What do you look for in a composer?

[JoshL]

How do you, as directors/producers choose composers to work with on your projects? Do you look first for past credits, or listen to demos? Do you prefer that people send cds or dvds, or do you prefer to listen to clips online? Do you look for diversity in a demo/portfolio, or do you prefer to hear demos stylistically tailored to your project?

As someone just starting out in film composition, any tips or suggestions would be helpful! All the gigs I have done in the past have been for friends (or friends of friends), so I'm not sure what the best way to reach out and make myself available to others would be (at least, not yet). I'm in the process of honing my skills (writing tons of music, rescoring scenes from old movies, etc) and any opinions as to how I should be focusing my time right now would definitely be welcome!

[Anim8]

Have your stuff online for sure.

Add some pieces that are just audio along with videos that contain your music. Try to be diverse... Have examples that evoke a particular emotion.

[indietalk]

Make demos. Offer to score films for free, or offer to score a portion of the film so they can check your style. Make sure when you score for free, you get permission from the filmmaker to post scenes from the film on your website. It may be something like "In exchange for scoring said film you allow the composer to post a maximum of 30 seconds of said film on composer's website in perpetuity." Of course, word it better. Just giving you an idea. Also make sure you are credited.

[Alcove Audio]

When I put on my hat as a music supervisor and begin the search for a composer I first want to see their music work with visuals. If I like what I see/hear I then just want to hear additional material.

I like to hear a great diversity of styles. I also want to hear technical competency, meaning the audio quality of the score itself. BTW, nothing turns me off faster than a composer who is unwilling to give me stems.

Peace,

Bob

[JoshL]

Thanks for the tips! I've been trying to get some more student film credits (flyered the local film school, offering services online, etc), and in the meantime have been re-scoring old scenes to films to develop my skills. Would it be a good thing to upload those, or excerpts from those until I have some more student film excerpts that I can upload? Or would having a bunch of potentially copyright-infringing clips seem unprofessional?

Funny thing regarding stems; before I knew what they were, I had done a student film where I had done essentially that. The director wanted a guitar-based piece similar to the opening sequence of 28 Days Later (as a huge Godspeed You Black Emperor fan, I was more than happy to comply). I took out all the synths/electronics that I had done, so that he could mix as he saw fit. He opted to use them as two separate pieces instead (incidentally, his teacher talked him out of dramatic dynamic music over a man walking alone through an abandoned factory, going for a more traditional use of silence/sound fx).

But anyway, all of that was a few years ago, and I'm much better of a composer and musician than I was then. So I'm in a position that most of the work I've done in my portfolio is so dated that it doesn't represent where I am now. So while I'm trying to get new gigs (and by that I DO mean work for free), I'm left with re-scores, and I'm not sure how they would be viewed. It seems to be more productive than doing nothing while I wait for some student film gigs to roll in!