How do you get festival movie sound track rights?

[David M. Payne]

How do you get festival movie sound track rights?

I’m about half way through my very low budget film “Holy War”. We are shooting it in 16X9 format using two Panasonic HVX200 cameras in 720/24p HD and I was wondering if any one here has some leads on how to get festival rights to a few songs that we would like to use in the film. And while you are at it perhaps you could cover just what festival rights are, their limitations and any tips on the best way to go about securing these rights.

We have a couple of musicians who will do the background sound track sounds, but we would like to use some popular music for the film in film festival entries and not go broke doing it. So any pointers would be helpful. Thanks.

David

[Jaadgy Akanni]

Try the HARRY FOX song licensing agency. Call them up and explain that you want mechanical licenses of whatever songs you want. Be ready to tell them the Title and the Artist who recorded them and they'll send you the right applications.

[Jaadgy Akanni]

The rates are actually low and you're not the one who pays but rather the entity who distributes the film...I think

[Meryem Ersoz]

contact the music publisher directly. look on the back of the CD, if you're using one, and you can usually e-mail someone who will eventually direct you to the proper someone who deals with these requests.

if you're a "very low budget" film, prepare for sticker shock....it's expensive, and they generally offer you limited terms for use of the music--meaning, say, a one or two year renewable license for a high price (generally around $500 on the lower end of things). even licensing a single song may be more than you have in your budget. remember you need both a synchronization license and a master use license. if you do an online search, i think you can find samples of these contracts available for cheap. maybe free, at this point.

the book "contracts for the film and television industry" also has samples of these licenses, but they are way more complex than what you need for a film festival. you can modify them for your use. i don't use them personally, but they are there as models.

[David M. Payne]

Thanks for the responses guys. The songs I want to use are by Blondie and they will probably turn out to be way over my head budget wise or cost effective wise. I wouldn't want to get music that made the film so costly that it hurt its chances of being picked up. I'm looking at at some of that on line canned movie music for the running sound track. You just buy the CD and credit the music corectly in the end and its one low cost. I also plan on using some local musicians, I think the story is strong enough that it dosn't need much in the way of high end music or visual effects to tell it well.

David

[Ash Greyson]

Shoot me an email, I have connections to Blondie...


ash =o)

[David M. Payne]

Originally Posted by Ash Greyson

Shoot me an email, I have connections to Blondie...


ash =o)

I did, but here is the letter in case it didn't get sent right. I'm having problems with my computer and its net connection sometimes.


Ash Here is a brief synopsis of the story. I would like to use "Rapture" and "One way or another" in the movie.

David

This is a light SciFi story about a secret bio weapons lab run for the "Agency" by the Sinsex corporation that has one of its weapons get loose in the wild. This weapon is not any kind of animal or human, it is a fungi with some rather interesting and dangerous properties. It is a genetically modified variation of the Lycoperdon Giganteum or giant puffball mushroom, though the locals call it the "magic puffball" because of range up by Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side of the lake. It has been used for centuries by some of the local Indian tribes in their religious ceremonies, and by some of the locals to get high on. It is the only fungus that has spoor that is psychoactive. It is a risky proposition to get high on it because it is the only fungi that contains the two compounds Psilocybin and Muscimol, both of which can cause hallucinations, though Muscimol in large enough doses can cause strokes and heart attacks, one of the reasons that the lab is working on it as a weapon. It has another property, it has an hypnotic effect on most people, and has the ability to in effect turn them into virtual zombies
when under its influence. Those effected will do pretty much what they are told, especially if they are pre-disposed to that action already. This is why the Indians used it, because it would help reinforce their religious beliefs in the great forest Spirit that they believed in. Many of the people who took it also thought that it brought them into contact with God, so it had a bit of a cult following in addition to its use as a recreational drug by some.
The story starts when a new janitor in the lab breaks the rules, gets drunk, smokes some weed and then gets high on the spoor of the Magic Puffball he finds in the lab. He goes outside, and dies from a massive heart attack brought on by his contact with the spoor, and in the process he releases the spoor into the wild.
The story follows the lives of those in the town that work for the Sinsex lab and focuses on the lead character Dr. David Williams, the chief mycologist and head of the weapons lab. He is a bit of a frustrated man as far as his personal life is concerned, he can't seem to keep a good woman in his life. He has two in the story, Judy, a trucker who is in and out of his life because of her job, and who disappears one day. And there is his new love Wanda, a dancer at the local topless club who enters his life shortly after Judy disappears. There is a sub plot involving a serial killer who has appeared on the scene in the last few years. He is known as the BRTKD killer and he preys on young girls and women. Dr. Williams has dreams of the girls before they die and it leave the possibility that he is the killer, but he isn't. As the story develops we find out who the killer is, and why he does what he does. The deeper point of this story is to examine the role of gods and religions as they relate to this story and how some including our current President misuses them.

In the end we find out one other thing about the Lycoperdon Giganteum, it is a sentient being, like a giant brain that has been around for much longer than man has. It goes by the name of Baal, one of the first names given to gods by man. It has no way to experience the world unless man or animals ingest it, and as long as they are under its influence it has access to all of their senses and their minds. Over the centuries it has interacted with man and as we have developed our minds, it had developed its mind too, but it wants more, it wants to have the freedom and mobility we have, and the only way it can do that is to find some way to become part of us, which David unwittingly give it in his experiments. He unleashes a Frankenstein that unlike the old mushroom variety, which was willing to live and let live, seeks to enslave humanity for its own ends, because it thinks it is some kind of a God. In the end Baal fails to entice or capture Doctor Williams and he gets free to hunt down Baal and his minions, setting up part two and three of the trilogy.

[Ash Greyson]

I will pass this info on to the powers that be... you should hear something soon...


ash =o)

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by David M. Payne

How do you get festival movie sound track rights?

I...
We have a couple of musicians who will do the background sound track sounds, but we would like to use some popular music for the film in film festival entries and not go broke doing it. So any pointers would be helpful. Thanks.

David

You're a little unclear on how you want to use it. Do you mean your own musicians will perform covers of some popular music or do you mean you want to use the actual recordings released by Blondie, etc?

[David M. Payne]

Originally Posted by Ash Greyson

I will pass this info on to the powers that be... you should hear something soon...


ash =o)

Hopefully some good news, I'm tired of the other kind.

David

[David M. Payne]

Originally Posted by Steve House

You're a little unclear on how you want to use it. Do you mean your own musicians will perform covers of some popular music or do you mean you want to use the actual recordings released by Blondie, etc?

I want to use Blondie if possible, I don't have any local musicians that could reproduce that level of quality sound. (There is only one Deborah Harry, and only one band good enough to play the music, Blondie.)

David

[David M. Payne]

well I got a reply from the record company and they denied me the rights to the songs, so that is that. Bummer but the beat goes on.

David

[Ash Greyson]

I talked to management and they said EMI handles all publishing. They are VERY hard to work with and famously slow. I spent about 6 months getting festival rights for my doc.



ash =o)