[rack gear]

as for your larger questions I have little advice, however for film scoring, read on...

remember - you asked - your path to scoring film is usually some variation of the two following scenarios...

one; move to LA and work under an established composer as an assistant, do a lot of work, including writing scores (which you will not be credited for) until you have enough contacts and balls to convince someone to let you score a feature - which will most likely be some indie film no one will see... maybe... see below...

two; find indie filmmakers, convince them to let you score their film (which they might because you'll be working for free) and hope the film becomes a break out hit at sundance (clint mansell - pi).

if you want to write your own style of film score, you'll need to find indie filmmakers willing to let you do that - even john swihart, who's highly original score to Napoleon Dynamite was largely driven by the creative direction given by the film's director...

so if you get this far, here's what you have to look forward to...

if you think bands are rough wanting to contribute to your creative process just wait till you have to write music based on the (not so clear) notes from a director, film producers and studio execs... probably between 5 and 10 people who each know exactly what you should be doing...

most film composers are re-creating a previous temp score cut by a music editor, that the studio falls in love with... or they are re-creating one of their own scores - which also probably started off as a response to a temp score...

if you think writing in the context of a band with other musicians is challenging, just wait till you're writing for non-musicians who are literally your boss.

none of this addresses the actual mechanical process of writing to picture... which is a skill to be learned in it's own right.