SHR5E021P~002 24100544

by

Joe Manson 24100544

In this essay I will be researching and exploring what it truly means to be a professional film music composer in the industry. I will be laying out the skills and mindset that would be required to succeed in the industry as well as some of the challenges that film music composers might face whilst trying to make a name for themselves. I will also be outlining how I, personally, would create career opportunities and demonstrate to potential employers my own skillset and professional approach through online marketing and by cultivating an identifiable production style. I will also be backing up my information throughout this essay with sources from experienced professionals in the film music industry. 

Making it as a film composer is tough. It is a daunting endeavor that requires lots of plate spinning and a well-rounded, constantly growing skillset in order to keep up with the competitive nature of the industry. “Over the years, I learned that being a composer for films is a tough job and one that does not garner the same kind of respect that even a pop songwriter earns” (Scheurer, T. 2007: 1). According to Wittaker, M (2023) you need a strong foundation in five areas; these include: music theory, computer technology, music production, music business and tapping directly into your creativity. However, whilst these areas are important, it seems to me that in order to succeed as a film music composer, one needs not only a broad set of skills but also something deeper, a certain kind of emotional intelligence. “Aspiring film composers must develop an intimate understanding of different film genres, directing styles and storytelling techniques. This deep knowledge is a prerequisite to creating a musical score that can effectively support the emotional narrative of a film.” (Slater, M: 2022). Each job requires much more than simply knowing your music theory and knowing what sounds good on paper. Music in the context of the moving image is much more powerful than we sometimes give it credit for, much more powerful than we might realize. “Most feature films relegate music to the viewer’s sensory background, that gray area of secondary perceptive least susceptible to rigorous judgement and most susceptible to affective manipulation” (Gorbman, C. 1980: 183). This brings me on to Gorbman’s important idea of ‘narrative cueing’, something that I will touch on later in this essay. Scheurer, T (2007: 20) cites her idea as: “music gives referential and narrative cues, e.g. indicating point of view, supplying formal demarcations and establishing setting and characters.” The narrative power that music holds is something that a composer must have an understanding and an appreciation of before scoring the first note. 

In terms of what my personal approach to becoming a Bonafide film composer would be, this mammoth task would be broken up into four clear, more focused areas. These areas are: how I would deliver to a brief and actually enhance a director’s or a specific production company’s vision, how I would cultivate an identifiable production style as my career would progress, how I would create employment opportunities for myself and, lastly, my online marketing ideas. I will now delve into each of the areas. 

When approaching a new project, with the intent to enhance the director’s or production company’s vision, having a well-rounded understanding of the screenplay and all the character’s eventual journeys and motivations would be of paramount importance to me. “Music can interact with visuals in more complex and subtle ways when the audience’s focus is on human characters, thereby affecting the progression of the narrative.” (Tan, S.L. Spackman, M.P. Bezdek, M.A. 2007: 136). This quote demonstrates why I believe that working with the director and screenwriter to gain this information and make notes on the plot and characters is an important first step to take in a project. However, this step must be a short one because deadlines always rapidly approach, and budgets always magically run low, especially by the time the composer is brought in. Another aspect of my approach would be to carefully consider what genre the film falls under, and importantly, what expectations the audience of the film will have when they sit down to watch it for the first time. “Genres use certain elements (conventions) repeatedly because they achieve a desired response […] the conventions are assembled in a set pattern that satisfactorily brings the conflict to a resolution [..] the working out of that conflict satisfies the viewer’s expectations.” (Scheurer, T. 2007: 17). This quote perfectly explains how these considerations of genre must be kept in mind when going into a project, as well as the demographic of the expected audience. Because of course it is interesting and hip to surprise an audience positively with music, but these moments must be chosen carefully in the context of the whole picture. Most of the time an audience wants to be given what they expected going into the cinema, for their preconceptions to be validated. Both having a good understanding of the plot and characters, and keeping considerations of genre in mind, tie into the larger idea of what function the music in the film should achieve. Is it your job to make the audience feel uneasy in the context of a horror or a thriller movie? Or is it your job to cheer them up and make them feel at ease in the context of a lighthearted family film? Lots of these kinds of questions would be at the forefront of my mind as I would approach a new project. 

I would cultivate an identifiable production style as my career as a composer progresses, and I make my way in the industry. An identifiable production style is gradually shaped by the different projects one chooses to work on, the people they choose to work with, the type of films they work best on. At the beginning of any film composer’s career, they should be open to any and all opportunities because it is such a competitive industry you have to take what you can get. However, as one’s career progresses, ideally, you can take more liberties in what projects you choose to work on, finding the space between what you love, what the world needs, what you’re good at and what pays. Knowing who you work best with and building strong professional relationships with people from all branches of the film industry is a big part of this as well. The fabled director/composer partnership is a notorious example as it can be an amazing pathway to finding your own style, but you must be careful not to rely too much solely on that partnership and sometimes they can turn sour or simply run their course. 

I would create employment opportunities for myself in two main ways. The first would be by creating good, effective showreels that show off my work; the second way would be by expanding the range of jobs that I could do (especially in the early stages of my career). “A showreel is a short video that demonstrates you as a composer. Essentially your ‘musical CV’, it typically shows a variety of tracks all in one video – making it easy for potential clients to find out all about your music.” (Drane, R. 2019). A good showreel is often structured by starting with a broad frame of scene and ending on a key word or line, starting strong and ending strong, showing only your best work. It can be specific to a certain job application, showcasing your skills within a certain genre, or it can serve to show you off as an all-rounder, with a broader scope of material being shown. In terms of length, “there’s no industry standard for the length of a showreel” (Drane, R. 2019), however, making them shorter rather than longer is a safe bet and good rule of thumb as the employer usually has to sift through many showreels at a time. Expanding the pool of jobs available within the industry is also an effective way to create more employment opportunities. “There are three types of music in a movie, and you know all of them, one is called score […] and those are very difficult jobs to get, especially on the major feature films there’s only so many of those jobs.” (Strahle, T. 2017). That is the reality of the matter; actual full feature film opportunities are hard to come by, especially when composers are starting out, that is why people branch out. Getting in touch with advert agencies, television and videogame production companies are all examples of this. However, a more relevant opportunity to pursue for those dead set on becoming solely a film music composer, is scoring for short films. For one, those people who are working on short films are often just starting out as well, they are either students or those trying to find their footing in the film industry. However, the practice of making short films should not be looked down upon, “Short filmmaking should not be seen as simply servicing the world of features but as a significant component of film culture in its own right.” (McLaughlin, N: 2001).  Another way in which I would create employment opportunities would be to seek out jobs making source music. “There are two other types of music, one is needle drops. Needle drops are generally known songs […] and the third type of music is source music.” (Strahle, T. 2017). Source music is the music that the characters in the picture actually hear themselves, also known as diegetic film music. Landing a source music gig can be a lucrative opportunity because often they are required to last for quite a few minutes at a time to provide a realistic background to a scene racking up many more minutes on the cue sheet, providing relatively quick and easy money compared to non-diegetic music. Furthermore, they are often required in all kinds of films, whether there is a small budget or a big budget, whether the people working on the film are very well known, or less well known. This means that composers are always needed for source music to avoid likely paying more for a needle drop, copyrighted or well-known track, so it’s a good line of work for a budding film composer to get into in order to make ends meet. It can even serve as a great gateway into the industry, for an unknown composer to land their first job in the extremely competitive, daunting world of the film music industry. One final way in which some find their way into the industry is by being an assistant to a more well-known composer, so this would definitely be another option for me to consider. 

In this day and age, a film composer’s online marketing is a necessary part of their brand, their career development and unfortunately another addition to their workload and constant plate spinning. Having a presence and posting consistently on social media platforms such as Instagram can give the impression to potential employers that you are an ‘in demand industry professional’. It is also an important tool for networking and directly messaging people in the industry. I would market myself online by always keeping my social media accounts up to date with my best and most recent showreels, reaching out to more well-known filmmakers and film composers where I can. Creating more practical, insightful content to do with my personalized approach to each project could be attractive to potential employers and would perhaps set me apart from the crowd. 

Also creating a professional website with my EPK for myself alongside my social media account would be an important aspect of my online marketing to show in more detail my skills and experience. 

In terms of my vision for career developments and future projects, I would definitely focus on building up a good reputation in the industry as someone you can rely on, in turn setting up commission rates for my work. Trying to retain ownership of my music would be more important to me further down the line, eventually getting to the position where I own the sync license and master license. This would allow me to release film soundtrack albums and perhaps compilation albums of multiple projects over many years. Also growing a strong circle of people in industry who can help each other out, essentially finding the right people to work with and building up a trusted network.  

To conclude, becoming a film music composer is a very ambitious, but extremely rewarding career path because you can emotionally affect thousands, if not millions, in the most subtle and complex of ways. “They have a talent for conjuring up strong emotions as we view images in the dark […] the work of a movie composer cannot be erased from our consciousness” (Hischak, T. 2015). However, there are of course many trade-offs for the life of a composer, and more broadly for the life of any freelancer. The competitive nature of the industry, time and budget constraints, constant plate spinning and expansion of one’s skillset and the lack of guarantee of work, are just a few of these trade-offs. There is one comforting thought for aspiring composers though; that is that there is no right way to climb in the industry. Robert Allaire explains, “there isn’t really one tried-and-true path for aspiring composers. Every working composer will have a different story of how they got to the position they’re in.” And especially with the speed with which the world and the music and film industries are changing nowadays, there will always be new paths for the ‘aspiring composer’. 

References