It is really difficult getting into this field living in this country while holding a full time job. Film work often work against schedules and deadlines that require your full attention. All that said, it is not that difficult getting into the indie film market. The pay is not that great for indie films. Just get a few demo songs together that are good enough to impress the people. Search on the internet for indie film producers and student producers and contact them directly by email.
There are 2 sites that is usefully in getting contracts for indie composers and bands:
http://www.taxi.com/
http://www.filmmusicmag.com/
And subscribe to
http://www.filmmusicweekly.com/ (free weekly magazine with listings)
You have to pay to join the sites mentioned above and you will submit lots of demos before getting a hit. Once you have credits behind your name it becomes easier.
If you do not have classical orchestration schooling you would need to do a lot of self study. There are good courses online, but it takes a lot of time and a true love for film music. And yeah, you have to listen to a lot of film music. My favorites are Trevor Rabin, Hans Zimmer, Don Davis and John Williams. Listening to a lot of classical music, especially the symphonies is pretty good too.
I tried the Professional orchestration 1 course which was pretty good.
http://www.professionalorchestration.com/titles/overview.php
The rest I did self study from Rimsky-Korsakof, Jeff Rona & Richard Davis and as you will be doing all the work yourself in the beginning it helps to know enough about production and mix engineering (Paul Gilbert & Bobby Owinski).
So, you got as lot of reading to do, but if you like this thing, you would find it a lot of fun.
