The course contains exclusive interviews with award-winning music supervisors, sound and music editors, publishers, producers, engineers, and other music industry executives, including music supervisor Thomas Golubić (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Six Feet Under, Ray Donovan), composer Jeff Beal (Ugly Betty, House of Cards, Rome, Grand Hotel), trailer music supervisor Vanessa Jorge Perry (Sideways, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter), video game producers, music supervisors, editors, licensing experts, Emmy-winning showrunners, and award-winning soundtrack producers.

In addition, students will create and replace temp tracks, design and budget for a soundtrack, acquire effective negotiating techniques through live negotiations, and work on longer media forms while conforming to critical feedback. Students will review and create agreement templates for composers, songwriters, publishers, and master owners in a variety of licensing and buyout scenarios.

The final project will consist of music supervising a full-length TV show with commercials and will stress creative excellence and open communication between the production side and the creative side through a team-based approach. At the conclusion of the course, students will research opportunities in the field of music supervision for future employment and opportunities.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• effectively “spot” scenes and longer forms for music needs
• build and replace a “temp” track
• work effectively with your DAW to achieve desired audio results
• design and budget for a soundtrack/compilation release
• negotiate win-win outcomes while building and maintaining relationships
• communicate effectively with a variety of production stakeholders
• respond to critical feedback and adjust your work in a timely fashion
• work as a production team member
• customize composer, publisher, and master owner license agreements
• discover unique work opportunities for music supervisors
• get started as a music supervisor

Syllabus

Lesson 1 It’s Showtime!

Lesson 2 Get Your Edit On!

Lesson 3 Featured Songs

Lesson 4 Soundtracks

Lesson 5 Licensing and Contracts

Lesson 6 Time to Negotiate!

Lesson 7 Negotiation Part 2—Hardball, Ethics, Teams, and Gender

Lesson 8 Temp Music

Lesson 9 Music in Advertising

Lesson 10 Showtime! (Final Project)

Lesson 11 Revise, Update, and Educate!

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements

Completion of Music Supervision, or equivalent knowledge and experience is required. Completion of Music Business 101, Music Publishing 101, Music Licensing, Copyright Law, and Songwriting for Film and TV is recommended.

Students should be able to:

• Describe the basic concepts of copyright, licensing, publishing, and desktop production skills

Required Textbook(s)

•  Music Supervision: The Complete Guide to Selecting Music for Movies, TV, Games, & New Media (2nd Edition) by Ramsay Adams, David Hnatiuk, David Weiss, Schirmer Trade Books
• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury, Penguin Books

Software Requirements

• A program that can combine the audio you select with the supplied video files.
  • Examples for Mac: iMovie (free), GarageBand (free), Final Cut Pro, Shotcut (free), etc.
  • Examples for Windows: Shotcut (free), Vegas Movie Studio, AVS Video Editor, etc.
• A program to capture in-browser audio. Chrome Audio Capture (free) extension recommended.
• Software to open Microsoft Word and Excel files, such as Microsoft Office, Apache OpenOffice (free), or Google Drive (free).

Instructors

Brad Hatfield

Author & Instructor

Brad Hatfield is a Boston-based Emmy award-winning composer, keyboardist, arranger, orchestrator, and award-winning educator. Writing and producing songs in a variety of genres, Brad’s works have been heard internationally through repeated placements in film (Borat, Iron Man 2, Analyze This, The Break Up), and TV shows/promos (Friends, CSI, NCIS, Saturday Night Live, American Horror Story, The Sopranos, GLEE, The Good Wife), just to name a few. Brad served as co-composer for the FX series Rescue Me, and is currently composing for the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless, where he has annually received Emmy nominations in 2015 through 2019.

As a keyboardist, Brad has performed and recorded regularly with the Grammy nominated Boston Pops since 1990 under John Williams and Keith Lockhart. He has accompanied artists including James Taylor, Bono, Martina McBride, Patti Austin, Guster, Audra McDonald, and Kenny Loggins. The Boston Pops has commissioned Brad to orchestrate for a variety of artists including Demi Lovato, Darlene Love, Kristin Chenoweth, and Susan Tedeschi.

Brad has also toured internationally with jazz artists performing at major festivals (North Sea, Montreal, Perugia) and well-known venues (The Blue Note, Birdland, Ronnie Scott’s). Brad appears on dozens of recordings ranging from Jazz to Americana, and was the featured piano soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River soundtrack.

Brad received the 2012 UPCEA “Best Online Course” award for his Berklee Online Music Supervision course, and also won the 2014 UPCEA “Excellence in Teaching” award for his work at Berklee Online as a facilitator of his Music Supervision and Songwriting for Film and TV courses. Brad holds a graduate degree in Management from Cambridge College.