Strategies, Tips and Techniques for Finding Work In The Film Scoring World

Let’s face it. The film scoring industry is extremely competitive. Whether you’re in Los Angeles , or other parts of the country or world, film scoring communities are being saturated with more and more composers. As the home studio has become more and more affordable, more film composers are being manufactured at an enormous rate.

So what helps composers achieve success in this competitive industry of film music? Certainly, luck plays a big role. Aside from that, composer needs all the tools they can put their hands on. The composer with the most tools available is the one most likely to succeed.


Having said that, I have written two handbooks in order to arm the aspiring composer with the vital information one needs to help “make it” in the film scoring business. They are:

1. FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE SCORING STAGE: THE COLLEGE STUDENT’S GUIDE TO LANDING A JOB IN THE FILM SCORING BUSINESS

2. 112 HOLLYWOOD-INSIDER FILM SCORING TIPS

The first book covers the topic of employment in the film music industry in depth. It specifically deals with finding work as a composer’s assistant, as that is one of the best ways to break into the business.

Unfortunately you can’t just pick up today’s newspaper and peruse the classifieds looking for work in the film music business. Well, you could, but you would never find any film music jobs advertised. You need to seek out the working composers in your film scoring community. The handbook discusses how to do this step-by-step. There are learnable techniques and strategies you can utilize that can get you working in the film music business quickly.

The second book is a revealing insider’s look into Hollywood film scoring today and what trends and changes are occurring. It covers a lot more than just composition trends. The Hollywood film scoring process is multi-faceted and in this book I lay out 112 pointers on the demoing and interviewing process, mockups, presenting your cues, composition and orchestration, music preparation, scheduling and project management, running recording sessions, delivering the music and much more. Even though you may not live in Hollywood , you will find that a lot of these tips can be applied to wherever it is that you are scoring films. It is a great toolbox of film scoring tricks!

I wrote these guidebooks in an attempt to fill the gap in the film music literature in terms of covering the topic of employment and contemporary film scoring techniques. So I decided to share the last five years of Hollywood experience as a composer, orchestrator, conductor and assistant to other composers working their way into the industry.

I have worked on over 24 studio feature films. Much of my Hollywood experience so far was spent working for composer Christopher Young as assistant and project manager. I’ve worked for him on such movies as “Spider-Man 3,”  “Ghost Rider” and “The Grudge,” to name a few. I’ve also orchestrated for composer John Ottman on such films as “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer” and “The Invasion.” Most recently, I composed the film score for a feature film called “The Grudge 3,” produced by Sam Raimi.

To read more about FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE SCORING STAGE: THE COLLEGE STUDENT’S GUIDE TO LANDING A JOB IN THE FILM SCORING BUSINESS click here.

To read more about 112 HOLLYWOOD-INSIDER FILM SCORING TIPS click here.

To purchase a copy of FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE SCORING STAGE: THE COLLEGE STUDENT’S GUIDE TO LANDING A JOB IN THE FILM SCORING BUSINESS click here.

To read excerpts of the film scoring manual please click here.