Customer Reviews

Film and Television Composer's Resource Guide: The Complete Guide to Organizing and Building Your Business

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This is a great book, although I think it should be revised and re-released for more modern times and pay rates. I've used it several times in my dealing- particularly the sections of pre-written agreements.

Books on composing music for film abound these days. We read so much about the art of composing for film and television, we forget that it's a job, same as any other. This book has some nice info on cover letters and the contracts seem sound. Some of the marketing material is schmaltzy, and the book is fairly expensive for its content. (Many pages are full-page ads.) But I give it four stars for having examples of contracts and some good suggestions on introducing yourself to directors. One important thing I've learned from this book is that the same job skills go into looking for work as a composer as any other job. This book gives you the nuts and bolts.

I first noticed this book in the office of the National Academy of Songwriters in Los Angeles, where it was used as a sort of coffee-table reference book for their members, who are increasingly interested in the film world as a potential market for songs. Now, book in hand, I confess I'm genuinely excited about Northam's and Miller's achievement, which Northam describes as a manual intended for film composers in the first five years or so of their careers. To appreciate it in context, you need to understand that music industry how-to books seem to come in batches, and the nineties will be remembered as the decade when the film industry came to light, going from, maybe, half a dozen good books which were available through the 80's to twenty or more by this writing. Based on what's available now, you'd never dream there was a recent time when very little information could be found about music in film. These days there are several popular magazines (see for example FILM SCORE MONTHLY), and books on just about every aspect of film music and the business that surrounds it. And now, let's talk about CinemaTrax, the business name for co-authors Northam and Miller, and their FILM AND TELEVISION COMPOSER'S RESOURCE GUIDE. Of all the new film music books, theirs used to be the hardest to find, and yet it's possibly the most helpful with respect to doing the business of film music. (For the actual music crafting part of film scoring, the front-running book is ON THE TRACK, by Fred Karlin.) If the best success formula for these days is, as I believe, to literally become a music business while you're taking your shot, then it's only logical that a good new book would come along promoting business savvy and independent entrepreneurial spirit among film music composers and songwriters. These authors talk about getting started, with sample cover letters, demo package cover letters, advice on how to handle the marketing and promotion of one's music, legal aspects, including how to read and negotiate a deal memo, business considerations germane to the world of film music, budget checklists and breakdowns, and then some nuts and bolts reference material on temp tracks, time code, spotting, cue sheets, all the things that are so difficult to find out about if you're trying to break in from the outside. The book is rounded out by listings and references that will help in the building of your own personal and customized data base (no matter how many reference books one buys, there's no way to avoid the creation of your own networking system.) They also include tips on navigating the several websites devoted to film music topics. Thinking back to my own breaking- in days, when Sound Column Productions was getting off the ground with a lot of music inside us but not much industry background, I'd have given just about anything to get my hands on a book like this. To me it seems incredible that such a insider's book would be available in the broad national market, and that is exactly what has happened in 1999, as publishing giant Hal Leonard Books has picked up distribution rights. Better grab one of these. Ron Simpson, School of Music, Brigham Young University. Author of MASTERING THE MUSIC BUSINESS.