Spotting Sessions and Cue Sheets

[@DesmondHart]

Great video, very informative and helpful. My brain feels melted but I have a better understanding! Thank you

[@EdwinDPZ]

Thank you! I've been working a tv show for four years now and had never even known cue sheets existed. I felt like an idiot when I got asked by one of the new producers to see my cue sheet.

[@KerwinYoungComposer]

Thank you SOOOO MUCH for devoting the time to share this valuable information to the composer community! Your tutorials are thorough and much needed. I can't thank you enough!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! Really glad you find the content useful!

[@richgreene5445]

Wow! What attention to detail! I will have to watch this a couple more times to let it soak in. Thanks!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you! I’m glad this is helpful!

[@zvenx]

I can't thank you enough for doing this series......Much Appreciated

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

My pleasure!

[@Thejoshuacarter01]

You are so fantastic to take the time to share such invaluable information! There are so many aspects of composing for film/media that have nothing to do with composing, and those are the things not taught in film scoring courses, and your videos cover so many of them! Thank you so much!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I'm so glad my videos are helpful and cover some ground that is sorely missed in a lot of programs!

[@vleevision7787]

I'll say!!! B R A V O !!!

[@johnleggett5054]

I've been an avid listener of film scores for the past 52 years and have just found your KZbin page - your videos are so insightful and enjoyable to watch - many thanks for your sterling efforts and for your wonderful scores!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! Glad you like the content!

[@eloipainchaud1401]

Once again, uber pro stuff. I scored many project, but never took full advantage of the cue sheet. Your magnitude of organisation is just jaw breaking. Bravo for your generosity.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you, that’s very kind of you.

[@AlmaLibreStudios]

What an incredible insight into what really goes on behind the scenes. This is living proof that being musically talented isn't enough to be a successful film and media composer. Organizational skills as well as strong leadership is essential in order to be able to delegate what needs to be done and when. Great job with this template!!!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Yes, composition really only is a small part of the job. The modern media composer definitely has to be a savvy business owner as well.

[@AlmaLibreStudios]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Absolutely 100%, thank you

[@MichelSchallenberg]

Thanks for taking the time to make these videos, really interesting and helpful!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! I’m glad you find them helpful. The only reason I make them!

[@bonniecorralmusic]

Wow, this was so helpful to watch and to learn about your workflow. I have been looking for something like this and I am excited to view your other videos!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you for your kind words! I’m so glad you found this helpful :-)

[@kentkarlsson4169]

Thank you for showing exactly what's needed for delivery on that level. Awesome work, keep at it!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching and for your kind words! And yes, I will! :-)

[@mikismichaelides3618]

I think this sheet is amazing. I teach music for TV & Film and would love to have a copy of the empty template. All credit would go to you! Thanks!

[@victortang8176]

Amazing tutorial as usual, thanks so much for sharing your experience! And that pause at 9:40 😭

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it. :-)

[@jonathanparham]

Thanks for sharing your experience

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

My pleasure!

[@fridafeline]

Fantastic tutorial!

[@snarf1504]

Damn, after reading your story on teammates those basic reminders to give your assistents their fair share really hit home

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

It’s sad that it even needs to be said but the practice of cue sheet stealing is all too common. I doubt the composers currently doing that will change their ways as they feel all kinds of justified for doing it. But if we can educate the next generation on how these things used to be handled properly then maybe things can change to more adequate behavior in the future. Thanks for reading my story by the way!

[@sreeram458]

Thanks for the video!!

[@rebeccaleek3852]

Thank you so much, Anne. This was awesome. Buying you a coffee, but you should really be charging university level tuition fees.

[@gonzalozubillaga9341]

Very helpful Anne!! Thank you!!!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Glad this is helpful to you!

[@batagraf1892]

very helpful and useful. Thank you!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Glad to hear that!

[@Evangelionism]

Thanks so much!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching!

[@bienvenidoolazo1714]

I wish I can have a copy of this template sheet. Nice turorial!

[@fabulousk9014]

Can we please please please have your cue sheet? Would be such a big help!!

[@sebastiandudek4016]

Great! Extremely useful 👍👍

[@banterbanter]

Probably the nicest accent ever 🏆

[@01amilne]

Anne-Kathrin, thanks for another great and useful video. I've been customizing a template, inspired by your features with a hybrid of the Henrik Cednert script code and some other script code. I can't seem to get the "sumif" formula for adding the duration of any of the checkbox columns to work properly. (I end up with either a "0" or "00:00".) I'm gonna bet you'd prefer not to open Pandora's Box and start answering technical questions here, but, I am curious as to what time cell formatting is needed for the cells referenced with this functionality, in order to get things to work properly. Thanks again. Andy

[@FelipeAyres]

Hello Anne! I would like to ask you a couple of things regarding cue sheet and work registration. You mentioned that the PRO cue sheet serves for the royalty share and royalty collection etc. How does it work regarding work registration and the master registration on these towards your PRO so you get the ISWC and ISRC? You do this by yourself? If so, what happenes if the cue you wrote has for example 5minutes, but editors only used for 1 minute, 3 different times and that is what is in the cue sheet. Should you register the original length or the multiple usage of shorter length of the same work? I would be very interested to know more in depth about this, specially when you turn all these into a soundtrack album. Since you are going to change the titles, how do you link the new titles to the temporary ones created for the cue sheet, since they are the same work and share the same registration? Thank you so much! All best!

[@ChristineHals]

Thank you Anne! this was really helpful :)

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Always happy to hear that!

[@michaeljfriedman]

This was so helpful!! It really helps me understand the whole process & how the composer interacts with all the other groups and their team. Thank you! Also love the choice of background music, especially Mozart symphony no. 40 :)

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I’m glad you liked it and found it useful!

[@vincentnguyen537]

Wow.... many thanks Anne-Kathrin for this. I´d love to get a Excel Template like this. Is it your own, or a template which I can download?

[@Zaleskee]

Hi Anne-Kathrin, do you put your self as the punisher too, 50% You as Publisher and 50% as composer?, who is the publisher?. thank You for all the education!

[@patrykscelina]

Don't be a di** to your team :D I love it. Very nice and informative video Anne. Best of luck with the channel and upcoming projects.

[@vleevision7787]

where can one get templates. I am without a PRO at this time . maybe you have a link? THANK YOU !!! for this

[@MusicalWizardryMarcoIannello]

I love how you set up your cue sheet, Anne-Kathrin. Have you tried CueDB, by chance? I find it very similar to your Excel cue sheet. Also, keep stressing that everybody involved in the score OUGHT to get splits and paid!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I haven’t tried CueDB yet, though I’ve looked into it. I have previously used CueTracker and Cue Chronicle but my main issue with these programs is that everyone in the music department would need access to a copy or subscription. And even then a lot of them don’t synch automatically and you’re constantly busy exporting files or updated PDFs and sending them around and only one person can make those updates. To me this defeats the purpose of keeping everyone updated at all times with minimal effort - where everyone has free access and can update themselves at any time.

[@MusicalWizardryMarcoIannello]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer totally see where you are coming from. I tried CueDB for a short film, which naturally is a much smaller scale situation, but I can see it working really well for any big production, really. Being a web application, anybody can access it from anywhere, roles and permissions can be assigned in any amount and capacity, and the free version already has a tremendous number of options, all tweakable to one's liking 🙂

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Nice, I'll check it out someday then!

[@MusicalWizardryMarcoIannello]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer cool, hope you will find some us for it 🙂 Ah, I forgot to mention it gives you the ability to link Dropbox/Vimeo links to video files, as well, and it will play them back

[@jonasvogler]

+1 for CueDB. Amazing, what the dev is doing - so far for free! Interestingly very similar to your template. Thanks as always for the insight into your workflow. Keep it up!

[@AlessandroMastroianni]

Just subscribed to your channel, amazing stuff

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Glad you like it!

[@yaseenmuhammad5624]

Thank you for great video. would you like to share the link of sheet. I really need it. will be thank ful.

[@jaikumarsivalingam]

Thank you, Anne, for taking the time and sharing the video. Is there anyway I could get the Cue sheet template? It would be very helpful. Thank you once again!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! I believe Hollywood-based music editor extraordinaire Shie Rozow has posted a comprehensive template online. He certainly has shared it in various composer facebook groups so I'd look for it there.

[@jaikumarsivalingam]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Thanks Anne, Just got a copy from there! :)

[@jaikumarsivalingam]

n m currently binge watching your videos on youtube! great content! Thnx again

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Glad you're enjoying the content!

[@steven_gillon]

@@jaikumarsivalingam Hi! I couldn't find the the Cue Sheet template... Do you know where I can find it? I don't have facebook so I can't go to facebook groups. Thanks!!

[@bharathj63]

What exactly is the themes page? Great series btw! Featured out a way to convert time code to a total number of frames, then subtract the start frames from the end frames and you get the number of frames between the two times, convert it back to hh:mm:ss:ff to get back your duration time code.

[@vleevision7787]

at 9:41 you had me laughing !!! GOTCHA!!! thank you

[@brittneyrand1349]

I'm really interested in how you established the formula for the total score section - it would be really nice to figure out a way to clearly see how much work is in progress and how much is still remaining from the total score! I figured out the other formulas, just not how to calculate the durations from cells marked with 'in progress'. Once I figure out how to do that I should be able to easily determine the formula for what's remaining. Anybody know how to do this?!

[@sarinsahil]

Thank you :)

[@sorartificial]

Awesome video. link to download template?

[@prdk21]

Hi Anne, this was extremely helpful! I have a question. If it my my first time composing for a smaller film, am I responsible for preparing all of the spotting sheets and progress cue sheets? Or are any of these provided by the music director?

[@ChanellCrichlow]

Are you able to share this as a gogle doc template with us? I'm having trouble figuring out the formula for the length

[@stephset7056]

Thanks a lot for sharing all these information! I tried a lot and couldn't find a formula to calculate the deference between two TC In and Out and also the way to calculate the length of TC based on FPS. could you please help with this issue?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! There is no default formula that does that. You need to add an extra script in the background, created by Stockholm-based coder Henrik Cednert. If you google him you should be able to find his free Google sheet on which he shares the code and how to add it to your Google template. Then you can use his custom formulas.

[@stephset7056]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Great! waiting for the next tutorial!

[@michaelkelly4055]

A(Damn) Shame that 99.9% of the public doesn't know (or care) about the amount of work that goes into entertainment!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I don't know if they should. While appreciation for the arts is in short supply sometimes, I think it was always part of showbiz to make things look easy and effortless that are actually quite hard to do and require a lot of practice. We only want the audience to enjoy themselves, not show them how difficult it is and how much work goes into it.

[@AndrewThiriot]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Great perspective.

[@elvinmatz]

Hi! I'm writing a small paper on film music and was wondering if I could use a screenshot of your cue sheet as an example in it? Thanks for an informative video :)

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Absolutely, go for it! :-) Good luck with the paper!

[@christianmarsac3270]

thanks for the video. Would you be prepared to share a template of that Google Sheet? It is very impressive!

[@deetrout7623]

I love this. Are you willing to sell the template?

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

i basically ask if i should decide or if the director wants to say the parts he wants with music . Another way is to compose the whole soundtrack based on script and they pick music from this whole thing, there you have to be abundant.

[@yeppy013]

Does Netflix typically pay royalties to the writers?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Yes, all streaming services pay royalties to the writers.

[@markgerazzi9073]

Do you have different DAW sessions for each cue or a single big template? If separate, isn't it a headache if the director edits 1m3 to finish at 1:03:00:00? Now it's shorter, every cue will be thrown off and you must open every session and subtract time, then open your master project and glue stuff together.. Same goes if something earlier is shorted or lengthened. This is my biggest dilemma. Film scoring seems like a giant headache compared to interactive video game music.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I got into this in my Q&A Part 1 video since it's a common question. The short answer is: Yes, you use a different DAW session for each cue. We don't go in and change each cue if some thing in 1M3 changes. We only change the time code and time stamp on the exported files, and then adjust the cue sheet. Also, this is what reels are for. Each reel starts at zero again so even if something in reel 1 changes, it would only affect cues in reel 1. We also have a tendency to record cues to old picture versions if only the position of the cue changed. And then we fix it with the final audio stems before the delivery to the dub stage.

[@markgerazzi9073]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Thanks for response! I get reels, but I don't understand how only changing time code/stamp in a cue is enough. How don't you go in and add another say 40 sec of music in 1m3? Now 1m4 starts later. I'm assuming you deliver stems per cue and not reeI? Is there a point of having a master project and cutting/pasting audio and video together or is that just overkill? I need to grasp this for a documentary soon. And I thought horizontal resequencing was a mind F. Is there more in depth tutorials out there? I watched part 1 but it does not answer enough questions for me. By the way love your midi export for live recording video, very helpful!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I'm really not sure I understand the question or maybe I just don't see the problem?

[@indikasampath4832]

To all other film composers you show you how to do it in tidy, neatly, well organized, well kept, unclutter..ohh iam out of synonyms

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

It’s the only way for me and the team to stay on top of things and not mess up. :-)

[@rdru2ner82]

Beneficial video

[@nirmalcd9410]

One cue one session or full film in one session ? Please do a video regarding this

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

That question makes no sense I believe?

[@nirmalcd9410]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer sorry I meant all of the cuess ( whole film ) in one session

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

@@nirmalcd9410 I've already answered that in one of my Q&A videos.

[@nirmalcd9410]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer This is my first video of your channel. Let me check that

[@latonyadarlene4244]

Tonya

[@misi1979]

Which is You'r yacht, Katrin?:)

[@rogerhobden7670]

Like +++++

[@alex_holyman]

Everyone, who wants the template, I think I found it here docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sxawbBaxRPl8l1KP2USBWJYAgduM4Qj8EIZmbQ-2mMk/edit#gid=0 It's a bit changed, but the point the same