|
Author:
Molly-Ann Leikin
|
Molly-Ann Leikin (rhymes with bacon) is a songwriter with a house full of gold and platinum records plus an Emmy nomination.
|
|
Molly-Ann Leikin (rhymes with bacon) is a songwriter with a house full of gold and platinum records plus an Emmy nomination. She has written themes and songs for over four dozen TV shows and movies, including “Eight is Enough” and “Violet” that won an Oscar. The author of “How to Write A Hit Song” and “How To Be A Hit Songwriter”, Molly wrote “I Hear Your Heart”, which was a Eurovision (“American Idol” in Europe) finalist. You can reach Molly at www.songmd.com, at her toll-free number, 800-851-6588 or you could just yell “yo, Mol” and see what happens.
|
SONGWRITING TIPS FOR TELEVISION AND MOVIE PRODUCERSAt the beginning of my career as a songwriter for movies and TV, my agent hit the rock bottom of his client list, which is where I’d been penciled in during National Whooping Cough Week, and asked me to write a whole new score for some f-kak-ta Hanna-Barbera show from which several rounds of brand-name tunes and tunesmiths had been exorcised, but the costumes, and the characters stayed, meaning I had a day and a night to write a fist full of songs that dancing adorable bananas and a pink so-help-me-God dinosaur imitating Elton John would sing.
Truthfully, I didn’t care how hard it was. It was an assignment. And if I do say so myself, I did right by the people whose creative fees removed most of the front end dents from my old red VW, and got me three used Goodyears from Vespucci’s Mobile Midnight Tire Supply, an enterprise that cut overhead, I learned, by not issuing receipts.
Relieved when my songs were accepted, my agent was frank with me. He said there were two categories of songwriters - those who sing, and those like me, who don't. The ones that do sing have the luxury of only having to please themselves when they write. It was my agent’s experience that hiring one of them to join a creative team with very specific needs and boundaries was often fraught with issues. Issues that wouldn't come up when hiring a songwriter who doesn't sing and is used to writing what someone else wants, making changes and being flexible for the good of the project.
But no matter who you hire to create original songs, before you shoot one foot of film, please, please, please put the entire music budget in escrow where you can’t touch it. Don’t use it for an extra day of shooting and then ask musicians to work for free. We have families like you do. And besides, y’get what you pay for.
No matter what you spend, a song in a movie or TV show should be the subtext, not simply repeat what has already been said in the dialogue. I got that straight from The Bergman’s, and who would know better? I’ve used that premise in every film music assignment I’ve ever accepted, and it’s never failed me.
While it's nice to have the marquee value of a known act singing a known song in a film, most low budget productions can't afford the usually prohibitive fees to license master recordings and/or hit songs. Although many producers with tight budgets used to substitute sound-alike recordings, the musicians union has stepped in and absolutely prohibits that now. So here you are back at needing a two-step, for example, that was a hit in the 80's and would be playing in your film’s honky tonk in West Tuscaloosa. What do you do?
The good news is that there are songwriters who can tailor their work to your film, just as there are custom screenwriters, like Carrie Fisher who specializes in creating snappy dialogue for women films, for instance. Why not just hire a custom songwriter to create something new for you that has the right tempo, lyric, feel, subtext, and fits the genre and the scene? A good, professional assignment songwriter is used to taking direction, working quickly and efficiently, and, although like all creative people, might throw bricks through her windows before making the “suggested” changes, will bite the bullet, write exactly what you need, and make the deadline, while you realize – hey – you like this new song. Why go into hock for a Rehab Barbie when somebody else can do the assignment just as well, on time, on budget, for a tenth of the fee?
Although every producer I’ve ever worked with is savvy to the value of nominations and wins during awards season, few realize that to qualify for an Oscar, a song has to further the plot of a film. It can't just be somebody's new single stuffed into the soundtrack. And whether they’re award-minded or not, smart producers and directors choose their songs as early as in pre-production. Then the picture and the sound texture are consistent all the way through, and no one, like your money guy, has fallen in love with music in your hastily assembled temp mix that you can’t afford, and more important, nobody’s scrambling for rights and permissions twenty minutes to air.
Here's the part I'm not supposed to tell you: if a production company hires someone to write an original song, and if that company’s law firm does its job correctly, the production company will end up with a nice percentage of the income from the publisher's portion of that original song. No way is this money available from an established copyright. Ever. And you can take that to the bank.
© 2008 Molly-Ann Leikin
Have further questions? Care to add your thoughts, experiences, advice?
Go to the Forum and start a thread.
|