[Fmpro] Musicians & Attitude

[Nicholas Pavkovic]

I'm relatively new to the film music scene, which means I'm scoring a  
lot of films for nothing or next to nothing. In the few films which  
have had a budget for live music, the musicians have made more on  
their three hour session than I did for scoring the film, doing the  
music prep and running the session. Good for them! I'm grateful for  
their contribution, and grateful that I can find really excellent  
musicians who will work for somewhat less than union rates. But how  
can I feel bad about this? They're still making a living wage. Asking  
for union rates will simply cause the filmmaker to pull the plug on  
any live music. And then we lose the opportunity to improve the  
quality of the score, to sell the director on live music in general,  
and to build a relationship.

And it's not that the directors are cheapskates -- they've just maxed  
out their credit cards. Not to mention the fact that even a string  
quartet session at union rates might be half of the entire film's  
budget ;-)

(Benjamin may not be dealing with directors who are quite as  
desperate as my clients, but I'm sure he's dealing with similar issues.)

Cheers,
Nick

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Nicholas Pavkovic
www.myspace.com/nicholaspavkovic
626. 644. 8844. voice
206. 333. 1493. fax