Want to make money from your music? Ever thought about scoring video games or movie trailers? We speak to the producers and sound designers behind the soundtracks for games like Final Fantasy and trailers for Blade Runner 2049 and Avengers: Endgame…

We’re used to talking to producers in Computer Music, but this month we’re featuring three interviews with composers from other very different walks of life, but from careers that might be more lucrative in terms of making money from your music. So if you have ever wanted to be a sound designer, have your music in video games or in films, read on for some top tech chat and advice from experts who have scored video games like Torchlight and trailers for Blade Runner 2049 and Avengers: Endgame…

The Movie Trailer Composers

Vikram Gudi and Richard Schrieber are award-winning composers who have scored countless movie trailers including Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame, Top Gun: Maverick and Blade Runner 2049. Together, they run the music school Protege which teaches musicians their winning formula to create music for picture.

In 2012, Vik founded Elephant Music in LA, an independent production company that produces music for movie trailers. He has produced no fewer than 700 songs and more than 60 albums’ worth of material for Elephant and has won countless awards including two Clios for the Ready Or Not and A Quiet Place trailers.

Richard specialises in darker, more organic trailer cues and has scored the gritty soundscapes for British horror Truth or Dare, epic hybrid orchestral music for Japanese blockbuster Tenku No Hachi, and uplifting pop for the dramatic short film Quietus. He has also had his music licensed around the world for TV shows including UFC, Got to Dance, and Catfish and has written music for clients including Google, IBM, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Unilever.

Computer Music: Tell us a little about your musical backgrounds

Vik: “I had trumpet and guitar lessons at a very young age but my enthusiasm initially grew with singing in the choir. I was surrounded by Indian classical music as a child as my uncle was a famous singer - Madhava Gudi. My cousin was also a movie star in India, so Bollywood songs chimed around my house every day. My school was selected to sing with Phillip Schofield and Andrew Lloyd Webber in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat; I was only 10 but I already knew music was the one for me. I picked up a guitar for my 15th birthday and formed a couple of bands at school and then learned about electronic music and DJing while studying engineering at UCL, finally ending up doing an audio engineering diploma post grad. I started producing beats and using Logic and Ableton for another five years before my first break in the music industry.”

Rich: “I grew up being exposed to lots of music, a kind of mix between pop cheese and film score (which kind of explains my own taste). At the age of 10 I asked for keyboard lessons, which I really enjoyed, but it was not until I discovered the guitar and the Smashing Pumpkins that music became a huge part of my life and my identity. I immersed myself with all things guitar and rock and loved finding out how things were written and played. It still amazes me to this day the variety of music that we can create from the same few musical notes. I then discovered that I could make up my own music and record it on a tape machine. That’s when something clicked and I fell in love with writing music and exploring sound.”

cm: How did you first break into professional soundtrack composition?

Vik: “My first ever gig was for a friend from uni. His post grad architectural video needed a soundtrack, a film about a dystopian London which had been taken over by trees. The film ended up winning an award and I got to hear my piece in the Prince Charles cinema in London. I have been hooked ever since.”