Todd Dunken II
New member
I am genuinely curious to hear from some Filmmakers on this one. Perhaps it is just sampling bias but I have noticed an extreme amount of student filmmakers/content creators preferring to use sites such as Epidemic Sounds and Artlist.io. Is there a genuine reason for this, or is it just a convenience/cost thing?
Every year when the local university hosts the Griffon Film Fest I reach out to numerous students about writing music for their projects. For example this year there are going to be eight student films shown at the Griffon Film Fest and I reached out to all eight directors/teams personally. Here are the responses.
Again it is more than likely either sampling bias, or perhaps the directors/teams are deeming that nothing in my Portfolio speaks to them. Then again it could just be a convenience thing, there is no waiting for the score, no revising the score, just instant plug-and-play.
Of course, I should also state I do NOT seek compensation for these projects, just accreditation. I am genuinely curious to hear thoughts from the community on this one. Also if there is any way to combat this as well? It is getting to the point where I am going to offer to be a "Music Supervisor" just to get on these teams and add that to my accreditation/experience.
-Todd (TJ) Dunken II
Every year when the local university hosts the Griffon Film Fest I reach out to numerous students about writing music for their projects. For example this year there are going to be eight student films shown at the Griffon Film Fest and I reached out to all eight directors/teams personally. Here are the responses.
"I appreciate the offer, but we are just going to use some stock music/royalty-free music."
"Thanks for reaching out TJ! We already have a student composer on board."
"No thanks, we already have tracks picked out from Epidemic Sounds."
no response...
"Sorry but we are going to have to reject the offer, we are deciding to go without music."
"Hey TJ, yeah let's work together!"
"Not at this time, thank you though!"
"We would love to have a custom score! However, for this project, we think we might just stick with stock tracks."
2/8 agreed to have a custom score written for their project, whereas 4 of the remaining 6 stated that they are going to just go with stock music. Now perhaps they did take a look at my Portfolio and didn't hear anything they liked which I understand! However, it just seems like it is a trend in the market to work with existing tracks from various established composers that do not require any sort of royalty."Thanks for reaching out TJ! We already have a student composer on board."
"No thanks, we already have tracks picked out from Epidemic Sounds."
no response...
"Sorry but we are going to have to reject the offer, we are deciding to go without music."
"Hey TJ, yeah let's work together!"
"Not at this time, thank you though!"
"We would love to have a custom score! However, for this project, we think we might just stick with stock tracks."
Again it is more than likely either sampling bias, or perhaps the directors/teams are deeming that nothing in my Portfolio speaks to them. Then again it could just be a convenience thing, there is no waiting for the score, no revising the score, just instant plug-and-play.
Of course, I should also state I do NOT seek compensation for these projects, just accreditation. I am genuinely curious to hear thoughts from the community on this one. Also if there is any way to combat this as well? It is getting to the point where I am going to offer to be a "Music Supervisor" just to get on these teams and add that to my accreditation/experience.
-Todd (TJ) Dunken II
