Contracts
Always get a written contract that spells out the agreed upon terms and make sure both you and the filmmakers sign it before or as work commences. Even if you’re only getting paid a pittance, and your’e working with friends, make sure you have a contract. Should any issues arise down the line, you’ll have an agreement to turn to to help resolve any disputes. Furthermore it’s the professional (not to mention smart) thing to do and you want to make sure you’re being treated as the professional that you are.
Filmmakers will usually want a work-for-hire agreement, where they own all the music. This is usually the first place where there is room to negotiate, especially when the budget is meager. Offer the filmmakers a non-exclusive license in perpetuity for all media rather than a work-for-hire. That way you will earn 100% of any royalties that the project may generate and you’ll retain full ownership of the music allowing you to monetize it by reusing it and licensing it elsewhere. You can grant the filmmakers a period of exclusivity if they’re worried about the music getting associated with something else before they’ve had a chance to release their film. I’ve done this on several projects with exclusivity periods ranging from 1 to 5 years.
If the filmmakers insist on a buyout, you can negotiate for a publishing split, so that you can retain part of the publishing, meaning you’ll potentially earn more royalties down the road if any are generated. I was once unable to get the filmmakers to give up any of the publishing, but I negotiated the administrative rights to administer the publishing on their behalf. I negotiated a fee (a percentage of any licensing income generated) and was able to license some of the tracks for other things, which generated additional income for me as well as the filmmakers.
If there isn’t much (or sometimes any) upfront money but you’re interested in the doing the project, you can negotiate deferred payment or some kind of back-end compensation. Deferred payment typically means you will get paid at a later date, often dependent on some extraneous factors (i.e. if they successfully raise sufficient finishing funds). Back-end means that you get partial ownership of the film (typically between 2-5%) and if the film generates any income down the road, you get your share of that income.
If you agree to a back-end deal, make sure that the contract spells out a reporting mechanism so you can see what’s going on. Also make sure you agree on what metrics are used to measure income (typically something that’s publicly available like boxofficemojo.com or thenumbers.com).
Make sure your contract specifies deadlines and milestones. These should include a payment schedule and music delivery schedule. Specify your delivery requirements.
Always exclude music editorial from your deal. This is very important for a few reasons. First, music editorial is considered part of editorial, not music so it shouldn’t be part of your deal. Second, music editorial can include a lot of things that are completely out of your control and you don’t want to be on the hook for things you have no control over. For example if the show is an IATSE signatory then the music editor must be a union editor and get paid according to whichever contract the show is under. You can’t be responsible for that.
In addition the music editor is cutting songs, and on the dub stage and typically stays on the project after you’re done with it. You can’t be responsible for paying someone who’s not working for you and you have no say over their schedule, hours or pay.
Often you’ll end up being your own music editor, which will make the filmmakers grateful and feel like you’re going above and beyond.
If there is need for any songs or source music, exclude those from your scope of work. Unless you specifically discuss writing an original song for the film ahead of time, you don’t want to be on the hook for either having to write original songs/source cues. And you certainly don’t want to be on the hook for any 3rd party licensed songs they may wish to get. As with music editing above, there is too much that is out of your control. And if you end up writing a source cue and including it, you will have gone above and beyond making the filmmakers especially appreciative. Not to mention that if you have a great pre-existing track that’s a perfect fit for a spot in the film, this could be an opportunity to make a bit more money by licensing it to the production.
Specify whether you are creating a MIDI score or if you are expected to provide live musicians. And if you’re specifying live musicians, specify how many or some kind of budget cap on it. That way you can’t be on the hook if the filmmakers suddenly wants a 100 piece orchestra when there’s barely enough money to record a single guitar. You can specify that if the filmmaker demands musicians or anything else beyond the agreed upon scope, they have to cover the costs.
Don’t limit how many revisions you’ll provide the filmmakers. I think it’s a bad move. Hopefully you’ve had some time to gauge the filmmaker and trust him or her enough to enter into a working relationship with them. Trust that it will be a productive collaboration, and don’t mar it by setting arbitrary limits before you even get started. In the unlikely event that it doesn’t work out and you end up having a bad experience you’ll learn from it for the next filmmaker, and know you’re probably not a good fit for repeat business with this one.
As you can see there are all sorts of creative ways to get paid and negotiate your deal. But as I discussed at the beginning of this post, these projects are rarely about the money, so don’t sweat the small stuff. Often even if you negotiate everything you want, the project won’t generate a penny and you may not be able to monetize the score in any other way either. Remember 100% of nothing is still nothing. These types of projects are about building your way up to bigger and better ones. And if by some miracle this project happens to make it big and you missed out on the financial benefits, it’s not the end of the world, because it will have likely opened doors you couldn’t have imagined opening this soon that will more than make up for it.
Cue Sheets
When the project is finished, always make sure there is a cue sheet which gets submitted to the PROs (ASCAP, BMI, SESCAC, etc.). Often you’ll be the one creating the cue sheet for the filmmaker. ASCAP & BMI have come together to create a system called Rapid Cue. They have an excel spreadsheet template, which you can find here. Use it.
When creating the cue sheet ask the filmmakers for the final mix, and use it to determine accurate timings of the music used. ASCAP and BMI typically will not accept the cue sheet from the composer, so once it’s complete send it to your filmmaker and ask him/her to submit it. All they have to do is email the excel document to cuesheets@rapidcue.com.
Getting paid
Make sure you can create professional looking invoices for your clients. To be a media composer is to run a small business, even if you’re the only employee. Act accordingly.Being a media composer is
Make it easy for clients to pay you. Many clients will simply send you a check, but some prefer Paypal or Venmo or other similar services. If you don’t already have an account with a service you client wants to use, open one.