Hi gang! What follows is a request from a friend of mine; he needs some last-minute help for the soundtrack of the movie he's working on.
The short version is this: he needs some moody instrumental music to play over closing credits, somewhere around three minutes or so. Either a song you know or something from your own catalog, if you think it'd be appropriate.
I assume there is no budget to pay for whatever music ends up getting used. This could be a pretty nice feather in your resume, though-- I've seen the whole film and helped write some of the background music and it's pretty decent stuff. There are some well-known actor types getting their acting on (though no Tom Green, sorry!) and the word on the street is that "Sundance" is a pretty good place to have a film screening.
This is the original song that he wants to replace. There is a bunch of ambient stuff at the beginning and the actual song starts around 1:45 in.
I've cut out all the phone numbers and e-mail addresses from the original message, but don't worry. I will forward all reasonable suggestions in the next day or two. Thanks!
Friends, Accomplices--
I don't exactly know how many of you are aware of the film project that I am involved in as of late. It is a professional release that is currently titled "The Forest" (featuring many of the cast members from HBO's "The Wire") and is scheduled to be mastered in LA in Mid September. It is slated for Sundance submission as of September 18th.
My role relative to the film is that of Original Music Composer and Post-Production Sound Supervisor. As such I am ultimately responsible for the creation and production of all sound related elements that will be used in the film.
My dilemma is this. I have trying to recruit a specific band to perform during the closing credits, They are called A Northern Chorus. And the song selected, "The Shepherd and The Chauffeur", was specifically chosen because of its musical tone, compositional style and lyrical content. Of equal importance is the way that the songs fits relative to the closing music that I am working on.
My main problem is that the member of the band I have been speaking with is taking too long to get back to me with followup details. I have left followup emails/calls but have yet to hear back. Because the film editing needs to be wrapped up in next two weeks (we leave for LA on September 8th), I've needed to have a band in place for this credit sequence by now. So I am put in a position where I simply have to assume that they are not that interested and find other possible music extremely quickly.
As I have tried to explain to some of you in my verbal version of this request, because I am responsible for every sonic detail in the film (and also need to have a very lengthy proposal submitted by the beginning of next week for my masters thesis) I simply have zero downtime in between now and the end of next week. This also means that I have no time to compose something for the credits myself and certainly no time to set up separate record/mix sessions to use other performers. And relative to this request, I don't even have time to sit down and listen to other music to find possible songs to replace the one we've had in mind.
The "Urgent Request" part:
I have attached an mp3 to this email that is the more extended version of the song we have been planning on using. I would be extremely grateful if you could listen to it and come up with suggestions of musical groups who have specific songs that could replace this. Assuming that A Northern Chorus won't come through, we are going music with no lyrical content (as to not load the film with other unintended meaning). Because this is what we are now going for, bands like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Rachels, Dirty Three all come to mind. I know that there are may more bands like this out there out and I don't have a second to look. I don't care how popular they are. But bigger bands are going to involve more red tape. None of the bands I have mentioned are too big and are good possible choices. I just don't have time to sift through their music... perhaps you could help with this?
I would be extremely thankful if you could please listen to the song attached and try to find specific songs from specific artists that could serve to replace the song I've had in mind. I'm looking for something around 3 minutes as there are not a ton of credits in the film. Obviously if you were able to identify a way that I could contact these groups that would even be better. But I know that it is a lot to expect of you.
As part two of this request I will be sending out a second email later this evening that will have an MP3 of my closing music and demonstrates how it and the credit music should work together.
Musicians-- you are all welcome to submit music of your own. If it works it works. But I have no time to set up a recording session of my own. Quality must be 24-bit/48k digital audio. And I of course cannot make any guarantees-- especially considering it is not all my call.
Please respond ASAP with any info.
Many thanks in Advance
I hope to hear from you soon.
