Smooth "Operator" -- Meet the Composer Behind Your Favorite Indie Film's Music

There's a good chance that composer Sage Lewis is the man behind the music of your favorite indie film. One of the busiest people in the industry, Sage's music can be heard on festival favorites such as The Ground Beneath Their Feet, Aban and Khorshid and, most recently, Operator. I spoke with Sage about his score for Operator, his process as a composer and more.

What was it like to score a technology themed drama like Operator?  Did you enjoy it?

It was fun because the storyline gave me a creative license to geek out on electronic music techniques that you usually don't get away with in most film scoring scenarios. For example, the vocoder and other types of electronic vocal generators wove perfectly into the type of music that was required to best tell this story. I was also justified to use different synthesizers and audio effects which are infinite fun. The movie is a dark comedy so both beautiful moody music and also joyous tongue and cheek emotions were required. There are a lot of dichotomies in the film so that resulted in a score that plays with opposing forces which expanded my universe to work in.

What was your process like?  Did the theme of the film impact any music decisions?

The process was completely driven by the theme of the film. Every single sound, note, and decision comes from the ideas within the rest of the film. When I create a score I can't really take music or influences from anywhere outside the film because eventually it won't work and just get removed. It's a process of translation of non-musical ideas into musical-ideas, kind of a metamorphosis that happens. When this process is successful then the score disappears into the film and improves the viewing experience in a magical and hopefully unnoticeable way.

Which mentors or figures have most impacted your composing career?

Being a fellow at the Sundance Film Scoring Labs has impacted my career a lot. I got to spend a couple weeks at Skywalker Ranch working with sound designers from Skywalker Sound and film directors who are in post-production of movies that the Sundance Institute has supported. We engaged in a deep inquiry about the art of film scoring and collaboration between director, composer, and sound designer. They give us the most state-of-the-art facilities to write and produce cues for a couple scenes for their films. Meanwhile, they bring in mentors to guide us through every step of the process. I got to experience what it's like to score films on the highest level. Here is what I wrote there - https://soundcloud.com/sagelewismusic/sets/2014-sundance-documentary-film-scoring-lab-at-skywalker-sound

Do you have any plans to score upcoming films or projects? Where else can we see your work now?

I recently finished a pilot for an unannounced network series but I can't talk about it yet. I also scoring a Google Expeditions video about a Google Cardboard virtual reality experience that takes students to a Crow Indian pow wow to learn about American culture. I have an indie video game for mobile platforms called B-Grade Renegade that is also supposed to be released this Fall.

What was your favorite scene to score in Operator? Is that cue in the album?

Operator is kind of a music flick so it has a lot of great scenes for scoring. The climax of the film features a wide shot of the main character Joe (Martin Starr) confronting his actions on the pier of Lake Michigan in Chicago after getting in a fight and running away from everything. The camera holds on him standing there for a long time while everything is still but the emotions and excitement are at a high. All this space and intensity are the ideal set up for music to carry the richness of the moment. The music had to be simple and perfect but every single note on the piano and lift of the sustain pedal sounds huge and pierces right into your heart. In the soundtrack this track is called 18. Epiphany, Secret Pathway.

Other favorite scenes to score were the animated transitions by MK12. They are like miniature music videos of eye/ear candy that have no dialogue. 

What instruments and sounds should we listen for in the soundtrack? 

Vocoders, vocal engines, modular synthesizers, audio feedback, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, singing bowls, drum set, synth percussion, piano, rhodes, heavy distortion and delay effects. 

How does this soundtrack differ from the actual film score?

They're mostly the same but some cues from the film are left out of the soundtrack, some of the cues are extended into full songs for the soundtrack, the order is slightly different, and they're all remixed.

Operator Soundtrack on Spotify - http://radi.al/OperatorSDTKSpotify

Operator Soundtrack on iTunes / Google Play / Amazon - http://radi.al/OperatorSDTK

Operator Movie on iTunes - http://radi.al/Operator

Operator Movie Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PYaZxr0YRU