"Corrado" - A production blog

[Ted Spencer]

Yes scoring is key and songs are expensive. But almost all good movies get scored, and many license songs. I've worked on the scoring of numerous low budget films (by Hollywood standards, which means, 2-5 million in these cases), and most of them had licensed songs. I recall a licensing figure of $25K for one particular song that was not a huge hit (I forget what the title was). If you want to license a big hit song, the numbers could get much larger.

Interestingly, the most expensive place (fee-wise) to put a song is in the end credits, even though 3/4 of the audience is out the door before it hits the first chorus. It's because it's the only thing going on at that time (aside from the crawl).

On the other hand, you could probably get an unknown artist or band to license the use of a song for free, just for the exposure. I'm not sure what the upfront money might have been, but then-unknown Lisa Loeb's "Stay", featured in "Reality Bites" became a massive hit due to that publicity. It was number one on the Billboard charts for months - one of the longest times ever. She didn't manage to sustain much of a career after that, but so goes the ultra-fickle word of pop music...

 

[Dana Love]

The sad part is at this point after having written, directed, edited, and now assisted with the post audio, I could probably quote every line in the movie and pantomime the parts....

That would make an entertaining DVD extra. Especially with dubbed foreign language.

 

[Brandon Rice]

The sad part is at this point after having written, directed, edited, and now assisted with the post audio, I could probably quote every line in the movie and pantomime the parts....

Oh man, do I know that feeling lol

 

[djinjis]

If you could have a song, would you use it? Not a hit, of course, but a good song?

 

[taormina]

If you could have a song, would you use it? Not a hit, of course, but a good song?

Sure, if it fit the movie and I could afford it.

 

[ChipG]

OOoohh mazing grace, how cheap it was. Might be a good song to play when people are getting shot. I'm sure by now they they will give it to you?

 

[Ted Spencer]

OOoohh mazing grace, how cheap it was. Might be a good song to play when people are getting shot. I'm sure by now they they will give it to you?

"Amazing Grace" is in the public domain, since it was written in the 1700s, so it can be used anywhere for free. The only restriction would be on using someone's copyrighted recording of it.

 

[DogDay]

Ted where to do a check on what is and isn`t Public Domain?


DogDay.

 

[HueyNRolf]

Tarantino comes to mind as someone who's films employ more songs than score. He also borrows from old fim-score music (as in Kill Bill).

 

[FilmBoy77]

adam at what point does your actors get a copy of the movie? before or after its sold?

 

[HueyNRolf]

All movies are scored. All of them! Some movies have real songs interspersed throughout the score, but they are still scored by a composer...

Y'know, the more I think about this the more I'm inclined to differ.
What about Kubrik's '2001' and 'A Clockwork Orange' of course, the latter just wouldn't have worked with a bespoke score.

Then there's Scorsese's 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino.'

 

[ChipG]

Sorry for being off topic but didn't Kubrik play "Rain drops & roses" when the girl was being raped in Clockwork????

I'll I'm saying is in my opinion it was a total "score"

 

[HueyNRolf]

ChipG,

In the rape scene, 'Alex' sings 'singing in the rain.' The original recording of this song was played in the closing credits too.
Have you been drinking, Chip?

 

[ChipG]

ChipG,

In the rape scene, 'Alex' sings 'singing in the rain.' The original recording of this song was played in the closing credits too.
Have you been drinking, Chip?

Yes,

Excessively!

My fault Where is my beer?

It would be nice to see you make a post outside of this thread for once

FYI, just because I have to blow for my car to start dosen't mean my computer won't start.

 

[HueyNRolf]

Y'know what CHip?
I used to feel inclined to get up there and 'make a post.' But that ship sailed long ago. These days I'm happy to just look on and see what these young-talented guys are up to.

Hey, I could use a beer too.... here's to you, ma friend!!

Cheers,
HnR

 

[ChipG]

Y'know what CHip?
I used to feel inclined to get up there and 'make a post.' But that ship sailed long ago. These days I'm happy to just look on and see what these young-talented guys are up to.

Hey, I could use a beer too.... here's to you, ma friend!!

Cheers,
HnR

I understand, this thread has really inspired me and all the other indie's out there!

I'm not sure if I ever want to make a post outside of this thread anymore.

 

[HueyNRolf]

Bless your heart, Chip.

 

[Ted Spencer]

Ted where to do a check on what is and isn`t Public Domain?


DogDay.

Not sure exactly, but it's a standard copyright issue. The Library Of Congress is the repository for all that as far as I know. You could probably start googling there and find what you need.

Jeez...I just noticed "googling" passes spell check (but "Jeez" didn't). What a world...

Anyway, back to your question. Any song goes into public domain after a period of time, depending on when the original publishing date was. It's a safe bet that anything published over 95 years ago is PD. So you can use all the classical masters to your heart's content for example: Mozart, Beethoven, Bach etc. Just make an original recording.

Hmm..."Bach" didn't pass spellcheck. Who creates the databases on these things? Teenagers?

Right then. As you were...

 

[DogDay]

Ted your words are literally music to my ears...Very very interesting indeed, the implications are mind blowing.

Thanks,

Dogday.

 

[taormina]

So I shoulda been working on my movie's audio but I'm a slacker and took two days off to rest. Back to work tomorrow, I promise!

In the meantime I was on Cloud Nine, my sailboat. Johnny and James (set photog) came along. Enjoy the pics for lack of anything else interesting to report.:beer: