Music for TV programs/films

[Lil'Lucy]

Who is responsible for putting music to certain bits of film or TV programs? Are there people around whose job it is to know all the different types of music out there and do they watch a bit of film and think... "Ah - right , I know the right piece to go with that?"

[Mortartube]

The music editor usually. He/she often works in close contact with the director and/or producer at editing time and the music editor usually has a great knowledge of music.

One notable exception to the music being added at editing time was on the MGM Tom & Jerry cartoons, where the storyboard timing was so accurate, the music was often written and recorded before any of the animation was completed.

Music editor. I would love that job.

[Fay Mousse]

Ronnie Hazelhurst was a master at composing theme tunes and incidental music for British sitcoms.

The documentary that showed him at work was a real eye-opener.
http://tinyurl.com/3rlya6

[vehelpfulguy]

>Who is responsible for putting music to certain bits of film or TV programs?

I dont know, but I wish there were less of them.

Some gardening and nature programs are RUINED by continuous background music, and not just one tune, they often have 3 or 4 different types of music in the space of a minute or so.

I love music and HATE background music so it probably grates on me more than most.

I hate it when I am in a shop like B&Q. where they are playing a song, then right in the middle of the song you get:

BING BONG. Will Fred Smith please go to the managers office BING BONG

And then they go back to the song. So annoying.

End of rant.

[glesga123]

The people who do the background music on Homes Under The Hammer are so predictable. If a house is a bit run down we get 'Walls Come Tumblin Down' By Paul Weller If Two brothers are doing a house up its 'He aint Heavy Hes my Brother' If a female is seen with a paint brush, we get 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' etc, etc. It has to be the easiest job in TV. And very very annoying that somebody, no doubt, is being paid fortunes for doing it.

[ELVIS68]

lol @ glesga123..that`s spot on!

[squarebear]

The music editor will contact "screening companies" if they are looking for something in particular. The screening company will then contact musicians and bands and say something like:

"BBC TV show is looking for up-tempo electronic songs similar to Cascada for a new reality show"

We then have about a week or 2 at the most to submit songs to be screened and if we are lucky, we get forwarded on to the TV show.

This saves the music editor from having to manually search for music and also stops them from being flooded with unwanted demo CDs from would be bands.

[Lil'Lucy]

Thank you all for your replies. Very interesting. I am amazed sometimes at what songs are paired with different scenes and are spot on - particularly things like Ashes to Ashes and Skins.