Applying for Commercial Usage of our Chosen Music

If we were to finish the rest of our film noir and publicly release it into cinemas worldwide, one of the things we would need to apply for is permission for music use. This is because we haven’t created our own music to use in our opening sequence, as we are using the song ‘Clues’ written by Jan Hammer. PRS (Performing Rights Society) acts as the agent between our film production company ‘Take Two Productions’, and Jan Hammer, as they ask the owner of the music if we would be able to use in our film opening. To apply for music use, we would have to log onto the PRS website (www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx) and apply using an online application form. On receipt of our request PRS would then contact Jan Hammer and ask for his permission, and negotiate a price we would pay for use of his music.


As Chloe is responsible for sound in our group, she undertook the task of going through the process stage towards applying to use our music, ‘Clues’ by Jan Hammer. We would need a broadcast licence for a feature film for commercial use only. Chloe entered the name of our production company, our film title, a brief synopsis of our film and various other information, so that PRS can inform Jan Hammer the specific use of his music. Then she entered the piece of music we wished to use and who PRS would have to ask permission from to enable us to use it.

Below is a scanned version of the details we were intending to submit to ask for music use permission:

Music Choices-Chloe and I

As editor, Chloe is also responsible for sound. This includes the music and sound effects we need for our film. Back in January, Chloe and I listened to many different pieces of music before deciding on 4 top choices. These are shown below along with the reasons why we shortlisted them:

'Mausam and Escape' by A R Rahman - This piece of music is fast paced and would suit our running scenes. We applied and kept this music on our film for a while, but after showing it to class members and our media teacher, we gained feedback that it was a little too dramatic and made our sequence sound like a film trailer instead of a film opening. I also felt it sounds too Indian for our film, though there are some good parts in the song that add extra emphasis to certain scenes in our sequence.

'Clues' by Jan Hammer - This music is well suited to our film and the noir genre. It's slow paced but mysterious and matches with the action scenes in our film, as well as the slow studio scenes. The quietness also allows any diegetic sounds in the background to be heard alongside the music. We applied this music in our second edit sequence and the whole group agrees with its suitability compared to the first piece.

'Keep Running' - This music varies in pace throughout, which would be useful for our running scenes. The title also links in with our film narrative, but overall we don't like the music enough to see it fitting in well with our film and matching with all the action.

'Theme from The Warriors' - This music is from a film called 'The Warriors', which was made in 1979. It suits our film in regards to pace, but the genre of the music isn't very noirey. We also want to avoid using any music from a previous film as we want our film to be individual.