Ed Varga

• Music Composer
• Sound Designer

• Game Composer
• Music Composer

T is a narrative feature directed by Lane Michael Stanley. It premiered at the Dances with Films festival 2025 at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Lane already had some songs temped into the film that he wanted to keep so my job was to compose a complimentary score around those songs. We decided to go with a guitar based instrument palette. This film is an intimate film about individual journeys and the relationships between the 5 main characters and the music had to match that tone. To keep with that tone, Lane wanted the music to simple and have minimal instruments and layers. One thing I always talk to directors about is the main themes of the story and how to connect them using music. In the sample reel below, I've showcased the main theme that we called, "Taking a Step Towards Your Real Self." The first version I wrote was actually version 2. After writing a different piece of music for the opening we decided that this first scene is actually the first step the main character takes towards their true self. So I took the main theme and stripped it down, fragmented it and slowed it down to match the darker tone of the opening. That theme comes back throughout the film to connect the dots of the characters' journeys towards their authentic selves. This reel features another more somber theme scoring moments where characters unintentionally hurt the ones they love. More info here: https://www.twine.net/signin

• Composer
• Film Composer
• Music Composer

This short film is directed by Lane Michael Stanley. This film is experimental dance film exploring genderqueer femme embodiment through meditation and yoga. It was commissioned by Dance Camera West, California Creative Corps & Kern Dance Alliance. Lane wanted me to blur the lines between sound design and music. We did some pre-production where I did some experimentation, created unique sampled instruments and sent him demos before the on set production began. After several discussions, some experimentation and demos we decided to use the main character's breath work and vocalizations and weave those into the music. I was unable to be on set so I did some planning with Lane and the production audio recordist to capture some sounds on set that we thought would be useful. After more experimentation where I tried to use the sounds like samples, I found it was better to just edit the recorded sounds and put a lot of effects on them and then make them a part of the music. That worked better than putting the sounds in a sampler and trying to use them like different pitches (musical notes) given the material that was recorded. From there I sent Lane more demos to get to three sets of sound palettes/instrumentation for the four sections of the film with the beginning and ending sections sharing the same instrumentation and palettes which fit the bookends feeling of the film. More info here: https://www.twine.net/signin

• Composer
• Film Composer
• Music Composer

This short film was directed by Oona Garthwaite. Production was in late 2022. Picture locked in March or April of 2023. Before the picture was locked I met with Oona to discuss the film, the type of music she was looking for in the score and how the music could help set the tone of the film. Oona and I did a spotting session together where we identified scenes in the film that I would compose a score for and what the tone of the score in those scenes would be. Oona gave me a couple of musical references, including the score for the film Drive (Cliff Martinez, composer) and I came up with a sound palette that was synth based. After sending her a sample set to a scene in the film, she approved the sound palette. I each cue to get her feedback and then revised it if/as needed. We repeated this collaborative process for each cue until we got to the final versions. I then exported a stereo mix and stems with a cue sheet. One of the biggest challenges of this film and many short films is trying to complete a musical idea in a very short amount of time with scenes and the transitions between scenes being very short. Setting the tone musically for each micro scene in a short film can actually be more challenging that composing music for longer scenes in full length features. The video here is act 2 of the film and you'll see how fast the scenes, transitions and cues move. See the full film here: https://vimeo.com/1056877806

• Music Composer