A while ago I scored a small budget independent film. The director was a friend of a friend. He seemed gifted and I liked his idea, so I decided to do it. The budget allocated to music was really small, so I explained him carefully that doing it for this little money was barely covering my costs, and that I was doing it for the love and because, as he promised, he had good chances of landing a bigger project if this one went well. We completed the project easily enough and he was really happy with the music.

Less than a year later, he called me back. He asked how I was and the usual, and said that he landed a much bigger budget for his next film, and that he could tell me all about it while catching up around a coffee. We met at a coffee place later this week. He seemed really excited. I liked the idea for his new movie even more. When we finally reach the subject of music, the conversation went like this:

Director:  Oh, and for the music, you are gonna love this! We got this guy who scored a couple of TV shows already, we're gonna have a live recording and a real choir and everything!

Me: You're joking, right?

Director: What, why? Oh... You gotta understand man, I have a budget now.