How do I get a job writing film music?

Good question! 

Writing music is not a conventional career and as such requires unconventional methods to get work. One of the first music scoring jobs I got was writing music for a 6 part radio series on RTE Junior (Irish national radio station for kids). I got the job by mentioning to a filmmaker who was shooting my bands latest single that I had an interest in writing instrumental music for TV & Film. A few months later he called me up and asked if I was interested in writing for a show he was producing, and that's where I realized that it may be something interesting I can pursue. 

After that I decided to look on Facebook for local events that I could go to and meet directors. I found an event called "Dublin Filmmakers"  where I worked on my first TV Pilot called "Northsiders" writing all the music for the first episode and the theme tune (Below). From that I was spurred on to meet more people and look for more projects.

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So what do you need to consider when starting?

5 Things Musically

• The passion and interest in music in film
• The ability to hear music that can portray an emotion 
• The ability to write this music under pressure.
• In a lot of cases starting out, the ability to produce the music yourself and play different instruments.
• A strong understanding of music theory is very helpful, especially in a time-constrained situation. If you don't have techniques to call upon when composing you may find yourself stuck for ideas pretty quickly.

5 Things In Business

• Ability to arrange meetings to speak with directors
• Good listening skills to understand what the director wants
• Negotiation skills when looking to get paid
• A strong belief in your music and ability to sell yourself as a composer
• Tenacity, how many emails will you send with no reply before you get disheartened? I sent around 1,000!

This isn't a comprehensive list or guide by any means, it's just some thoughts on what's needed, what you may want to consider before starting the journey and some skills that I think are necessary.

If you have any questions on particular points I'm happy to answer them, just leave a comment. I'm going to regularly write some tips in this manner, so if there's something you would like me to cover specifically, I'm all ears!

Thanks for reading!