I want to make Film Scores. Who do I talk to?

I have always loved making long instrumentals, and I would love to score a film. I want to make music for films. I understand that one cant just say that they want something and get it in a moments notice, but where should I begin?

Check craigslist gigs section. Also, there are various online freelancer sites that you could set up an account with.

However, the easiest road in is if you already have a connection. Do you have any friends who make films or videos?

If not, your best bet starting out is to do some work on student films for free. Posts like this come up on craigslist occasionally. If you find a film maker that is into your musical style, it will work out much better than just trying randomly to get some work, as people can be quite particular about what they want. If you go to college, check out the student screenings and see if there is anyone who's style you like and who you'd want to work with.

I'll say it is very difficult to get into it, even with some prior experience, but easier if you already know someone involved in film or video making.

btw, I listened to your myspace, and it kind of reminded me of some oldschool pell mell and steve fisk/early 90's lo-fi pacific northwest k records/kill rockstars stuff

Well, since you are currently a filmmaker, leveraging the contacts you have from your current field would be a logical first step

One caveat - you mentioned working well alone and getting things how you want it and getting irratable with some people....To a certain extent, you, by nature of the work, be subordinating your work to another's artistic vision, so (as you prob already know) there's a lot in the edit.

That's where you may need to really put your editor hat on. like with

Im saying this because as someone who loves noise, its hard for me to listen to my own recordings and hear noise that most people dont like.

you'll, likely have to find a way to learn to critically listen to those parts and hear that noise that most people don't like

If there is some room for unpaid work as you cut your teeth you could try the amateur audiotheatre scene.

Darker Projects, for instance, is usually looking for material so that might be a start. Now one thing about that, they tend to work more in a filter-feeder type mode ("send us some material and we'll grab out parts that we like") as opposed to actively working on a composition as an integrated component (so how much experience you'll gain from that...is...)

thanks for both posts.

I have alot of friends around here that make movies and what not, but most of them are into indie pop, but, bad indie pop. I like to make music for my own films, but most of my friends arent into psychedelia or post rock stuff.

My post rock influences show in alot of my music, and that helps when thinking of film scores.

And I LOVE the northwest sound and listen to alot of K records stuff. What song are you referring to?

It's part of doing that sort of work - if the client wants this sort of thing or that sort of thing, you have to be able to output that sort of work or someone else gets the job. That doesn't mean you don't bring your sensibilities to the table, but you have to work within the context of the film... as the director sees it.

I'd suggest leveraging your friends less and focus more on professional contacts from films you've worked on.

Not that the friend relationship isn't a good one, but it can be loaded for a number of reasons. Your working contacts, that's where there is a little more purity in terms of you and your 'work-product' and your performance and all

I haven't done any film scoring for years, but I got into film scoring by posting an ad on bulletin boards in the cinema/film department of a university. That got me multiple gigs by word-of-mouth.

Yea, it is a fact that when you work scoring things, you have to be willing to collaborate with the film maker. You may do something which takes the mood of the film in a different direction. Sometimes, depending on the film maker, they may be into it and open to see what you can do for their film, but other times, they will have a vision and mood that they want, and will want you to work to that.

I have done many things with videos and film, from just giving CDs of sounds, tunes, and noise created from general descriptions and ideas, to sitting and personally sculpting a soundtrack right to the visuals, to just throwing songs out and seeing what gets put where. Every film maker I have worked with has a totally different style and even may approach the use of sound and music differently from piece to piece, so you really have to be flexible and realize that generally, your role is a supporting one. It's not music videos for your music!

About the comment I made about the sound, I think it was the first or second track on your myspace player.

I imagine it being like this: sit down with the director and watch the film with him/her and take notes. Have him tell me the mood he would like for each time there should be sound. What kind of sounds he's thinking of.

If I were the director of the film being scored, I would let the artist watch the film and do what they feel sounds best and then I could pick apart the parts I did and didnt like.

And the song is probably the second one, "Motionfire". Sounds pretty Northwest lo-fi.

If you really want to work with scoring films, then you have to be pretty open and diverse in what you do, unless, of course, there is a filmmaker who is coming to you because they like your music and genera specifically. Good luck with that.

Most of the folks who I know who make films (well, good films) have a pretty specific vision of what they are looking for. If they didn't they wouldn't be making films.

Working with people who don't have a very specific vision usually (IMO, no guarantee, YMMV, ect.) means that you end up doing a lot of work that you think sounds great which gets rejected. I would much rather work with folks who know what they want, communicate that to me, and allow me to do the job one time.

Being able to accommodate someone's vision is just part of what it is to work making media for other peoples' art: the "artist" behind a film is usually not the music composer but the director. That is just how most folks making media see it, and there is little you can do to get around it.

But there are plenty of people out there who are making budget stuff, and who need someone willing to work for free or cheap.

In addition to the other suggestions, I would suggest Craigslist-- but expand your postings to places where there are a lot of film/video productions. Since you can work via the phone, mail, and internet, there is no reason why you can't find work someplace else.

Also, I have gotten motion graphics work by contact people who had calls out for actors and other production personnel; contacting folks who you know are in preproduction can be a good way of finding someone who will give you work, especially if you are working for cheap or free.

Ah, the ole Pitcher/catcher "Fastball? No! Curveball? No! Slider? No! -- WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT TO THROW!?!?!?

ain't that the truth! and it sure ain't limited to film scoring (Dilbert had a strip about it some years back where the marketing guy says to Dilbert "Why don't you tell me everything you can make and I'll choose one and that will be the next product")

A lot of times, I find it can come down to a sort of client laziness in terms of really taking the time to internally define what they want...often, I think the client has a strong opinion of what they want, but just doesn't want to put forth the effort to really think about what that might be.

This can be especially bad if there is a sort of cattle call (that filter feeding)

It can seem like creative freedom, but it's more like the the barriers are there, it's just nobody is willing to shine a light on em

Another thing to consider is (and Entropy, you may be familiar with this in your work experience) that some people cut to temporary placeholder music - 'just to get a sense'. One problem is that folks can get sort of married to the placeholder music so they develop a really really strong opinion [even if they don't realize it] and it puts you in a catch 22..."make it just like Moby, but different, do something original...but make sure it's just like Moby"

(If you wind up working on vid for a marketing department, the temp cues will be 72-80% Moby with at least one REM track [OK, maybe that was mean]

Could be worse, abt '96-'99 everyone in software marketing wanted a bastard version of the THX crescendo on their splashcreen )

On the boring side of life, are there commercial local film makers? Folks that produce TV ads, radio spots, documentaries etc? Maybe not the field you want, but it's a start. You're going to have to deal with music as a product, crafted for a client, and that's often not art. But some areas have local production that can be anything from abyssmal to very good. Pay will be low, people will be jerks, and you'll have to write a fair amount of crap. But if you deliver the goods you'll be the area's go-to guy for sound tracks. Having done some work in the field many years ago (insert pointless personal anecdote here), it seems success writing music for films is more closely related to the business of films than it is to the music biz model. Sounds like you're in a good position to start scratchin' it.