Andrea Stolpe Berkley Music

Among the many opportunities for songwriters to get our songs heard is connecting with independent filmmakers. To get a little more insight into how to approach this, I talked with Tyler Gibb, a talented filmmaker, artist, and songwriter who has experience writing, producing, directing, and promoting film. You can visit his website to learn about his work and view clips of his most recent film “Refrain,” which was selected by the World Film Festival (Montreal 2009) coming up in August. http://www.tylergibb.com.

Q: How did you find the songs for your film?

A: Since “Refrain” itself is a movie about a songwriter, there had to be music for the lead character to appear to write and sing. Therefore, the majority of the music in “Refrain” was written specifically for the film. Most of the lyrics were written by me as I wrote the screenplay, and the musical compositions were written by Vidya Lutchman (who played the lead) and a guitarist by the name of Tom Simpson. The music was written to appear unpolished and off the floor – in keeping with the portrayal of a novice songwriter but sweet and beautiful none the less. All that to say, we needed to write most of it ourselves (Vidya and I are long time partners in songwriting – and in life) so that it would suit the film.

That said, there are still some spots for background songs in the movie that haven’t been assigned yet. We’re still looking for those songs and we’ve been taking our search to the web, mostly on MySpace. And if I could give any advice to musicians out there with MySpace pages it would be: Keep those pages simple, small and clean. If I’m looking for music for my films and I visit your page but it takes five minutes to load and is unsightly – I’m probably going to close the page and move on.

Q: What are some ways songwriters can identify filmmakers and those looking for original music?

A: The internet isn’t a bad way to go about it but I would stress research. Independent films are more prolific than ever and every filmmaker out there is dying to be discovered just as much as an independent musician is. So use those search engines, seek out films and introduce yourself to their producers. Networking is everything.

And don’t underestimate your hometown. If you’re writing songs wherever you are I’d bet someone nearby is trying to write a screenplay. Find them. Work with them. Start your own scene. You can write some music for their short film and in turn they could shoot a video for your band. There’s no wrong way to get your feet wet.

They say you can’t force your way into the film industry, you have to be invited. But no one’s going to invite you in unless you make yourself seen, so work your way up.

Q: In what form do you prefer to receive music submissions – CD, MP3 by email, other?

If a musician sends me a link to their music that has been placed online (either to stream or download) I will definitely check out their music. Unsolicited MP3s sent by email clutter up my email inbox and if I want a CD I’ll ask for it. But having a website, or a MySpace page (that is well built!) means I can visit your music at my own convenience. Though a lot of people I know refuse to visit MySpace pages just because so many of them are out of control. And check your website (an MySpace page) on several computers (including Macs), make sure it works on all of them, some computers give different results.
The Refrain webpage at http://www.tylergibb.com/refrain has a bunch of examples of free media players you can add to you website to play your music and video.

Q: Are there publications, websites, conferences, and festivals that songwriters should frequent in order to develop relationships with filmmakers?

A: There probably are! And I would say this falls into the category of doing some research online for where you can connect with like-minded people. There are festivals that combine film and music and those are definitely on our list of festivals to approach with “Refrain.” I can’t speak about them specifically without having been to them yet, but I’d say any film festival (there’s probably one near you) has got dozens of filmmakers just milling around hoping someone’s going to come and talk to them. Filmmakers talk with each other. And you never know where somebody’s going to be in a year, so get to know some filmmakers who are just starting out, if you connect with them, they’ll remember you.

Q: Is there any other information that may be helpful for songwriters aspiring to get their music heard through film?

A: You will get rejected. But don’t let it get to you. Remember that a rejection doesn’t mean your music isn’t good no matter where that rejection is coming from. Music is subjective, so all a rejection means is that your music may not be suitable for the film you’re hoping to appeal to.
Filmmakers have a vision. My vision while working on “Refrain” was of a young woman who is struggling to write soft, acoustic music. If a heavy metal band had approached me and asked if they could write a song for my film, even if they were a fantastic heavy metal band, that just wouldn’t have been appropriate for the tone of my film. I would have had to reject that band, but it wouldn’t be because they weren’t any good. What would come out of that exchange, however, is that a year later, if I was working on a film that could use some heavy metal music, I’d remember them.

That said, don’t decide not to approach a filmmaker just because you’re trying to guess what will appeal to them. Just introduce yourself, be polite, and make yourself known. Songwriting is an art but finding an audience is a numbers game.

As far as getting heard goes, we’re actually trying out a bit of a musical experiment with Refrain that we’re calling the “Side Project”. Essentially we’re opening up all the music that was written for the film to the interpretation of other musicians. No strings attached, just an open-source project for getting artists to collaborate and create some great music. So far the results have been incredible! The Side Project will launch this summer (join our mailing list to keep tabs on it) at which point it will be open to everybody to participate and be recognized.”

Thanks to Tyler for taking the time to answer these questions. If you’d like to know more, check out his website at http://www.tylergibb.com. And remember – musicians and filmmakers need eachother. If you were moved by Tyler’s work, tell someone about it, and you might even introduce yourself to Tyler in a brief email.

Andrea Stolpe