#989999 - 03/16/05 03:05 PM
Scoring for films - budget?
|
Mr Darling
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/15/01
Posts: 1313
Loc: The Blue Planet,BELGIUM
|
Offline
|
|
There is a good chance we'll be doing the score for a coming mid-low budget film, and was wondering what share of the total budget will be attribute to audio?
It is a sub 1,000,000€ film, and apparently whom ever puts this together didn't even consider the score part of the film - so its not going to be easy swimming.
I do not presume we'll be able to use real orchestra, but what else should we consider?
is using known songs more expensive then writing originals?
any ideas, thoughts and past experience are welcome.
also, if there are any other forums more related to scoring for film - let me know.
Thanks
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990000 - 03/17/05 11:15 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
offramp
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 10/31/00
Posts: 5846
Loc: Golden, CO.
|
|
Offline
|
|
I'm interested in any info presented here, as well.
Some suggestions for saving money:
1) Recruit local high school or university students for orchestral; or, if you have community orchestras over there, try to establish a relationship with one. The idea here is that students, for example, get some valuable experience, some playing time, and some credit, and you get a real orchestra in your score. It might cost you lunch and/or dinner for 20 or so people. Even if you could only get four or eight people for strings, you can double and triple parts, moving the mics around with each pass.
Just make absolutely sure every member gets screen credit, and a copy of the film, if possible.
2) If this absolutely does not work, then consider many ways to soften the samples/keyboards you'll be using in their place; send the keyboards through an amp and speaker setup in the studio, and mic the room, for example. There are tons of other suggestions. You'll probably find a lot of them around here.
_________________________
I've upped my standards; now, up yours.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990001 - 03/17/05 11:49 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Mr Darling
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/15/01
Posts: 1313
Loc: The Blue Planet,BELGIUM
|
|
Offline
|
|
I'm pretty sure one can get excellent result with those new sample libraries - just need a strong computer and loads of ram.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990002 - 03/19/05 07:46 PM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
bdbklyn
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/04/01
Posts: 1035
Loc: Los Angeles,CA,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
From the deals I've seen, fees vary tremedously, even in the high end feature area. A certain local company engages composers for $125,000 for 40 minutes of scoring. The catch.... they must do two full orchestral scoring recording days at the composer's expense.....(that's about $110,000!)
Bill
_________________________
Studio Guru
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990003 - 03/27/05 02:37 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Mr Darling
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/15/01
Posts: 1313
Loc: The Blue Planet,BELGIUM
|
|
Offline
|
|
$100k is probably a too big budget for a sub $1m movie.. though I wouldn't mind getting that. 
Anyone have any ideas of the average costs to use known songs (especially past hits)
I know that when our songs got licensed (before they released) we got around 2.5k for Belgium alone.. so my guess a known song, for the world right can be in the 10-50k??
Will have to contact my publisher to see if she knows a little more about it.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990004 - 03/27/05 06:21 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
robmix
Platinum Member
Registered: 05/22/01
Posts: 1187
Loc: Los Angeles,CA,UNITED STATES
|
|
Offline
|
|
Think about 1% or less of the overall budget. On a 50 - 100 million dollar film the music budget is less than 1 million. A friend of mine just got a budget of $20,000 on a 10 million dollar film. Those are the numbers I've seen.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990005 - 03/27/05 08:23 PM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Henchman
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 12/31/00
Posts: 3433
Loc: Vancouver,,CANADA
|
|
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by robmix:
Think about 1% or less of the overall budget. On a 50 - 100 million dollar film the music budget is less than 1 million. A friend of mine just got a budget of $20,000 on a 10 million dollar film. Those are the numbers I've seen.
_________________________
IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion."
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990006 - 03/28/05 08:13 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Mr Darling
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/15/01
Posts: 1313
Loc: The Blue Planet,BELGIUM
|
|
Offline
|
|
thanks, that is exactly the kind of reply I was looking for.
And 1% doesn't sound that bad.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990007 - 03/28/05 11:44 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Mr Darling
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/15/01
Posts: 1313
Loc: The Blue Planet,BELGIUM
|
|
Offline
|
|
btw - does this budget include licensing songs (not ours) to the movie?
If so, then we can probably forget using any released songs in this project - I'm not sure what the current prices and such , but I'm pretty sure that one song can wipe out the budget clean.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990008 - 03/28/05 12:30 PM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Henchman
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 12/31/00
Posts: 3433
Loc: Vancouver,,CANADA
|
|
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by Mr Darling:
btw - does this budget include licensing songs (not ours) to the movie?
If so, then we can probably forget using any released songs in this project - I'm not sure what the current prices and such , but I'm pretty sure that one song can wipe out the budget clean.
That's a differnt budget as a single song can wipe out the entire budget.
_________________________
IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion."
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990009 - 03/28/05 07:53 PM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
dcwave
Senior Member
Registered: 02/19/01
Posts: 36
Loc: Spanish Fork, Utah, USA
|
|
Offline
|
|
This guy has done a lot of composition for film and games, here's waht he charges.
http://www.fatman.com/compose.htm#6
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990010 - 03/29/05 02:39 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Mr Darling
Platinum Member
Registered: 04/15/01
Posts: 1313
Loc: The Blue Planet,BELGIUM
|
|
Offline
|
|
He quotes a minute of music per 2 days.. WTF?
So it will take a full year to compose for one score?
Even in games I can't see that happening. Maybe its his ways to confuse employers and make it looks like he's cheap (though for $800 a min X 90min [avarage film length] = $72000) its not all that cheap.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990011 - 03/29/05 09:25 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Henchman
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 12/31/00
Posts: 3433
Loc: Vancouver,,CANADA
|
|
Offline
|
|
Yeah, that's definitely way over the top.
I know a guy here in Vancouver that does a ton of work in Film, TV, Documentaries and videogames, for clients all over the world.
If it took him that long, he could never do half the stuff he's hired to do.
_________________________
IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion."
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#990012 - 03/30/05 02:06 AM
Re: Scoring for films - budget?
|
Philter
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 09/19/01
Posts: 4025
Loc: North New Jersey, USA
|
|
Offline
|
|
Well, it also depends on the reputation of the composer. I've been involved with $1 - $10 million dollar movies where a known composer would pull much larger amounts than those mentioned here. That explains why the Fat Man is getting more money.
Also, a feature film usually has somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes of music as opposed to the full length of the film.
There is also a huge amount of logistical and business planning that goes on behind the scenes for a movie score or game on the scale that the Fat Man might be hired on. That's another factor behind that 30 seconds a day mentioned.
Composers keep a steady income by taking projects as they come. So even if they can compose 4 or 5 minutes of music a day, it's much safer to leave that wiggle room for overlap. Little of that time is actually spent composing, unfortunately.
$72,000 for 90 minutes of professionally composed score delivered is reasonable. Lots of guys get a lot more than that. Of course, thousands get a lot less, but not on big budget films.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
Moderator: bdbklyn
|
|
|
