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Who picks out the theme songs and songs in general for film

M

MobsterLVL

I am asking this cause sometimes when i write a story i have a tune or a song in my head that perfectly fits the scene or movie that i am working on. I was just wondering if a screenplay writer can suggest some tunes to whomever is supposed to do it??
 
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Not unless the song is integral to the plot.

Can't think of many good examples at the moment but if you watch the short film 'Wasp' then you'll understand what I mean. On that occasion it was fine/essential that the screenplay outlined which song it needed.
 
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In Dreams had "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" as a bit of a plot point, but that was written and directed by Neil Jordan, so that supports both of the points above!
 
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In the script for "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" (of which I am a proud owner!), Mike Judge, writer and director, called for the hallucination scene to be set the song 'Fire' by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. In the end he went with 'Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls' by White Zombie, because Rob Zombie did the animation for that scene.

So, in summary, if the screenplay is for yourself, sure, why not, if it'll help you remember what you were thinking as you wrote it. It'll probably get changed, because you wont be able to afford the rights to the song, but still... However, if you want to sell the script, I wouldn't bother. If you want to reference the music, just put "ROCK SONG" or "DANCE TRACK" or whatever it may be.
 
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Mad Hatter said it best. There's nothing wrong with having a soundtrack in your head when you're writing the thing. It doesn't even hurt to hope for the best as far as getting that dream song in your film. It's just pretty damn unlikely in the end.

I wrote an entire screenplay on the strength of an image in my head to the Bob Dylan song "Frankie Lee and Judas Priest." In a perfect world I'd get that script made into a film and get that song in the scene, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it.
 
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James Cameron wrote, recorded, played every instrument, sang in, and mixed "I See You" all by himself, which appears at the end of Avatar.














This is my joke of the day. Forgive me!
 
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I had an interesting conversation with *Eddie Martinez (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Eddie+Martinez#p=3&t=Credits_All) over Easter Dinner. He did a lot of jingle work on the side and shared the concept of the "needle drop" with me. A producer would give "reference" songs as a starting off point for composition. He described it as somewhat effective, though most of the time if he gave the customer EXACTLY what they asked for they typically really didn't want it so close. He described how Ford corp gave him an L7 track as a needle drop, when the heard the wall of distorted guitars he came back with, they didn't like it at all. He simply removed all the distorted guitar tracks and replaced it with and acoustic version, this of course they loved.. lol..


*(yes this is a blatant name drop, but I only have one to drop so you cant blame me!)
 
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wheat, I work with a music mixer who's recorded Eddie!

Small world again.

Yes, temp music is almost always ripped from CDs but then switched out later. Pretty much the only thing that stays the same is the beats per minute because it's used to edit picture with.
 
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