As mentioned previously I’m engaged as music composer to a film production The Correspondent. Work continues – we have a rough version that is good enough to send out to potential distributors and festivals, but not ready for general release. There’s a list of things that need to happen – the special effects such as “dragon’s breath” (that vapour you see when it’s really very cold) – screens on televisions and laptops which have to be replaced – the colour grading of different scenes so that they are similar where needed and different when that’s the design.
It was a treat to go to a private viewing at a local cinema complex to see what it looks like on a commercial screen. Good, because it’s real world and quite different to my computer displays. Bad because all the errors and weirdness of PA speakers are revealed. For example one scene the bass kicks in too hard, but right at the end of the film the bass doesn’t kick in as hard as it really should. That’s partly due to the resonant note of the speaker system, also contingent on how much of it goes to the bass speakers in the cinema cross overs. I should have the chance to fix this because the credits are being rearranged and the music needs to be reworked to fit the titles on screen. I’ll mono and contour the bass so as to move most of it to a sub speaker.
Another thing you’re looking for is a general loudness drift over the duration. Because you’re likely working on one reel at a time you can create reel 1 louder than reel 3 – hidden until you play the whole movie. Another risk I call “chocolate boxes” – when you find multiple ways to express an idea over weeks of work, only to hear it like a zoo when condensed down to 120 minutes. And of course chasing volume – you supply a recording – they lower the volume in the mix – then you need to supply again but the volume is now adjusted so you lower it and eventually it shrinks to zero.
I was wondering if this was going to be a chance to compose in surround – but that’s not very likely as the sound crew will be handling all of that later in the piece, and when you go surround bad things can happen that no one has time to fix. Stick to the quality of the ideas!
I gather there will be no soundtrack album as the production is aimed at a different audience. In time the company may not be concerned about that idea – but that would be a long way off. Interestingly some parts of the late Music Server albums has appeared in the project and I’d say will have to be removed from sale at some point. We’ll see.
That’s it for now – will update as time permits!
Great update.
Shame about the rights – not sure why they wouldn’t want a soundtrack – can’t see how it would affect the film’s impact or status. Nor why the (I imagine) not great selling (in major terms) music servers. When a film uses a song does that mean that artist can’t release it again?
This is just a hunch on my part… I feel like more and more films these days aren’t bothering with soundtrack albums, or if they do they dump them as digital downloads, as they’re seen as an unnecessary extravagance that only a minority of people would listen to, making the financial cost of a big physical release unjustifiable. The arts generally don’t have the budgets that they had in the 90s and 00s for this sort of thing. Maybe why it’s not happening here. Bemused by the comment that the Music Servers have to be removed from sale as technically they’re not available to buy anywhere, though I suppose ms.nilamox.com might count as streaming.
A soundtrack would be outside of their usual production flow, it might be a distraction from their focus on the movie. If and when the movie is completely exhausted they may adjust the agreement as happened with older films.
The contract states in part that I grant them “the first sound recording right for the mechanical reproduction of the Music and any adaptation throughout the World of the Music”. It would mean they alone could OK a musical product. They pay for all of that up front, fair enough.
To be very clear “the Producer, as the commissioner of the production of the Master Sound Recording, is the sole owner of the copyright in the Master Sound Recording throughout the World for the full term of copyright.” So no bunging it up on Bandcamp.
Including a bit of Music Server was by accident, we will sort out an agreement there (it’s not going to a big deal for me).
Thanks for that Lard. It is all complex and overwhelming and am just happy you are getting your cut and the profile
Thank you for update Tom! Is most of the other sound design, foley work ect, already complete when you are making cues for the reels? I imagine there is a lot of tweaking of volumes, and things as the film progresses to a final cut. I wish you all the best and looking forward to seeing the finished film.
Hopefully any issues can be sorted out for a soundtrack album to be released sometime in the future.
Normally the music is added in the last few weeks of the production. The director Kriv Stenders believes that the music should develop alongside other elements of the movie, and so I am composing to sections of the film that may be later cut out, or expanded as we go. That makes it a bit harder but also I get more time to come up with solutions. Example – the end credits music has just had to change because the ending changed – the contour of the emotions has shifted upwards.
Kriv is also very hands on about the music. He will say when he wants it to grow or shrink and express doubt – and some parts are now up to their 5th version. You have to have a good rapport.
Sound design is mostly there, they are doing cleaning and EQ and some FX are still being refined. Visual FX not in there yet.
Again, interesting insights.
About that term about rights “throughout the World” or, in some cases I had to deal with, “throughout The Universe”, ( lol) I only know this specific term from Anglosaxon countries.
It is of course common and the usual thing that you hand over all commercial distribution rights, globally, but still there are different ways how this can be handled and worded. This is not to say that things should be any different in this case, but just a reminder that *everything” and *anything” could be handled differenetly on this planet. But for this project Id say its both worth a) not to be too intimidated by the wordings and b) the past is the past, and we have to reinvent ourselves and adopt to the NOW, every now and then, and the now is this project.
I’m not too fussed about the terms as it’s rare to get paid upfront. I don’t have to deal with the worry of making the money back – that’s a blessing.