Being a film music enthusiast/lover, if you wish to study Film Scoring/Screen Scoring and make this your career, then you probably have to start studying somewhere. Going to school is one of the choices, getting knowledge from the professional lecturers, meeting up new friends, and having broader networking among the filmmakers if possible.
Table of Contents
What can you do as a career after completing your Film Scoring studies?
- Assistant to the Composer
- Composer
- Music Copyist
- Music Editor
- Music Supervisor
- Orchestrator
- Session Conductor
Programs Structure/Curriculum
Basically, the curriculum that most of the schools have includes,
- Scoring for Motion Pictures and Televisions
- Orchestration
- Video Game Scoring
- Recording Session
- Spotting Session
- Aural and Keyboard classes
- Conducting
- Internship
Some schools offer different curriculum, you still need to look in-depth at the school that you are interested in and wish to enter.
I have compiled some of the famous Film Scoring Schools in the United States for you guys.
Berklee College of Music
It offers several programs from the school such as, compositions, contemporary writing and production, film scoring, jazz composition, music business/management, music education, etc. It has several campuses which are located at Boston, Valencia, and NYC.
Let’s talk more in depth studying Film Scoring in Berklee College of Music. It starts from Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Film Scoring. Bachelor studies is in Boston’s campus and requires completion in 4 years, where the Master studies is in Valencia, which takes about one year.
Not only that, Berklee offers Online options as well, which is called Berklee Online program. You can do both Bachelor or Master’s Degree in Film Scoring completely online, which saves you lots of time to travel and also the cost of the program will be slightly lesser and affordable.
Faculty members that run the programs are Richard Davis, Sean McMahon, Alison Plante, etc. And the alumni from Berklee are Ramin Djawadi, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri, Pinar Toprak, etc.
The visiting artists are Bruce Broughton, Patrick Doyle, Christopher Lennertz, Alan Menken, Gerard Merino, David Newman, Jeff Rona, Christopher Young, etc.
USC
It has lots of programs from USC such as composition, jazz studies, popular music, music technology, music industry, musical theatre, etc. USC which only offers Master of Music in Screen Composing (1 year studies) in Southern California.
The faculty members are Pete Anthony, Jon Burlingame, Daniel Carlin, Laura Karpman, Lolita Ritmanis, Christopher Young, Garry Schyman, etc. The alumni are Christophe Beck, Marco Beltrami, James Horner, James Newton Howard, Bear McCreary, etc.
The portfolio requirement requires a portfolio of multiple original manuscript sores for films and/or games, along with screening copies containing audio tracks, is required for graduation.
Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
Eastman School of Music offers Master of Music in Contemporary Media/Film Composition which is led by Mark Watters. The faculty members are Mark Watters, Dave Rivello, Rob LaVaque and Jeff Beal.
Columbia College of Music
Columbia College of Music also only offers a Master Degree in Music Composition for the Screen which requires to finish in two years. Miriam Cutler is the composer-in-residence in Columbia College of Music. The alumni are Batu Sener, Epson Wu, Tomas Videla, Alexis Kwaben, etc.
NYU
NYU offers Bachelor, Master and even a PhD/Doctor in Screen Scoring. The program duration ranges from 4 years (Bachelor studies) to 1 year (Master studies)
NYU often helps the student network with their film students in certain projects. The faculty members are Ronald Sadoff, Mark Suozzo, Irwin Fisch, Sergi Casanelles, Hunter Hanson, Kat Vokes, etc. And their alumni are Gavin Brivik, Jacob Yoffee, Ariel Marx, Gabriel Hays, etc.
NYU has their own summer programs which focus in Film Scoring/Video Game Scoring every year.
Frost School of Music, Media Scoring & Production (University of Miami)
Frost School of Music offers Bachelor and Master studies in Media Scoring & Production. The program duration ranges from 4 years (Bachelor studies) to 1 year (Master studies). Their faculty members are Carlos Rafael Rivera, Camilo Rodriguez, Randall M. Barlow and Rick Albert Urban.
San Francisco State University
The SF State Composition Studio envisions a world of art without boundaries or borders. It offers a Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Scoring for Games as well as Scoring for Films. Steven Horowitz and Benjamin Sabey both are the faculty members in the University.
UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
UCLA offers several programs such as conducting, ethnomusicology, global jazz studies, music composition, etc. It’s music composition program offers Bachelor, Master and also PhD Program as well. The faculty members are Richard Danielpour, Dante De Silva, Peter Golub, Ian Krouse, etc. They do also has slightly affordable and short courses “Film Scoring Certificate”.
Summary
Some of the aspects that you need to look at and ask for yourself are
1. Internship
– Do they offer an internship program for you to learn during the course or after you graduate? This is very important as this can help you build relationships with the composers.
2. Networking
– Some schools do tie-up with some film schools, therefore you can network and work closely with film students to gain experience.
3. Faculty
– Learning someone who you admire and is skillful is something that you must consider too.
4. Curriculum
– Does the programs attract you? What do you wish to learn throughout the program? Does the program help you? Does it includes recording sessions, etc.
5. Duration
– Because some people have some time commitment, so some needs to complete the program faster, some are not.
6. Cost
– Can you afford the amount of money for yourself to study a certain program? Is the cost worth it?
Great info! Would like to know more about Film Scoring University in London, Paris or other places in Europe. Thank you.
Thank you so much! Glad that you like it. Will prepare this information as well. =)
好有趣喔，國外的學校科系真是多元~
真的! 有机会我还想到国外多见识呢
This is pretty cool, thank you for sharing these information, although I am graduate from university long time ago, I can share this info to my friend, her kids may be interested.
Glad that the information is useful to you. Feel free to share it out! Thanks! =)
很羨慕國外有這麼多資源及厲害的師資團隊，版主整理十分詳細，謝謝!
希望有更多喜歡音樂的人看見~
真的，我也很羡慕！谢谢你 =)
喔~~我還不知道有專門學習音樂的學校呢 ! 可以分享給喜愛音樂的朋友,真好~~
谢谢你的分享！=)
看到國外的陣容，真的都是非常專門…
而且都非常多元化教學
我身邊剛好有很多要讀音樂系的朋友
感覺很適合他們，謝謝版主分享
国外的阵容都非常专业，向他们学习绝对获益良多！谢谢你的到来 =)