The Music Department encompasses composition, music editing, music supervision, and all other supporting roles relative to the music used in the picture.
Working in this Department
This department’s main focus is on the commissioning of original score and the licensing of pre-recorded tracks. The Composer handles all original creations while the Music Supervisor handles the licensing and budgeting of pre-recorded songs and the negotiations with the music labels and publishers. The Music Editor supports both the composer and production in a wide range of tasks such as cutting in temp music, handling all music assets related to picture, managing a library of original cues, addressing notes with edits, and producing mandatory cue sheets of the final music. Depending on the budget of the project, parts of the music production process may be handled by different roles. A composer may rely on studio assistants, engineers, or score mixers to produce and mix their music according to the post-production supervisors specifications. A composer may also employ an orchestrator/copyist to do “take-downs” of their midi scores, transforming them into notated paper score and parts for live musicians to record. A composer may hire musicians to perform on the score and/or may perform the music themselves.
Knowledge
Music Supervisor: A basic understanding of entertainment law is required for any music supervisor to know which rights must be obtained, and which methods are used to obtain them. No law degree is required but at some point a lawyer must vet the licensing agreements that the music supervisor uses. A music supervisor must also appreciate the wide range of licensing fees and terms associated in a constantly changing market, and should develop a good working relationship with labels and publishers in order to negotiate fair rates on behalf of their clients, all while keeping within the allocated budget.
Composer: At the very least, a composer must know how to write, record, and produce original music, synchronized to picture, in a collaborative, creative setting with directors and producers. A composer should have insight into narrative storytelling to understand the role of music in the filmmaking process. No formal education is absolutely required, but a degree in music composition provides the framework by which a composer can learn to create in many different styles, both historical and contemporary. Training in modern methods of music production is required. A detailed knowledge of applications (DAWs) such as ProTools, Logic, or Cubase is required. A successful composer will also have an understanding of their work from a business perspective, including fair compensation and other contractual considerations.
Music editors: Music editors must be proficient with DAWs (ProTools as an industry standard), have strong administrative skills, an understanding of industry delivery requirements for score, and must know MicroSoft Excel, as well as CueDB or CueChronicle to complete cue sheets.
Composer assistants: often assistants are aspiring or emerging composers with similar basic technical and educational training but lack the experience or credits to sustainably secure their own projects.
Job Roles
Typically these jobs are freelance based on a project’s schedule:
Composer
Music Editor
Music Supervisor
Other Music Department Roles:
Composer’s Assistant – ranges from administrative to writing additional music
Session Musician – engaged by the composer to perform the score
Midi-Programmer – enhances composer’s score with MIDI or synth programming
Orchestrator/Arranger/Copyist – requires formal training in music notation and software such as Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico
Recording Engineer – requires a technical recording background capturing live musicians
Score Mixer – elevates recorded score to final mix according to delivery specifications
Score Producer – Various responsibilities related to the creation, arrangement, or production of the music used in the project.
Songwriter/Lyricist – A project may hire a different songwriter than the underscore composer for featured songs or theme songs
Conductor – requires orchestral conducting training and experience
Contractor – has a wide network of musicians to engage in larger scale productions
Music Coordinator – typically an administrative support to the score production process
Executive In Charge of Music – An exec in a studio’s music department working with showrunners to determine creative direction and hiring (Amazon, Apple, Netflix)
Experience
A music supervisor should have worked as an assistant to a senior music supervisor on several productions of various types before flying solo.
The path to become a composer is ever evolving. While typically, it involves experience in assistant roles for other more established composers, other possible trajectories include transitioning from music creating professions like songwriting/recording artist or simply building more meaningful composer credits via short films and smaller productions. Ultimately, making creative decisions and working directly and collaboratively with directors and producers are crucial parts of the work. Commonly, to get a start in the industry, one might seek to become a Composer’s assistant / MIDI-programmer or musician. From here, an assistant might get tapped to write additional original music for the composer where the schedule demands it.
Union or Non Union
These positions can be both UNION and NON-UNION for music editors (IATSE 891). Music supervision is typically contracted out and while composers are not unionized, membership in the Screen Composers Guild of Canada is welcomed.
