Music in films is one of the most important parts of the cinematic experience often making or breaking a film. Film music helps the audience to truly feel the directors story by enhancing the play through the sonic world. I have a particular interest in this role of the film composer as it combines the world of musical and visual storytelling seamlessly. As a jazz musician, I am especially drawn to the expressive and improvisational qualities of jazz, and I am interested in exploring how these elements can be applied to film composition. Since my experience in this field is limited, to support this exploration I will analyse and compare some of the works of Terence Blanchard as a case study and show my own personal approach or what it may be.
Introduction to Terence
Terence Blanchard is a highly acclaimed American jazz trumpeter as well as a prolific composer who has worked with many great figures in both the jazz and film industry. Terence is most well known in the jazz world for being a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers throughout the mid 1980’s and known by many film enthusiasts most noticeably for his collaborations with highly awarded film director Spike Lee. In 1989, Blanchard stepped away from performing to fix his embouchure which was when he first collaborated with Spike Lee their first film together Do The Right Thing. He has since collaborated with Spike Lee on many of his newer films as well as writing music for other directors such as Gina Prince-Bythewood, Regina King and Taylor Hackford.
What is the job of a film composer?
A film composer is simply a composer who creates original scores and themes to underscore the picture to enhance the atmosphere, narrative and emotion of the film. The film composer will collaborate closely with the film director where they will discuss ideas and share opinions on music. At the start of the process, the director and film composer meet to discuss and make decisions about the music in the film together: Things such as the current mood and atmosphere of the scene as well as even if the scene would benefit from the absence which is similarly as powerful. This process is called “Spotting”. After this the film composer will usually dedicate time to researching and surrounding themselves listening, reading, or watching many forms of media to gain inspiration for the project. Usually the film composer creates some mock ups / sketches to provide to the director for them to get a rough idea of how it might sound and see if it fits in the directors visions. Finally the live score will be recorded by real musicians at a “scoring stage” which is a large recording studio able to house the reduced film orchestra’s. Alternatively and also in hand with this, any digital tracks will be mixed and mastered and ready to be put behind the screening. This is later sent to the re-recording mixer who creates the final film mix (Paris, 2018).
Although these are all important for the process of a film composer, their true job is to enhance the picture and the director’s vision through the use of sound and scoring. Michel Chion beautifully describes this link between picture and sound in the book Audio-Vision through his idea of what he calls “added value”. He describes this concept as “the expressive and informative value
with which a sound enriches a given image so as to create the definite impression, in the immediate or remembered experience one
has of it, that this information or expression ‘naturally’ comes from what is seen, and is already contained in the image itself” (2019). In the case of Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee, Blanchard described their process by saying “he’ll give me ideas about what he wants, but most of the time he wants strong melodic content so what we’ll talk about is whether there are some instruments we really want to feature in the orchestra” (Zemler, 2020). This displays how having a strong and lasting link with your director can lead to more creative freedom and shows how the connection can lead to finding the desired outcome easier.
Creating employment opportunities
From the challenging nature of the film industry, it shouldn’t be expected that you will land a place in your desired role in an instant. I think it is very important to be open to all paths of work and to be patient. If I decided to try and find my way to becoming a composer through the film industry route, I would first look to become a floor runner. Floor runners (also known as a production runner) are the hands and feet of the production team. They do general office jobs such as taking calls and filling paper work as well as other jobs including collecting and distributing call sheets and scripts to the crew as well as food and drink (ScreenSkills, 2023). Jobs for runners are often advertised on social media sites such as facebook and you can also sign up for trainee programs through websites such as ScreenSkills. ScreenSkills is a great resource for try to find jobs and entry level programs to enroll onto.
ScreenSkills provides a “Job Profiles” home page to access different types of roles within the film and tv industry.
When clicking through the “Film and TV drama” page, it displays links to all different roles within the specific field. Specific jobs are labelled with “Entry level” which tend to have no specific qualifications or training but sometimes encourage subjects at A-level or Highers as Film Studies, Media studies
These pages also show traits of the roles and what are some useful skills to have in the specified profession. These range from academic skills to other general skills as learning to drive as well as more general things such as remembering to watch films and find out more about them. Also included, is a section specifying other roles you may be interested in based on your chosen profession. For example for runners, It suggests you might be interested in being a receptionist or a runner in the unscripted TV industry
Picking one of these entry level jobs would involve me in the industry and could lead to new opportunities through collaboration, networking and socialising with crew and production members.
On the other hand, if I tried to go from the Jazz side of things, I would try to establish myself in the scene as a renowned performer and composer, similar to the approach from Terence Blanchard. I would use this recognition within the Jazz industry to try and form connections within the film industry. I could also utilise websites such as BBC introducing and Fresh On The Net to try and market my music and get it out into the public view easier. “BBC Introducing gives up-and-coming artists broadcast opportunities on BBC radio, television and online alongside the chance to perform at major festivals and showcases” (BBC, 2025). Fresh On The Net is a similar process where you submit a song and it is reviewed and rated. They say “We then publish 25 of our favourite tunes from the inbox on our Listening Post every weekend for readers to enjoy and evaluate. We add up their votes every Sunday night and the tunes our readers like best become our Fresh Faves – and are duly reviewed by one of us the following week.” (Fresh On The Net, n.d.) These tools give new and unknown composers and musicians more opportunities to branch out and to show their music to a larger audience. To benefit from when my music could be played on air, I would ensure I am signed up for the Performing rights society (PRS). PRS collects royalties where your music is played in public, broadcasted, streamed or performed live (PRS for Music, 2019). Although this isn’t enough money to survive off of, it is a good way to earn some extra cash as otherwise it’s just wasted and not collected.
Marketing and reach
In an increasingly digital based industry, I believe it is essential to market yourself and have an online presence to increase your reach and be able to profit from more work. I think that using my unique standpoint of having a jazzier spin on the film composition style would be strong to market and could attract different directors and a different audience. My marking strategy would mainly revolve around 3 core ideas; Performance (which would include videos of me physically playing my main instrument), Composition (which would include pieces of work I have written and performances of original material), and finally Product (which would look to showcase where I have wrote music to imagery or to specific briefs). I’ve been using instagram to promote gigs and post performance content to try and gain more reach. In these, I have posted clips of some of my compositions which I could continue to post to highlight the compositional element of my music more. I would also create a website to house all of my work and it could include my showreel. I will be analysing Terence Blanchard’s website and discuss how I would do things similarly or differently.
Terence’s website is split into 6 main sections as displayed in the image on the left; “About”, “Tour”, “Sounds”, “Collabs”, “Films & TV”, “Writing”, and finally “News”. There is also a home page included within this list. We will briefly explore each page and discuss how I would change things or if I would do them the same. The placement of the Film and TV tab being placed further on the right compared to his personal jazzier music ideas could show how he views the jazz part of his business more important. If I were to edit this task bar, I may consider shifting that tab further to the left. I like the inclusion of the “Subscribe” button to hear future updates about gigs and projects and would include this in my page too.
The “About” page included a short biography, a few videos, and the accolades and awards Blanchard has received. I like the inclusion of videos and would potentially consider also including links to music through Spotify or other streaming services.
The “Tour” page is quite self explanatory and includes all the dates for touring gig dates. I would create a simple page just like this one and constantly update it.
The “Sounds” page shows Blanchard’s discography including music with him as a performer as well soundtrack albums for films he has scored. It also includes playable audio excerpts inside the page. This is one of my favourite pages on the site as it nicely shows all of his musical work in the jazz and the film industry.
The “Collaborations” is another one I like because of the blending of work from the two industries. The page displays his collaborations with different institutions, artists and companies. Notably, his recent works with Walt Disney World on the queue line music for a new ride in magic kingdom show how highly regarded he is as a composer.
The “Films & TV” page houses links to all of the films Blanchard has scored. The short paragraph also talks about his collaboration with well established director Spike Lee further cementing his status as a well respected composer and musician. If I were to build a page like this, I may consider the inclusion of a short film industry style show reel showcasing some clips from different moments of screen scoring. I would include a variety of scenes ranging from high-action to slow and solemn scenes to show my range and flexibility as a composer. These would also strive to show my capability as a jazz musician and how it has an impact on my compositional ideas through the use of instrumentation and harmony. For example, a passage with luscious extended chords on trombones in the high register.
The “Writing” page simply provides links to pages Blanchard has written. Whilst Blanchard’s site does include this page, I would decide to omit this from my site as I think it only makes sense to include for more established figures. In my developing stage as a musician and composer, I would much rather have a stronger focus on the sonic world and scored scenes than bulking up my site with unnecessary information. In the future, I could think to include a page like this but it is by no means a priority.
These thoughts are similar with the “News” page. This could be a later addition to the website and is not seen to me as being important or necessary to create a good functioning website with my intentions of displaying my work
Each page also includes a contacts section which I believe is a great inclusion on the website to embed this to the bottom of every page. This makes it really easy for the person viewing the website to reach out to any of his booking agents or his management team. I would also include something like this in my page but most likely all emails would be routed personally until a management team would be needed.
The home page shows a compilation of all the media that we have previously viewed over the pages in a more condensed and compact form. I think having a page like this is a good way for people viewing your page to quickly and easily see all of your work. I think the information about tours being so high up on the page shows how important the performance aspect of Terence Blanchard is and that he’s using that as his main marketing strategy.
One thing that isn’t included in this home page is a showreel style video. As already mentioned, I would include a more film based showreel on the film page but I would also include a more general showreel on my homepage displaying a broader range of music compositions and works. To make my showreels effective, I would make sure they are up-to date and only show my highest quality work. Some other good tips for making a showreel include personalising to match your audience, focusing on the essential works and including your contact details (Kravina, 2022).
Conclusion
My research has lead me to the conclusion that becoming a successful film composer is not a easy linear path to success. To reach becoming a film composer either through the more traditional route through the film industry becoming a floor runner or a similar entry level job or on the other hand the “backdoor” jazz performer route, my approach would still involve lots of socialising and networking as well as creating an online image for myself. Through the use of social media and a personal website, I would market myself to different clients and display my strengths through jazz composition and composing. My future visions would be to establish a niche “added value” by utilising film scoring from a jazzier angle. By developing a high quality personal showreel, I will display my technical level as well as my unique stand point in the industry. Ultimately, this double-sided approach to tackling the film industry will be essential for defining my name and creating my own unique market.
Bibliography
BBC (2025). About. [online] BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/articles/cm2mnx05grdo [Accessed 29 Apr. 2026].
Chion, M. (2019). Audio-vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fresh On The Net. (n.d.). About. [online] Available at: https://freshonthenet.co.uk/about-us/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2026].
Kravina, C. (2022). 10 Useful Tips For An Effective Showreel. [online] Raindance. Available at: https://raindance.org/10-useful-tips-for-an-effective-showreel/ [Accessed 1 May 2026].
Paris, O. (2018). Know The Score: The Composing Process, How Does it Work? [online] Film Independent. Available at: https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/know-score-composing-process-work/ [Accessed 24 Apr. 2026].
PRS for Music (2019). What we do at PRS for Music. [online] Prsformusic.com. Available at: https://www.prsformusic.com/what-we-do [Accessed 5 May 2026].
ScreenSkills (2023). Production runner in the film and TV drama industries. [online] ScreenSkills. Available at: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/film-and-tv-drama/production-management/production-runner/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2026].
Zemler, E. (2020). Terence Blanchard Has Worked With Spike Lee for Decades and Still Gets Hyped. [online] Observer. Available at: https://observer.com/2020/07/terence-blanchard-spike-lee-da-five-bloods-interview/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2026].
