lucas and Marcia Griffin (who later married). Verna also worked with Peter Bogdanovich, editing his films « Paper Moon » and « What’s Up, Doc?”. George Lucas had Verna Fields and Marcia edit his film American Graffiti. Later Fields edited for Steven Spielberg’s films « The Sugarland Express and later, « Jaws », for which she won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing.

Marcia Lucas

Photo credit: denofgeek.us
Marcia worked as an assistant editor on « The Candidate » and « THX 1138 » and worked with Verna Fields on American Graffiti, which earned her first Oscar nomination. In the 1970s, Lucas edited « Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore » and worked as Scorsese’s supervisory editor for « New York, New York » and Taxi Driver. In 1977, the world was introduced to what became legendary, « Star Wars », directed by George Lucas. Marcia edited the film and even helped rewrite it and also edited several additional films in the Star Wars saga.

5 Editors that Broke the Hollywood Studio System

These remarkably talents women were the editors of the « New Hollywood », paving the way for today’s talents and turning a new era of young filmmakers into world renown household names.

Filmtv-tracks.com offers individual premium royalty free music tracks in a number of  styles, allowing producers, and directors to immediate download. All their music is copyright clear to allow you a smooth experience on youtube and Vimeo.