Introduction  

What does it take to be a film composer? What are the qualifications? Whats the duties or responsibilities needed to be a composer? These are just some of the questions that I will be exploring to outline the career of a professional film composer. I have always had an intense passion for film and music and since begging my degree I’ve had to learn just how much it takes to become a professional in this industry. The countless hours of experience you need to even get a chance, the enormous responsibility of dealing with the budgets that go behind these projects and the competitive job market that surrounds it all.  

Overview  

• At the core of becoming a composer you need your musical skills, equipment and your own personal sound! Whether it be electronic or orchestral, it can all work for the right type of visual media you just need to make it seamless.  

• Then you need to build your portfolio, use old videos from childhood, use public domain content, whatever you can legally create a score for just do it!  

• Understand the film industry, learn about the art of the camera and directing so your music can reflect the media better 

• Reach out to student directors and filmmakers, apply to contests, reach out to independent film company’s and never stop making music 

• Finally repeat it all and continually expand upon yourself again  

• (Wiater, 2023) 

Summed up these are the key steps to becoming a film composer, but what does it all really mean outside of the musical elements?  

Qualifications 

Film composition has historically been a highly educated position, requiring musicians that are more the competent at orchestration, notation, composing for numerous genres of music and being comfortable with the latest ever evolving tech. A lot of these factors still hold true today however there’s a much broader spectrum then previous. Now, so long as you have a DAW and an idea, then you technically can compose for film. But it will do you a great deal of help to have some formal education such a bachelor’s in music or composing and a masters in some form of film, because if you make it in the big leagues , then you will be composing for huge orchestras on high budgets that you don’t want to mess around with. (masterclass, 2021) 

Having worked with student film makers and applying for film competitions are also incredibly valuable experiences for composer to have as this is the only real way to get use to the pressure and deadlines that come with this work. It will also help you create your own sound which will increase likelihood of success, such a Christopher Nolan and Hanz Zimmer as their partnership created their own unique compositions that people go out of their way to see year after year. These portfolios of work will make you much more appealing to employers because they can both hear your work and see the financial success which is what they will be mostly interested in.  

Skills and qualities needed for success  

Theres a variety of skills a composer would want, but it is the composer’s toolkit that will be the most important. This is your harmony, orchestration, mixing and motifs. This covers your musical side of skills, then we have your negotiation, teamwork, timing and film theory. This will be your industry side of skills.  

Across these skills are the primary factors any good composer will need for success! (Armandary, 2021) 

Music- The musical skills will be your building blocks for your actual work/art that you create. This is ultimately what you are doing, creating large harmonic motifs that represent different themes and settings or fading edits within the film. You need to have these skills or else you will make dull repetitive music that takes too long to make, being able to utilise these abilities will create a strong workflow that you can use to evolve your sound and keep efficiency.  

Industry- These skills will be what keeps you paid because ultimately if you don’t understand what is expected of you or what contracts you’ve signed then you won’t make a dime! Being able to negotiate your pay and understand that a lot of the budget your given will be used to fund the creation of the music I.e. hiring the studios/orchestras for live recordings, then you will be able to work out your percentages a lot better and create a deal that will keep you paid. Teamwork will be essential in all parts of the film process due to just how many people will work on a film, whole orchestras, teams of pre and postproduction, writers, actors it’s all most endless so you have to be comfortable working with others and potentially leading others to create your image. 

What does a day’s work look like? 

A composer’s day to day is an ever changing yet routine focussed job. If you’re a freelance composer looking for work/in-between projects, then you will be entirely responsible for maintaining your routines. This would probably look like a 9-5 with the caveat of you being in charge of exactly what you do and when you do it! setting up business calls/meetings at the start of your day, doing some networking, finishing up any previous projects, managing your socials and platforms to increase your presence and then practicing your instrument/composing in-between it all. (dBs, 2023) 

However, if you have regular work whether it be being a part of big budget films, production studios or game studios then you will be doing a more structured day that will have different stages depending how far along the current project is. Starting with spotting sessions with the director/writers/producers to lay out tempo maps and hit marks. Then laying out a sonic template for the film with rough soundscapes for each section of the project which you will then expand into full motifs and actual pieces. This will get transcribed out and given to live orchestras which will be recorded and then you will begin the mixing process which could honestly be the longest part of the job because you must have it perfectly balanced with all the other sound in the scenes. Ending with a final overview to make sure everything is just right. (dBs, 2023) 

Financial and legal aspects 

The trickiest part of being a film composer is understanding where the money is coming from, unlike typical music artists that rely more on merchandise and fans, a film composer is receiving a “real” paycheck that each composer themselves gets to dictate to some extent. A lot of composers will their own minute rate for how much they will get paid per minute of music which sounds easy enough at first but then you must remember the overall budget of the project you’re working on, then how much of that budget for music is going to be used to fund the recordings, studio time, musicians, mixing and rerecording’s  and what is left is what the composer will take home. Now this can still be a lot of music, but it can also be way less then deserved. This doesn’t even consider your own personal costs of using your own equipment to create specific sounds or the extra less considered people you’ll have to hire such as a copyist to transpose all the music for each musician, which then means you have to pay for all the high quality sheet music paper which all adds up.  

Sometimes you will get the minute rate, sometimes a lump sum to cover everything, sometimes you just get salaried. It honestly has so many variations with each project and company that a composer might work for. On top of this there’s the master rights, performance royalties, publishing royalties and mechanical royalties which depending on if you played your own recordings, just composed or mixed the music, could mean a whole other avenue of income. But again, this will change with every project and company. (corpus, 2024) 

Marketing aspects 

When it comes to the films themselves, composers will honestly have minimal involvement with marketing, they may be involved in some interviews or perhaps creating some music for trailers to market the film but even then, they regularly get a separate composer or a song for trailers. However, composers themselves still must be very familiar with marketing as they are always marketing themselves to get more work and have a further reach for more work. A lot of composers will now have their own websites and accounts used to promote their personal portfolios, social medias that will promote whatever they have recently worked on to entice potential employers and such. (Lancaster, 2020) 

Carrer progression 

Being a composer is a long journey that will take a lot of trial and error and a lot of luck too, however there’s a lot of progression available and many different pathways that you might have not even considered available previously. From the obvious climbing the ranks from student films to indie/arthouse films and the big blockbusters that can change your entire life in ways you wouldn’t have even considered. (Yellowbrick, 2023) 

To exploring more unique pathways like conducting orchestras, developing a studio or pursuing an education position, the beauty of composing is the sheer amount of skills you will have to develop during your career that will basically let you do anything within the music sphere so long as you work hard and stay honest with yourself. (Busch, 2024) 

Conclusion  

In conclusion I believe that the journey of being a film composer to being an incredibly difficult but beautiful craft that demands a lot of respect for the sheer amount of dedication you need to pursue it. There’s lots of luck required to make it work out to the big leagues, and a lot of hard work and passion needed to create your own sound, but I think this is a genuine beautiful craft with so much room for success whether it be monetary or internal success. 

Bibliography: 

Armandary, J. (2021) 10 skills you need to be a media composer, soundtrackacademy. Available at: https://soundtrack.academy/10-skills-you-need-to-be-a-media-composer/ (Accessed: 04 January 2026).  

class, master (2021) How to become a film composer: Is formal education necessary? – 2026, MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-become-a-film-composer (Accessed: 04 January 2026).  

corpus, T. (2024) How much should I charge as a film composer?, Tim Corpus. Available at: https://timcorpus.net/index.php/2024/03/14/how-much-should-i-charge-as-a-film-composer/ (Accessed: 06 January 2026).  

dBs (2023) Career spotlight: Composer for screen: DBS Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies, dBs Institute. Available at: https://www.dbsinstitute.ac.uk/career-spotlights/composer-for-screen (Accessed: 05 January 2026).  

Frank, G.L. (2024) What does it look like to be a professional composer?, Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Available at: https://www.glfcam.com/blog/2024/03/12/what-does-it-look-like-to-be-a-professional-composer (Accessed: 07 January 2026).  

Lancaster, N. (2020) How to market yourself as a film composer, Stage 32. Available at: https://www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-market-yourself-as-a-film-composer-2403 (Accessed: 08 January 2026).  

Wiater, J.J. (2023) How to become a film composer, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@composerjawn/how-to-become-a-film-composer-24203646aa26 (Accessed: 05 January 2026).  

Yellowbrick (2023) The path to becoming a successful composer, Yellowbrick. Available at: https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/music/the-path-to-becoming-a-successful-composer (Accessed: 08 January 2026).