The TIE fighters circle and close in on the Death Star, preparing for attack (cue the strings). The tension mounts as our heroes prepare to save the day (bring in the winds; fortissimo on those horns; sound the piccolo). Cut to Princess Leia, saying a prayer that her brave warrior makes it out safely (cue "Leia's Theme;" bring in violins, sweetly). Back to the fighters; Vader huffs (Vader's Theme; fortissimo). Back to our heroes (horns; crescendo). They take aim on the Death Star and fire (everybody all in, strings, winds, percussion, horns, you name it; allegro, fortissimo). An explosion...then silence.

You hear this score in your sleep. In fact, life's little dramas are always accompanied by a soundtrack in your mind of classical film scores, kitsch '80s tunes, and pop hits. While the other kids are busy downloading the latest Taylor Swift album, you're downloading the new Hans Zimmer hit, or humming along to John Lunn's joyful theme from Downtown Abbey. A poster of John Williams adorns the wall of your bedroom instead of the typical teen heartthrob. You are...the maestro.

Some kids want to act or direct, but all you want to do is score—films that is.

You can play multiple instruments and write musical themes in your sleep. You dream of being the next John Williams.

Well, dream another dream. There already is a John Williams and his calendar is booked solid. Despite all of the films being made today, there are only a handful of experienced pros scoring them, and they've surely snagged the top gigs for years to come. If your life's ambition is to score movies, think quirky independent flicks, TV show theme songs and cable dramas, or the big nut these days, video game soundtracks. Think beyond the big screen and outside the box.

In all likelihood, you're probably going to enter college as a music major. That said, plenty of film composers are good with technology, too, so it's not a given. After all, Downtown Abbey's John Lunn was a brainiac at MIT. Oscar winner Hans Zimmer? His only music training was two weeks of piano lessons, yet he's a whiz on the computer and even created his own app to write scores with.

Whether you're a music protégé or a tech genius, it helps to be buddies with the film school crowd at places like UCLA, USC, AFI, and NYU. In fact, many film departments have classes in film scoring— you'll want to take them if you're serious about making it. But it's not the other music students that you want to schmooze with, it's the future Spielbergs and Katzenbergs, too. You'll want to make yourself available, offering up your services scoring student films.

What else?

You'll need to be able to play piano. Most people write film scores on the keyboard, and even if your preferred palette is mixing things up on your smartphone, it helps to be able to sit down and bust out a song on a good old fashioned upright. Keyboarding isn't a minor skill for a composer, so practice…a lot. You'll also need to hook your keyboard and synthesizer up to a computer, where your notes will be turned into a printed score. You can always do it the old school way and write it out by hand, but it'll take you much longer.

But there are outliers, like John Williams, who's known for scoring films from Jaws to Indiana Jones. He writes his scores laboriously with pencil and paper, before standing in front of a huge orchestra, conducting his masterpiece. Oh yeah, you'll have to be able to conduct an orchestra, too.

Alas, you'll probably be scribbling your work (or more likely having your computer do it for you) while playing your synthesizer and using the digitally sampled instruments that you put together yourself. Feel like classing up the joint? Maybe you'll throw in a few live instruments to boot. If you're lucky and can afford it, you'll have an orchestra to work with to record your score. But you'll still end up editing that on your computer. Bottom line? Today's composer has to be tech savvy.

While classical music training isn't a must, it sure helps. The more instruments you can play and the more musicians you're friends with may prove extremely valuable when you're looking for the next gig...or any gig for that matter.

You can always hone your chops as a rocker star (good luck making that into a career). There are many pop and rock musicians who have turned to film scoring, such as Danny Elfman (ever heard of Oingo Boingo?) and Stewart Copeland from The Police (that's the band Sting was in before he got all melancholic). There's also Mark Mothersbaugh, who founded Devo in the '80s and traded in his plastic red beanie and lederhosen for a job scoring popular TV shows like Rugrats, Big Love, and House of Lies.

You'll have to live in L.A., as that's the TV and film epicenter. If you don't live in L.A., you're going to have to move there. Nobody's going to pluck you from obscurity in Toad Suck, Arkansas or Buttzville, New Jersey to write music for their movie (or TV show or video game, for that matter). Sunny (at least most of the time) California is where you need to be to make the right connections and score a deal.

But location isn’t everything. You need to understand your craft and the medium. Know your stuff cold. Watch films with the intent of listening to the score to learn how it's done. Listen to tons of film, TV, and video game soundtracks. You don't want to copy others' styles, but it helps to understand them so that when a big-time director asks you to give him a score that sounds like The Dark Knight, you'll know what the James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer sound is, opposed to the Danny Elfman Batman vibe.

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