Do they mute the film so you can’t hear the movie score, only the score the orchestra is playing? Do they have versions of the film with the score track removed that they play the score for? Do they just play the score but you are also hearing the movie score at the same time?
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Most films, especially those slated for an international release, are delivered with “stems.” Each stem carries a section of the overall sound mix you will hear. This includes dialogue stems, sound effects stems, music stems, etc. So, in theory, all they have to do is screen the film without the music stem, and they are good to go.
This comes in handy for international film releases because they can dub the film and still keep all of the other sound elements in (such as footsteps, cloth rustling, SFX, etc.).
In my experience, all of the above. the really good ones will play an isolated dialogue and sound effects track, omitting the music to be done by the live performers. Others will play over all tracks. Even others will mute the film entirely.
They run it through a soundboard and mix it live. We went and saw Indiana Jones 1 with the local symphony. You could tell they were live mixing the audio.
My wife is a professional cellist. They use something called a click track to align their music with the movie. It’s an audible signal for them.
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