Composer’s win with movie score
Song for a new movie turns into an opportunity of a lifetime. Yael Brender reports.
A song for a new movie has turned into an opportunity of a lifetime. Yael Brender reports.
LATE one night in January last year, musician and composer Sam Weiss received a frantic phone call from his friend Aliza Waxman, a producer’s assistant on the indie Australia feature film, Indigo Lake – she needed a jazz song for the main character to lip sync to on set the next day.
Weiss reached out to longtime friend and bandmate Oscar Gross, who joined him and Waxman in the studio.
“We ended up writing the lyrics, melody, harmonies and recorded it within a day,” Weiss told The AJN. “We presented it to the producer and director, who really loved it and said, ‘Okay, you can just score the whole movie’.”
And that’s how 23-year-old Weiss found himself scoring his debut feature film, which had its premiere in Sydney on April 26 at the Dendy Opera Quays.
Its next screening is at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens on May 17, before being released in selected cinemas around Australia.
Indigo Lake is written and directed by Martin Simpson, and is set around a nightclub owner (played by Andrew Cutcliffe) who commissions a painting of his wife (Miranda O’Hare), who then causes chaos by having an affair with the painter (Jack Zeffa).
It’s Weiss’ job to capture the drama of the film through music, and to supplement the mood on screen.
“The original jazz song we wrote, One More Day, involves piano, drums, saxophone, vocals and bass. We wrote it in six hours, so from a musician’s perspective it’s a very simple song,” said Weiss.
“And we were flying a bit blind because we didn’t know much about the film or the script back then. All we knew was that the character dreams of going to Paris, so the song had to be a love letter to that city from that character.”
During the film’s production Weiss recorded live with a variety of musicians, and spent a lot of time with Simpson and producer Bryan Cobb making changes as the film evolved.
Weiss estimated that he used more than 30 instruments to score the 90 minutes of film.
“It was 10 weeks of intense collaboration between me, the producer, director and production team,” he explained.
For Weiss, one of the best moments was seeing his name on the film’s opening credits, and he hopes it will be the first of many times that he gets to enjoy that feeling.
“I hope that it leads to many other opportunities to score more features in Australia and abroad,” Weiss said.
When he’s not in the music studio, Weiss can be found studying for a Bachelor of Music and Commerce at the University of New South Wales, or conducting the choir at Central Synagogue.
“I always loved Jewish music and I think it can take on a lot of different voices,” said Weiss. “Working with the choir, as well as the incredible exposure, has given me a great chance to work with other Jewish musicians who are very capable and talented.”
Weiss, who was also the musical director of the Shabbat Project in 2016, has his own band, 33 Degrees, and spends his time entertaining guests at simchas and weddings. He also plays the saxophone in the Sincopa Trio.
“I have every intention of remaining involved in the Jewish community musically,” he said, adding that he’d love to compose for shul or school choirs. I think that Jewish music, given that it’s very melodious and emotional, really comes through in my writing and composition.”
Meanwhile, Waxman, who graduated from Emanuel School with Weiss in 2012 and has served as a cantor at Emanuel Synagogue, left for Israel late last month to further her career in the film industry.
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