Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Freed.
Hi Jennifer, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
After graduating with a film degree from Stanford, I began my film career as a Craft Service person on a sci-fi-horror film, getting bagels each morning from Canter’s Deli. I went on to become a Production Accountant for films, working all over the country and internationally. We moved from LA to NY in 1989, where I continued as a film accountant, but in 1995, after having 2 babies within 18 months, I began doing Post Production Accounting in New York’s historic Brill Building and founded my first company, Trevanna Post.
Post Accounting is a little-known niche within film production: as once the cameras have wrapped, Post Accounting takes over from the shoot accounting team. That includes the software, banking, AP and PR files and all of the financial records. Our team works on the project until Delivery, and beyond. We have to factor in what’s left in the budget, how much is needed for Editorial (picture, sound, film/lab, VFX, music and reshoots) and help the producers get every dollar up on the screen. We work with every studio and dozens of independent production companies, and submit tax credits for states nationwide. I moved back to LA in 2012.
Through post-accounting, we experienced a pain point in the industry. Music licensing had no technology tools: the very creative Music Supervisors still used Excel and Dropbox, which caused lots of lag time and disorganization, and I set out to solve that with a new solution with another company…
Trevanna Tracks is the first cloud-based Sync Licensing management system for content creators. With our platform, Music Supervisors, Clearance teams, Business Affairs, Studio Executives and Finance can all collaborate in one workspace. Trevanna Tracks becomes the single source of truth for that project, whether it’s a film, television series, video game or marketing campaign.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Creating a new category is always hard. Unless they are also visionaries, people are hesitant to adopt new technologies. So the hardest part has been creating awareness of our product and then getting people excited to adopt it. The world’s two leading streamers caught on right away, as did the video game company who is the leader in music within their games. Next up ~ getting everyone else off of spreadsheets and into the cloud!
Another early struggle was finding the right developers. We had one team who helped us with our MPV (minimum viable product) but ultimately, we had to switch companies. They tried to take advantage of my inexperience with tech, so in turn, I had find a new team, which meant asking for A LOT of help from others. I had to stick with my vision but be open to other opinions and realities of what could and couldn’t be done within timeframes and financial parameters.
And the ongoing struggle continues to be SECURITY! I didn’t have any idea what was involved with keeping the client’s data safe, and it’s a never-ending challenge. But with continual monitoring and architecture improvements, we are very proud that we maintain an amazingly high level of security. While not super-sexy, it really helps us sleep at night!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a small but mighty team ~ film lovers, music lovers and now, software geeks. Most of us weren’t in software previously: we come from film production, book publishing, movie marketing, social media and eco-sustainability. But we all love organization and efficiency and making people happier with good technology.
We are proud of creating an accessible tool for both creative and business people to be more efficient, together. Our relationships with our clients at the studios come above all else: their direct feedback and imaginative ideas directly influence our roadmap for features that we’ll build in upcoming months and years.
When you hear a song perfectly placed in any scene, be it in a film, tv episode, commercial, video game or film trailer… take a minute and think how that came to be. The writer wrote the script, which might have just called for an “upbeat pop song” to be playing, but how did the music actually get there?
* A music supervisor gets hired and receives the script…
* Using their collective musical knowledge and diverse taste, they come up with multiple options for the creative team… each scene usually need 3-6 songs to be considered
* Each of those songs needs to be “cleared,” meaning they need to ask the Licensors for permission (for that project’s synopsis, for that scene’s synopsis, for what duration, and for what media rights). That’s asking both the representatives for the ALL of the Writers of the song (“publishing” rights aka “sync” rights) and the Artists that recorded it (“recording” rights, fka “master” rights)
*Fees and terms get negotiated or denied (maybe the artist is against horror films, etc.) but even then, the final selection per scene is still often up in the air until the final mix
*It’s only then, when it’s definitely in the project, that the licensing process begins
*Which of course triggers payments which must be made
*And all licenses must have fully-executed contracts with proof of payment, or else the musician could sue.
Supervisors delight in matching the perfect song to picture… they have the power to really break a newer band, or track, or revitalize an older song …and if it takes off, every single person in the orbit of the track wins: from the supervisor’s reputation to the licensors’ downstream royalties.
But this entire workflow requires a high level of organization. Trevanna Tracks gives more time back from administering all of the paperwork, so users can create more great content.
Now your readers might think of music differently, and appreciate all the work that goes into their favorite “synced” scenes!
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
My mother was an award-winning stage actress for over 40 years. I knew I wanted to be in the film business, but certainly not in front of the camera. I never imagined I’d end up in the accounting and now technology sides of film production, but that’s proof that life is a journey, not a destination. There’s no crystal ball, but if you enter an industry that you’re passionate about, I truly believe you will find the aspect of it that calls to you. I’ve always loved film and loved organization, (not often connected in people’s minds!!!), but this unexpected path is how those passions evolved for me.
My favorite synced song is “Ain’t No Sunshine” in the film NOTTING HILL.
Trevanna is a combination of my children’s names, Trevor & Savannah.
The drawing of the dog on our website is my rescue dog, Crosby Braverman, named for both David Crosby & Crosby Braverman from the show PARENTHOOD.
My husband is a concert promoter, my son is a musician, my daughter curates playlists for her online fitness classes, and my son-in-law is a music agent… we have all different facets of the music biz represented in our family!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://trevannatracks.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trevanna-tracks-llc/
