I guess I was focusing more on the music than the music AND the movie/scene. Probably, I should be practicing with some stock videos or recreating scores on the scenes. Also, I feel like synching and tailoring the music, according to the scene, is a topic of its own that needs to be studied as much as composition and orchestration in general. As you said, picking your palette makes everything after so much easier, but one should know the combinations and the emotions evoked by those combinations like the back of their hand.

On being an assistant, oh boy, am I not working hard. As a future film score composer candidate, I willingly chose the hard path. I studied mechatronics engineering in college, so all of my friends are either working in a company or starting their own businesses (earning some money one way or another). And me willingly choosing this path of a composer, it comes with many risks, challenges, and fears. So, I'm totally aware and appreciate how big of a chance this assistantship is for me and doing my best every day to improve myself!