[raverbashing]

Yeah

The actual act of orchestration (translating to the different instruments) is an exercise in "backwards compatibility" and musical knowledge. (Because every instrument has a range, a clef, and they play in a range but read on another range, etc, etc because of some weird thing that happened in the 17th century)

[MichaelZuo]

So who is actually writing the sheet music nowadays?

Is it a specialized company or a part-time contractor?

[themadturk]

If you look carefully in the endless credits scroll you can see the credits for the orchestrator(s), if the composer doesn't do the orchestration themselves. Herbert Spencer, for instance, is credited for orchestration of Star Wars Ep. 4, A New Hope. He worked as orchestrator on a lot of other John Williams movies and was a film composer in his own right as well.

[bodhiandphysics]

generally, as in many things in music, orchestrators work freelance. Music is a low paying field, so the pay isn't great, but its not terrible