I am a new filmmaker but have no budget - how can and should I go about finding music and/or a composer for my projects?
Like the old aphorism goes, it really is all about who you know (and whether you will buy dinner/coffee!) There have been great director/composer relationships throughout history: Hitchcock/Herrman, Spielberg/Williams, Burton/Elfman, to name a few. Finding someone who can help you realize your artistic goals is often a LONG journey, and can be painful (on both sides)! So you owe it to everyone you'll work with to always be honest about budget limitations, but also to do what you can to compensate for shortcomings - coffee, food & adult beverages are often a good pick-me-up when your composer has been killing him/herself to get your project done in time.
Contact local producers for a referral. Look on Mandy.com or VersusMedia.com. Ask for a demo and references. Participate in every local music or film/TV event you can, meet bands, music composition students; etc, and stay in touch with them. Often. Find someone whose work compliments yours.
Be sure that you know what you want the work to convey, from an emotional or ambient standpoint. Be prepared to fill up pages of spotting sheets with timings, emotional/ambient notes, technical details; etc. You wouldn't give your lead actor only a summary of your script, would you?
You can have the best project in the world, and without appropriate music/audio, you'll kill at least 50% of the film. Jerry Goldsmith once said "Good music can't make a bad movie that much better, but bad music can KILL a good movie." Music (and to some extent sound design) guides emotions in relationship to action on screen; it must correspond, or the work doesn't ring true, and that's an awful feeling.
Good luck and good hunting!
I am producing a film. How do I go about hiring a composer? How much should I expect to pay?
Generally, the director of the movie will hire the composer, (with the producer's approval, of course!) The director will want someone who shares his/her musical and emotional vision for the film, and has usually worked with the composer before. If this is not the case, the producers can go to one of several agencies that represent composers, or can also ask a music supervisor to aid in their selection. (An important artistic note: the composer should be hired as soon as possible. As actors and filmmakers have time to think about, discuss, research, and shape the character of the roles to be played, so the composer and director should have plenty of time to do the same for the character of the music. This is important so that the composer can pick up clues about his dramatic/musical vision early on.) In any case, composers can and do command anywhere between 2-6% of the movie/show's overall budget for a "package deal" to produce the finished music for the project.
What is a "spotting session" and how does it work?
A spotting session is a period, usually over several days (for a feature length film), when the principals (exec. producers, director, editor, composer, music editor and more and more the music supervisor) meet to discuss where and what music needs to be placed in a film or TV program. This is generally done after the edits to the picture have been finalized, i.e. the picture is "locked". (This is becoming less the case, unfortunately, due to the increasing demands of production schedules and diminishing time for post to be completed.) The merits and needs of each scene are weighed, and individual "cues" are determined for each time/scene there is to be music. Directly afterwards, with those parameters in mind, the composer will write themes for the picture, and with director approval of those themes, has 4-6 weeks to compose and produce the score.
