How about a chance to win a thousand bucks and a placement credit--no problem, just cough up 100 bucks as an entry fee to a ridiculous contest:

http://www.bluedoorfilm.com/movie-contest.php

Never has a name been so clearly associated with the exploitation of desperate artists.

This sort of behavior should be assaulted, full force, by our community--in my opinion--and people like Sohrab Mirmontazeri should be brought down a peg or two for his clearly insincere approach to seeking a musical score for his film.

Sohrab Mirmontazeri sucks!


Can anyone seriously get behind his approach here?

Amazing. I actually find it hard to believe! This doesn't make sense on many levels.

1) Having potentially 10 different "winners" chosen means this film is going to have 10 different sounds in these unscored scenes. Add in the fact that there are already two "established" composers and the total count is up to 12. That's a whole lot of composers for one film. Can you imagine the differences in style, instrumentation, orchestration, production and mixing? The soundtrack is going to be ALL OVER THE PLACE!

2) Any contest that makes you pay upfront is a rip off. Total and complete rip off. I entered into the BFI contest several years ago and didn't have to pay a dime. This is a well established film company (and channel I believe) and they don't charge. So why in the world should we pay this guy? If he gets 10 schmucks to pay $100 each for the chance to score a portion of this movie, he walks away with $1,000. Total and complete rip off.

Edit: Take a look at the behind the scenes pictures. See all of those people? I guarantee you that they're getting paid for their work. When a production gets to this level it is very rare to find full crews working "for the love of film." People have to pay their bills. And yet this director wants to charge YOU for the chance to listen to your music and maybe select it for his film.

To any young composer out there - there are TONS of FREE competitions where you can actually WIN something for your music. You don't have to pay for the chance to win something. Learn early to spot these schemes and avoid them at all cost!

Amazing. I hope no one falls for this. He could even tell everyone they lost and just walk off with their money.

Heheh, I wasn't going to propse that it was a scam, but it's definitely scam-like.

Another thing to consider is the fact that it isn't clear who owns the music once it is submitted (whether it wins or not). His contest doesn't specify and leaving that to chance... is dangerous.

Hi everybody,

I'm new to electronic music production, but I agree that charging a fee to submit music for consideration doesn't seem like a good deal for any musician. An additional big nod of agreement to the idea that film score compiled from so many different submissions could lead to an inconsistent feel and production standards.

I did email the production company about music rights and, to be fair to Sohrab Mirmontazeri, he did reply with the following:

"...it will be under a non-exclusive deal memo, which means the artist will hold and retain all copyrights but you give Blue Door Film, LLC all the rights needed for us to use it on solely the film and its soundtrack..."

Seems fair enough so far- of course one always needs to see the small print. Even assuming the whole thing is legit fundraising, paying money to be considered is asking too much.

I look forward to looking around for the contests and opportunities that don't charge.

I'm reminded of the Nigerian scam. "The Reprehensible Sohrab Mirmontazeri" sounds like a good name for a score or maybe an operetta...

Looks like somebody did win the music campaign for Sohrab Mirmontazeri's film Blue Door..
theres the video

[media][/media]

A raffle? Well... that's one way to fund a film...

Glad to see someone won, I never doubted if there would be a winner or not, I just didn't approve of the terms of the contest. There are plenty of other scoring contests which offer placement and/or monetary rewards that do not make you pay to submit.

Wow, that blonde moderator woman shure is dumb as hell.

Mod: "Why do you think your stuff worked on the film?"

Musican: "Explains" (or tried)

Mod: "Yeah-yeah!" (like in: Boring! I don´t actually wanted o know that s***)

...