Broadcast
TV producers are finding new and innovative ways of sourcing and commissioning music for their shows.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing:
Stop! In The Name of Love
Stop! In The Name of Love
The long-gestating, 10 x 60-minute BBC1 series Stop! In The Name Of Love is a jukebox musical that employs the Motown back catalogue, a roster of songs so universal that, says writer Tony Jordan, it’s a “shorthand to people’s emotions”. So confident was Jordan in the popularity of the music that a licensing deal was inked with EMI – owned by Sony/ ATV Music Publishing – long before any broadcaster came on board.
Jordan’s Red Planet Pictures is using the ‘Jobete’ catalogue of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Supremes’ (pictured) eponymous title track, to pen a contemporary drama, with the series’ characters singing the songs as an intrinsic part of the narrative.
“Red Planet wanted to use one catalogue, which gives the show an immediate identity,” says Jon Pugh, creative licensing manager at Sony/ATV Music Publishing. “It wasn’t just after the mega-hits but the hidden gems, which gave us an opportunity to shine some light on lesser-known records.”
While the catalogue contains 15,000 Motown compositions, Red Planet’s clarity of concept meant getting clearance from the songwriters represented by the publisher was comparatively straightforward.
“If you had a Glee type of show, you would need hundreds of different approvals from dozens of parties,” says Pugh. “We were very clear up front about the things our writers would be uncomfortable with.”
He was persuaded that the mainstream thirty-something target demographic of Stop! would be a fresh audience for the music. “If the show were intended for a late-night audience, we would have had less confidence in the project. Usually we would like to give the songwriters an idea of the scene their music will be used in, but in this case we trusted the producer.”
Pugh got involved with the project early on and describes the process as very collaborative. “We provided Red Planet with themed lists of songs – for example, about ‘heartbreak’ or ‘working hard’ – and access to audio and lyrics so they could get an idea of what music to use, which we hoped would spark their creative juices.”
The format’s success could bring dividends for the music publisher. “From the first meeting, it was exciting to imagine a second series using more from the same or a different collection,” Pugh says.
“Being involved so early on gave us an opportunity to design a product with Red Planet that could go worldwide, where the music would not have to be stripped out and replaced with sound-a-likes. It’s up to other production companies to take the ball and run with it.”
The project is a joint venture between Red Planet, film producer Duncan Kenworthy, independent music consultant John Kennedy and former NBC Universal president (now Antenna Group managing director) Peter Smith.
Sky Music Department:
Mills and doom: The Marriage Of Reason & Squalor
Mills and doom: The Marriage Of Reason & Squalor
Artist Jake Chapman is making his directorial debut on Sky Arts with Mills And Doom: The Marriage Of Reason & Squalor, a four-part romantic comedy-drama starring Rhys Ifans. It uses a composed score with sourced elements.
“Music mediates the audience’s emotional response to the material and is something you need to control,” says Andy Noble, co-producer at Morass Productions. “The best way of doing that is with a composer working to a director’s brief.”
In this case, Chapman’s brother Dinos collaborated with composer Ilan Eshkeri to write the score. “Given the density of meaning and themes at work, the score had to be finely balanced to provoke audience response in a certain way,” says Noble. “The series has a darkness and horror alongside the humour, so we wanted the sourced music to be emblematic of a lush, romantic, sweeping score. It had to be almost too saccharine and cheesy, to provide a counterpoint to the tone of the rest of the series.”
The producer worked with Sky’s music department to source generic scored music and assist with contractual clearances. Tracks from Audio Network and SATV were selected.
“We sent them clips to illustrate the context of what we needed, what the purpose of the scenes was,” Noble says. “We couldn’t afford an orchestra, but the sourced tracks are orchestral. A huge benefit of using library music is this shortcut to production value.”
Audio Network:
The Job Centre
The Job Centre
Dragonfly captured the hustle and bustle of a Bradford-based recruitment agency for Channel 4’s 4 x 60-minute ob-doc, which debuted this week.
It follows the staff of Candelisa People, led by matriarchal boss Jane, as they attempt to win new business and help candidates secure their dream job.
Audio Network was briefed to create the audioscape of the entire show, taking its cue from key words and phrases including ‘warm’, ‘quirky’ and ‘humorous’ – but taking care not to laugh at the agency.
“They understood the tone and filmic quality of the tracks we wanted,” says Suzy Ratner, series producer. “They didn’t send us standard doc music but quite quirky sounds that were crucial in reflecting the comedic but warm style of the story.”
The music library’s researchers compiled a long list of more than 90,000 tracks, searchable by mood, instrument, style and tempo, and sent it to Dragonfly. Follow-up preferences for a particular composer or tracks narrowed down the list to around 40.
“We used the music extensively to top and tail scenes and give the piece energy and pace,” explains Ratner. “The story switches a lot between scenes inside and outside the office, for which we needed different music styles.”
Audio Network head of TV Lina Tebbs says: “The way our music is recorded [much of it by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] and mixed makes it easy to work with. The main three-minute track will have an alternative version minus some of the instruments. You can extract 60- and 30-second versions and create stings to take you in and out of ad breaks.”
Music is often one of the last items in programme production, since it’s easier to know in the edit which music to place with the pictures. A timeframe of four to six weeks for sourcing and adding the soundtrack is common.
“Some deadlines are insane,” says Tebbs. “We’ve been given briefs in a morning, had suggestions agreed by early afternoon and been cleared to post by six for an evening TX.”
Audio Network charges a one-off fee for a series, which will licence the use of its music worldwide, multiplatform and in perpetuity. “A lot of companies choose to work with us on an annual basis, paying £4,000 for a blanket agreement covering any production, so they never have to worry if it is distributed on iTunes, 4oD or in Romania.”
Universal Publishing Production Music: BBC Orchestral Toolkit
“Most TV productions, if they could, would have bespoke music,” says Phil Stubbs, senior key account manager at Universal Publishing Production Music (UPPM). “That they don’t tends to come down to the time and cost of employing a composer.”
Spotting a gap in the market, last December UPPM launched BBC Orchestral Toolkit, which comprises 50 orchestral tracks from BBC Production Music written in the same key and split into 3,000 interchangeable sections or stems. Supplied as 48k WAV files, the stems can be dragged and dropped onto a timeline to build a score.
“The whole idea is that you don’t have to be music-savvy,” explains Stubbs. “For example, you grab a drum stem to build tension and if you want strings over the top to build more tension, you can just overlap those two tracks and they are auto-matched. There’s no reason why any production company need employ anyone with specialist skills to use it.”
Reporting on the use of the service isn’t due until September but judging from downloads, Stubbs says it has been hugely successful.
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