#017 · 28 September 2026
7 opportunities this week, including an $8,000 documentary score that pays its shortlist to audition, and $500–$600 for a synth score that swells as the fighting starts
Also: $4,000 for a neo-noir action feature, and $250 for three minutes of an animated circus thriller.
A director has $8,000 for the score of a picture-locked, roughly 90-minute documentary about an engineer and inventor, players included. Whoever makes the shortlist is paid to score a trial scene first. A neo-noir action feature pays $4,000 flat, though it wants comfort with AI-assisted production and a composer who can be on Long Island on 11 October. On the game side, a minimalist RTS with a Steam page wants around $500–$600 of layered synth music that swells as the fighting starts. Below those: an Adelaide short at AU$400–AU$800, $250 for an animated thesis film, a paid animated series still working out its budget, and a student short that needs a new score before its festival run at the end of October. CastingCall.club supplied 140 of the 303 listings I read this week; eleven put a fee in the pay field, from $1 to $250, and after the $250 thesis film the next highest flat fee there was $80 for a pilot's background music. Seven of the 303 are here.
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Professional
Aethyron Zoetrope Productions · $4,000 flat · Primarily remote; required conference on Long Island, NY · Feature film · Closes October 3
The first Neon Tide film is a neo-noir action feature wanting strong themes and standalone tracks that blend electronic, orchestral and action scoring, in the musical lineage of Miami Vice rather than retro pastiche. Authorship is human-led, but inside what the production calls a hybrid generative-AI filmmaking pipeline, and comfort with AI-assisted production is required. The $4,000 covers a composing engagement whose cues, deliverables and revisions are agreed before contracting; the work is primarily remote, but the 11 October creative conference on Long Island is required, and the role is a local hire with no airfare or lodging.
Closed
Preston Booth, Director (Facebook) · $8,000 all in · Location not stated · Feature documentary (~90 min) · Composer signed mid-October
Whoever makes the shortlist is paid to score a short scene before the final choice, and the director says plainly they are not asking anybody to work for free. The film is a picture-locked biographical documentary of about 90 minutes on an engineer and inventor, with music under most of it; the director is thinking piano, guitar and some strings, would rather build it from a handful of themes developed across the film than 90 minutes of separate cues, and has a temp score to share. $8,000 is all in, including any players you bring, against a spotting session in late October, a main draft on 12 December and final stems on 5 January, and the bar is at least one completed feature or a good handful of finished shorts.
Indie
substrate-games (r/gameDevClassifieds) · Around $500–$600 · Location not stated · RTS game · No deadline stated
A minimalist RTS with a Steam page wants a dark, driving cyberpunk/synth loop of two to three minutes to replace its standard Pixabay track, for matches that run five to eight minutes from quiet build-up to full-scale chaos. The loop is built as four to six stems the developer fades in and out in Godot as the match heats up, and each has to hold up on its own, because players will often hear only the first one or two; the brief spells out delivery down to identical stem lengths starting on bar 1 and no clipping when everything plays at once. It starts with a small paid test of 30–60 seconds in three stems, and the developer is also open to a soundtrack revenue split or other arrangements.
Gossamer Sky Creations · AU$400–AU$800 flat · Adelaide preferred, remote may work · Short film (part of a trilogy) · Closes October 21
Part II of a short-film trilogy about the first seven minutes after death, when the brain does not yet realise the body is dead; this part is about suicide. The role description covers all three parts, which need to be linked musically across very different genres, so settle early whether the fee is for Part II or the whole trilogy. The director is ID-checked with five jobs posted on Mandy and prefers someone local to Adelaide, where the one-day shoot is in November, though remote may work.
Closed
Mirabelle Lapenna (CastingCall.club) · $250 flat · Location not stated · Animated short (3 min) · No deadline stated
A 2D animated thriller about two circus performers, made as a thesis film, paying $250 for about three minutes of original score plus music that can loop under the credits. The brief moves from gentle, melodic piano backstage to bright, bouncy circus fare in the sound of mechanical carnival music-makers, then turns mysterious, distorted and creepy as the story darkens. It is the only flat fee on CastingCall.club this week above $80, and scratch music is already in the animatic with a reference playlist linked.
Frog Charlie Studios (r/composer) · Paid, rate not stated · Location not stated · Animated series · No deadline stated
An independent animated series of ten-plus episodes a season, averaging about 28 minutes each, wants a composer to establish its musical identity and score the scenes that need it rather than fill the runtime. The studio would rather pay per episode than set one fee for the season, each fee negotiated on the music an episode needs and the composer's experience, but it is still working out the budget and asks for your typical rates, so name your number early. Ownership and licensing are open to negotiation too, and the studio wants those terms settled before work begins, which is the right order.
Collaborative
Alex, producer (r/Filmmakers) · Unpaid (credit and reel use) · Location not stated · Short film (~15 min) · Festival masters due end of October
A roughly 15-minute narrative short about a struggling actor caught in the repetition of auditioning, performing, failing and trying again, already shot and edited with substantial student crews, and scored once against a rough cut by a composer whose effort the producer and director were not happy with. The new composer would shape the final musical identity with the director in time for festival masters at the end of October, a turnaround the producer admits is quick. It is unpaid, with on-screen credit and reel use; the producer wants part of a crowdfunding push to go to the finishing crew if it meets its goal, but says plainly that money not yet raised cannot be promised.
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