For this edition of Sonic Stories, we’re thrilled to spotlight one of our most seasoned and versatile composers, Daniel Ciurlizza (pronounced “Chur-Leet-Zuh”)! With an impressive track record at Score a Score, Daniel has been the creative force behind the music that moves film and tv trailers, injecting emotion and energy into every project he touches. His unique ability to weave together unforgettable melodies has made him a trusted go-to for years. Let’s dive into the sounds, stories, and creative spark behind his work.
What drew you to becoming a composer?
I’ve always loved films and the post-production process. I used to shoot and edit video projects in high school, and some of the most satisfying moments came from picking music and placing it at exactly the right moment. So satisfying!
What is your creative process like when composing music for trailers?
Day 1: Receive the brief and freak out about not knowing what to write!
Day 2: Compose, arrange, and produce everything!
Day 3: Mix, master, and deliver!
Day 4: Recovery.
Weeks 2 to 8: Intermittent revisions!
Are there any new trends or techniques that you are loving right now?
Using pop music techniques is one of my go-to things. I love going to Spotify’s “Pop Rising” or “Top Hits” playlists and being inspired by chord progressions, rhythms, and instruments.
What is your favorite piece of gear in your studio and what is your latest gear purchase?
Favorite: My fully calibrated 5.1 monitoring system! I use it for film scores but never for trailers, unfortunately. It’s a ton of fun to compose with.
Latest: My latest gear purchase is a Yamaha MT4X Multitrack Cassette Recorder from the ’80s/’90s. I’ve been using it to record half of the instruments I use in compositions.
How long have you been working as one of SAS’s trailer music composers? How did you discover us?
I’ve been working as one of SAS’s trailer music composers since 2013. A friend from high school introduced me to Score a Score composer Max Farrar, who introduced me to Jordan Passman. It’s the most career-changing thing that has happened to me in the last 13 years. My partnership with the Score a Score team is one of the most fruitful I’ve ever had. You’re really great people.
Can you recall your most challenging project for Score a Score?
I was asked to deliver a custom-to-picture trailer score forInheritance within 5 hours. I scored the entire thing and delivered in 4 hours. It was exhilarating. It’s great having a team of musicians and sound designers a call away at a moment’s notice.
What are your top three spots/placements that you did for Score a Score that you are most proud of?
Won’t You Be My Neighbor (my childhood!)
Murder On The Orient Express (my first big placement!)
The Handmaid’s Tale (one of my favorite shows!)
What have you learned about yourself as a composer since creating trailer music with Score a Score?
Trailer music made me a discerning music producer. It’s the “pop music” of the film world because the production demands are similarly sky-high. It’s impossible not to improve very quickly.
Composing music for trailers also made me less precious about the music I was writing. Yet, I still find myself putting everything I have into each note. I’m always trying to create the best thing I’ve ever done, but I also realize that whatever I make is a small snapshot in an infinite carousel of images.
What is your favorite emotion to stir up in viewers with your compositions?
I’m looking for tears! I need tears from excitement, inspiration, happiness, and sadness. There’s that specific feeling you get when you listen to new music that you connect with. You feel a tickle in the back of your brain, which then travels down your spine and into the heart. Suddenly, you feel pressure in your throat and jaw, and tears start to well up. That’s my favorite emotion to stir up.
Can you remember the moment when you learned to not take the client’s critiques personally? What are your tips for learning this skill?
Writing a lot of music as often as possible really helps with that. Having a large body of work and consistently adding to it helps you realize that we have access to an infinite source of ideas. It’s hard to be offended by anything if you’re confident in the vastness of your foundation.
What lesson took you the longest to learn in your career?
Figuring out what drives me took a long time. I’ve always known where I wanted to go, but I never put my guiding principles into words until a couple of years ago. My values are basically to be:
Overwhelmingly kind and generous
Mind-blowingly creative with my work
Tenacious with both my largest and smallest goals
If you could talk to your younger self when you first started composing, what would you say?
The three most important things you can do for your art and career are:
To become an excellent composer, commit to fully recreating all of your favorite songs as soon as possible for the next 10 years. By the time you’re through, you’ll be standing on the shoulders of giants. The accumulation of these learned techniques and styles is how you’ll find your own style.
If you want other people to enjoy your music, you have to write for them. Give them 80% of something they’ve heard before and 20% of something they’ve never heard. Give them 20% of something that you feel is truly you. They’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Give as much effort and time as you can to the people you want to work with. That includes clients and collaborators that you hire (or hire you). You need to do everything you can to help them succeed with the skills that you have. Their success is your success. Be as generous and kind as possible, and you’ll eventually be surrounded by people that will help you win too. Don’t tally up your favors. Just pick the right people to help and karma will do the rest.
When was the last time you surprised yourself both personally and professionally?
I’m a very intentional person, so not a lot surprises me. If I aim to do a certain thing, that thing will happen in the way that I had planned. It’s often the trajectory that surprises me the most.
If you were only allowed to use one instrument to create music for the rest of your career, what would it be?
The human voice! I’m obsessed with its versatility and the uniqueness of each one.
Daniel in the studio working on the score for Cinnamon
That’s A Wrap!
Daniel’s talent and hard work expand beyond trailer music. In addition to being one of our top trailer music composers, he is the owner of Outlier Studios. He has also had his fair share of film scores. He recently wrote the entire score for Tubi’s latest original film, Cinnamon! We are beyond grateful for all of Daniel’s hard work and creativity over the past decade. Cheers to another 10 years!
Fun fact of the day: As of 2022, the Gen-Z attention span is about 1.3 seconds. Even though this metric is about Gen-Zers, social media has shortened all of our attention spans. This overwhelming fact plays a huge part in how advertisers choose to tell their stories. While visuals and copy take the forefront, the role of music in commercials is equally important when capturing viewers’ attention. We’ve got five reasons and examples as to why that is so.
Sonic Storytelling: The Impact of Music in Commercials
All biases aside, we can easily and objectively argue that without music or sonic branding, the chances of any commercial being memorable are slim to none. Take, for instance, the music from the 2004 iPod ad featuring “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet. In our opinion, the iPod commercials changed the game for music in marketing. If you grew up during this time, it was impossible not to think of dancing silhouettes holding white iPods when this song came on the radio. RIP iPod!
In addition to enhancing memorability, music plays a significant role in setting the tone. This is the first thing it does! One of our favorite examples of music in advertising that does this is the 1999 Guinness Surfer commercial. It features the track “Phat Planet” by London electronic group, Leftfield. This dramatic and visually striking ad is in black and white and starts in silence. The first shot is of an older man looking out into the distance to what we soon learn is the beach. Once we cut to the beach, the gritty bassline of “Phat Planet” kicks in, and so does our adrenalin.
Once the tone is set, it starts to drive the narrative further. Like Apple, Levi’s is another company that continues to inspire the advertising world. In 1999 they partnered with French electronic musician Mr. Oizo and his yellow puppet. In the commercial, the two of them are driving through a pristine residential neighborhood in a run-down car jamming to “Flat Beat.” The good times don’t last long when a cop pulls them over. Before he can approach, Mr. Oizo slides in a cassette tape of “What’s Happened to Me” by Don Gibson. It is the complete antithesis of house music and is something troublemakers would never listen to. Spoiler alert, they don’t get a ticket.
As difficult as this ad is to watch, the SPCA campaign with “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan is the perfect example of creating emotional connections with music in advertisements. According to the New York Times, the commercial raised $30 million in the first two years. We will go on record and say that it was all because of the music… and the sad puppy eyes.
In addition to driving story, emotions, and narrative, the right music can help reinforce your brand’s personality and values. One of the most iconic examples of this is Coca-Cola’s Hilltop ad. A group of young people of all different races come together and sing a catchy tune called “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” In doing so, Coca-Cola was able to emphasize its brand values of happiness, unity, and positivity.
That’s a Wrap!
We could talk about our favorite music in commercials for days! In fact, why stop now? Head on over to our blog that dives into the power of jingles. Enjoy!
Our music supervisors have been making big moves lately! At the top of the summer, they wrapped up a major Pepsi spot for their “Summer Forever” campaign. Earlier this year, the two LA Lakers-related series we worked on in 2022 got nominated for Sports Emmys, one of which took home the win for Outstanding Documentary Series! As our music supervision team keeps bringing in the heat, we passed the pen (or is it keyboard?) over to Mindy Dinh to talk about the best placements from our SAS music supervisors… so far. Take it away, Mindy!
The Most Memorable Placements From Our Music Supervisors
SAS Music Supervisors Mindy Dinh and Leon Bromell at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival
As a fan of the Lakers and music from iconic eras, we were overjoyed to work on Legacy. Overjoyed does not begin to cover how we felt. There was a schoolgirl giddiness when we started building buckets upon buckets of hits from the 60s, 70s, and present day. The most fulfilling thing, however, was bonding over this excitement with music licensors. We grew close with many of our peers in the licensing space over our love for the Lakers, being from LA, and the team’s standing legacy. A unique bond like that doesn’t happen often on projects. The cherry on top of this incredible experience was when Legacy won the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Documentary Series!
With I Love My Dad, we were heavily in the process of composer selection and onboarding, a privilege that most music supervisors do not come by often. Getting to work closely with composer Jeremy Bullock was one for the books. Jeremy isn’t just one of Score a Score’s most talented composers but the husband to one of the music supervisors on the project, Caze Taylor. Getting to see their collaboration come to fruition was so special. It became an even bigger bonding experience when we all attended the SXSW premiere and got to be within hearing distance of several attendees complimenting the score and music. The film ended up winning SXSW’s Narrative Feature Grand Jury Award and Audience Award.
It’s always a blast to work with a production team that’s just as into the musical vision as we are. Showrunner Dan Levy had so many amazing ideas for the musical direction. It was fun to explore that with him and The Big Brunch team. Because the show emphasized the backstories of each contestant, it was really special to dive into their upbringing to find music cues that suited everyone’s unique story. What made it more delightful was the jazz-inspired direction we went in! All the music supervisors at SAS hold jazz close to our hearts. We don’t explore the genre very often while on the job, though. To work with it for numerous moments in the show was such a treat.
That’s a Wrap!
We want to thank Mindy for taking the time to chat with us. If you aren’t already, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to see what our music supervisors are up to next. Happy scoring!
Gather ’round, folks! Today we’re diving into a sonic duel: sound design versus music for trailers. Each brings its own set of attributes to the table. Music provides the emotional depth ready to pull at your heartstrings. Sound design, armed with whooshes, booms, and pops provides that extra sizzle, making sure you don’t just see an explosion—you feel it. We love a happy ending, which is why we feel obligated, nay privileged, to end this “feud.” Tag along with us as we explain the distinction between sound design versus music for trailers and how they coexist to enhance the storytelling of a trailer.
Sound Design vs. Music for Trailers: The Roles Defined
Music: The Emotional Maestro
Want to make your audience cry? Cue the violins. Looking for some heart-pounding action? Bring on the drum rolls. Music is basically the comfort food of trailers. It hits you right in the feels, every single time. Music for trailers is a powerful narrative tool that can shape how an audience feels about what they are watching.
Sound Design: The Realism Wrangler
Sound design, on the other hand, often operates in the background, adding layers of realism and dimension to the visual elements. Whether it’s the clang of swords or the rustle of leaves, sound design layers a textured atmosphere that complements the visual narrative and enhances audience immersion. In short, music tells you how to feel, and sound design ensures you feel it in 4D.
Striking a Balance
Timing and Focus
Deciding when to let music take center stage and when to amp up the sound design is a delicate dance. These two elements should weave together seamlessly, complementing rather than competing with each other to serve the narrative.
Story Arc Considerations
Both music and sound design should align with the story’s flow. For instance, sound design elements might be more pronounced in scenes that require attention to detail, whereas a soaring musical score could dominate key emotional or action-packed sequences.
Collaboration: The Hidden Key
One cannot underestimate the value of collaboration between composers and sound designers when it comes to music for trailers. An open line of communication ensures that the trailer provides a unified auditory experience, enriched by both musical and sonic elements.
Pro Tips for Aspiring Sonic Wizards
Narrative Know-How: Whether it’s through music or sound design, your loyalty should always be to the story.
Genre Guru: An action flick isn’t going to have the same audio needs as a rom-com, folks. Know your field, and play accordingly.
Trial and Even More Trial: Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is impeccable sound design. Test, adjust, repeat.
That’s a Wrap!
It is very clear that sound design and music for trailers are not competitors. They aren’t even frenemies. Nay… they are allies! The key lies in understanding the role and impact of sound design, and how it can work in tandem with music to elevate the art of the trailer. So the next time you find yourself on the edge of your seat during a trailer, don’t forget to send a silent (or loud, we don’t judge) “thank you” to the audio wizards who’ve crafted the sonic feast. After all, in this game of sonic thrones, the true winner is always you, the audience.
Instagram—a place where cat videos meet culinary masterpieces, and everyone’s a photographer. But when you decide to spice up your content with a little tune, you enter the wild world of copyright laws. Understanding Instagram copyright rules for music is crucial to avoiding legal pitfalls and leveraging all of Instagram’s capabilities. This guide will help you dance through the Instagram copyright rules without stepping on any legal toes.
Instagram Copyright Rules for Music: Everything You Need to Know
Understanding Instagram’s Copyright Rules
At its core, copyright law protects creators’ rights to their original works. That includes music. Instagram’s copyright rules reflect a commitment to these legal standards, aiming to balance the rights of music owners with the creative opportunities for users. Simply put, these rules prevent unauthorized use of copyrighted music and ensure that creators get fairly credited and compensated for their work.
Licensing Music for Instagram
The cornerstone of legally using music on Instagram is getting permission. There are different licenses for different uses. For Instagram, you’re mostly looking at synchronization licenses. Good news: there are places online where you can get music that’s pre-cleared for social media use.
Navigating Music Rights with Music Licensing Agencies
Cue Score a Score! Music licensing agencies, such as ourselves, can be invaluable partners in navigating Instagram copyright rules. We can help manage the complexities of music rights, so you don’t have to. Music licensing agencies offer extensive catalogs of music that can be legally used in Instagram content. What makes this so useful is that it provides a hassle-free solution for creators and brands that want to use popular tracks in their campaigns.
Copyrighted Music in Instagram Features
Instagram does not come up short with its features. They have Stories, Reels, livestreams, and static posts you can add music to. Each feature, however, has its own little quirks when it comes to adding music legally. That especially goes if you are a business/creator account. Commercial or branded content might face more stringent restrictions or require additional licensing agreements.
Common Misconceptions: Credit, Fair Use, and the ’30-Second Rule’
There’s no shortage of misunderstandings regarding music copyright on Instagram, including the notions that giving credit, claiming fair use, or adhering to a ’30-second rule’ provides immunity from infringement. Spoiler alert! Crediting an artist or playing less than 30 seconds of their song won’t shield you from copyright claims. It’s a jungle out there, and ignorance isn’t an invisibility cloak.
Exploring Public Domain and Copyright-Free Music Options
Once again, cue Score a Score! If you are looking to avoid the complexities of music licensing, it’s us. Our catalog has tons of copyright-free music.
That’s a Wrap on Instagram Copyright Rules for Music!
When it comes to using music on Instagram, the main goal is to play by the copyright rules. With the right know-how and resources, you can make your content sing without overstepping any legal boundaries. Have fun!
Allow us to introduce Leon Bromell, one of the first music supervisors to join the SAS team! He is based in New York, is always up for a round of tennis, and his love for Greek food runs deep. So does his love for music supervision in film! Finding the perfect song to enhance an audience’s emotional response to a movie is a skill. It is one that Leon has perfected. It took time to perfect the beat though. As Leon enters his second year as a music supervisor at Score a Score, he has collected 5 key pieces of wisdom when it comes to music supervision.
Leon’s 5 Tips for Effective Music Supervision in Film
Listen to music for pleasure – I remember past jobs where I would surreptitiously or guiltily listen to music while working. One thing that’s great about this job is that listening to music all the time actually makes you a better music supervisor. The broader your knowledge and experience the more you can contribute to conversations about music. People can tell when you’re spending your time steeped in the stuff. It keeps you in touch with the reason why you got into music supervision in film in the first place.
Value rightsholders – Maybe I’m biased since I used to work at a publisher, but I think it is vital for a music supervisor to treat contacts at rightsholders with the same level of respect and attention as you would a client (those gods of our world). These relationships are crucial to being an effective music supervisor. Goodwill goes a long way (and so does bad).
Be thoughtful – A lot of this job is rote. Drafting requests, sending follow-ups, and a million other things that you do over and over. Doing all those things efficiently is a big part of what music supervisors are valued for. That said, I think it’s important to be able to switch out of that mode too, and to balance efficiency with thoughtfulness.
Do stuff IRL – I feel weird giving this advice since I don’t always follow it myself. So I’m speaking to myself too when I say: get out from behind that computer! Go have lunch with someone, go to a mixer, or take labels/publishers up on one of those show invites. IRL hangs are priceless and all the more so in this time of remote work.
Dig the history – It’s certainly important to know the canon, the iconic uses, and the great soundtracks. I think it’s helpful to approach music supervision as a craft and to study the lineage the way a musician or filmmaker might. There’s no shortage of inspiration to be found down there!
That’s a Wrap!
We feature our latest and greatest work regularly on LinkedIn and Instagram. Our music supervision department has some incredible projects in the works, so make sure to stay connected.
