Difficult Clients
It can happen that you work with a client who’s unusually difficult. I think it’s worth considering what percentage of one’s clients fall in that category. If it’s a high percentage (like over 10% honestly, but let’s say over 20%) it might be that it’s not all on the client and that one has room to improve and learn (as everyone does).
This can be due to a variety of reasons:
The style of music or project might not be what one is well suited for.
The director could be inexperienced and not able to clearly communicate what they are going for.
There could be an acute case of temp love, meaning there’s temp music on the project that’s grown too much on the filmmaker.
The budget vs. what’s asked of you as a composer could be out of balance. “We need a 15 min full orchestral, John Williams style cue that sounds incredible. You have until tomorrow and budget is $500.”
There could be any number of other reasons. What’s important is to try and learn from it, and decide early on if it’s a project worth the headache. Keep in mind that being lazy and just getting out of every job that is slightly annoying can affect getting future work. Each project can turn into more work if a director, editor, producer or anyone else who worked on the project recommends you for projects they work on down the line. Additionally, your music being heard on films can also get you future work.
On the other hand, there are a few (I can count them on one hand) projects that were just not worth the headache of trying to make a filmmaker happy. One project I remember the director changed temp direction continually, had me write over 20 very different pieces of music for next to nothing. Another project I scored a feature, did really high quality, well written and incredibly recorded music, recording live musicians at one of the top studios with incredible studio musicians, then the director kept changing edits after it was locked and scored, came back to me like 3 years after the project was done to continue the scoring conversation. That’s an example of a filmmaker just not knowing what their doing and not respecting a composer’s time and resources.
If one get’s out of a project that’s not working out, the contract one signed should state what that means. Usually what I’ve seen is a filmmaker will let one keep what they’ve paid so far and agree that the remainder won’t be paid. One project I got out of I offered to pay the director back because I just didn’t like anything about the project or process, plus it was a minuscule budget to begin with.
GETTING FIRED
If a filmmaker or producer fires one from a project, don’t feel too bad. Learn from it, but don’t get stuck. It happens, not only to us mortals but even some of the most famous, highest paid composers. It can feel personal and feel like it’s a comment on one’s music, one’s art, but usually has to do with other things and doesn’t mean one’s music isn’t good.