Experimental electronic musician Dan Deacon began moving into film scoring after Francis Ford Coppola persistently contacted him in 2009, having been impressed by Deacon’s ideas about composition in an NPR interview. Their eventual collaboration on Coppola’s 2011 horror film Twixt was difficult, but it gave Deacon experience that redirected his career away from relying solely on touring and recording.

Since working regularly in screen music from 2016, Deacon has scored more than 20 films and television programmes, including 2024’s Venom: The Last Dance, HBO’s Task and Netflix’s forthcoming Little Brother. His shift reflects a wider trend in which indie musicians are finding more creative and financial opportunities in film, television and games, as streaming expands demand for scores while touring and recorded-music income become harder to sustain.