---
title: Film Scoring & Game Music
description: Composers for film and games write music to picture and to interaction. You will learn scoring craft, orchestration for media, DAW templates and sample libraries, adaptive game audio and the business.
category: music-audio
subcategory: music-production
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/film-scoring-and-game-music
---

# Film Scoring & Game Music

Composers for film and games write music to picture and to interaction. You will learn scoring craft, orchestration for media, DAW templates and sample libraries, adaptive game audio and the business.

## Available Resources

1 Videos • 3 Books • 1 Courses

## Podcasts

### 1. The Soundtrack Show

**Author:** David W. Collins

Podcast in which composer and sound designer David W. Collins analyzes individual scores from films, television, video games and theater, examining themes, leitmotifs, orchestration and how music drives narrative. Listeners learn to hear how composers shape character and emotion.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-the-soundtrack-show-29021108/

**Tags:** film-scores, soundtracks, video-game-music, music-analysis, composers

## Videos

### 1. Creating Hyper-Adaptive Music on an Indie Budget (GDC 2015)

**Author:** C. Andrew Rohrmann

GDC talk by the Galak-Z composer showing a modular method for writing, producing and implementing layered adaptive music that reacts to several gameplay variables at once, so that each play session produces a different arrangement. A concrete, shipped case study that connects Phillips' theory to Wwise-style implementation.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://gdcvault.com/play/1021886/Creating-Hyper-Adaptive-Music-on

**Tags:** adaptive-music, game-audio, interactive-music, music-implementation

## Courses

### 1. Wwise-201: Interactive Music Certification Course

Official free 22-lesson Audiokinetic course on implementing adaptive game music in Wwise: importing DAW stems as music segments, re-sequencing, layered re-orchestration, playlists, MIDI, game syncs and transitions, using a sample game project with quizzes per lesson. Course content is free and only the exam is paid.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.audiokinetic.com/en/courses/wwise201/

**Tags:** wwise, adaptive-music, game-audio, audio-middleware, interactive-music

## Books

### 1. A Composer's Guide to Game Music

**Author:** Winifred Phillips

Practical guide to composing for video games by a working AAA composer: music's function in gameplay, genre conventions, interactive techniques such as horizontal resequencing, vertical layering and MIDI/generative approaches, collaborating with developers, and finding work in the industry. It explains adaptive-music theory in a way that is independent of any middleware.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262534495?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** game-music, adaptive-music, video-game-composition, interactive-audio, music-composition

### 2. Complete Guide to Film Scoring: The Art and Business of Writing Music for Movies and TV (2nd Edition)

**Author:** Richard Davis

Berklee overview of film and TV composing that pairs scoring technique (spotting, sync, dramatic structure, orchestration) with the business side: contracts, package deals, royalties, performing rights organizations, music supervisors and building a career, plus interviews with working composers. It is the more accessible entry point and the canonical coverage of the business.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0876391099?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** film-scoring, tv-composing, music-business, music-royalties, music-composition

### 3. On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring (2nd Edition)

**Author:** Fred Karlin, Rayburn Wright

Standard craft reference for scoring film and television: spotting, timing and click tracks, cueing to picture, dramatic function of music, orchestration and recording, with commentary drawn from over 100 interviews with working film composers.
The most rigorous single text on the mechanics of scoring to picture. It covers timing math, sync and cue construction in depth that no free resource matches. It is dated on technology (2004) but the craft is timeless.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415941369?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** film-scoring, scoring-to-picture, click-tracks, orchestration, music-composition

---

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