Recording March 2022 - 64

that they use.
Continued from page 63
years after we forwarded it. Seven years later
they got the call. So, I imagine that it's a truism,
that all supervisors keep huge stashes of
music-some probably better organized than
others-and they do have a bit of a photographic
memory, at least as far as music goes. And it
might be a year or two or three, or even 20 years
later where they go, " I remember getting a song
with a really cool samba, with unusual
instrumentation, " and they might look in their
Latin music folder and go find it. So, what didn't
get used next week, could get used in 2026.
And it's not just one song. If you send something
that's good, keep sending good music,
and then it's going in the good music bin.
I guess the message is don't give up hope, but
don't sit there staring at your phone either.
Absolutely. Keep sending good music; keep
making good music, and home in on what you
want to be submitted for. Home in on the
kinds of shows you want to be submitted for-
as long as it's not a period piece, you know.
" Don't wait for somebody to give
you a job-keep making art, keep
putting it out there, we will find
you. If it's good, we'll find you. "
-Mary Ramos
I always recommend that people who want to
license music should watch TV with a legal pad on
their lap. They should Google who is the music
supervisor on the series. They should make notes
about, " Oh, look at that-almost every episode
has three bar scenes. " And the music they use in
those bar scenes is X, Y, Z, because it's this kind of
bar or that kind of bar. And I really feel like it's
staring them right in the face. That's their homework.
Don't just create music; understand why
certain music works better than others. They
would make your job easier.
Absolutely. That's really good advice. That's
really good advice, because you want to target,
you want to hit the target. You want to be submitted
for the right thing, and you want to
target your energies and your efforts towards
what you think is good and think you belong
in. So that's really good advice. What's that
website that lists all the music that's used?
Tunefind. We always recommend that to our
members, even though I can never remember the
name.
Here's a resource for if you dig a TV show-or
a film, even-you go in there and usually they
will have the songs listed for each episode and
you can make note of the style and the vibe
64 RECORDING March 2022
Years ago, I heard a TAXI member who blew me
away. He played me a scored piece, and I
thought, " This is the best score I've ever heard
from anybody who isn't famous already. " And I
called up my friend Harry Garfield at Universal
Pictures, who was the Senior VP of Music at the
time, I believe, and I asked him if I could introduce
the two of them. And Harry, being a nice,
very sweet guy, said to me, " Yeah, you can bring
him by. But you know what? Have him score a
couple of scenes from movies I've worked on in
the last couple of years, and let's see how he
does. " So he did, and we went into Harry's
office-I can't believe Harry took the time to do
this-and he watched the two scenes with my
friend's new scores. And he turned to him and he
said, " Wow, that's as good as what Hans Zimmer
did in that scene. " And in the second one he said,
" That might even be a little better than what
Alexander Desplat did, but I can't use you, and
here's why. When studios are spending 100 million
bucks on a film, they need experienced
people with a brand name. You're really talented,
but now you need to go work on smaller films.
Build your brand and gain experience needed to
work at the Hans Zimmer level. " Assuming that
Harry was right, how can a talented composer
break into the indie film scene? You're a great
person to ask, because you do quite a few of
them. Where do aspiring composers knock on
doors for that?
It's a really hard area to break into-scoring.
It's hard to be unknown and break into it. I
will say this again: If you fill out an EP of the
music of your most dynamic pieces, and
include a cover. I mean, it's an instrumental
cover, but do a cover. That's a good way to
catch attention. We need to know what you
can do, we want to hear the most dynamic
pieces and it will help you get attention. I
think that's good advice, because regardless of
whether or not you end up scoring something,
you have a cool piece of art that you can actually
license. If somebody finds it and they need
it for something, they will reach out to you and
license it, so it's always forward-moving. Don't
let somebody tell you... I just hate the fact that
it's in a situation where you are waiting for
someone to give you the job. Don't wait for
somebody to give you a job-keep making art,
keep putting it out there, we will find you. If
it's good, we'll find you.
Speaking of being found, how did you get the gig
working with Quentin Tarantino? Did you respond
to a classified ad?
[She laughs] I actually went to school for acting
in New York, and I came out to L.A. I
wanted to be an actor or a director. I was
friends with a group of actors and one of them
was a British actor (Tim Roth) who had just
come over to L.A. and he was just starting to
work on a film with this young unknown director,
and I met Quentin at a party at Tim
Roth's. So, we talked, and we ended up talking
about soundtracks, and we talked about
music, we just kind of hit it off. Then Tim and
Quentin introduced me to Karyn Rachtman,
who was the music supervisor on Reservoir
Dogs, and she needed an assistant, so I started
working with her. I worked with her for almost
four years, and it was a wonderful experience.
Yeah, she's pretty legendary in the industry, and
a great teacher, I'm sure. Wow, some people
might say you stumbled into it, but you stumbled
into an opportunity, recognized it and went for
it. There is a big chasm between those two
things.
I grew where I planted. And the thing that's
important is that I've been taking everything I
learned from my schooling-I mean, I wanted
to be an actress-so I'm taking all of what I
learned about direction and storytelling from
the acting perspective and bringing it to my
job. I think that's one of the things, too, that
makes me unique in my position. I use everything
I know from that experience and bring it
to this experience. So, it's just being ready to
use everything you know and bringing it to
what you do.
I would imagine that it's invigorating and challenging
to work on Quentin's films, because
they're unusual. I mean, talk about art. Is there
anything at the end of the day that you've
learned as a supervisor from working on those
challenging and invigorating films with him that
carries over into something like Happy Gilmore or
any of the other stuff you work on that is not a
Tarantino film?
Everything! Everything I learned I've learned...
I cut my teeth... I'm a music supervisor
because I met Quentin Tarantino. I mean, I
don't even know what job you could have
" I had to learn everything on my own
and be diligent and never give up. "
-Mary Ramos
where two things that I love dearly-where
film and music meet. But I learned everything
through that, because it wasn't really a studio
head or a big boss that I could turn to and go,
" Is this OK? How do we handle this? What's
the protocol for this? " There wasn't anybody
like that, so I had to learn everything on my
own and be diligent and never give up, and
make quick decisions, and make sound decisions
for the betterment of the project, for the
safety of the project.
It's been a really incredible experience to work
with him. He's a passionate film director. He is
passionate about music, passionate about the
stories he tells. His imagination is crazy. And
Continued on page 67
Recording March 2022

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