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Composer and Color Grader Wanted for Short Film

M

MindStudios

Just finished filming my short film, Shattered Woods, and am starting to put together a rough cut.
I need a composer and color grader. Obviously it'd be great if you could work for free, since this is a very low budget movie (about $250 spent so far), but if post-production calls for more money, I will probably run a second round of crowdfunding. You can see the original successful campaign for the film here:
http://igg.me/p/284072/x/1808618

I'm willing to try out different varieties in terms of score and color grading, but for the music I'm thinking it will have some electronic/futuristic undertones maybe with piano.

If you are interested, leave some links to your work and contact information on here, and if I like what I see I will contact you with more information.

Thanks!
 
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MindStudios said:
I need a composer and color grader. Obviously it'd be great if you could work for free

If you are interested, leave some links to your work and contact information on here, and if I like what I see I will contact you with more information.
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I wish you all the best.

This isn't necessarily directed completely at you. I just alway find it funny that when people ask other people to work for free, that they also ask for links to your work, to see if their interested in allowing you to do some free work for them.
 
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Jeff Troiano said:
I wish you all the best.

This isn't necessarily directed completely at you. I just alway find it funny that when people ask other people to work for free, that they also ask for links to your work, to see if their interested in allowing you to do some free work for them.
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Why? Even if you're asking people to work for free, doesn't mean you're willing to accept someone who doesn't know what they're doing. It would should an insane lack of prudence to accept anyone on to any job without seeing some evidence that they're capable of it.

mussonman said:
lol, that's humorous
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Yeah, I think an 18 year old filmmaker trying to make a serious short film without much money is pretty funny.
 
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I agree with nick, how is this site supposed to flourish and become the go to site for INDEPENDENT film makers (by that i mean they often don't have financial backing) if people are going to reply, to what i thought was a generally acceptable post, with comments like
lol, that's humorous
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I personally think be as cheeky as you like (within reason) ask people to work for free as much as possible, the worst you can get is a no or no reply, or maybe some sarky comment. And maybe the people who said no will be kicking themselves down the line when your directing features with huge budgets and looking for people you know to work on it!

On topic. Would love to get into more colour grading work, but im no good so I wouldnt want to put myself forward to practice on someones hard worked on film.

as for composing, my brother is a budding producer i'll ask him if he is interested and get a link to his work!

rant over/
 
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Well, I'm sorry I find it funny. I have no issue and no problem with anyone asking for help, or asking for volunteers to work on a project. And I agree, I wouldn't just hand something over to someone. I just find it amusing to ask for free help, or the possibility of limited pay, and in the same ad ask for samples of their work, with the statement if I'm interested I will contact you.

If it were me, I might have stopped at I'm looking for people who might help with this or thst. See who might respond, and move forward from there.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone, It just struck me in the way it was written.
 
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Hahaha, I love how this turned into a mini-argument. Anyway, thanks for the replies and attention so far, I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding for Jeff's comment.

But yeah, as Nick said, even if you offer to work for free, you have to be good. I'm actually going to be pretty picky for this film, since I really want it to be good, and I plan on entering it into as many film festivals as possible.

Thinking about putting up a trailer, but I'm not sure if I can make a good one just yet....still waiting on some last-minute voice-over work....
Eh, I probably will...I can never resist making trailers, hahaha.
 
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I'm sorry, I have to agree with Jeff.

Everyone thinks their film's amazing, and the next greatest thing. When looking for free help, I certainly wouldn't be presenting as if the free worker's payment is the pleasure of working with you. Certainly you don't want to take just anyone, but that comes down to vetting people's reels after initial contact.

It's more about the attitude, and if you're trying to present yourself professionally, comments which essentially imply 'you have to be damn good if you want to work for me for free' are not the way to go.

Best of luck.
 
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Yeah, I see what you're saying. I could have not mentioned the pay at all, but I didn't want to dissuade anyone from working on the project. Sounds counter-intuitive, but I think some people who would want to be paid, would assume that since it's a very low budget film there wouldn't be any pay, and therefore wouldn't even bother.
While others who might want to work for free might think that they don't have a chance if I mention that it is paid work and other more experienced people would get the job.

Bottom line:
All are welcome.

Hahahaha

But yeah, pay should be negotiated in private obviously....
 
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I agree along the lines of Jeff too, but on a slightly different angle.

I think it's rude to expect others to provide links of experience when you don't provide your own (or other crew). For all it's worth, it could be your first attempt of filming and you did it on an iphone.

I'm not saying this is the case. Good luck in your search. I'm not really suited for what you're looking for. My knowledge of color grading isn't more than a few chapters in books and some video tuts on the topic.
 
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As a composer myself, may I suggest just licensing some tracks? For 10 minutes of music you could probably spend as little as $50 if you find cheap tracks and you'd have all the music you need.
Don't take this the wrong way, it's an honest opinion with a distinct goal of being helpful, I just don't feel your film making looks ready for someone like me to invest a few days in to make a full original soundtrack. This is why I'm suggesting you license music from people instead.

You get ready-made tracks, you won't offend anyone by asking them to work for free and you don't have to worry about finding an amateur who won't know what they're doing. It's the best price/quality ratio you'll get at your level.

Here, let me get you started: Electronica and piano?
http://soundcloud.com/metalrenard/beyond-this-dream
http://soundcloud.com/metalrenard/rebirths-retribution-main
http://soundcloud.com/metalrenard/sunrise-on-another-moon
;)
 
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Well, from my small experience with other projects I've realized that using pre-made tracks causes you to make editing decisions to match the music, that otherwise wouldn't be logical ones to make.
Right now, I want to make a rough cut with absolutely no music, just to satisfy the visuals and make that look as good as possible, then the score can be made according to the visuals to support them, instead of the other way around.
Otherwise, it's more like a music video than a short film.

My first short film, 'Home', suffered from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpYswRGiqZU&list=UU3RfSdeZCuPDZ3IElDrj1OA&index=6

It feels more like just different sections with different songs, like a string of music videos.....
Of course there are a lot of other things wrong with it, but that was one of the more obvious ones.

Thanks for the suggestion MetalRenard, I checked out your stuff but it seems like those would fit more with video games than movies. Or is it just me?

And I guess my idea for the soundtrack is influenced a lot by the sound of the Chromatics.
I used some of their songs in the trailer, but they also have slower, sadder songs that have a really good atmosphere that I think could work well for the more emotional parts of the film.

But yeah, I can understand that at my level, the film may not be fully qualified to have a 'real' composer. Especially since this is really my first short film....
'Home' had no script or organization at all and was filmed with my parents and actors with just a camcorder as gear.
Second short, 'Breathe Again', was filmed in less than two hours with no preparation besides script.
'Shattered Woods' still didn't have nearly enough preparation, but is still on a bigger scale than the others.

It feels like I've been making movies for a very long time, but I guess it's really only been a few years since I had my first camera. I'm trying to move fast, though, and I feel like a good soundtrack and color grading can help this be a little better than average for my level of experience and equipment.
(Of course the story and content in general has to be good too)

haha, rant over....
 
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You're totally correct. I missed something ;) A closed mouth gathers no feet ;)

Though lately I came across some composer who was looking to get his name out there and was willing to give away his stuff to the right person. I pointed him here, I wonder if he posted.
 
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Sweetie said:
Though lately I came across some composer who was looking to get his name out there and was willing to give away his stuff to the right person. I pointed him here, I wonder if he posted.
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If you, and probably more importantly the OP, look in the composers section of Indietalk, you'll see that there are lots and lots of composers who are more than willing to score a good project in the hope that it gets them paid work further down the line. I'm sure that Mind Studios will have no difficulty getting a composer to come onboard.

Colour grading is probably a little more difficult, but there are undoubtedly people who are wanting to get a little bit more experience and would be willing to give it a go.
 
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