Bropecia
guy
Hi guys, I just want to get a feel for what the customary roles are on a TV show for a composer. It's a first time gig for me, and even though I'm crazy overworked at the moment, I'm ecstatic to have this opportunity. I just want to make sure that going forward I'm not being taken advantage of.
I know the answers are going to be all over the map, but I just would like to hear some opinions for when I go back for negotiations on season 2.
Basically I'm serving as the composer and music editor -- a package deal. I don't have an assistant, have been writing all the cues (approx 30 cues per episode, 10 ep season), and I've been preparing the Music Pro Tools File for the dub stage for each episode (picture editors send me an aaf, and I clean up, add my stereo mixes and upload to post house night before).
Upon completion, I'm doing the cue sheets, which of course I'm incentivized to do for obvious reasons, but I'm also filling in all the info for the library cues that are being used (which account for about 5-10% of each ep), so a decent amount of extra work there, when I'm racing to stay on track to just make sure my music is at an excellent level.
And I've been attending full day mix sessions 9am to 7pm.
Anyway, It's very low pay for approximately 6 months of work, but those of you who have seen me post about this gig before know that I was keen to take the job no matter the situation, just so I could get my foot in. It's turned out to be an extremely rewarding gig-- wouldn't trade it. And even though the music editing aspects and mix stage prep have been substantial, they were roles that I definitely needed to do because I basically skipped that step in my new career and sorely needed the trial by fire experience. I also don't mind hard work, and it's made my ProTools and other skills jump up as a result.
All said, I want to make sure that I can keep this pace up which has been a more than full time occupation for just one show, and unsustainable at the current pay rate. The creators have said they're going to fight to bring up the pay rates across the board, and I have good reason to believe them. I also realize that season 2, if there is one, will be less of an overall workload as the first 5 episodes of this season everything was from scratch. It took awhile to develop the stable of cues, which we're just now starting to dip back into pretty heavily, which has been quite a relief.
So what do y'all think. Would the music editor be doing most of the PT session prep etc?
If they're going to forego hiring one, I figure my first tact would be to negotiate a portion of what they're saving by not hiring one. Who normally does the cue sheets? Anything else I should know before I humbly dig in my heels on renegotiations?
Thanks all,
Bropecia
I know the answers are going to be all over the map, but I just would like to hear some opinions for when I go back for negotiations on season 2.
Basically I'm serving as the composer and music editor -- a package deal. I don't have an assistant, have been writing all the cues (approx 30 cues per episode, 10 ep season), and I've been preparing the Music Pro Tools File for the dub stage for each episode (picture editors send me an aaf, and I clean up, add my stereo mixes and upload to post house night before).
Upon completion, I'm doing the cue sheets, which of course I'm incentivized to do for obvious reasons, but I'm also filling in all the info for the library cues that are being used (which account for about 5-10% of each ep), so a decent amount of extra work there, when I'm racing to stay on track to just make sure my music is at an excellent level.
And I've been attending full day mix sessions 9am to 7pm.
Anyway, It's very low pay for approximately 6 months of work, but those of you who have seen me post about this gig before know that I was keen to take the job no matter the situation, just so I could get my foot in. It's turned out to be an extremely rewarding gig-- wouldn't trade it. And even though the music editing aspects and mix stage prep have been substantial, they were roles that I definitely needed to do because I basically skipped that step in my new career and sorely needed the trial by fire experience. I also don't mind hard work, and it's made my ProTools and other skills jump up as a result.
All said, I want to make sure that I can keep this pace up which has been a more than full time occupation for just one show, and unsustainable at the current pay rate. The creators have said they're going to fight to bring up the pay rates across the board, and I have good reason to believe them. I also realize that season 2, if there is one, will be less of an overall workload as the first 5 episodes of this season everything was from scratch. It took awhile to develop the stable of cues, which we're just now starting to dip back into pretty heavily, which has been quite a relief.
So what do y'all think. Would the music editor be doing most of the PT session prep etc?
If they're going to forego hiring one, I figure my first tact would be to negotiate a portion of what they're saving by not hiring one. Who normally does the cue sheets? Anything else I should know before I humbly dig in my heels on renegotiations?
Thanks all,
Bropecia