Recording - October 2013 - 59

OCTOBER 2013

Put Yourself in a Music Supervisor’s Shoes, Plus Simple
Broadcast Quality
By Robin Frederick, author of Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV
Do you want to get placements in the Film & TV
market? Want to sharpen your pitching skills to
Film & TV opportunities and get more forwards?
Here’s the best exercise I’ve ever found for strengthening your Film & TV songwriting and pitches: Do
what a music supervisor does. Find songs that
underscore the emotion, energy, or atmosphere in
a scene and test them against the picture!
It seems obvious, I know. But how many songwriters actually do this exercise? Probably not that
many! If you’ll spend just one afternoon in a music
supervisor’s shoes, I promise your pitches will be
closer to the mark and your film and TV songwriting will be stronger.

Watch a Scene With a Featured Song
There are dozens of successful TV series using
songs. You can find a list of shows that are
currently airing at www.Tunefind.com. In the summer season, there are usually around 30 shows
using songs. In the fall, there will be 60 or more.
Find a scene. Many of these shows feature a song in
the opening or closing scene of each episode. A
song is featured when there’s little or no dialogue
over it and the volume is up. You should get familiar with these uses. They offer great exposure for
your songs and can result in a few thousand downloads at iTunes! Not to mention the fees and
royalties that come over time – these popular shows
run for years in syndication and foreign markets.
A few top TV series that regularly feature songs in
the opening or closing scenes are: Grey’s Anatomy,
Suits, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, Hart
of Dixie, Nashville, Sons of Anarchy, Gossip Girl,
and Switched at Birth. There are many more.
Watch the scene and listen to the song use. Pick a
show and episode you’re interested in then buy it
at iTunes, or rent or stream it. You’re going to
watch the scene several times, so you need to have
easy access to it. It may take a few tries to find a
scene you want to work with.

If you’re interested in songs for TV commercials,
you can also do this exercise. You’ll find a list of
commercials that use songs at www.Splendad.com.
Most of these commercials are available on
YouTube.
Now, let’s say the director has told you that she
doesn’t like the song that’s currently in the scene
and wants a different one. You’ll need to find a new
song that underscores the mood or energy of the
scene and enhances the viewer’s experience.

Replace the Song
-> Start by looking through songs by similar artists.
Choose one or two songs, turn down the volume on
the scene, and play your choices. Did they create a
mood or energy level that made the scene more
effective and memorable? Did the chorus or refrain
of the song relate to the emotional situation of the
characters? If not, keep looking.
-> Think of the places where you usually find new
music. You could try looking for related artists suggested by Pandora or Spotify. Look through their
songs. To save time, look at the song title before
you listen. Does it sound like something that would
work for your scene? If not, move on. That’s what a
music supervisor would do. Keep that in mind
when choosing titles for your songs.
-> Try your own songs. Go ahead and play a song of
your own under the scene. Does it work? Be honest
with yourself. Could you write a song that would be
more effective? If so, try writing it now while you’re
in the mood and the scene is right in front of you.
By the way, these are often the very scenes that use
songs with barebones arrangements so keep it simple. Focus on the vocal and the song itself.
To really get the Music Supervisor Experience, find
three songs and give yourself a time deadline!
Because that’s what supervisors have to do. They
must present at least three songs for the director or
producer to choose from and there’s never enough
time to do it in.

Robin Frederick, author of Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV

To speed up the process for future searches, all successful music supervisors keep lists of songs that
have potential for other uses. In other words, they
keep track of songs that may not be right for the
scene they’re working on but might work for a different scene. Here’s how they do it…

PLAYLISTS: A Film & TV Songwriter’s
Secret Weapon!
When I asked successful music supervisors how
they manage to find just the song they’re looking
for among the thousands of song links, mp3s, and
CDs they collect every year, they all told me they
keep “playlists.”
If you use iTunes, you’re familiar with playlists.
And, in fact, the iTunes playlists are the very ones
that many music supervisors use. When you open
the iTunes window, you’ll find “PLAYLISTS” in the
left hand column. You can add playlists of your
own and name them according to genre, mood,
tempo, or anything else you want. Here’s how they
can be helpful if you’re writing songs for film & TV.

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59

http://www.Splendad.com http://www.Tunefind.com

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