Fair price for film score work?

[LeoMDK]

Looking for some advice ...

I recently started writing some film score for a local film company. I did the first one (a 5 minute micro-short) for free, as I had never done this kind of project before, so I was happy to do it for just the experience and portfolio inclusion (was that a mistake?) Anyhow, they liked my work and are now offering me more projects. I am curious what you guys think is a fair price for me to ask as a fee. The next project is a 9 minute short. Is there a standard rate for this sort of work? Does it vary at all on the genre/complexity of music they are looking for? We're in Maine, USA if that makes a difference. They are looking for the project to be completed "ASAP", but I assume that is always the case in film score work, as it is the last thing to be added before publishing, right? Also of note - these people are "friends of a friend" that I've done a lot of live theater with and I've now met them all in person, so I don't think they are interested in trying to take advantage of me, for what it's worth.

Thoughts?

[eatmeatleet]

If it is a commercial project you defintely should get paid for it. I suppose you could charge a xx ammount of bucks per minute or something like that. You should always get more info before joining any project :)

[Stealth-Emergence]

Also, it could be worth taking into consideration how much they're likely to make from the projects they're working on, that your music is going to be used for.

This might give an idea for the upper limit of your price, but this is really just a vague valuation but something to consider.

You could perhaps have a rate based on length of material produced.
Or you could possibly factor in the time it takes to produce such a piece.

Whilst any one of these suggestions, on their own probably isn't enough to get a good idea on price to charge, I think some combination of these suggestions are probably worth factoring in.

Just my 2 cents

[MetalRenard]

Ask them for a fixed % of their total budget, maybe. I often ask someone what their budget for music is. Often their reply is "I don't have one". This leaves the next question open and hard to avoid - "so what's your total budget for this project, then?" (i.e. I trick them into releasing information about their project they wouldn't normally share so easily). Then I explain that the budget for music is usually 5 to 15% of the total budget and negotiate from there.

[LeoMDK]

At 1/20/14 10:20 AM, MetalRenard wrote: Ask them for a fixed % of their total budget, maybe.

This seems like a pretty reasonable approach. Thanks for the advice. :)

[Bad-Man-Incorporated]

Depending on the size of the job, you can ask for a fixed % of revenue, for a specific duration, as well. In lower budget films, they are happy to get musicians who will work for free, to start..then either give a % of revenue of after sales, or, % of the budget. Sometimes it can even be a combination of both.

Musicians are generally a broke variety of people. Working for free sucks, but, exposure is awesome too.

There are a lot websites that sell music and artists too...Be a good idea to check out what they charge for music at different intervals. Compare your music to that, price accordingly.

Just be aware of what they will use it for and how much potential money is made off of what you scored. :)

[SoundChris]

At 1/21/14 05:47 PM, Bad-Man-Incorporated wrote: Working for free sucks, but, exposure is awesome too.

Thats right for sure, but i would consider this: If it is known that you are working for free / very low price people will hardly be motivated to pay more. I would just work for free / low budget
* if the customer is really well known or
* if a project is really fun / something personal and i dont care for the money or
* if this could be the cornerstone for future projects

If i would work for free / low price i would make clear that this is an exception and whats usually the common price for your work / what is standard.

Always think of this: The most important thing is TIME. Your time is valuable. If you "underprice" your work you will make the experience that many customers wont take you serious. If you will try to rise the price later they wont agree.

If they are sayin that they cant pay or just ridiculousely bad - say no. They are tryin to pull a fast one on you. Be confident, but realistic. What do you think is your time worth?

[LeoMDK]

At 1/21/14 06:29 PM, SoundChris wrote: I would just work for free / low budget
* if the customer is really well known or
* if a project is really fun / something personal and i dont care for the money or
* if this could be the cornerstone for future projects

The last two bullet points are the reasons why I did the first 5-minute project for free. It was something I knew I wanted to start doing and it was a rare opportunity where I had developed a working relationship with one of the people involved in the direction of their films from our live theater work together. (I do a lot of music-direction for local theaters and we're both currently about to open a 3-person 'film noir' parody called "Gunmetal Blues"). I would like to go ahead and score more of their films (the next one is a 80's zombie flick parody, so ... um ... YEAH~!) and they are considering turning this zombie flick parody into a small miniseries if it's received well. Also, the quality of their stuff seemed pretty good to me, so I figured it was worth doing the first one (not the zombie one, but the one before that) for experience/connections/foot-in-the-door benefits. I was mostly unsure of how to politely transition "free the first time" into "but I won't continue to be free" ... and when was the best time, exactly, to bring up that subject. I am appreciative of all the above advice, and if anyone has any more to share, I would love to hear it. :)