The Unglamorous Side of the Film Scoring Industry

I originally wanted to write an article about a completely different and more music related topic today but after a series of incidents on social media over the last weekend, I feel like I want to address a topic that is relatively uncomfortable to talk about but unfortunately ever present.

So what happened?

In a relatively harmless discussion on facebook, the joining in of an A list film composer caused a considerable escalation of the situation with the consequence that a hobbyist film score reviewer announced the end of his activity as reviewer after feeling publically bullied by said composer. The whole thing unfolded over several hours and even days and was like watching a car accident in slow motion. The debate was already a little bit heated up by someone who in spite of said composer being present in the discussion kept voicing his contempt for the composer and when the hobby critic joined in, things escalated. As there obviously was some internalized grudge by the composer over a review by said reviewer that he seemed to not agree with, he started to lash out at the reviewer in an already heated up atmosphere.

After several other people joined in calling out the composer for bullying (and others calling out the reviewer for being oversensitive) the composer publically apologized.

So this is what brings us to this article. When you start out in the film score industry you might be having this idea of working in a field of creativity and fun with the potential of your work being heard by millions of people. But there definitely is a less glamorous side to that world.

As with every work field where considerable amounts of power and money are present, you unfortunately find at least a certain amount of toxicity. In spite of the composer community being usually quite supportive and inclusive on the outside, on the inside there unfortunately quite often is the ugly face of fierce competition in a crowded market.

In January, composer Joe Kraemer commented in a series of tweets on an already bleak article from a former composer's assistant by the name of Nadia:

This is a sad truth for everyone trying to make it in show business - it is virtually impossible for people who are neither born into money or born into the business.  And it IS a business - money is the bottom line.  As one very successful producer recently told me "Joe, no one gives a shit about your art". 

I can count the number of mainstream Hollywood composers that I KNOW write all their music themselves on one hand, John Williams being the most famous example.  Everyone else is a team leader, a figurehead for a team of composers who are getting no credit, very little money, and no job security. None of us have any job security anyway.  One of my closest friends made a deal behind my back that swindled me out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and then dumped me for a Zimling and this was after assuring me that working for him/her was the same as having a "savings bond".   

In 2010, having score "The Way of The Gun" and close to 40 TV movies for the Hallmark Channel, I was so broke I had to sell my CDs and DVDs to feed my son. This is not a pity-party for me.  This is just a reality check for people who dream of scoring movies in Hollywood: It is a cutthroat community of people who are in the business to get rich and famous.  Writing music of any quality is secondary to that ultimate goal. And keep in mind, being an artist is not a civil right - no one owes me anything, even the ex-friend who swindled me.  Making art is a hobby, and if we can manage to make some money from it, so much the better.  

I promise to always do my best to write all the music in anything I score myself, and if I don't, to properly credit the people who co-write with me (i.e. @PenkaKouneva on #Pandora).  I promise not to hire an 'assistant' who is really a ghost-writer.  I promise to do my best not to just copy the temp, but to contribute to the film in a meaningful way.  These promises have definitely impeded progress in my career - I haven't scored a single mainstream Hollywood movie since 'Rogue Nation'.  But I also haven't ripped anyone off, or swindled my friends, or presented a false impression of myself to directors, producers, or studio execs.  

To the OP, Nadia, thank you for sharing your story.  There are a lot of hard truths that need to be shown to those who hope to join this business.  I think often of a quote once heard, spoken by one of the cinema's greatest composers:  "I got into this business to make a living.  Now people get into it to make a killing."  

In closing, let me reiterate, this is not whining - this is a tough business, and it's not for the faint of heart to undertake. It can be wonderfully rewarding, but it is also impossibly challenging.  I hope it can evolve to a community that helps each other rather than competes with each other.

I think his words speak for themselves without me needing to comment on them and he touches on a few different topics at the same time that are all worth discussing but let's focus on the toxicity for now.

Now these extreme phenomena of this industry seem to be happening predominantly in LA but this doesn't mean that other media capitals around the world are immune against it. From my own experience, I can also say that on a few projects that I have done in my earlier years I was ripped off by people and worked on jobs that brought me zero credits, almost no money and a ton of work. Being young and inexperienced, I thought this is just the way things are working in the industry and if I didn't get along with that, the problem was me and of course, I didn't want to be the problem so I just stuck with it and fought through it. But looking back at it now I of course see things very differently.

Having said that, these examples from above don't seem to be exceptions but testimonies of the way parts of this industry behave. In conversations with colleagues from LA but also from other parts of the world, almost anybody can tell one or several of such stories from their own history. Particularly alarming are stories from young composers who work in the library music world and often seem to get burned in the system with bad pay but insane workloads.

It is good to see that the spotlight of publicity shines more often on such incidents and behaviour in recent times. I'm relatively sure that this "You need to have a thick skin, don't take things personal, things can get rough in the business, I'm sure they didn't mean it" deflection and sometimes even justification of toxic behaviour that can be seen throughout the industry is a phenomenon of a practice that has been like this for a long time and is understood by many as the default and necessary evil as this is "just the way it is". But from a purely analytical standpoint, everybody who exploits their power over a person in a position of less power is a bully. And this constellation happens a lot in the industry.

Without wanting to diminish this glaring problem, we should also look at the other side of this to at least try to approximate a balanced view on it. This other side is the position of "You can't be such a snowflake in the industry, if you don't have a degree of self esteem and some elbow grease, this industry is not right for you." It is absolutely true that you need to have a certain degree of tolerance for conflict and stress. Working in a field of creatives is destined to cause conflicts over creative approaches and ideas. Being self employed also means to be able to fight for your position in contract negotiations etc. However, in my opinion none of that touches on real toxicity. Toxic behaviour is mean spirited and on a personal level. Its goal is to diminish the other person and take the possible psychological (or financial) benefit from it, so it is really necessary to differentiate.

But there is yet another side to this which is part of the character of many composers. Being an artist makes you vulnerable. Putting out your work into the world after investing a lot of time and passion into it can be absolutely nerve wracking and even if you get 100 positive and 1 negative comment, your mind will focus overproportionally on that 1 negative comment. So obviously looking back at my initial example about the composer who lashed out on the reviewer, I can somehow see that your ego might be hurt if a reviewer with a considerable reader base might give you a relatively negative review. However, I feel that taking the next best opportunity to "bite back" is really quite immature, especially if you have been working in this business for decades.

And part of the ugly truth is also that the development of society at least in parts seems to be applauding the bullying. There unfortunately is a chain of tweets by people who write things like "LOL that douche got burned" about the bullying that was happening last weekend.

Unfortunately, I can not present a solution to this problem. I reject the standpoint that things have always been injust and this is just how it goes and you can't do much about it As I said above, I am glad that these things become more public and people become more vocal on such matters.

After all this negativity, I have to also say that I have been blessed most of the time in my career to have worked with people who are great and supportive personalities, who even if they are at a higher position of power would never get the idea of abusing that power. And I'm very sure that there are a lot of people in the industry who are just like that. One thing that I have also learned is that most of the time, people who are really high up in the food chain are the ones who are the nicest personalities. They just don't have to prove anything to anyone anymore and can direct their energy into other things than defending their position. This is of course not the case with every one (as some of the spectacular #metoo trials have shown) but it's an experience that I have made time and time again.

There are ugly sides to this business that you should be aware of and I honestly am not long enough in the business to make an informed statement whether things are improving or getting worse in the grand scheme, but I do feel there generally is more awareness of the problem than 10 or 15 years ago which might be a good thing. 

In the big picture the general social discussion seems to have shifted toward extremes in the last years. In the same way that we see bullying and toxicity, we see a culture of categoric outrage on the other side with both positions being destined for escalation.

I would be interested on your points of view on this topic and whether you have a similar story to share from your own past so please feel free to comment below.