MONTAGE-MUSIC

Why are you using all capital letters??

I'd say no ... but if you are going to angst over it then it isn't worth the stress.

One downside is that it will only be useful if the reader is familiar with the piece. Plenty of people aren't actually interesting in music (yes, they do exist) so aren't really going to get any information from your choice at all.

So if you want to mention it, you'll have to mention the genre as well .. something like 'a Heavy Metal Rock Ballad' or something.

Another downside is that even if the musically-challenged does recognize the song, you'll be mis-communicating if the reader doesn't have exactly the same emotional connection to it that you do.

Another downside is that it just gives the reader another reason to dislike the script.

Why not just suggest it rather than dictate it? It is the best of both worlds.

Look at these examples:

In the distance, a HAPPY POP SONG (perhaps "Heaven Tonight" by
Hole) is heard. As it gets louder, heads turn to see —

A silver, convertible Boxster driving up, Elle at the wheel,
MUSIC BLASTING. A large MOVING VAN follows the Boxster.

Click to expand...

See what they did there? They didn't assume that the reader was familiar enough to know that 'Heaven Tonight' was a happy pop song .. so the description solved it perfectly.

If I was a reader, I'd be grateful because I've never heard of 'Heaven Tonight' or 'Hole'. So the description clears it up and gives a very clear visual image.

If you want a montage example:

A GIRL-POWER SONG STARTS TO PLAY AS A MONTAGE BEGINS:

INT. HARVARD BOOKSTORE - NIGHT
A hot pink laptop is yanked off the shelf.

...

Click to expand...

If you had a particular Girl-Power song in mind, you could just put it in there as '(A GIRL-POWER SONG STARTS TO PLAY (perhaps `XXXX`) AS A MONTAGE BEGINS:

It give you the chance to put the song you have in mind in, without the downsides.

OTOH, I'd just mention the genre and leave it.

But if you'll sleep better at night mentioning the song, then just do it like the 'Legally Blonde' example above.

Good luck !

Mac

Hi Gardenia.

I've always heard/read that putting an actual song title screams "Amateur!" While I have no way of verifying this, I did work at a movie studio for some years and was good friends with the music licensing guy. He'd tell me horror stories of how a film was just about to open nationwide but they still hadn't secured the rights to one of the songs on the soundtrack.

I say this because there is a danger that the song you include may not be available. Or, expensive as all hell. "Come Together" by The Beatles is one of the greatest songs ever, and may be perfecto for your montage. But, um, good luck with getting that. The people reading your script will most likely know what a nightmare it will be to get those rights, and how much money it will cost. Psst! It's a LOT. So then you get into other bands doing covers of the song (Apple Corps. gets mechanical royalties--if you're interested), but that costs money-money-money too.

I write all this not because I want to be some kind of obnoxious know-it-all. But more to belabor this one simple point:

Why hang all that on your script? I like Mac H's suggestions. Let the director and producers worry about all that. You have far better things to think about.

Verbal said:

Hi Gardenia.

I've always heard/read that putting an actual song title screams "Amateur!" While I have no way of verifying this, I did work at a movie studio for some years and was good friends with the music licensing guy. He'd tell me horror stories of how a film was just about to open nationwide but they still hadn't secured the rights to one of the songs on the soundtrack.

I say this because there is a danger that the song you include may not be available. Or, expensive as all hell. "Come Together" by The Beatles is one of the greatest songs ever, and may be perfecto for your montage. But, um, good luck with getting that. The people reading your script will most likely know what a nightmare it will be to get those rights, and how much money it will cost. Psst! It's a LOT. So then you get into other bands doing covers of the song (Apple Corps. gets mechanical royalties--if you're interested), but that costs money-money-money too.

I write all this not because I want to be some kind of obnoxious know-it-all. But more to belabor this one simple point:

Why hang all that on your script? I like Mac H's suggestions. Let the director and producers worry about all that. You have far better things to think about.

Click to expand...

Well, here's the deal about music in a script. To the extent that there's music in real life -- like people going to clubs or playing music on the radio or putting on (oh hell, whatever it is that people "put on" these days -- it used to be records, then CDs -- I don't know know what they put on -- do people just activate their freaking MP3 players now?)

The point is, in real life someone's choice of music is also a "character" choice -- what sort of club they go to, what they're listening to on the radio.

But if you're too specific, you run the risk of identifying a band or a singer or whatever, that a reader might not know. So unless somebody is listening to something that is either classic or exceptionally current and thus immediately and universally identifiable, then it makes sense to make the reference generic -- he's listening to heavy metal, or hard rock, or motown, or whatever.

But getting back to the initial poster's point -- the above has to do with music playing *within* the world of the story. That's rather different from music that's scoring the movie, like playing over a montage sequence.

That, I think, may be stepping over the line. It is, in essence, giving advice on how the movie should be scored, which is different from saying what music is playing at a particular club, or what music a character chooses to play on the radio.

That is, it isn't that a character has chosen to play Johnny Cash -- rather Johnny Cash is simply *playing* - just playing on the soundtrack, while this, that, or the other is happening.

Personally, I wouldn't do that.

NMS

^^ sorry to bring up a dead thread, but that really rubs in wrongs ways. i totally know what you're saying stevens, and i've read that in a few places now (which in some ways makes sense. you're writing a film, not directing, not scoring it) but for me, music is a really interlaced part of my life and thinking, and i hope one day should i ever become recognized or in demand enough, that i can make certain reservations about what songs need to be played at certain moments.

Known or unknown, i feel a person can be in tune enough with people abroad to know a song could be ideal or appropo for certain sequences.