I'm having a disagreement with a user - guess who? - and I'd like to know how the rest of the community feels about this. I'll start with supplying two screenshots.

From the opening credits:


From the closing credits:


The current profile gives both John Cacavas and Mike Post equal "composer" credits, which I feel is wrong: it's obvious that Mike Post had nothing to do with scoring the movie, he just supplied the 'Mystery Movie Theme'. I'd call the 'Mystery Movie Theme' a "song", and I feel that Mike Post is entitled to a "song writer" credit on this, but certainly not a "composer" credit, as that would indicate that he scored the movie together with Jon Cacavas, which he certainly didn't.

Unfortunately Skip is willing to throw all of that out the window because the 'Mystery Movie Theme' song doesn't have lyrics, and as such, doesn't match his definition of a "song". That may very well be - I don't want to argue semantics - but I really don't think that was the intent behind how we handle our music credits. Whether you call the 'Mystery Movie Theme' a "song" or not, the fact of the matter is that Mike Post did NOT score the movie; he just supplied a single 'theme' (or 'theme song', if you will) that plays over the credits. I couldn't care less if that 'theme' has lyrics or not - either way, Mike Post only contributed that single 'theme'. Regardless of endless arguments about what constitutes a "song", I just can't help feeling that Mike Post doesn't deserve a joint "composer" credit on this. Just the fact that he's not credited together with (actual) composer John Cacavas in the opening credits gives me a clear indication of that.

Am I right or am I wrong? If you want to look at the actual contribution this is about, check out UPC 025193-327222.

Quoting skipnet50:

Quote:
From Merriam Webster Distionary

As I said: that may very well be. My point is that Mike Post did NOT score the movie. Giving him a joint "composer" credit together with the person that DID score the movie is:

a) a complete misrepresentation of the truth (John Cacavas and Mike Post did NOT jointly provide the score; John Cacavas did, and Mike Post's only contribution was a single 'theme' playing over the credits.

b) a complete misrepresentation of the credits (Mike Post is NOT credited as composer together with John Cacavas in the opening credits, but instead gets a seperate credit in the end credits).

Regardless of your definition of a "song", I feel that giving both joint "composer" credits is both wrong and confusing. Mike Post composed a LOT of TV-Themes over the years: I want DVD Profiler to reflect when he actually scored a movie or TV episode, and when he's only credited for the use of his theme song. If we list both contributions as "composer", then we lose that distinction completely. I don't see why you'd want to do that...

Your twisting only totally muddies the water Mike Post and Pete Carpenter wrote the Theme SONG for The Greatest American, Beethoven's 5th is NOT a Song. The theme music in whatever form Composition or Actual Song is linked to the show and identifies the show. it's is not Mission Impossible without Lalo Schifrin's Theme Music, it is also NOT The Greatest American Hero with Mike and Pete's Theme SONG.

Skip

So Monty Norman is a composer for all the Bond films? I think not...

It is certainly NOT a SONG, Patsa. Bond has a variety of SONG WRITERS but NONE of them are Monty Norman.

Skip

You are twisting, Tim because you are muddying the line between a Song and a piece of Music which contains NO words. It can get a little complex, in that SOMETIMES a musical composition has words put to it, for example Nino Rota's Love Theme from the Godfather, which LATER (not for the movie) had words written for it by Andy Williams. But a Musical Composition is written by a COMPOSER. By your definition Tchaikovsky's 1912 Overture could be classed as a Song, in fact by your definition we do not even need Composer because everything would be a Song.

Tim I will concede that the Rules need some calrification, but you can't make a Musical Composition a Song it simply doesn't fit the definition.

Skip

This is getting again 20+ pages argument.

Since theme music composers do not currently fit in the rules definitions, do not credit them. It's that simple. It's the same as sound effects editors and other similar.

Quoting T!M:

Quote:
And I'll repeat that last thing one more time: I propose that we "reserve" the composer credit for the person(s) that actually scored the movie (or TV episode), and that we use the song writer credit for the person(s) responsible for the theme. It doesn't matter whether that theme has lyrics (see 'The Greatest American Hero') or not (this particular 'Movie Mystery Theme' in 'Columbo') - in both cases Mike Post only wrote a theme, but did not provide the score for the movie/episode. Someone else is credited with "score" or "music", and only THAT person is the movie's composer.

I agree with this.