On Feb. 15, 2024, the Association des professionnels de l’édition musicale (APEM) successfully presented its annual edition of the Quand la musique rencontre l’image (When music meets image) event at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montréal, presented in collaboration with the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. The gathering aims to raise awareness of practices related to the use of music in screen productions and to promote meetings between music and audio-visual professionals.
Two panels, both moderated by cultural columnist Eugénie Lépine-Blondeau, were held in a room packed with participants, who enjoyed the enthusiasm with which the guest speakers shared their experiences.
The first panel, “Music in the series FEM,” explored the impressive musical work done for this program, where music occupies a central place and the process of creating and synchronizing existing music was taken into account from the earliest stages of script development. This is unlike the vast majority of screen productions, where the musical aspect is too often relegated to the post-production stage. Director Marianne Farley, screenwriter Maxime Beauchamp, producer Patrick Bilodeau (UGO Média), composer Emmanuel Alias, and music supervisor Marie-Laurence Asselin (Fair Enough Publishing) discussed the series’ music, from artistic intent to final production. The series can currently be streamed on the UNIS platform, and the music is also available on streaming platforms, a rare practice for Québec screen productions.
The second panel, “Let’s talk budget: for a feast for the eyes … and ears,” featured Josée Vallée (Sphère Média); music supervisor, and music publisher Ludivine Lavenant (Executive Vice President, Fiction and Feature Films, Francophone market, Ray-On); Julie Godon (Senior Director, Francophone Specialty Channels, Corus); and grants consultant Joëlle Nadeau, , who discussed financial issues and tips for successful soundtracks.
To conclude this afternoon of enriching exchanges, APEM unveiled the five winners of the new Les synchros de l’année (Syncs of the Year) initiative, a pilot project designed to showcase production teams who’ve used music from Québec in a screen production. After a call for entries, a committee selected five winning scenes synchronizing images to a pre-existing musical work. This initiative, spearheaded by APEM, was deployed in partnership with the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, ARRQ, AQPM, AQTIS 514 IATSE, SARTEC and UDA, with the support of Musicaction, SODEC, and SOCAN Foundation.
The Syncs of the Year are:
Tourisme Québec – Campagne 2023 – On vit l’été à fond
Work: Chats sauvages
Creators: Marjo & Jean Millaire
Artist: Mayfly
Publisher: Thésis Musique, représentée par David Murphy et Cie
Sound Recording: Studio Cult Studio
Rights Clearance: TRAM7—Laetitia Lebedeff
Director: Jodeb
Producer: Télescope Film
À mort le bikini
Work: Sadgirlsclub
Creators: Lisandre Bourdages, Raphaëlle Chouinard, Sarah Dion
Artist: Les Shirley
Sync Agency: Fair Enough Publishing
Sound Recording: Les Shirley
Director: Justine Gauthier
Producer: Colonelle Films – Léonie Hurtubise
Hooké—Intrépide de nature
Work: Tu trembleras encore
Creator and Artist: Maude Audet
Publisher: Bravo Musique Éditions
Sound Recording: Maude Audet (sous licence exclusive à Bravo Musique)
Director: Nathan Plamondon
Producer: Étienne Turmel
Sync Agency: Fair Enough Publishing
NOUS (Épisode 24)
Work: Reflet
Creator and Artist: Marco Ema
Publisher and Sound Recording: Rosemarie Records (Kay Productions Musique Inc.)
Rights Clearance: TRAM 7
Director: Yannick Savard
Producer: Duo Productions
Screenplay: Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf and Gabrielle Chapdelaine
Des hommes, la nuit
Work: Dreamcatcher
Creator: Pierre-Philippe Côté
Artist: Peter Henry Phillips
Publisher: Birdhouse Publishing (Studio Le Nid)
Sound Recording: Pierre-Philippe Côté/Studio Le Nid
Director: Anh Minh Truong
Producer: Chasseurs Films—Laurent Allaire and Véronique Vigneault
Screenplay: Anh Minh Truong, Steve B. Bernard
SOCAN congratulates all the SOCAN members who won the Synchros de l’année award and all the teams involved in this essential development for Canadian music in audiovisual productions.