[David_Gardiner]

EP the Musical ~ an Open Source Project

I've been talking about turning Engineering Paradise the Musical into an Open Source Project for some time. Tonight I've finally 'bitten the bullet' and done it. The concept needs a bit of explanation and I have made a webpage to explain fully what the project is all about and give you a way to get started straight away. Please feel free to write me a song! Here is the relevant page: http://davidgardiner.net/EPOpen.html

[Marrianna]

EP the Musical ~ an Open Source Project

I've been talking about turning Engineering Paradise the Musical into an Open Source Project for some time. Tonight I've finally 'bitten the bullet' and done it. The concept needs a bit of explanation and I have made a webpage to explain fully what the project is all about and give you a way to get started straight away. Please feel free to write me a song! Here is the relevant page: http://davidgardiner.net/EPOpen.html

Hi,

As I was one of the people who wrote most of the music for EP, I am obviously interested to see where the new system of asking individuals to write just one song only, leads. Also, how the paragraph 3 under More Details is going to actually work when, bearing in mind, writers spend a lot of time and effort, not only composing music but making Backing Tracks and writing 'scores' is concerned.
What reward is actually offered if you are going to retain Grand Rights?
PRS formusic could be involved in licensing the works if they are registered as the writer's own property and wouldn't be relevant to Grand Rights and coming under the 'small rights' category. i.e. if the songs are not written especially for the Musical.

If the lyrics are already in place based on the story in the book, how do they become the writer's own property unless the words and music are totally new?

Are you saying that there is no financial reward for the music written (or words if that is the case)
but the book is on sale. I don't know anything about book-sales and income from sales but wouldn't the show be a great advert. for the book and so bringing in income for author and publisher?

I was told that there was a chance that songs could be removed from the show at the potential director's discretion so what could sound like a possible winner may be withdrawn. I have read somewhere that it may be difficult to find a director willing to offer his/her services free (another more financially rewarding job may turn up and he/she could withdraw rather than lose if he/she has important financial commitments). I experienced losing a great singer for one of my songs in a contest because a more tempting offer came her way and she 'deserted' me even though I would have been paying for travel and hotel. So this could happen in other situations for other people.

It is all very confusing, to me anyway, and so I hope it is OK to come in on this and bring these points up being that I have been involved.

It would be helpful to learn the whys and wherefores of this kind of project, especially where Grand Rights are concerned.

Thankyou

Marrianna

[David_Gardiner]

Well, as I think you know, I'm very new to this whole field, and just trying to find a way through the PRS regulations that will allow me to retain a certain amount of artistic control. I don't want to end up in the position where I have a show ready for the road and somebody suddenly says 'Oh no. You can't use the music I wrote', or 'Oh no. I'm not allowing Theatre Group X to perform this work.'

A lesson you taught me, and for which I'm grateful, is that collaboration is a minefield and you need to get it straight from the outset who owns the music and who owns the script and protect yourself against potential sabotage. If there's a rights structure somebody wants to suggest that does that more effectively I'm listening and perfectly willing to do it their way. The revenue end of things doesn't interest me, it's not part of my motivation in doing this, and I don't believe it's ever likely to amount to very much no matter what way we do things. But I shudder now when I consider the power I might sign over to people who later become hostile to the whole project.

[Marrianna]

Well, as I think you know, I'm very new to this whole field, and just trying to find a way through the PRS regulations that will allow me to retain a certain amount of artistic control. I don't want to end up in the position where I have a show ready for the road and somebody suddenly says 'Oh no. You can't use the music I wrote', or 'Oh no. I'm not allowing Theatre Group X to perform this work.'

A lesson you taught me, and for which I'm grateful, is that collaboration is a minefield and you need to get it straight from the outset who owns the music and who owns the script and protect yourself against potential sabotage. If there's a rights structure somebody wants to suggest that does that more effectively I'm listening and perfectly willing to do it their way. The revenue end of things doesn't interest me, it's not part of my motivation in doing this, and I don't believe it's ever likely to amount to very much no matter what way we do things. But I shudder now when I consider the power I might sign over to people who later become hostile to the whole project.

Hello David,

All you need to do is set out exactly what you plan and make a written agreement, ideally with expert advice to make sure nothing is included or left out which can lead to any uncertainties or misunderstandings. Anyone considering working with you will understand properly before they agree to work as a partnership with the show. Two witnessed signatures (by the two people involved) on the dotted lines, dated and it's done. Everything should work fine then.  

Marrianna

[David_Gardiner]

Well as far as I can see all I need is an agreement regarding each individual song, if it's a good one, that I'm allowed to incorporate it in the final script. I don't need or want any rights over it beyond that.

[Marrianna]

deleted by Marrianna

[David_Gardiner]

This is an update. I've now got a musical collaborator named Andrew Richardson, who is writing music for the project at a dizzy rate. He has only been around for about a week and already we have four tracks up on the Soundcloud channel, and according to Andrew we should have two more by the end of the weekend!

https://soundcloud.com/david-gardiner-8

We are still very much open to contributions from others, and what we particularly need at the moment is one or more female singers, ideally young since the main characters in the story are all teenagers. Even more ideally, with Northern Irish or Scottish accents. It doesn't matter if you dont write songs, we have melodies for several of the lyrics and are just waiting to find singers.

Please get in touch if you're interested. My personal email address is: sirat@davidgardiner.net

I would put a 'wanted' ad in the 'singers' section too but I don't think there is one here.

[David_Gardiner]

Second Update. We've got seven tracks up there now, but the two female songs aren't up to the same standard as Andrew Richardson's work. They are in fact practice sessions that were never intended for public consumption. A young lady named Becky Simpson very kindly created melodies for two of the songs that appear as lyrics in the original novel, and performed them for me at the book launch in 2011, and these were recordings we made when we were Skyping and emailing one another working on the songs. I had forgotten they existed and came across them by accident.

Unfortunately I've completely lost contact with Becky now (her family moved to Canada I remember) and although I like the melodies and the mood of her songs the recordings aren't very good technically and her diction in particular is a bit hit-and-miss on these tracks.

So what I'm leading up to is that if there is a young female singer out there, particularly one with a Northern Irish or Scottish accent, I would be eternally grateful if you could record better versions of these two songs for me, and of course others if you are willing.

For anybody within reach of London, I have a reasonably good home recording set-up with a condenser microphone, a decent Yamaha keyboard and quite a lot of sound editing software. I might be able to return the favour if you want to record here by making good tracks of your own material at the same time. I'll even throw in a free lunch or dinner (I cook a mean curry). Can't say fairer than that. My personal email address is: sirat@davidgardiner.net  The soundcloud channel is at: https://soundcloud.com/david-gardiner-8

[hardtwistmusic]

I replied to your post under Benji's thread.  Didn't know you had this thread going. 

Anyway, I'm very interested in the "open source" concept. 

And I have some ideas in that regard.  See my post in that thread.  Let me know.

[David_Gardiner]

I’m issuing an invitation to all songwriters to have a go at writing the melody for what I think is one of the best songs in Engineering Paradise the Musical, ‘A Girl Who Gets Around’. It’s a bit cheeky, maybe a bit dark as well:

http://davidgardiner.net/Invitation.html

Thanks.

David.

[Arkwright]

I'm afraid I can't help at all with your melody David, but just wanted to say I've had a listen to some of the numbers on your soundcloud account and there's some impressive show tunes going on there... I'm not a huge fan of musical theatre, but appreciate a good song when I hear one.

Of course the music is only one half of the story and I hope the storyline is just as strong.

Good luck with your project...

[Marrianna]

I’m issuing an invitation to all songwriters to have a go at writing the melody for what I think is one of the best songs in Engineering Paradise the Musical, ‘A Girl Who Gets Around’. It’s a bit cheeky, maybe a bit dark as well:

http://davidgardiner.net/Invitation.html

Thanks.

David.

Just to add that the music I wrote for this song is spoken for now. I wrote new words for it so it is a different genre now. I didn't want the music to be wasted. I enjoyed writing it.
Marrianna