NEWS
INTERVIEW: Steve Porter of Princess Productions on being a Music Supervisor
Welcome to our Academy series, a survey of jobs in music, film and the media, and the people who do them. First up, we’ve interviewed Music Supervisor Steve Porter of Shine groups’ Princess Productions to shine a light on the mysteries of Music Supervision.
Princess Productions create and broadcast over 100 formats across many genres from Daytime, Primetime, Comedy, Arts and Music to high profile studio formats. Amongst others they have created Something For The Weekend for BBC2, T4 and the Friday/Sunday Night Project for Channel 4 as well as The Wright Stuff for Channel 5, Got To Dance and Must Be The Music for Sky1.
Princess is part of the Shine TV group, that produce shows such as Masterchef , Ashley Banjos Secret Street Crew and Britain’s Best Bakery amongst others.
A strong reputation for nurturing new talent has seen Princess launch the careers of some of the UK’s most popular presenters such as Alan Carr, Justin Lee Collins and Steve Jones. With its own dedicated talent team, Princess has also persuaded huge stars such as Jay-Z (Imagine, BBC2) and Lily Allen (Lily Allen: From Riches To Rags, Channel 4) to become the focus of their own shows.
What does a music supervisor do, and what’s a typical day in your job like?
I try and prevent my colleagues from having nervous breakdowns about music. On a typical day I’ll be helping with budgets, negotiating fees, searching for music, and advising our production teams on how to deal with whatever musical delights come our way (“today we’re filming a Sousaphone player who exclusively performs Beatles/Queen mash-ups dressed as Michael Jackson, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra “)
How did you become a music supervisor?
I focused a significant part of my degree towards music in media as I had a fairly clear idea that was what I wanted to get into…although at that point I had no idea what a Music Supervisor was. I started out in publishing, then worked for a broadcaster, and then sort of just stumbled over into TV production.
How do you source/choose music?
We have a fairly constant stream of new music sent to us so it’s a case of listening to as much as we can, cataloguing it (really important….and something I’m totally useless at), and keeping in touch with labels and publishers. The idea that music supervisors ‘choose’ music is a bit of a fallacy; my role is part of a much larger conversation that has to consider budgets, deadlines, expectations of client/producer/director etc.
What do you do when you are stuck with a particular brief?
Keep trying; you always get there in the end. Being able to talk clearly and articulately about music isn’t something that comes naturally to most people, which is why briefs need to be interpreted and searches get refined; it’s all part of the process. Alternatively, I just call the wonderful team at Imagem (obvs). {good answer Steve}
What was the most enjoyable project you worked on so far?
Hmmm…..not sure I can single one out, but perversely I look back on the most complicated, traumatic and difficult projects as the most enjoyable. There’s a real sense of accomplishment that comes from taking a show riddled with musical challenges and seeing it through to air.
What is the most exciting part of your role?
Geeking out over lengthy contracts and industry agreements. That’s not even a joke. I’m that sad.
What’s the worst part of being a music supervisor?
Fighting off sales people. Lots of them are a joy to work with, but so many people come to you with one bizarre track coupled with a sense of entitlement; not such a great combination.
If you could go back in time would you have done anything differently?
Career wise? I don’t think I would. In life? Buy me a drink and I’ll reel them off… {Might take you up on it!}
What advice would you give someone who wants to become a music supervisor?
Network and research. The market for exclusively creative music supervisors is tiny/non-existent, yet it seems to be what most people think music supervision is. Having working knowledge of copyright, licensing bodies, unions etc will set you apart from the rest.
Have you got any particular plans for the future you’d like to share with us?
I’m keen to continue learning and absorbing as much as I can about different aspects of the industry….and then once I’m some kind of music-media-copyright-licensing-powerhouse-genius-guru I guess I’ll…..take all my knowledge and….set up some kind of……do something…..awesome with it? Dunno, haven’t quite worked out the end yet.
