I have no musical skill or knowledge! The only reason there is a page on this site for MUSIC is that the webmaster is a talented compser in his own right, and cares about aural things.

It would be really fascinating to direct a film which had no music at all. But audiences perhaps expect these things: certainly financiers and film buyers do. And most of us directors have become lazy, relying on the music to create a mood, or carry us through indefferent transition scenes, or sell an indifferent finale.

One of the ways to tell a real independent film from a studio "independent" feature is by the musical soundtrack. If it has a great score, filled with classic songs and cool hits you've heard before, it's a studio film. Licensing cool old hits is hugely expensive, and only big-budgeted features can afford to do it.

If, on the other hand, the film has a soundtrack of original music and songs by local indy bands, this is a sign that there was no money in the budget for music, and that it is a genuinely independent picture.

I've worked with various composers who came from, or were, bands, including Los Plugs (Tito Larriva and Steven Huffsteter) , Joe Strummer, The Pogues, Zander Schloss, Pete Wylie, Yorkie, and Chumbawamba. Knowing nothing, I leave everything to the composer. As a result, the soundtracks seem to work out pretty well.

The composer with whom I've worked most often is Dan Wool and his group Pray for Rain: which started out as a regular band, objected to carrying heavy boxes up and downstairs, and so - like the Beatles - got out of live performances and touring. Now they're a full-time film and TV soundtrack delivery solution system. Or rather Dan is.

Pray for Rain wrote some of the score of STRAIGHT TO HELL and SID & NANCY (including the bit that plays over where garbage falls from the sky), almost all of the score of THE WINNER, and all of DEATH & THE COMPASS, THREE BUSINESSMEN, and MIKE HAMA MUST DIE! Dan Wool scored SEARCHERS 2.0.