Music for Film & TV — Bespoke Scores Played on Real Instruments

Most of what I am asked for falls into four shapes: a score for a film or a short, cues and beds for television and documentary, music for an advertisement or a brand film, and the odd theatre or installation piece. The work is the same in each — read the picture, find what the scene is actually doing, and write the thing that lets it do it without being noticed.

I write from the piano, record at home, and bring in players I trust when a cue needs more hands than I have. What I do not do is hand back a mock-up and call it a master.

The part that cannot be faked

Played, not triggered

Every serious sample library now has a sitar in it, and any of them will get you through a thirty-second bed. What none of them will do is respond to your cue — bend the note a little late, let the sympathetic strings ring against the chord you actually wrote, play the phrase in the mode rather than in the key. That difference is audible, and it is usually the reason a production wanted the instrument in the first place.

The unusual ones

Sitar

Trained in India. Thirteen sympathetic strings tuned to the piece, which is the part a library cannot fake: they ring against what you have written, not against what the sample was recorded over.
Dilruba

Bowed, North Indian, built to imitate the human voice — it slides between notes the way a singer does. Rare on a UK session and unmistakable on a cue.
Tabla

The most sampled hand percussion in media music, and the most obviously faked: the pitch bend under the heel of the hand is a gesture, not a sample slot. Played properly here.

And the rest of what I play

Guitar Acoustic, electric and classical — including Spanish repertoire and technique.
Piano Where most of the writing happens before anything else is recorded.
Bass guitar Played, so it breathes with the drums instead of sitting on the grid.
Mandolin Folk, bluegrass, Irish and classical. Carries a melody over almost anything.
Cello A real bow on a real string, which is the difference nobody can name and everybody hears — the note starts, rather than simply being switched on.
Violin Solo lines and small stacked parts. Two or three real takes sit in a mix in a way a sampled section never quite manages.
Ukulele For when a cue needs to sound small and unserious on purpose.

That is a selection rather than the whole cupboard — there are more, including a few you would struggle to find a player for in this country. Ask for the one you have in mind. Anything I genuinely do not play I will either bring a player in for, or tell you plainly that it is sampled. I would rather say which is which than have you find out on the dub stage.

How a job runs

1 · The conversation

You send the cut, the script or just the idea, with your date and roughly how much music you think you need. I tell you whether I am the right person for it, and what it costs. If I am not, I will usually know who is.

2 · One cue first

Before writing a whole score I write one scene and send it. It is far cheaper to disagree about direction on a single cue than on forty minutes of finished music, and it is where most of the useful conversation happens.

3 · Write and record

Once the direction is agreed I write the rest to picture, then record the real instruments over it. You see cues as they are finished rather than in one lump at the end.

4 · Deliver

Full mixes and stems, at your spec, named the way your editor wants them. Two rounds of revision per cue are included, and a re-conform if the edit moves.

5 · Rights, in writing

What transfers to you, and the one thing that cannot — agreed before I start rather than after you have cut to it. See below: it is the question that causes trouble later, and the one most composer sites do not mention at all.

Where I am

Based in Thames Ditton, Surrey, half an hour from central London. Sessions and spotting can happen in person if you want them to; nothing about the work requires it.

What actually lands in your inbox

Full mixes — 48 kHz / 24-bit WAV as standard, or whatever your post house has asked for. Tell me the spec and it arrives in the spec.
Stems — split the way a dubbing mixer wants them, so music can be balanced against dialogue without coming back to me.
Alternates where they are useful: a shorter edit, a version without the melody for under dialogue, an instrument pulled out.
Two rounds of revision per cue, and a re-conform if the picture changes.
A cue sheet — the document a broadcaster or festival passes to PRS so the music is logged correctly. I fill it in; you do not have to think about it.

Who owns it

I am registered with PRS for Music, and that decides what I can and cannot sell you. It is worth ten seconds now rather than a conversation with your lawyer later.

What transfers to you. Copyright in the music, the synchronisation right, the mechanical right, and the recordings I deliver — assigned to you in writing, for the full term of copyright, worldwide if that is what you need. In practice that is everything required to use the music how your production wants to use it, for as long as it exists, without ever coming back to me.
What stays where it is. The writer's share of public-performance income. A UK composer registered with PRS cannot sign that away — not as a favour withheld, but because PRS administers it, so it is not mine to sell. It costs you nothing. It is not a fee you pay, and it places no limit on your use of the music: it is collected from broadcasters, cinemas and venues under licences they already hold. All it needs from you is the cue sheet, which I provide.
Moral rights. Under UK law these cannot be assigned to anybody — but they can be waived in writing, and productions often ask, particularly for credits and for the freedom to re-edit. Ask. It is a normal request and rarely the sticking point people expect it to be.

So the honest version is that you can own the music, and one specific stream of broadcast income stays with the person who wrote it. If a UK composer offers you a total buyout including that, they are either not PRS-registered — which is a legitimate way to work, simply a different one — or they have not read their own contract.

None of the above is legal advice, and it is not the agreement: the agreement is the short written one we sign before I start. It is there so that nothing in it is a surprise.

What it costs

Scoring is quoted per project, because two jobs with the same running time can be a week apart in work. What moves the number is how many minutes of finished music there are, how many instruments play on it, how tight the deadline is, and how wide an assignment of rights you need.

For a sense of the market rather than a quote: bespoke media composition in the UK is commonly advertised from a few hundred pounds for a single short piece up to several thousand for a full score, and music tends to sit somewhere between 5 and 15 per cent of a production budget. Tell me your budget honestly and I will tell you straight away whether it buys what you are imagining. Nobody's time is well spent on a quote that was never going to work.

Small productions, students and first films: ask anyway. A short with a real deadline and a small budget is often more interesting than a big job with neither.

Selected work

Productions I have provided music for include Tribal Wives (BBC Two), Bear Grylls: Man vs. Wild (Sky) and Around the World in 80 Trades (BBC Two).

Common questions

Can you work to picture?

Yes. Send the cut with burnt-in timecode and I will write to it. If the edit moves after I have started — and it usually does — send the new cut and I will conform the music to it. That is normal and it is not a change of scope.

How many revisions are included?

Two rounds per cue as standard, which is enough for almost everything. What causes extra work is not revision, it is a change of direction after approval — so we agree the direction on a short demo before I write the rest.

Do you use sample libraries at all?

For orchestral mock-ups and for anything I do not play, yes, and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise. What I do not do is fake the instruments I actually play — and that list is longer than most composers', which is rather the point. If a cue calls for sitar, tabla, dilruba, cello or violin, it is played.

Who owns the music when it is finished?

You can, and we agree it in writing before I start. Copyright in the music, the sync and mechanical rights and the recordings can all be assigned to you for the full term. The one thing that cannot is the writer's share of public-performance income: I am registered with PRS, so that is administered by them rather than mine to sell. It costs you nothing and limits nothing — it is collected from broadcasters and venues under licences they already hold. Anyone promising a total UK buyout is not PRS-registered.

What do you need from me to quote?

Roughly how many minutes of music, the delivery date, where it will be shown, and a cut or a script if you have one. Those four answers are usually enough for a firm number.

How quickly can you deliver?

It depends what else is booked, so ask with your date. A short film or a handful of cues is normally a matter of weeks rather than months. If your date is impossible I will say so at the start rather than halfway through.

Music for film and television