Sending Music

When sending music, here’s what I do.

There are many options for how to send large files these days. Most people seem to have their preferences. Mine, by far, is Dropbox.

I export the music on it’s own (no film audio) as a Wav file. See post on organization and naming regarding how to title the files.

Then I export the film with my score. To do this you need to have a version of the film with no music on it. Also, I found that filmmakers usually like to hear the music roughly mixed in, not overpowering the dialogue. To do this I will import the expored audio of the cue and solo just that and the films audio, and then adjust the levels approximately on the music track. I title the video file the same as the audio file (except it’ll have .mov at the end instead of .wav).

In my bounces folder I create folders with the date of each music submission. This organizes everything in such a way that I can distinguish the various batches of music delivered.

In dropbox I then create a master folder for the project that I’ll title “Name of Project MUSIC” so for example “Jurastic Park MUSIC”. In that folder I’ll then have folder by date (like I have in my bounces folder) that I’ll upload the exports to. I then send the link of the master folder to the filmmakers so that they can easily find and have organized all the versions and cues in one place.

An exception to using dropbox or whatever your system of choice is, would be if a filmmaker specifically requests some other system or if a company you work with has a portal of some sort that they require you to use. For example, one project I’m working on right now has a specific portal that the production company always uses. Another exaample is a film I scored last year the filmmaker specifically requested I use Google Drive. Sorry not my favorite system to use, but I’m of course happy to oblige if it’s more beneficial for the filmmaker.

Before sending, check each file.  It’s too easy to accidentally have your click track on or something else wrong with the exported audio and/ or video and can come off as unprofessional if one sends files with mistakes. 

A note of sending video files: on some higher profile projects you might need to find out if they want you to send video references or only audio. The reason for this is that they might be more careful about their video assets getting out there, not wanting them to be posted to dropbox or other sites.