How do people get tapped to make soundtracks?

[Magnum29465]

Other than already being a successful producer or composer..

I would like to write a soundtrack some day. Whats the usual career route a soundtrack composerstakes?

[Vum]

I was asked to compose the music/score for a vampire movie a year ago. I knew the guys that wrote it and approached them about who they were going to use. It ended up being me so I lucked out in that regard. However, the director was skeptical until I showed him some "sketches" so to speak.

Start small, find a local film school or documentarian (sp?) and submit ideas or just send an email to open the lines of communication.

[Kiwiburger]

There are plenty of kids with low budgets who are making films. They are going to be huge one day - you never know who, or how soon. If you have the skills - go looking for them (they won't be hard to find) and offer your services at reasonable rates. Once you've cut your teeth on some budget films, your reputation will preceed you. (Whether that's a negative or a positive depends on you).

[Magnum29465]

Originally Posted by Kiwiburger

There are plenty of kids with low budgets who are making films. They are going to be huge one day - you never know who, or how soon. If you have the skills - go looking for them (they won't be hard to find) and offer your services at reasonable rates. Once you've cut your teeth on some budget films, your reputation will preceed you. (Whether that's a negative or a positive depends on you).

Thats actually a cool idea...

[jaglesis]

those art colege kids always want something for nothing

maybe they have video projects..
so what im saying is hang around outside schoolsthumbsup

[Fruition2k]

You can start by going to Mandy.com and see what kind of productions are happening in your area and make connections that way. You can also attend Film festivals locally and on the national level and make connections that way.
Best to first have your scores/material recorded and ready should an opportunity arise.
Best of luck..

[psycho_monkey]

talentcircle too...it's 99.99999% film students who seem to expect professionals with experience and the gear to go with it to work for food and a copy of the finished film (as someone married to an actress, I can guarantee that about the same percentage will be unwatchable), but as a composer it can be good showreel material if nothing else, and it's not like being part of a crew where you have to commit to certain days for nothing.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Magnum29465

Other than already being a successful producer or composer..

I would like to write a soundtrack some day. Whats the usual career route a soundtrack composerstakes?

if you are already successful you can "get tapped"

if not, you will have to do the tapping


Another area to look at is industrials. Corporations, unions, lobbyists make films for narrow audiences- members and clients. You are competing with needle drop (I mean laser drop) here but that is some tiny amount of money as compared to the student stuff which is zero money. Occasionally these people will need something really specific to their show that can't be found in a library.


Find the small and mid-level video companies in your area and send them a reel. Follow it up with a call or email. Follow it up again every half a year or so.

If you have someone you know who is into video, make a DVD reel. Grab some cool visuals and put them to your music instead of the other way around.

[Vum]

If you have someone you know who is into video, make a DVD reel. Grab some cool visuals and put them to your music instead of the other way around.

The internet is chock full of license free video - it is best to have a show reel with visuals.

[RKrizman]

Offer to score someone's student film for free. Then when they become successful they'll give you a real job. Unless they become too successful, in which case they'll hire Hans Zimmer. Of course, then you could always go do it for Hans Zimmer.

-R

[Magnum29465]

It seems the hard part of scoring small or student projects would be finding films good enough to score. I don't want to score some crap. Its such a pain rumaging through tons of crap, but who knows the film student looking for a score may feel the same way about my music.

[Vum]

Big name movie composers have a team of several other composers working on their scores as well. It is a group effort. Try and be one of those team members and you'll be busy for the rest of your life.

I'm not saying that the staff do the writing, but it does take a team to complete the process...wait, why haven't I done this!?!

[BudgetMC]

I and a buddy got a gig a few years back doing a soundtrack for a documentary on a gruesome set of murders. We recorded a bunch of super-cool tracks (says I), and sent them in. Then we got thrown over for a bunch of piano "mood" tracks in the production process.

Them's the breaks. We did at least make some beer money. Used one of the tracks (which we named "Music for Murder") on a CD, so it could have been worse.

[Phaidon]

Originally Posted by Vum

I'm not saying that the staff do the writing, but it does take a team to complete the process...wait, why haven't I done this!?!

[Kiwiburger]

If you've ever watched Hans Zimmer at work - he can transform practically any video footage with his choice of notes and sounds ... don't worry about whether the video is crap or not ... it will become what you choose to make it become. I think audio is a very underrated part of any video success ...

If you really have the talent, and know how to serve the video, it should be a symbiotic relationship that breeds success.