[Fmpro] FMPRO Digest - Composers Union

Thu Mar 27 18:59:22 GMT 2008

How about Union Lite - no crazy rules about where and when you can and 
cannot perform, limitations on how union members do business, etc. The 
only purpose of a composers union would be collective bargaining - going 
on strike, negotiating better rates, etc. No destroying the lives of 
folks who can't afford to strike (just suspend their union membership 
for a few years...), no stupid mafia tactics, just establish a baseline 
for the industry without the obnoxious limitations and bureaucracy & 
overpaid union presidents, allow members to make their own direct 
licensing deals if they can. Offer some kind of benefits to make it 
attractive to student composers and even to the kids with no classical 
skills using loops.  Bring everyone into the fold, even those kids 
willing to work for "credit". Sponsor an education program for young 
filmmakers. Distribute literature to film schools, encourage film 
students to pay for the music they use. Offer programs to student 
filmmakers where they can get music inexpensively if they join as 
supporting members.

 - Joel

Christopher Alpiar wrote:
> Call it what you want, but lose all association of what it has meant  
> in the past. This is a new world and concepts of the 50s will not be  
> what needs to be created. What is needed absolutely postitively and I  
> will fight till the day I die for it is Solidarity, unity among  
> composers, money in the pot for lobbying congress, money in the pot  
> for legal actions, good lobbyists and lawyers who work for us, common  
> agreements on what is minimum scale for student, low budget indy, mid  
> indy, hi indy, and all full production features, as well as  
> advertising, stage theater and any other situation. Definitions of  
> rates and acceptable working conditions for orchestral, big band,  
> small ensemble, computer generated, score vs song, lots of that kind  
> of stuff that the collective needs to get together and decide on.
>
> Again the 3 key parts are:
>
> Lobbying
>
> Legal Aid
>
> Common Grounds/ Quality of Life
>
> The rest of what you have in your mind of baseball bats and Jimmy  
> Hoffa is rediculous or of slack AFM offices with lame ass jam sessions  
> of old farts that cant play anymore. Its a new world and we need to  
> embrace it and use it on a leash and stop being the dogs being whipped  
> and beat
>
> On Mar 26, 2008, at 4:17 PM, Job M. van Zuijlen wrote:
>
>   
>> I think a union may be useful if you are interested in big-budget
>> Hollywood-focused work.  But I would not want to be obligated to  
>> join a
>> union just to score any film in the US, independents included.  I've  
>> been
>> trying to follow the goings-on with the L.A. Musicians Union and it
>> sometimes seems like holding on to a world gone by.  It may improve  
>> the
>> living conditions of some composers at the conclusion of others, but  
>> would
>> improve the overall quality of the music.  And what would be the  
>> conditions
>> of becoming a member?
>>
>> I know there is a Writers Union and a Musicians Union, but is there  
>> a great
>> surplus of writers and musicians in the L.A. area?  From several
>> contributions on this list I gather that there is an abundance of  
>> composers
>> or other music makers (keyboardists with a computer, for instance...).
>> Those at the top, would they even have any interest in joining a  
>> union?  If
>> they don't, where is the clout?  Musicians (and perhaps writers) or  
>> sort of
>> evenly matched, but, composers, from what I understand, form more of a
>> pyramid.
>>
>> I've been an employee in an office for the last 21 years and that's  
>> what it
>> would feel like to me being a union member and beholden by its  
>> rules: like a
>> factory worker.  Now that may be too harsh a statement and it may  
>> not be so
>> bad, but I think many more details and discussions are needed about  
>> this.
>> Now if it were to be called a "guild" rather than a "union", that has
>> already a different ring.
>>
>> Just for the record, I'm not against unions per se (being way too  
>> far left
>> for my own good), and they have been useful to me in a past life; I  
>> just
>> don't see how it would work in this case.  But please continue to  
>> discuss.
>> I recognize (again through this list) that there is a problem that  
>> needs
>> solving.  It would be good to have something to beat the PROs up  
>> with, for
>> instance...
>>
>> Job van Zuijlen
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Alcheh Daniel" <daniel at danielalcheh.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 13:08
>> To: <fmpro at nxport.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Fmpro] FMPRO Digest - Composers Union
>>
>>     
>>> I just had brunch with a big producer a couple of weeks ago and we
>>> found ourselves
>>> discussing budgets. When I gave a few examples of these ridiculous
>>> numbers that we
>>> get offered to score a feature she looked at me bewildered and said:
>>> "don't you composers
>>> have a union? I didn't realize! Well, why don't you just start one
>>> with a few colleagues!"
>>>
>>> Top people in the industry, that are used to paying not less than 50K
>>> and up for a feature score
>>> (she recently hired Mychael Danna for a project) don't even know that
>>> we're not unionized. And they
>>> just don't understand why.
>>>
>>> On Mar 25, 2008, at 8:00 AM, fmpro-request at nxport.com wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Message: 16
>>>> Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:56:55 -0400
>>>> From: Christopher Alpiar <chris at alpiar.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [Fmpro] Fwd:  Mandy Job Offer
>>>> To: fmpro at nxport.com
>>>> Message-ID: <CA3650A3-B091-4273-91EB-CE5BD4B9DE22 at alpiar.com>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>>>>
>>>> While I don't think this is one of them, or at least a remotely
>>>> important one, I agree vehemently that there are serious problems in
>>>> our business and we are faced with the inevitable death of composing
>>>> as we know it to be transformed into something very different. The
>>>> only way to do anything about the deluge of changes that are the
>>>> spiral into the abyss for our art is through solidarity and  
>>>> unionizing
>>>> and collective bargaining and lobbying but you all are too chicken  
>>>> to
>>>> even try!
>>>>
>>>> :)
>>>>         
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> The Film Music Pro List is sponsored by Film Music Magazine -
>>> http://www.filmmusicmag.com
>>>
>>> Best of FMPRO: http://www.fmproquotes.com - Quotes site  by Billy  
>>> Hale
>>> Music
>>>
>>> To edit your list options or unsubscribe, visit:
>>> http://nxport.com/mailman/listinfo/fmpro
>>>
>>>       
>> _______________________________________________
>> The Film Music Pro List is sponsored by Film Music Magazine -  http://www.filmmusicmag.com
>>
>> Best of FMPRO: http://www.fmproquotes.com - Quotes site  by Billy  
>> Hale Music
>>
>> To edit your list options or unsubscribe, visit:
>> http://nxport.com/mailman/listinfo/fmpro
>>
>>     
>
> Christopher Kennedy Alpiar
> Cinematic Composer
> www.alpiar.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Film Music Pro List is sponsored by Film Music Magazine -  http://www.filmmusicmag.com
>
> Best of FMPRO: http://www.fmproquotes.com - Quotes site  by Billy Hale Music
>
> To edit your list options or unsubscribe, visit:
> http://nxport.com/mailman/listinfo/fmpro
>
>
>   