Could you explain a bit more about what you do? 
I’m a music supervisor and music producer (fixing sessions, finding musicians, booking studios, etc). I also do some composing and arranging myself and sometimes I work as an agent for composers as well.

What exactly does a music supervisor do? 
A music supervisor will work with the director to find music options that will fulfil the vision of the film, TV show, ad, whatever it is. A music supervisor will also work with the producer to ensure music options are fully cleared and sync-able within the timeline and budget that is available. A music supervisor can get involved as early as script stage, when they might start to send tracks to the director to consider for specific scenes. If the film is in the edit already, then it’s a case of watching a rough scene over and over, trying it with different music and presenting these options to the director for approval. Sometimes a director may already know exactly what songs they want, and then the job becomes more of a straight-forward clearance job.

To clear music (be it a song that a music supervisor has sourced or track that a director has requested) it requires a deep understanding of how the cogs of the music business works and a good music supe will have a thick book of contacts, to clear music with publishers, record labels, managers, Musicians Union etc… Once the edit is fully locked the music supervisor will ensure all fully signed licenses are filed and will get a cue sheet drafted and filed with the local rights societies to enable royalties to flow through to the musician/composer/etc.

So after the fun creative bit, there are a lot of spreadsheets, emails and contracts to be done. It’s rewarding at the end of a project to see how all that work filters into the final creative thing.

What exactly does a composer do? 
The composer usually works separately from the music supervisor, their job is to interpret the scenes musically as per the director’s brief and they score the scenes accordingly. They will be scrolling through rough edits to ‘get a vibe’, liaising with the director to make sure they’re capturing the feel of the scene, discovering what tone the director wants.

The composer will then usually mock-up a demo using midi/keyboard/software and will play these rough bits of score to the director – there’s a lot of back and forth at this stage. Once the director has signed off on the composer’s work (usually on a scene-by-scene basis) the music is honed, along with the edit, so both continue to evolve together.

The next step is to take the midi demos and bring them to life. Depending on the brief this could mean booking an orchestra and a huge studio, but not all productions require something so grand – if it’s an acoustic guitar or solo piano score it’s possible the composer can perform the score themselves in their own studio… And there’s all manner of in between.

What should filmmakers be aware of when thinking about music for their shorts?  

Plan ahead! The earlier you get a music supe and composer on board the smoother the project will go. Scoring, creative research, clearance, licensing, etc all take time. Often music is treated as an ‘after-the-edit’ kind of thing, but that’s really crunch-time! Ideally get the script over to them, even before you’ve shot anything, especially if music features heavily in a particular scene (eg a character is singing along, or dancing to a song) – you’ve got to make sure it’s all clear or you risk having to re-shoot the scene with a different track. It might seem excessive, but it’s not; loop them in from the get-go!

Are there any well-known Do’s and Don’ts?  

I can’t say it enough: temp-track love can be bad! Don’t get your heart set on music you can’t have.  Trust that you’re working with good people, trust them to help you find the music you need, or trust the composer to write something for you. If you need to use a temp-track to communicate your vision that’s okay, but don’t force your composer to copy it (that’s illegal).

When it comes to music, it’s good to have a strong idea of what you want but it’s important to be flexible. There are several reasons something might not clear: it’s too expensive; the artist doesn’t approve sync (some of them don’t); the song might have an uncleared sample in it; legal issues (for example scenes with alcohol cannot feature music by an artist under 25… So be open-minded. A music supe or composer might send you a curveball, ie something they think works that is a little off brief. Give that a chance. There’s a reason it’s been presented as an option – and maybe coming at a scene from a new angle will keep that scene fresh?

Do you have any advice on using music libraries, and are there any that you recommend?  

Library music is a great way to use music that is pre-cleared and affordable. There used to be a bit of a stigma about library music being ‘naff’ or ‘like elevator music’ but I think it’s come on leaps and bounds over the last 10-15 years.

As musicians’ and composers’ revenue streams have changed (due to streaming platforms like Spotify and no gigs due to Covid, cinematic/theatrical releases on the wane because of VOD platforms etc) a lot of commercial artists have taken to writing library music. They often will use a pseudonym and so you don’t always know how to find them, but they are there and you can hear it in the quality of the music.

You can browse any production music website and if you need help you can either get a music supe to help you or, if you don’t have the budget for that, an in-house music consultant that works for the library will help you.

You can then license the music yourself through MCPS-PRS in the UK, but every country varies (i.e. in The States you negotiate library fees direct with the libraries)… Good libraries are Extreme, Universal, EMI/KPM, BMG, Cavendish, West One. The majors will cover the basics but you can deep-dive into the world of boutique library music if you want to (there will be gems there)! I steer clear of Audio Network and other ‘royalty-free’ libraries, because they tend to sidestep the rights societies, and that feels unfair to the composers and musicians involved

Do you have any advice for filmmakers on a budget?

There are a few options. One would be to find an emerging composer and work together (think Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, who’ve been working together since their first film). If a composer is in the early stages of their career or wants an IMDB credit, they might work on your project within whatever budget you have. Music supes are a little different; in that to get a good one they really do need to know all the ins and outs of copyright law and have contacts across the business, so you might not want to risk working with someone who’s inexperienced.

However, some music supes will do a sliding-scale fee structure for indie productions, or charge on a track-by-track basis (rather than full film or day rate), which is good if you only need one or two songs cleared. Library music is another way to get cheaper music, but what you might not know is that most libraries have stems so you can literally take a track apart and use elements of the song in your own way – that can really lend itself to a lower budget production as scores often have re-occurrent leitmotifs with different orchestration, so this approach can make your production sound more expensive if you’ve not got a composer to help you.

How do you go about finding a music supervisor or composer to work with?  

In my experience most jobs seem to come from word-of-mouth, there isn’t really a conclusive database as such. If you’re watching a film or TV show and you really like the music, look the music supervisor up on IMDB. Same with composers, or you might find their scores on streaming platforms with extensive playlists.