MUSIC CREATORS AND LICENSORS
Job Overview
Compose music, write lyrics, or both, and often produce the music
recording sessions.
Special Skills
Most composers are adept at playing piano, sequencer, synthesizer, or
a combination of the three, and most have the ability to produce the
music they write. Success requires the ability to compose memorable
melodies and lyrics.
"Writing a score is a different skill than songwriting, where you come
up with a melody and you either write a lyric yourself or you collaborate
with another person to write a song," says composer Steve Dorff.
"Writing a score for a film is an integral part of the postproduction
process, where you're musical-izing every moment of the movie with
orchestral or some kind of music--generally without lyrics--that under-
scores the action, whether it is romantic, action-adventure, scary, or excit-
ing. The creative process is the same with television as it is with film. The
only difference being, there is a much smaller budget for television than
for film."
Advice for Someone Seeking This Job
To gain some experience composing songs or scoring for film, contact
film schools and make yourself available to student filmmakers.
"Really try to understand the business," says Dorff. "When you read
books and manuals, know what the games are and know what the pitfalls
are. Know that just writing a song is only half of it. Knowing what to do
with a song after you've written it is maybe even more than half of it.
You need to know how to demo it, how to pitch it, how to present it. I'm
not going to open the hood of a car and try to fix a carburetor without
knowing what I'm doing."
JOB TITLE: COMPOSER
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