Buyouts and More: What You Need to Know!

What: Buy Outs, Work-for-Hire, Licencing and Negotiating Deals for Screen Composers: What you Need to Know. 

When: Tuesday 28 April 2020 – 6.30pm. 

Where: On-line webinar, via Zoom with participant registration. 

Cost: Free.

Who is this for?: AGSC Members, other screen composers and music and composition students. Participants will be asked to register in order to take part in the discussion and Q&A.

Register to join the webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WGaTw6GdS8WLowAxEO5s8w

Session Outline: Confused by the terms work-for-hire, buyout, or direct license? Have you ever encountered these terms in your music agreements? This webinar will examine and define the terms and explore what they all mean for working screen composers including those at the start of their careers. A panel of experienced Screen Composers and AGSC members, together with APRA representatives with international experience in negotiating deals will discuss the terms, give examples of situations and how to tips to negotiate music agreements in today’s world. A Q&A will follow with questions from the on-line audience.

THE PANEL 

·  Moderator: Caitlin Yeo - Screen composer, musician, AGSC Member and APRA Ambassador

· Panellist: Antony Partos - Screen composer, musician, AGSC member and Guild President

·  Panellist: Amanda Brown – Screen composer, musician, AGSC member, APRA Board Member and Ambassador

·  Panellist: Brett Aplin - Screen composer, musician, AGSC member

·  Panellist: Brendan Gallagher – Screen composer, musician, APRA Board Member and Ambassador  

·  Panellist: Scot Morris - APRA/AMCOS Director of International Relations

PANELIST BACKGROUNDS & SCREEN CREDITS

Brett Aplin

Brett is an AFI and APRA Screen Music Award winning screen composer who won the 2000 Annual Pete Carpenter Fellowship (BMI Foundation, NYC), travelling to Los Angeles to work with Emmy and Grammy award-winning television composer Mike Post where he composed music for Law and Order: SVU and generally couldn’t believe his luck.

Since then he has scored more than 50 films including features and documentaries, co-composed over 26 hours of television drama, and co-composed over 43 hours of children’s television across 4 series.

Recent credits include co-composing the music for the Channel 7 series Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, the hit Network Ten series My Life is Murder and the fabulous 8-part crime / horror series The Gloaming for STAN and ABC / Disney with Burkhard Dallwitz and Dmitri Golovko. 

Amanda Brown

Amanda has been composing music for the screen since graduating from AFTRS in 2000. She has written the scores for feature films Babyteeth, Kairos, The Family, UnIndian, Son of a Lion and Look Both Ways. She has a long list of television music credits, most recently the six part drama series The Secrets She Keeps for Channel 10 and Lingo Pictures.

In 2019 Amanda won the Soundtrack Stars Critics Award in Venice for Babyteeth. She has released multiple soundtrack albums in addition to an extensive discography of work with a range of artists including silverchair, The Vines, Youth Group and most notably, The Go Betweens.

Amanda is on the Board of APRA and and an AGSC member.

Brendan Gallagher

Brendan Gallagher is a singer, songwriter, composer, author & performer.

Producer of over thirty albums in as many years, more than half as an artist. He’s played guitar on recordings for artists like David Bowie, Jimmy Little and Kylie Minogue. His Open Tuning Chord Book For Guitar (1994) is now in its 4th edition. 

He’s composed for short films and documentaries for Beyond, ABC and SBS TV. In 2009 he scored Aussie feature film Subdivision.

Brendan has been an APRA Ambassador since 2010 and a Writer Director since 2014. He was appointed Vice Chair of the Asia Pacific Music Creators Alliance (APMA) in 2016. In 2017 he was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of The International Council of Music Creators (CIAM). 

Scot Morris

Scot is Director of International Relations of APRA AMCOS, responsible for its relationships with collecting societies around the world, as well as copyright, trade and development issues. He is responsible for maximizing members’ international revenue from the use of their music overseas. He has a background in entertainment law, languages and trade and was a legal officer at the Australian Copyright Council for several years before joining APRA AMCOS.

He has been the Chair of the Asia-Pacific Committee of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC) representing collecting societies in the region. He has also been the APRA representative on the Legal and Legislative Committee of CISAC and other committees and working groups. He works closely with various divisions of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on creative industry development in the region, as well as supporting the work of Sounds Australia in major and developing markets.

Antony Partos

Antony Partos is one of Australia’s most awarded film composers. His passion lies in creating scores that blend both acoustic and electronic elements with an eclectic mix of exotic instruments.

His feature film credits include Jasper Jones, 99 Homes, I Am Mother (winning the AGSC Award for Best Feature Film Score respectively in 2016, 2017 and 2019), Animal Kingdom (AFI award for Best Feature Score), The Rover, Disgrace, The Home Song Stories and Unfinished Sky (the latter two winning the AFI Award for Best Feature Score).  He also scored Academy-Award® nominated feature Tanna (winning both the AACTA and Film Critics Circle Award for Best Feature Score), BAFTA nominated feature documentary Sherpa (AGSC award for Best Music for a Documentary along with Best Soundtrack Album), Lucas Films documentary The Director and the Jedi which premiered at SXSW, and HBO feature film Fahrenheit 451 which premiered at Cannes Film Festival.

TV Drama credits include Wake in Fright (AACTA Award for Best Music Score in Television), Mystery Road (AACTA Award for Best Music Score in Television, AGSC Award for Best Music in a TV Series), Rake (AGSC Award for Best Music in a TV Series), The Slap (AGSC Award for Best TV Theme and Soundtrack), Mabo (AGSC Award for Best Music for a Telemovie) and Redfern Now (AACTA Award for Best Music Score in Television).

Antony also recently scored feature film Top End Wedding which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and the upcoming feature film Rams directed by Jeremy Sims and starring Sam Neill, which is set for release later this year. In collaboration with fellow Sonar composer Jackson Milas he has scored STAN Drama series Bloom (AGSC Award for Best TV Theme & Best Music in a TV Series) as well as Tim Minchin's highly acclaimed Foxtel drama series Upright.  In collaboration with Matteo Zingales, Antony scored the stellar ABC series Total Control, highly anticipated series The End, for Foxtel and Operation Buffalo for the ABC.

Antony Partos is the current president of the Australian Guild of Screen Composers and is a passionate supporter of creating Australian content and it being distributed around the world.

Panel Moderator

Caitlin Yeo 

Caitlin is an acclaimed, multi-award winning screen composer. Her signature style emerges from a fascination with music from different cultures and 20th century form. Her compositions are alive with a deep love of telling stories with music.

Caitlin has recently composed the music for Kriv Stender’s latest feature Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, Steve Vidler’s debut feature Standing Up for Sunny and Kaye Harrison’s feature documentary Sanctuary. She is currently working on Sally Aitken’s feature documentary Valerie and the TV drama series Wakefield for Jungle Entertainment/ABC TV.

Caitlin’s score for Priscilla Cameron’s The Butterfly Tree was awarded ‘Feature Film Score of the Year’ and ‘Best Soundtrack Album’ at the 2018 APRA Screen Music Awards. Her work on Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan won ‘Best Original Score’ at the 2019 FCCA Awards.

Caitlin served on the AGSC board for over 12 years, including two terms as president, has served on the Screen Australia Gender Task force, and is also an APRA Ambassador.