Does HDM work on zero budget projects?

The honest answer is 'sometimes'.

We of course recognise that today's blagging student (anyone recognise the phrase 'this will get you really good exposure...') is tomorrow's paying client. Secondly, we don't just write media music, we also love watching well made media - and if we can do anything to help a talented media-maker get off the ground, then it's pretty cool to get the opportunity to do it.

Having said that, there's a set of criteria that govern whether we say yes or no thanks:

• First and foremost - we have to like your work. It is always amazing how many students ask for free music without offering a treatment or a link to somewhere the current edit can be viewed.

• If we aren't getting paid, we'd like to think no-one else in post-production is geting paid either. With a zero budget the chances are the music will need to be generated from computers - which means we are composing, programming, mixing, mastering and quite possibly doing some sound design. That could add up to a long day per 2 minutes of music, with another few hours each time a cue needs to be revised. Therefore an attitude that says editors need to be paid because they won't do it for nothing wheras music is free because composers are desperate for portfolio material is unlikely to win our friendship.

• Composing is a business and occasionally we like to eat. Therefore availability for freebies will be dependent on what else is in the schedule, as paying clients, we hope you understand, will always come first. On which point, we will always hit a deadline we've committed to - but the deadlines we commit to for freebies may be a little further out than those we commit to for Clients.

• We will appreciate being credited, both within the film credits and on IMDB for any work we do, as well as receiving a finished copy of the work. To date, we have yet to receive a copy of anything we've done for free - so if you're about to get in touch to ask for our help, we really hope you'll be the first to break our 'duck'!

• We would expect to retain copyright to any music we create and would retain the right to exploit rewritten versions of that music via Production Libraries at some point in the future.