TV and Film audio.

jay-susman

Does anybody here work in this area?

I'm really interested in it and i was wondering how/where people find their work.
Also if it's something that you picked up by yourself or if you had some form of training in it or anything like that.

Cheers guys,
Paul.

old gregg

if it's creating music for TV and film then it might be worth giving IMRO a call. They ran a free seminar a few months ago on this very subject and might have materials handy to pass on.

jay-susman

Cheers man, I'll get on to them!
Thanks for the help.

old gregg

no worries,
I've just found my copy of the booklet produced by Todd Brabec (the guy who was the main speaker at the event). His web site is http://www.ascap.com and you'll find plenty of stuff around the interweb about him.

Mick

edit: see also http://www.artistshousemusic.org/node/5369/135 for a little about Mr. Brabec

jay-susman

Mick you're a star, thanks a mil man!
Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction!

bedbugs

I do it for a living. Beats working. Just finished a feature film and a play. Finishing a 6 part documentary right now.

PaulBrewer

Bedbugs , taking it one can do the job musically would I be right in saying it's all about being 'in the loop', knowing what's going on in the industry, who the commissioners are being aware of their and/or directors tastes etc?

bedbugs

Yep, essentially you can have all of the ability in the world, but you have to get into peoples faces, go to all the film festivals etc. They way it's worked for us is from getting work out of jobs we've done already.

Doing stuff for free at the start is pretty essential too.

Another helpful exercise is to get some footage from film students and mess about with that and/or offer to do their music for their projects.

It's serious fun, I have to say.

bedbugs

...and look at www.iftn.ie every week.

jay-susman

bedbugs wrote: »

Yep, essentially you can have all of the ability in the world, but you have to get into peoples faces, go to all the film festivals etc. They way it's worked for us is from getting work out of jobs we've done already.

Doing stuff for free at the start is pretty essential too.

Another helpful exercise is to get some footage from film students and mess about with that and/or offer to do their music for their projects.

It's serious fun, I have to say.

Thanks for the reply begbugs, yeah from the few people that i have talked to about this getting in peoples faces seems to be the way forward.:rolleyes:

I know a few people that are involved in visual media and I've a few friends in various film courses and a few that have finished so I'm hoping to get some work from them and maybe from the people they went to college with.

I figured that doing work for free in the begining was the way it was going to work out, but what kinda of rates are generally charged?
Or is that the kind of thing that would depend on your experience/name and the budget of the venture?

Do you just supply the music only for the jobs you work on or do you do other audio as well?

And finally , where did you learn the trade, or was it just a case of picking it up as you went along?

Thanks again for the reply, its been a real help.
Paul.

artvandulet

jay-susman wrote: »

Does anybody here work in this area?

I'm really interested in it and i was wondering how/where people find their work.
Also if it's something that you picked up by yourself or if you had some form of training in it or anything like that.

Cheers guys,
Paul.

I've done very little but some people I work with also work in the industry.
If you are interested in doing audio on shoots, I'd say your best start is to learn an SQN inside out.

PaulBrewer

artvandulet wrote: »

I've done very little but some people I work with also work in the industry.
For audio guys, I'd say your best start is to learn an SQN inside out.

What's an SQN ?

jay-susman

PaulBrewer wrote: »

What's an SQN ?

Seconded!!:D
And thank you for the reply!

artvandulet

PaulBrewer wrote: »

What's an SQN ?

Oh sorry!

SQN
The industry standard portable mixer for boom op and camera shoots.
There's work out there for guys who know these inside out...better still if you have one too!

bedbugs

jay-susman wrote: »

I figured that doing work for free in the begining was the way it was going to work out, but what kinda of rates are generally charged?
Or is that the kind of thing that would depend on your experience/name and the budget of the venture?

It really depends (you knew I was gonna say that, didn't you?) on the company you're doing it for, what type of job and what the budget is.

For feature films, the general standard seems to be 5% of the overall budget, but this standard has never applied to anyone I know, including myself. Ads are a good source of revenue, plus they're generally short, so it's not gonna take you weeks.

jay-susman wrote: »

Do you just supply the music only for the jobs you work on or do you do other audio as well?

Well for the play we just finished we did the entire sound design -so special effects included. that's for theatre. For film and TV it's just music. The rest is left to the sound designer and foley artist(s)

jay-susman wrote: »

And finally , where did you learn the trade, or was it just a case of picking it up as you went along?

Totally just picking it up. Most sequencers can handle it. You just need quite a powerful machine because the track counts can mount up fairly fast.

What I did was just immerse myself in learning the tools that were available to me and then applying what I was writing, to film. It really is so rewarding. There are quite a few heads in Ireland doing it, and about 3 or 4 of them get the bulk of the work. But there's always scope for getting work. Plus, you're not tied to Ireland -something a lot of people seem to overlook.

Hope that helps

c