Producing Soundtrack CDs

As I have moved into film projects, and also the coffee company I’m involved with, I was telling a colleague what an incredible training I got producing vintage film score CDs.

Why? Because our CDs were so small in a business-sense—representing pretty much meaningless revenue to the film studio—the only way they would possibly happen is if I interacted with all the studio personnel in the most efficient, professional and charming way possible.

I knew going in: nobody owed me anything, and nobody would go out of their way to help me unless, well, they wanted to.

Why would they want to? Well, if I was nice. If I was considerate of their time and obligations; they knew I was never going to pull a fast one and access something without permission; and I would never, ever get them in trouble with their boss.

I always made sure to put their names in the special thanks list in the CD packaging—and I’d take care to send them a copy. Some of these folks might work at a studio for three decades, but never otherwise appear in the credits to a project. I learned later that, to some of them, it meant way more than I realized.

I learned that people were different: some were by-the-book, others not so much. Some were highly organized and regimented; others improvisational. You had to figure out how to assess that and meet people “where they are”—in the manner that worked for them.

But basically you couldn’t go wrong just being friendly, polite, interested in them and what they do—and did little things like, you know, say please and thank you, and not make a mess with their photocopier if they allowed you to use it.

It also helped to be organized. I knew that people might have only a few minutes a week to research my silly little problem with a missing overlay to a 35-year-old film score. So when that three-minute window came up, I knew exactly what to ask them to give them the tools to succeed.

I remember one time, for the Frantic CD, the only way to find some missing cues was to listen to unlabeled film rolls. So I made an after-hours appointment to work with an engineer at the Warner Bros. tape facility on the studio lot. I was paying by the hour, and the bill could add up. But I had done my homework and had a good sense of what methodology to use to scan through the tapes. The engineer assigned to help me was, I could tell, a little apprehensive about exactly what he was doing with this rando on a Tuesday night (or whenever). But after maybe 20 minutes, he said, “Oh, now I get it: you know what you want.” And I said, “Yes! I know what I want.” And it was like the tension drained from his face. We spent a productive few hours finding what I needed, and from that point forward, whenever we crossed paths, it was a good experience.

It turns out, lots of people don’t know what they want. And they send staffers on wild goose chases and then blame the poor guy who was trying to help when it doesn’t work out.

I’m sure I’m skipping over some incidents where my behavior left a lot to be desired. I was less than wonderful to some people, especially early on. But by and large I had positive interactions, and am still friends with a lot of these studio folks 15–20 years later.

My favorite was the attorney at CBS who would groan to me on the phone, “Lukas...I hate soundtrack albums.” She would crack me up.

And I would always tell that story to anybody else who might feel a bit overloaded by whatever I was asking them to do. Having a sense of humor about yourself, it turns out, is something that people typically appreciate.

It’s hard to make things: films, television, soundtrack albums. You need a lot of people to help you. And for those people just working their jobs at whatever facility is involved—you can tell they’ve suffered a lot of abuse. They are required to service people who are often confused, scatterbrained, rude, stressed, and very hard to please.

So if you just do some basic things—be nice, polite, organized and positive—you can very quickly get on their “good list.” It turns out some people can be incredibly productive and resourceful if given a little encouragement and courtesy.

Simply knowing what you want and how to achieve it? People tend to love that.

I am so appreciative for all the experiences I had, and all the nice people I got to meet.

And truly, I am grateful for all their efforts to help with our projects.

Be kind, everybody!