Posted November 26th, 2008 by admin
There are different options for obtaining music for your film. The most common options are:
1. Getting music composed specifically for your film
2. Getting music that is already completed and using it in your film
3. Getting royalty free music that gives you non-exclusive rights to use a song in a particular fashion.
These three options make up the main paths for obtaining music for your films. The first option of using music specifically composed for your movie can be beneficial because you could have shot your video first and then you can ask a composer to create music that fits the pace of your film, rather than trying to pace your film to fit the music.
Getting music composed specifically for your film could be done through your own connections and arrangements. For example, maybe you know local musicians who would like to get more exposure to their work. If their music will play a big role in your film, you might ask them to compose music for you and in return you could include their name in the opening credits. Alternatively, you could give them “points” (to be discussed in another blog post) which would act as money, but only if the film makes money. If you have the money, another option is to buy the rights to their music and negotiate a deal where you can use their music under certain conditions (i.e. amount paid, position in the sequence of opening and / or closing credits, what the distribution limits are, etc).
Buying pre-recorded music
Another option at your disposal is to buy the rights to music that has already been composed. For instance, you my like a specific artist and may think their music has the right tone to work with your movie. To do this, you will need to find the person that owns the song (it’s often not the artist). Start by looking up the production company or the distributor on the CD cover.
Generally speaking, securing the rights to use a certain song in a film can be quite expensive and a complicated legal process (i.e. the rate will change depending on your distribution, you may not be able to use the song for overseas distribution, you may be charged a per second fee which will allow you to only use part of a song etc etc).
Buying popular music can be very expensive so we’re not going to focus much time discussing it.
Royalty free music
As independent filmmakers, your best bet for music is through your own connections, or soon to be made connections with local music talent. Alternatively, you can order “royalty free music”.
If you buy music from a pre-recorded CD you will likely have to pay “royalties”. This means that the more times you show your film using their music, you’ll need to pay the owner of the song more money. There will be different costs depending on if you showcase their song once versus 100,000 times.
However, royalty free music allows you to play the song as many times as you like for the same price. Better yet, there are many new businesses which are now working towards making royalty free music even more affordable and accessible to filmmakers. The music for a recent short film I shot with very limited distribution only cost $40 (two songs were used which were purchased at $20 each).
The downside of this method is that these companies are trying to turnover as many songs as possible. This means that these songs (due to their accessibility) may be used in countless productions. At student film festivals, it’s not uncommon to hear the same music being played in different films with different casts and crews, so while these songs are great for setting the tone of a film, they will not help you stand out as original. That being said, they offer a great selection of songs and composers are adding new songs all of the time. Often, there are also “download counters” which show you how many people have downloaded a particular track. As a filmmaker you will choose songs based on the following factors:
1. The number of downloads (you may want to find less downloaded songs)
2. The length of the song (some songs are 30 seconds long, other 10 minutes long)
3. The type of music (rock, hip hop, classical, film score)
4. The sound quality and format
If you think royalty free music will help add production value to your film then you might want to consider the companies below
www.revostock.com - $10 - $20 / song (Highly recommend. We have used them in the past and they offer a great service)
http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/ - Varies but about $60 / song
http://www.beatsuite.com/ - $60 / song
Tags: beatsuite, compose, copyright, film, revostock, royalty free music
Posted November 26th, 2008 by admin
Music and all audio components for that matter, are debatably as important as the video component of your film. Music helps set the tone and in fact can often set the tone better than your visual images. When your visuals are combined with sound effects and music, you’ll have your film´s overall tone.
As you’ve noticed, when you’re working in your NLE system you’re already starting to work with various layers. In this blog post, we’re now going to discuss the interaction between your video and audio layers.
Before we start discussing the process of securing music rights, we’ll start by talking about the technical aspects of sound and music synchronization.
Music synchronization
In order to create professional and flowing sound you will need to sync your music with your video. In order to do this you’ll need to identify certain elements within your video and certain elements within your sound. These elements may include:
Sound Elements: Tempo, beats, change in instrument, change in tempo, silent periods and specific sounds within the song.
Video Elements: Invisible cuts, jump cuts, cutaways, change in scenes, change in emotion or body language.
In the example below, notice that the mark labeled #1 is an UP-beat, the mark labeled #2 is a DOWN beat, and the mark labeled #3 is a quieter beat after a long silence in the song. All of these marks act as good edit points for your video.
These are just a few of things you could be looking out for in your video. Editing on the up and down beats helps create an obvious correlation between the sound of the music and the look of the film.
The downbeats and upbeats are easily recognizable on your audio waves when you analyze your sound recording. You’ll notice your audio waves move up and down throughout the duration of a song. As a filmmaker you’ll want to be aware of these sound variations because they provide creative opportunities for you to edit your footage.
The good news is that most video editing software programs have applications that help you identify various beats or sounds with precision. More often than not, your editing program will be able to insert small markers, helping you find the exact areas where you might consider putting cuts.
You can identify these sound variances by measuring their decibel difference and how they are spaced. For example you may want to find areas in a song which are 3 dB higher than the rest of your track. If you have a very fast-paced song with lots of sound variation, you may not want to detect every beat change, therefore you can choose to add markers to areas that are a certain distance from one another. For instance, you could ask the program to find beats which are 3 dB higher than average and are spaced no closer than 4 seconds apart from one another.
At this point you’ll have access to your film footage which you can choose to synch up with these beat changes. Obviously the point isn’t to try to change the shot on each beat but they do allow for good edit points. For instance, your music might have a nice beat to cut on every two seconds but you may not want to change your image every two seconds. That’s fine, maybe in 8 seconds or 30 seconds you could edit on one of those beats.
On the following page, we have provided an example of the “beat detector” window from Adobe Premier Elements. Below this image is an example of results from running the beat detector. You’ll notice a bunch of “markers” at the top of the timeline indicating where the beats are. This will help you accurately determine where to cut your video to synch up with your audio. Alternatively, you can use the “insert marker” button and insert markers manually at the points where you would like to edit.
Tags: audio, beat detect, db, music, sound design, sound editing, video sound
Posted November 26th, 2008 by admin
In this blog post we’re going to discuss the process of securing music rights for your movie as well as affordable alternatives to getting music composed specifically for your film. We’ll also discuss how to get music for your films for free and at affordable rates of $10 - $20 / song.
Following these topics we will begin our discussion on how music and video merge together to create a certain tone. Since you have already learned about editing and cinematography, we’re now going to throw another hurdle into the mix. Now, not only will you need to compose shots properly and put them together in a way that respects continuity, but you’ll also have to edit your video based on the tempo and individual beats of music.
You’ve likely been experimenting with some of these music concepts already but we’re going to show you various technical options that will really help refine the look of your videos. There is no better way to learn how to edit a movie to the sound of music, then to work on a music video. We’ve hired actors, rented studio space and theater space and have worked alongside a talented local musician to help bring you this hands on assignment (This assignment is only available to our enrolled students - Enroll in our film course here). This will be a really useful and fun final editing assignment before moving into your film marketing and distribution assignments.
Let’s begin!
Tags: audio, audio mix, film sound, Filmmaking, music, sound design
Posted November 25th, 2008 by admin
There has been a lot of talk recently about the differences between interlaced and progressive scanning in digital video. This article isn’t meant to be an in depth technical explanation of the specific details, but instead a brief explanation of the most important points for filmmakers who are not interested in the in depth technical explanation but instead are interested in how the two shooting standards will have an impact on their films.
If you decide to do further research on this subject you should understand the vocabulary and short forms that are used. First of all, you often see “i” to represent interlaced and “p” to represent progressive. For example: 480p or 480i.
Interlaced scanning
Interlaced scanning is simply displaying alternating sets of lines. First even numbered lines are displayed and then odd numbered lines are displayed. Each even set of lines are displayed for 1/60th of a second and then the odd lines are displayed for 1/60th of a second. This process is repeated over and over again. Each time an odd number series of lines are displayed it is called a “field”. The same name is given to the even set of lines. Because each field happens so quickly we are given the illusion of a whole image. However, we are only being presented with half an image and very quickly after that we are presented with the other half of the image.
Progressive video on the other hand displays the entire image in 1/60th of a second.
The consequences of using interlaced are predictable. Because you’re only capturing half of the image at a time, movement within the frame (due to either camera movement or subject movement) may cause motion artifacts. This happens especially when the movement is quick enough to cause noticeably different positions of the fields. For example, if you’re filming interlaced from a moving car you’ll notice motion artifacts.
Progressive scanning
Progressive video, as stated above captures 1 entire image per frame. This means you’ll avoid the problem of motion artefacts. That being said, progressive video is not mainstream yet because it’s more expensive. However, there are a few camera models that are reasonably affordable for independent filmmakers. For about $3000 you can get the Panasonic AG-DVX100 which shoots progressive video. The Canon XL-2 is another option for shooting progressive video.
Progressive video is desired by independent filmmakers because the look of progressive resembles the look of film. Progressive scanning results in a clearer image and as mentioned above, progressive scanning handles movement differently. The cameras mentioned above also have the ability to shoot 24p which also helps give your video the “film look” making it desirable to many filmmakers.
Tags: 24p, 480i, 480p, Filmmaking, interlaced scanning, progressive scanning