the war of the money men
I’m not naive. People expect to be paid for their work. But, when a person’s job is only about getting paid is it right that these people should get in the way of creativity?
I’m 6 weeks and 1 day away from the U.S Release of The Butterfly Tattoo and as it stands today, I have no score. Brilliant isn’t it? The music in the film (up to yesterday) was the work of renowned classical musician Ludovico Einaudi. Don’t get me wrong, this is not his fault and this is precisely my point… it’s the publishers.
If you don’t know of Ludovico’s work, you should. It’s utterly amazing to listen to because the music is emotionally beautiful but created through simple (sounding) piano compositions. His work was featured in Shane Meadows’ This Is England, his multiple albums have sold throughout the world, he sells out concert halls in pretty much every country he plays in… he’s also a very nice man.
So why, I hear you ask, is a musician like this even involved in a low-budget independent British film. Well, simply, because I asked him to watch the film - and he loved it.
Two years ago - before I’d shot a single frame of The Butterfly Tattoo - I sat in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester to listen to Ludovico perform his latest album Divenire. I knew from that moment that it would be the score to my film. I’d listened to Ludovico’s music for years before and it had always been an inspiration to me. I aspired to one day have one of my films scored by Ludovico.
So, I thought ‘what the hell?’
I made calls, I sent emails, I tracked down Ludovico’s tour manager (a very nice man), I arranged a meeting, I travelled down to Birmingham to catch him while he was still in the UK and there I was - sat in his dressing room pitching him the film. He loved the idea of it. I was very open - as I always am - about the film being low budget. He said ‘I have to be inspired by something in order to do it. If I’m inspired, I will’. Here I was in person with someone who’s work has been an inspiration to me for a long time and he wanted to be involved. The dream had come true.
Skip ahead a year, I’d shot the film and send Ludovico the rough cut. Thankfully, he loved the film. I even included his music to show him how well it worked with the story. The problem was that because of an impending World tour, he didn’t really have the time to compose anything new. Watching the film again I released that the music I had included worked so well that it wouldn’t need rewriting.
Enter The Money Men.
I met with Ludovico’s music publisher in London. He was a nice bloke. With the producers of the film based in Holland, I quite happily went to meet him to discuss using the music - that they own the publishing rights to - in the film. Again, I stressed the film was very low budget but he’d seen the film and was amazed it only cost €300,000 to make. He gave me a CD of unreleased music that Ludovico thought would fit the film. Excitedly, I listened to the CD on the train home - it was brilliant.
Now, I’m not a producer on the film. I’m the creative - I leave all money negotiations to the money men and women that hide in the shadows and work all this stuff out. I’m not particularly interested in it. I know how it works but I don’t bother getting involved - I make the films that hopefully make money not the other way round.
After the negotiations, I got an email from my producers. The publishing company were onboard and we paid for the rights to a film festival only license for the music. Fair enough - we’re a low budget company. The agreement was to re-negotiate on the film’s release.
The festivals happened. We won awards. People loved the film. We got distribution. (Again, I promise I will write a blog on this soon!)
A month ago, I got a call from my producer. The money men had talked and were not playing ball. They wanted an ridiculous amount of money for us to use the music on release. I feared this would happen but I just hoped that it would be fine. The producers offered them everything they could. They wouldn’t budge. We offered they percentage points in the box office. Nothing. Brilliant.
These people knew we were a low-budget film. These people have really come close to ruining our release of the film.
Where does this leave us? It leaves both Ludovico (a man who is definitely not driven by money) and myself empty after what was an exciting and inspiring relationship with the film. It leaves us with no score six weeks and one day away from the release.
It’s frustrating to thing what is a perfect synergy of music and filmmaking - of creativity - has been destroyed by the war of the money men. They have gotten in the way of the creative process.
As I said, I’m not naive. People should get paid for their work I just think that it shouldn’t be the most important thing.
I better get on with finding a composer…
