Australia: movie soundtrack a ripoff?

[petegz28]

so I am not paying much attention to the tv during a commercial when I hear this "Pirates of the Caribbean" sounding music, only to find out it is an ad for the upcoming movie called Australia. TV being what it is, I was easily afforded countless more opportunities to view this commercial. I swear it sounds like a total rip of Pirates. I mean same notes just re-arranged, almost same melody structure as well.

If anything I think it offers some insight to how good the movie might be.

[kcfanintitanhell]

Dane-Seems to me I have heard Jerry Goldsmith's music re-used in soundtracks. I'll search my brain and try to come back with something. Also something I've posted before a while back-one of the recurring threads from Lord of the
Rings sounds really close to the signature song from Back to the Future. And I don't think that was the same studio or composer.

[RINGLEADER]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Here's the way it works:

A studio hires a composer for a film. The composer is generally paid anywhere between $250,000 to $4 million per film (for blockbusters). This fee includes the hiring and recording of the musicians, copyist, orchestrator, etc.

It's called Work-For-Hire and the studio owns the music. The writer receives 50% of the performance income that's earned from television and radio but not from movie theater showing in the U.S.

So, since the studio owns the music to each and every film they produce, they're free to re-use the music anyway they see fit. Often times, you'll hear music cues from other movies used in television commercials for upcoming movies because it saves the studio money.

Since a movie trailer is edited and cut much differently than a film, there may not be music available from the film to use in the commercial. At that point, the option is to go to an outside production house that specializes in movie trailers, but the minimal cost is about $100k per trailer. So the most effective way is to find something in the existing catalog.

In addition to saving money by not hiring an outside company to score the trailer, the studio actually earns money on the Publisher's share (the other 50%) of performance royalty income.

Only thing I'd add to this is that you'll frequently see soundtracks from other films promoting other films prior to the scoring. And as Dane notes there are companies that exist only to supply trailer music. Coincidentally my last movie used the same music from Pirates of the Caribbean in the trailer.

[RINGLEADER]

http://www.x-raydogmusic.com/

Have fun.

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

the reviews for the movies so far have been down under

bam dum 'tish

[RINGLEADER]

I was right -- they used X-Ray dog in the Australia trailer.