MUSIC FOR FILM, TELEVISION, ADVERTISING, AND NEW MEDIA

BARKLIE GRIGGS, MUSIC SUPERVISOR/OWNER, TILTED WORLD MUSIC

It would be hard to decide which Barklie Griggs loves more: films or music. As a teenager, the two consumed all his time and money. “I was always a music fan and a movie buff. I loved going to see movies and I loved listening to music. I paid attention to the music used in films. “I'm Alright” by Kenny Loggins in Caddyshack, Simple Minds’ “Don't Forget About Me” in The Breakfast Club, “Get Into The Groove” by Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, the sound track to Diner was a favorite. I began to buy sound tracks and just started learning more and more about music.”

After graduating from high school, Griggs left New York for Los Angeles, and worked as a waiter while trying to decide what to do with his life. In conversation with a regular customer one day, he discovered that the man was a music supervisor for films. The idea that someone actually did that for a living had never occurred to Griggs. But now that it had, he saw the way to combine his two great loves. Offering to quit his job on the spot and work for free to learn the business, he was politely turned down. Undaunted, he formulated a plan.

Griggs began going to a record store every day, reading album covers, and making a list of the names and titles of all the music people involved with film sound tracks. “I started to learn who all the players were.” Through a friend who knew a theatrical director, he began supplying music for plays. He studied The Hollywood Reporter's film and television music issue, learning everything he could about the people who held the job he wanted. After four months, he quit waiting tables and began telephoning everyone on his list.

The roommate of a friend, who had on a few occasions spoken to music supervisor Sharon Boyle, made an introductory call on Griggs’ behalf, securing an opportunity for him to send a resume and cover letter. “I had zero on my resume. I had no record business experience, nothing. I had just worked in restaurants. So I sent a cover letter that basically said, ‘I'm a record junky and I know a lot about music. I have over 800 records and I would die to work for you. And, I make really good coffee.’ That was a lie. I couldn't make coffee for the life of me.” After several follow-up calls trying to get a meeting with Boyle, Griggs was given an appointment. “It was Monday, the fourth of March, 1990. I threw myself at her. I said, ‘Please, I'll do anything. I'll work for free. I'll work from midnight to 6 a.m.” With no openings at the company, Griggs left the interview with only the assurance that Boyle would consider his offer. The very next day, one of Boyle's employees decided to go part time, and she decided to give Griggs a chance to come in on a temporary basis and see how things went. He ended up staying for five years, and worked on a number of big films, including Mr. Holland's Opus. Ready to test his wings, he opened Tilted World Music in 1995, and under his own company banner, has supervised a number of independent films, most notably Still Breathing, Thick As Thieves, Guinevere, Wing Commander, Ring of Fire, Nine Lives, and The Jane Austen Book Club.

JULIE HOULIHAN, MUSIC SUPERVISOR/OWNER, HOULIHAN FILM MUSIC

“I have always been involved in music,” says Julie Houlihan. Singing in a choir led her to study voice at Southern Methodist University, followed by short stints with the Dallas Opera, and a touring pop band. Tired of life on the road, she got a job as a morning news producer at a Little Rock radio station for a couple of years. “Although I loved news and felt it was a really important job getting information out to people, it wasn't creative enough for me. I missed music.” Leaving radio news behind, she found work at a video production house, learning to write, direct, and produce regional commercials and corporate videos. After another couple of years passed, she felt prepared to take on a bigger challenge. “I decided I would move to L.A., even though I didn't exactly know what I was going to do.”

In Los Angeles she discovered that not only was video production a specialized field, in California it was unionized. She found work in a film lab to keep money coming in, while she familiarized herself with the market. In 1994, she got a job as assistant to the vice president of music at New Line Cinema. “I had never been an assistant before, but I knew it was my only way into the industry. I was 28 years old and I had been a vice president of production, and a new producer. I never even considered answering anybody's phones, or typing people's memos, but that is a thing you learn when you get out here [Los Angeles]: the only way to get a job is to be an assistant.” Over the next couple of years, she learned supervision from the ground up and slowly began to earn music coordinator film credits. When she was offered a better job at MCA Music Publishing, working with artists and writers and pitching their music for use in film and television, she moved. “They let me do a little music supervision on the side. It takes a while for people in the industry to get to know you and trust you, to build your reputation up so they will trust you with their film project. You're responsible for a lot of money, not to mention the creative ideas.”

In 1998, with four years of film work to her credit, she took the plunge into music supervising and, opened Houlihan Film Music. Her first project was Eve's Bayou for Trimark, which became the film company's biggest hit to date. Among Houlihan's many subsequent television projects are Sweet Water for VH-1, 2+Gether for MTV, Roswell for WB, and Malcolm in the Middle for Fox.