About the Vanity Fair Article

A few days ago there was an article released by Vanity Fair that I also linked on this Patreon. I didn't comment much on it yet and meanwhile it has created quite a vivid discussion among composers. This was also fueled by the more recent decision of the Academy to not live broadcast several categories including best score in the upcoming Oscar Show.

As I'm not living in Hollywood and only have "remote relationships" with the industry there, my insight on the issues raised in the article are quite limited but I still feel there are some things regarding that article that are worth talking about.

First of all, I personally feel that the article is poorly researched. First and foremost taking online forums and twitter as sources without double validating these statements is obviously bad journalism so in a sensitive topic as this, it would have been mandatory to confirm these statements through another source or at least by talking to their authors directly. And secondly, the topics covered by the article are "all over the place". There is a blurry wash of topics between ghostwriting, royalties, abusive behavior, #metoo being mixed together into one article.

On the other hand, I feel that all of these topics are worth discussing and being put into a more prominent spotlight. However for anyybody who has been working for a while in this industry the topics touched there are hardly groundbreaking news. A while ago I was covering some of these issues already in different posts on this Patreon. 

The truth is that in the recent decade(s) the "film composer" has in many cases become a head of a team. It is the norm for many composers to work on many projects at the same time and rather outsource parts of these projects than rejecting them and reducing the workload to what they can do on their own. Oftentimes their helpers are credited but unfortunately many times they aren't. In a recent interview with the NYT, John Williams said that he feels the shift in the industry as well and that he "might be sitting on the edge of something". The solitaire composer writing all their music is a work model that is dieing. The team effort is way more common these days, particularly with big productions and quick deliveries with all the pros and cons that come with it. However, I reject to blame this all on Hans Zimmer and his way of working as the article subtly implies.

I think the bigger factor here is the way how movies are made nowadays. Unfortunately it has become a luxury to be writing music to a picture lock. In the times when movies were still shot on actual film, there was a point reached where you needed to finish the edit as everything that followed depended on this picture lock, including effects, sound and music. Today, in the age of digital editing it is technically possible to keep working on the edit until very close to the release. With the time windows shrinking to conform the music to the latest edit, it has become physically impossible for one composer to do that all alone.

This has also to do with the fact that big productions have become "too big to fail". Budgets for blockbusters have grown way quicker than what inflation would suggest. With form instance Empire Strikes back having a budget of under 20 Million and recent blockbusters having sometimes more than 10 times that budget, a failed blockbuster has become an increasingly bigger risk even for the big studios. That prevents them from taking any creative risks. Before the movies are released there are test screenings, market research and the movie gets trimmed and adjusted over and over again to create the biggest possible market impact which results in smaller time frames for instance for the composition of the score and longer time frames in which the movie gets "optimized".

So isolating that issue of ghostwriting is in my opinion not enough. It is as always that everything has to do with everything. The film industry has pushed the composers to come up with solutions for problems that didn't exist in previous times and the desire for power and money has corrupted enough people on the way to make bad business practices (hiring ghostwriters, take on more projects than you can chew) into a common mode of operation in the business to achieve that.

We could even go as far and take a look at the even bigger picture of capitalism and the monopolisation of the industry. With big players like Disney, Netflix etc. continuosly buying smaller players and the film market consolidating into just a few companies it becomes increasingly easier for them to dictate the rules under which you can work for them. In earlier times, if a production company had bad work conditions for their employers, the would move away from this company to one that has better conditions. With fewer players on the market that becomes increasingly trickier as you obviously have fewer options to go to. So in order to survive in the system you have to more or less play by its rules, especially when you are just up and coming.

This doesn't justify some of the practices that are happening in the film industry but it clarifies that it is simply too short sighted to reduce it to a simple formula like "Composers don't write their music and exploit other people". The issues raised in the article are indeed massive problems for the industry and are causing massive problems especially for up and coming composers but unfortunately that is not only the case in the film scoring sector but pretty much in any area in the filmmaking process. Big players dictate the rules and either you play by them or you are replaced by someone else who is more desperate than you are.

This whole issue is way too complex to talk about it in one or even a few articles as it basically has its root way deeper in this industry - or rather business model. Some composers have found ways to thrive in this work mode while others have left the industry (the exodus of first rate composers from the industry in recent times is astounding - Don Davis, Danny Elfman to name just a few).

It's not that "everything was better in the old days" but some things definitely have changed to make this career path considerably less attractive.