238 !!Chapter 13
agencies on a regional basis are your best bet—but it’s the same
as any other business—what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
You need to get work to show people to get more work. If you
have no work to show, you’re virtually closed out of anyone giv-
ing you the opportunity to do work. My best advice is that if a
person really feels as if they would like to be in their own com-
pany, they have no choice but to work for an established busi-
ness first. In other words, you are going to have to do one, two,
or three years of dues paying and work for an established com-
pany before you can even get a chance to understand how the
business works. The business works a lot on relationship build-
ing. The first thing that I would think about is taking existing
commercials right off the air and doing my own track. In other
words, doing spec work. [John suggests that the composer call
the agency and ask if she can do another music track to their
commercial.] If you work in smaller markets, they might take
you up on it. After that, what you would hope for if you have
demonstrated enough capability is that they would give you a
chance to do another spec track for a real job. In other words, to
a storyboard or a rough cut. You will have to be doing a series of
free demos and have to get familiar or somewhat acquainted
with the producer on the job and/or the creatives, the copy-
writer or the art director, and best of all the creative director...
there are a lot of people vying for a little work. You’ve got to be
imaginative; you’ve got to be committed, very dedicated to the
fact that you know you are going to have to prove yourself
before you get a chance to do anything. Now, the flip side of that
is that once you have been doing this body of spec work, you’re
creating your own reel. It’s just an ongoing onslaught of making
phone calls and diligence—you’ll hopefully get an opportunity
to work on a real job and have a chance of getting something on
air at the time.
MZ: With whom do you negotiate at an advertising agency?
Russo: We deal primarily with the producer and/or the business
affairs manager... you have to abide by a work-for-hire con-
tract. In other words, the client will own all rights and entitle-
ments to that piece of music. You’re basically writing as a
supplier—a vendor to this particular agency for this particular
product, and you have to assign all right and title. It all comes
down to what the budget is and usually it’s for the United States
and Canada. If the agency elects to use the work in Europe, Asia,
or Mexico, or for additional medium rights, let’s say radio or
Internet, you could negotiate and include that within your
budget.
MZ: Do you ever refuse to compete for a job?