Who chooses music for movies and TV shows? Music Supervisor
The Creative Arts Emmy Awards is a special category of the Emmy Awards, which awards those responsible for technological and other decisions on television and in movies. For example, this award is awarded for choreography, costumes, hairstyles, light design, make-up and music.
A new award has appeared in the music category since this year - in addition to the award for the best work of the composer, original music, and music theme, music supervisors are now awarded. This year's first award was given to Susan Jacobs, the musical supervisor of the Big Little Lie series with Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
What does a music supervisor do? Should he be a musician? How does it differ from the composer and sound producer? Why is his role becoming more responsible over the years?
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We understand.
Photo by Matthew G CC
Music supervisors are primarily found in television, film and gaming industry. Some of the tasks that they solve are quite creative. Others are purely organizational and producer.
1. Search for music . This is the main function of the supervisor. He is looking for musical compositions that suit the mood, theme and essence of the project. The creativity of the task depends on the type of project. Searching for music for a game show or reality show is one thing, but for a TV show it is another thing.
How does this happen? There is actually quite a bit of romance. The supervisor receives input from the director, then listens to a huge amount of very different music and selects the right mood for his (and directorial) vision of a particular scene.
Much depends on the relationship between the director and the supervisor - they can work in a creative "bundle" or have a more formal relationship. In the second case, the director will ultimately be in charge of the vision (even the musical one).
The next task is to understand whether it is possible to obtain the rights to use musical compositions.
2. "Cleaning" rights . The duties of the supervisor include the preparation of music "turnkey" - he must check whether you can use the selected songs, coordinate with the authors to obtain the rights to it and arrange the payment of all fees and pianos.
3. Budgeting . The task is both administrative and creative. Music supervisors have a budget that the project is ready to allocate for the purchase of rights to music. Some songs may well solve the creative task of the project, but cost too much - after buying them, the project will have no money for other music. Therefore, the supervisor often has to choose between "cheaper and more" and "more expensive and less."
Photo by Jörg Schreier CC
Even great music cannot make a bad movie or a TV series good, but it can hide inaccuracies or multiply strong scenes and artistic decisions.
In a good (or even brilliant) music supervisor, music is not just a background or an accompanying visual image. This is a valuable tool for expressing the emotions of heroes and scenes, transmitting important moods and plot. An important scene from the series Sense8 (without this song, she would not have had such a large and integral value for the entire series).
For example, Big Little Lies is beginning to truly come to life already in the introduction - thanks to the powerful visual series, the fascinating song of Michael Kiwanuka (Michael Kiwanuka), and how they complement each other, turning into more than the sum of two parts. Here and the volatile atmosphere, and the intense mood of the entire series, which is hidden behind the endless beauty of nature, interiors and people.
In Big Little Lies, music has its own important role in the plot ( Big Little Lies screensaver ). It conveys the deepest experiences of the characters, their feelings, emotions and injuries. The director of Big Little Lies, Jean-Marc Vallée, did not involve the composer in his work on the series. They chose all the music with music supervisor Susan Jacobs - and this is a series with one of the best soundtracks in recent years.
The music supervisor works at the junction of two media - music and visuals. His task is to select music that will meet the vision of the entire project, help the director to solve his artistic tasks. And it is him who needs to be thanked when the soundtrack from the movie or TV series for a long time "settles" in the playlist.
In fact, to become a music supervisor, you do not need to have a special education. However, the supervisor must be well-versed in music of different genres and styles, and be able to search for it, and understand the business cycles of the production of television projects, and have a strong knowledge of the laws to clear the rights to composition.
The supervisors are musicians, producers, agents or managers who have had experience in the music industry. Although it is not necessary to have a musical education - the supervisor does not need to be able to write or play music in order to cope with his work.
Over the years, the profession has become increasingly popular - the pace of production of video content is constantly growing, especially after streaming video services and social networks have entered the industry.
Supervisors may be on the staff of a TV channel or company and participate in several projects at once - Netflix, for example, has a staff of music supervisors who select music for several streamer shows at once. Or they can work as contractors that teams hire for the entire project or part of it.
Many people know the singers or composers behind the music from the film. In the coming years, we will probably learn the names of the main music supervisors in the industry. Recall those to whom we owe brilliant soundtracks and powerful scenes.
Randall Poster (Randall Poster) - West Anderson film music supervisor. One of the classic examples of his brilliant work as a music supervisor (in this case, not in collaboration with Anderson) is Nina Simon’s Sinner man in Thomas Crown Scam (1999).
As for Wes Andreson, his films cannot be imagined without a perfectly complementary picture of music. For this RollingStone article , Randall Poster specifically selected seven of his favorite songs used in Anderson films.
Susan Jacobs is the music supervisor of “Big Little Lie”, “Mozart in the Jungle”, “Wild” and hundreds of films and TV shows. The ending of the fourth episode of “Big Little Lie” is an incredible heat of emotions.
Nora Felder (Nora Felder) - worked on 50 projects, was nominated for an Emmy Award for the work of the music supervisor in the TV series "Very strange things" and OA . Music in OA is almost a stronger means of expression than visuals.
Other materials in our "World Hi-Fi":
These days Audiomania is holding a grand New Year sale . It will last until January 9, 2018. More than 1000 products with discounts up to 50%: acoustics, electronics, vinyl records and much more participate in the sale. And we also have a special selection of products from our range, which will help to find New Year gifts for your relatives and friends.
A new award has appeared in the music category since this year - in addition to the award for the best work of the composer, original music, and music theme, music supervisors are now awarded. This year's first award was given to Susan Jacobs, the musical supervisor of the Big Little Lie series with Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
What does a music supervisor do? Should he be a musician? How does it differ from the composer and sound producer? Why is his role becoming more responsible over the years?
')
We understand.
Photo by Matthew G CC
Between creativity and rationality
Music supervisors are primarily found in television, film and gaming industry. Some of the tasks that they solve are quite creative. Others are purely organizational and producer.
1. Search for music . This is the main function of the supervisor. He is looking for musical compositions that suit the mood, theme and essence of the project. The creativity of the task depends on the type of project. Searching for music for a game show or reality show is one thing, but for a TV show it is another thing.
How does this happen? There is actually quite a bit of romance. The supervisor receives input from the director, then listens to a huge amount of very different music and selects the right mood for his (and directorial) vision of a particular scene.
Much depends on the relationship between the director and the supervisor - they can work in a creative "bundle" or have a more formal relationship. In the second case, the director will ultimately be in charge of the vision (even the musical one).
The next task is to understand whether it is possible to obtain the rights to use musical compositions.
2. "Cleaning" rights . The duties of the supervisor include the preparation of music "turnkey" - he must check whether you can use the selected songs, coordinate with the authors to obtain the rights to it and arrange the payment of all fees and pianos.
3. Budgeting . The task is both administrative and creative. Music supervisors have a budget that the project is ready to allocate for the purchase of rights to music. Some songs may well solve the creative task of the project, but cost too much - after buying them, the project will have no money for other music. Therefore, the supervisor often has to choose between "cheaper and more" and "more expensive and less."
Photo by Jörg Schreier CC
Space for creativity
Even great music cannot make a bad movie or a TV series good, but it can hide inaccuracies or multiply strong scenes and artistic decisions.
In a good (or even brilliant) music supervisor, music is not just a background or an accompanying visual image. This is a valuable tool for expressing the emotions of heroes and scenes, transmitting important moods and plot. An important scene from the series Sense8 (without this song, she would not have had such a large and integral value for the entire series).
For example, Big Little Lies is beginning to truly come to life already in the introduction - thanks to the powerful visual series, the fascinating song of Michael Kiwanuka (Michael Kiwanuka), and how they complement each other, turning into more than the sum of two parts. Here and the volatile atmosphere, and the intense mood of the entire series, which is hidden behind the endless beauty of nature, interiors and people.
In Big Little Lies, music has its own important role in the plot ( Big Little Lies screensaver ). It conveys the deepest experiences of the characters, their feelings, emotions and injuries. The director of Big Little Lies, Jean-Marc Vallée, did not involve the composer in his work on the series. They chose all the music with music supervisor Susan Jacobs - and this is a series with one of the best soundtracks in recent years.
The music supervisor works at the junction of two media - music and visuals. His task is to select music that will meet the vision of the entire project, help the director to solve his artistic tasks. And it is him who needs to be thanked when the soundtrack from the movie or TV series for a long time "settles" in the playlist.
Let me be taught
In fact, to become a music supervisor, you do not need to have a special education. However, the supervisor must be well-versed in music of different genres and styles, and be able to search for it, and understand the business cycles of the production of television projects, and have a strong knowledge of the laws to clear the rights to composition.
The supervisors are musicians, producers, agents or managers who have had experience in the music industry. Although it is not necessary to have a musical education - the supervisor does not need to be able to write or play music in order to cope with his work.
Over the years, the profession has become increasingly popular - the pace of production of video content is constantly growing, especially after streaming video services and social networks have entered the industry.
Supervisors may be on the staff of a TV channel or company and participate in several projects at once - Netflix, for example, has a staff of music supervisors who select music for several streamer shows at once. Or they can work as contractors that teams hire for the entire project or part of it.
To say thank you
Many people know the singers or composers behind the music from the film. In the coming years, we will probably learn the names of the main music supervisors in the industry. Recall those to whom we owe brilliant soundtracks and powerful scenes.
Randall Poster (Randall Poster) - West Anderson film music supervisor. One of the classic examples of his brilliant work as a music supervisor (in this case, not in collaboration with Anderson) is Nina Simon’s Sinner man in Thomas Crown Scam (1999).
As for Wes Andreson, his films cannot be imagined without a perfectly complementary picture of music. For this RollingStone article , Randall Poster specifically selected seven of his favorite songs used in Anderson films.
Susan Jacobs is the music supervisor of “Big Little Lie”, “Mozart in the Jungle”, “Wild” and hundreds of films and TV shows. The ending of the fourth episode of “Big Little Lie” is an incredible heat of emotions.
Nora Felder (Nora Felder) - worked on 50 projects, was nominated for an Emmy Award for the work of the music supervisor in the TV series "Very strange things" and OA . Music in OA is almost a stronger means of expression than visuals.
Other materials in our "World Hi-Fi":
- Series-musicals: music as a theme and as a reception
- Radio plays: very well forgotten old
- How dubbing actors work
These days Audiomania is holding a grand New Year sale . It will last until January 9, 2018. More than 1000 products with discounts up to 50%: acoustics, electronics, vinyl records and much more participate in the sale. And we also have a special selection of products from our range, which will help to find New Year gifts for your relatives and friends.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/374123/
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