# Cue sheet help



## ChristopherDoucet (Oct 20, 2020)

I have done many cue sheets in the past that were very straight forward, but I am doing my first, kinda complex one which involves a ton of source cues etc. 

The director is kind of throwing me a lot of curve balls.

1. I received information from the licensing company that just says the artists name and the %. DO I not need to put down a BMI or ASCAP number for the artists?! I alwasy put mine but it doesnt seem like it has to be there?

2. The director has a music theme for his company logo credit. I asked him for the composers name licensing info. He told me to just put his name down. I think he owns the copyright, but I know he didn't write it. I have no way of finding out who wrote it and he wont tell me. Would HE be liable if I did what he asks? Or would I? I certainly want whoever wrote it to get writing credit. And I certainly don't want to get my cues or cue sheet compromised if there was a discrepancy. 

3. There are some musical performances in the film, (lead actor noodling on a piano, etc.) in which I'm not sure how to log. I'm under the impression I have to add it to the cue sheet, but the lead actor doesn't have a PRO affiliation. Would he need to set one up?

4. The director owns the publishing but I do not think that he has a PRO affiliation either. Would I just put him and him company down for this? Or does he need to set one up? DO I NEED TO PUT A NUMBER HERE TOO?

Are there any phone numbers to a BMI customer service hotline where I can get answers like this?

Thanks!


----------



## chillbot (Oct 20, 2020)

I will try to answer some questions but cue sheets can be a constant area of grey, and also be aware that they change over time as well so you may get multiple answers to your questions. "The best you can do" is usually adequate.

One thing thing that is super helpful is that you can search ASCAP and BMI's entire catalogs for information (probably other PROs as well). If you know what to search for you may be able to track down something like the logo theme you're looking for:





__





BMI | Songview Search







repertoire.bmi.com









ACE Repertory


ACE Repertory




www.ascap.com





1. You don't need to put the IPI number. That's a form of double-verification. Name is enough.

2. I've run into this a bunch of time times. He may have a handshake agreement or a legit agreement with whoever did his theme logo. It's not your problem, as far as you know he wrote it until told otherwise. Maybe he stood over the shoulder and "wrote" it with them.

3. The short, semi-correct answer is that you only need to log cues that you want to ensure you get paid royalties for. "Noodling on the piano", specifically, could be skipped or logged, either way. Unless it's an actual song, then you would want to make sure the composer of the song (not the actor) was on the cue sheet, and that you had the rights to the song. If the actor is adlibbing something, sure tell them to join BMI or ASCAP if they haven't... it's free to join and they can make a few extra bucks. You can put them down as whichever and they can join later, there will certainly be a few months of a window. (EDIT: by the way this is a VI - visual instrumental - and will pay significantly more per use than background music.)

4. In the US he would need to have a publishing company, yes, with both BMI and ASCAP, if both are listed on the cue sheet. Otherwise he would just need a publishing company with whichever PRO the composer is with. I.e. if the only composer listed on the cue sheet (for which director owns publishing) is BMI, then he would only need a BMI publishing company. But if there are both ASCAP and BMI composers (for which he owns publishing) he would need to have both publishing companies in order to collect. The PROs for the publishing and the composers will match, even if they are split. If there are international PROs on the cue sheet it gets a bit more complicated. It costs a few bucks to set up publishing (I think, it's been a while) but it's worth it and no other way to collect. BTW, it is a bit shady that he would "own the publishing" without actually having a publishing company. There might be some miscommunication here, possibly confusing "publishing" with "copyright" etc, or not understanding how this all works.


----------



## ChristopherDoucet (Oct 20, 2020)

chillbot said:


> I will try to answer some questions but cue sheets can be a constant area of grey, and also be aware that they change over time as well so you may get multiple answers to your questions. "The best you can do" is usually adequate.
> 
> One thing thing that is super helpful is that you can search ASCAP and BMI's entire catalogs for information (probably other PROs as well). If you know what to search for you may be able to track down something like the logo theme you're looking for:
> 
> ...


WOW!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! 

This is incredible! I really appreciate it!


----------

