Budgeting Music for Your Film: A Guide For New Film Makers

Within the world of film making there are an incredible amount of decisions and plans to be made, and financial consideration can have a huge impact on the finished product. As music comes into play toward the end of post-production it is all too common to see budgets getting squeezed before music comes into consideration. This article aims to give new film makers a brief overview of how to budget music for your first film. 

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First port of call is assessing your overall budget for your project, around 2-5% for major films, and anywhere from 2-15% for independent shorts and micro-budget features is usually allocated to the music. On the extreme low end this can be as little as £100 per minute of music for an early years composer and the more experience a composer has the higher the base fee. These estimations can vary but are a good starting point for planning your funds.

Cost that have to be taken into consideration are again variable, but they all revolve around the same choices with each project no matter the scale:

Personnel

This is who will run the music department. Is your composer going to do all the work or will you also need a sound designer, orchestrator, sound engineer or music supervisor? Each will need compensation and who you will require depends on the sound you need for your project. For low budget films it is likely you are not going to have a budget for a full team, nor may it be required. A composer or sound designer alone may fulfill your needs. The personnel you hire are your problem solvers. They can make or break your sound, invest well here and they can make things run smoothly as well as bring your film to life. Skimp out and no matter how good your cinematography is, a poor quality sound can cripple the perception of a film.

An outline into expected fees can be found at the Musicians Union

Licencing

Your film may want to include an existing piece of music which will require licencing fees paying to clear for use. The type of licence you need depends on what you want to use it for and where it is going to be used. These can be arranged through music libraries and performing rights organisations or directly with the copyright owner. Finding out who owns a copyright can be searched in a PRO database.

Production

For recording and producing the sound needed. If you want a live sound an element of recording will be required. This includes studio costs and musician fees. A single musician can be mixed with samples for an effective sound but a full orchestra can be extremely expensive and will require studio, equipment, instrument hire, and engineer/staff fees on top of the musician hire costs.

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Here are some example budgets based upon real world experience. 

Independent Short Film

Total film budget: £10,000

Music allocation: ~£700–£1,200 (7-12%)

Breakdown:

• Composer: £500 flat fee

• Software-based scoring

• Remote recording, overlaying 1-2 solo Musicians: £200

• Music editing: £0 (done by the composer)

• Library music: £0-£200

• No major licenses

This is very realistic for student films or early indie work.

Micro Budget Feature Film

Total film budget: £50,000

Music allocation: ~£3,500 (7%)

Breakdown:

• Composer: £2,500-£3,000

• Software-based scoring

• Remote recording, overlaying 1-2 solo Musicians: £400

• Basic score mixing: £300

• Music editing: £0 done by the composer

• Library cues/ Indie song licencing: £0-£100

When building the music budget it is important to think about how music music is required for the film and is the music going to be expensive to produce.

At Deer Park Studios we can help you to plan early and avoid falling into pitfalls that require music beyond you and your budget.r

Get in touch and tell us about your project.