Great to see more original music composers interested in film.

This area in particular has been difficult for many low budget independent filmmakers. In the past when the budget for a project was very limited (i.e. couldn't afford to pay synchronization rights to major publishers) I would scour the local music scene for a garage band or audiophile who would take payment in residuals (3-7 points is typical) or do it just for the exposure.

I personally prefer the "real thing" to loop or purely electronic scores. I also believe more filmmakers would agree if the costs were not so prohibitive.

I think like any other art, building a portfolio or demo reel would be advantageous to help launch your new career tangent. Shop around for a project and work out a backend deal.

Let us know how it goes.

I think the problem for composers is that there are so many people who want to do it, it's hard to make money until you have a very strong resume of decent work. Pretty much every time I put an ad on the Internet looking for a DoP or makeup artist, I get three dozen emails from aspiring composers in case I need music too.

Certainly I don't think that any of the low-budget movies I've worked on have ever paid the composer a penny other than expenses, and some of them have been very good. On the other hand, one low-budget director I met said that every time he got a composer to score his features they'd soon be off to Hollywood scoring big movies so he'd have to find another one for next time... obviously it works out for some people.

Thanks for the replies. It does look like writing for films is more composers chasing a smaller amount of work which takes longer for less money! I'd still like to give it a go, but I think maybe I'll wait till I've got a bit more time on my hands.
Polly

right now I am working on making the music i will use for the script i wrote and will hopefully be filming some time in the near future.