business 281 part two of underscore music composing and music composers and music composer agreements part two so now we're specifically talking about this area you could be hired by a motion picture production company or a television show this contract would apply to both to be modifications made for tv over this is a motion picture contract this so you know i gave this contract to the composer of what goes up roddy bottom i took out some of the information for privacy reasons obviously so this composition or i'm sorry this composer agreement entitles or i should say pretty much spells out the responsibilities of an underscore composer so should we back up and discuss what an underscore composer actually what that word even means underscore you are custom creating music everywhere that this motion picture director needs music created okay so the scene could be four minutes long they want music for four minutes there you go four minute q q remember is the length of the music placed in there now you might say this is going to underscore is the music underneath okay you're scoring music underneath the script a lot of times it's background most of that is background so this feature that means that you're creating music and that scene that there's no script there's a words but a lot of action or emotion going on it's a funeral scene it's a romantic scene it's a it's a sad scene it's a happy scene like i told you many times i will ruin your you're watching a view of movies intelligent for years to come i won't ruin that on you okay because the fact you can always analyze everything it's a good ruin trust me okay especially for the obviously you're very everybody watching this pretty much is very serious about pursuing in one of these aspects of the music industry as a career so underscore composers create custom music brand new music so this contract really spells out an awful lot of responsibilities what i love about the contracts kills tubers of one stone and why i say this because it first of all discusses the agreement the relationship between you and the production company it makes it very clear but also what's great about it shows you the kind of contract it's a good contract i would never i'm an artist my whole life i'm a musician remember as executive producer i gave this contract to the composer indirectly of course through my production team but as executive producer i approve all contracts this was prepared for and reviewed by my attorney my entertainment attorney obviously roddy bottom signed the contract meaning that he knew the contract was clean and fair okay so it doesn't favor the production remember i just got done saying that part one yeah of course it does it does pay for the production a little bit there's no doubt about it it really does okay and why it does is because i prepared it i paid for it it's going to make sure it protects the property the multi-million dollar film that this this music's been created to be put into we got to make sure that bill is protected now it doesn't it's nothing sneaky i would never do that again i'd been an artist i would never give an artist another fellow musician a contract it would be a bad contract it's a very good contract that's why i give this contract as a great shall we say you know class class contract for you to look over and be able to analyze now not only is it a great contract for you but why i say it kills one stone is because it also pretty much spells out what an underscore composer in film or television has to do it spells it right now okay as you'll see look at page one now behind you it's quite an about contract just so you know it's got an exhibit exhibit a which is actually the last page so if you look at that first the last page exit day is basically reminding the composer that everything they created is wholly theirs they created with no help from other composers no samples and then steal any music from anywhere else because you understand from the standpoint my standpoint is the executive producer who owns the intellectual film property the film the multi-million dollar film if i put corrupt music in it and i'd use the word corrupt in in the sense that it means that the composer gave me music that they did not own the rights to give me this is a major problem that my film can't go anywhere you can't you can't distribute that you can't put that out on on any platform you can't you know can't be sold on dvd it can't be sold on an online platform it can't be on any television stations or on netflix or hbo go or wherever it would go okay it can't be there because the music did not have the proper licensing rights to it because my composer sampled music or used music that wasn't wholly their own so if you look at that last page and you read through exhibit a you will quickly see how it sums it right up okay and over and over again it's stating the importance of the artist owning and saying that they own all content created okay the rs being the composer so underscore composers you know so many of you heard some of their names and they're you know those famous ones right i've got the other to work with some of the best very very lucky i myself have a composer i am never alone underscored for a motion picture because my year of expertise is percussion so i've always had a helping hand with that if that makes sense to you okay always had a help in the end i would collaborate like i did score also for this movie what goes up with rotty bottom so i get you know i have certain cues that are mine and i played on those cues and him and i co-created many things in there okay so that co-creation process is the recipe my magic to my recipe of my success in the studio as a composer for film or television i mean i've done straight up percussion tracks all alone because that's my area but i'm not one to write an orchestrate okay and and do a full style score so those different cues that i did in this movie what goes up um with roddy bottom where i either played on it and creatively put my input creatively or ronnie you know told me what he thought would sound best and i did that and by the way he's a spectacular person to get a chance to ever google search him his music the bands he's played with roddy bottom was with faith no more and faith and war is still together i think they still do tours on a regular basis actually they had a reunion recently but um he threw faith no more but he also has had multiple beautiful musical projects with great talent um also roddy has underscored many films and tv he's done some really really cool things um he did a real different kind of show i think was a nickelodeon called fred he underscored for the tv show fred so if you get a chance whenever i talk about these things make notes of it or back up the video and watch and write this down and do some google search homework because it'll also help you know some of these people their background and and maybe how they've gotten in their career where they've gotten by just reading up on it a little bit so last page basically exhibit a certificate of authorship we're at the very last page now what this is stating is that roddy bottom in the situation the answer composer owned the rights of all the music that was created did not take it from any other source okay so so what is the job of an underscore composer what is the actual job well that's a really great question because there's a lot of responsibility let's break this down first of all by making something real clear when you're an underscore composer the publishing rights will go to the production company meaning the film or tv show they own the publishing because they have to control the music that you created custom for the show or the tv or the movie okay well that doesn't seem fair well it's very fair because you're getting a fee so if you look on page two for a this specific situation it's an all-inclusive sum of 15 000 united states dollars in blackened print okay 15 000 was paid to underscore for this motion picture now the publishing rights transfer and the composers paid for their work is there a certain number of hours of this work no of course there isn't no no no it isn't certain what it really boils down to is it could take who knows how many hours because you have to do something called spot with the director spotting s-p-o-t-t-i-n-g or to spot with the director means that you're getting together with the director to find out what they want in that scene this is done in person but it can be done many other ways especially nowadays they can be done through facetime it can be done through zoom it can be done through skype it can be done just by corresponding through email with the director sending you um something off youtube i like this feel of this music and they give you a youtube link to some song or some instrumental or some something musically right and say i like this feel but i don't want the trumpet or i don't want these words or i don't want any words and they could kind of spell out what they're looking for from you by doing exactly that okay so that's kind of cool too okay now let me point something else out to you when spotting is done this means you're creating something specifically for the director and then you don't want to finish product until the director approves what i mean by that is you don't go and bring in a bass player and hire them to to play base on it in the horn section and have the director say oh i don't really like the horns after you did all that what you do is do a rough mix of the idea that you spotted so let's just say the director says i need something that is very relaxed and you know very ethereal and floating and i you know what what do you hear keyboard well i hear some string sounds and now mind you with this kind of budget fifteen thousand dollars you need to understand and this is really important here that that's all inclusive if you look at page two again under 4a it says an all inclusive sum all inclusive sum this means it includes all of the money you're going to see as unsure composer you're not getting paid for anything additional it spells out later in this contract you see why i want you always to read these contracts cover to cover i know they're pretty boring okay they might be interesting to you i don't know so it depends on you know what you like personally but i got to tell you something these contracts are pretty thorough okay and they have to be you know where problems happen in contracts where it could get really ugly and even get into lawsuits which is the last thing you ever want to get involved in lawsuits but it can turn into that it's not necessarily the language in the contract necessarily it's what's missing from the contract that's where misunderstandings happen i've said this before but say it again to you and i want to make this clear and i want you never to forget this contracts aren't there because you say well i've got the contract so if they don't do it i can sue them you think that way my analogy would be it's like saying oh you know what hey if i get married and it doesn't work i can always get divorced don't get married if you're going to say that ever right okay that's my analogy contract so what the contract for if you're saying you can't think like that you're protecting you can sue someone the contract's for an understanding the contract is for an understanding between the parties involved you're doing this i'm doing that okay you're doing this i'm doing that all right so that's really important the contract is an understanding between the parties okay so in part three we're going to go through some of the itemized bullet points of this contract now of what's respect expected from the composer and what is expected also from of course the production company who's again that understanding between the parties