Songwriting & Film Scoring at the same time?

[enlighten]

This is probably an ideal situation question. But I'm sure there are some of you who are interested in both songwriting and film scoring. If a person signed an Exclusive Songwriter Contract with a publisher, would the person also be able to score films at the same time?From what I understand, Film Scorers are often paid in a Work-for-Hire situation where they only get a flat Composer Fee for their work without owning the work. How would the situation work with their publisher? Would they be prevented to work on projects for TV/film?I see some of the big name Composers out there songwriting and film scoring at the same time. How would that work?Thanks guys!

[gitarrero]

that depends on the contract.If you're exclusively signed as a songwriter than the contract would need to exclude the exclusivity for film scoring and/or work for hire as studio musician for example.

[matto]

To be perfectly honest with you...this is one of those "cart before the horse" type questions...(unless you're presently being offered a exclusive staff writer deal AND have some major ins in professional film scoring )If you're equally interested in both fields, and equally GOOD at both, you should not worry about the situation you're describing and instead just pursue both avenues as best you can. See which one leads to success (or to success quicker). If you are good enough and lucky enough to be offered a staff writer deal (which are quite rare these days), you should consider yourself VERY fortunate and make the most of it. These things don't last forever, so it's not like you'd be precluded from scoring films from the rest of your life...at worst just for the length of the contract.Most people would be quite content to really succeed (meaning you make a nice living at it) in either of these fields...but if you're not, keep in mind that most people who do both successfully didn't get there by "making it" in each field simultaneously and independently. They succeeded at one first, which then gave them credibility and made it easier for them to also tackle the other.matto

[enlighten]

Thanks gitarrero and matto for your replies. And matto, you're right about the question. Thanks for clearing things up for me and offering tips on how to tackle these fields. Hope that your writing for the Oprah show is going well as well.