Monday 7th November
Lol Hammond
Today’s guest lecture was taken by Lol Hammond, a Film Music Supervisor currently working at Vertigo Films.
The lecture was informative for me, as I have previously worked on films which have required sourcing music tracks. However, for Perils of Patricide, my role was Foley and SFX based, and for our upcoming project, Cognition, the director has chosen to find an external composer. Perhaps in Semester B, depending on what I am working on, I will aim to improve my skills working with music in film.
Lol explained the responsibilities of a Music Supervisor, which includes sourcing all of the music for a film, as well as suggesting 5 composers for the director to use in the film. He illustrated how a Music Supervisor works in between the composer and director, and how managing people is a key skill to have in this business. The two main skills Lol put forward as the most important were being able to meet the demands of strict deadlines, and not being too precious with you work. Lol used to be in bands and DJ, and often composes his own works for film. However, if the director is not a fan of the piece, Lol explained how it is best to not be too precious and become offended, but to understand why the piece didn’t work in that particular instance.
After this, Lol took us through the motions of requiring a track. initially, he would ask the record company for the track and then publisher later if necessary. Commonly, both the record company and publisher want the same fee, which is created by Lol from the budget and is dependent on the artist. He explained how Prince does not like to use his songs in film, whilst Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Beatles are mighty expensive. Furthermore, Lol told us a story during one of his films, when a Coldplay song was requested. At first, Coldplay stated £500 000 as the fee for the track. However, once the band got to know the film and the people who made it, both of which they thoroughly liked, they offered the song to the film makers for a mere 1% of initial asking price – £5000. Usually with these tracks, the Music Supervisor does not have the ability to edit or chop up the track, but must use it as it comes. Similarly, telling a composer to go away and change a track multiple times can make them fed up of the project, or again, hurt their ego, so one must be careful when dealing with this issue. Finally, Lol informed us that music used for the opening or closing titles, or the film’s trailer, will cost double than music used elsewhere in the film.
Overall I thought this lecture was very enlightening and definitely made me want to improve my skills when working with music in film, a role that I shall take on in future projects.
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