Followed is currently making waves on the box office charts and scaring drive-in movie theater audiences around the U.S. In case you haven’t heard of the film, it follows aspiring social media influencer “DropTheMike” as he is offered a lucrative sponsorship to grow his channel. He is joined by his video crew on a visit to one of the most haunted hotels in America, where he’ll give his audience a horrific night of thrill-seeking the likes of which they have never seen before. What begins as a fun investigative challenge including the infamous Elevator Ritual quickly descends into a personal hell of true evil, begging the timely question: how far would you go to pursue internet fame? We spoke to the film’s composer, Jason Soudah about his work on the project below.
First off, congrats on the success of Followed.
Thanks so much! I am so happy the movie is enjoying this spotlight after so much hard work and relentless tenacity went into both making it and getting it out there.
The opening and closing songs are very important in films because the opening sets the tone for the film and the closing is what audiences remember. Because of this, did you put greater emphasis on these 2 tracks in Followed?
I definitely put a lot of extra work into the opening music (“Logging In” on the soundtrack album), as we wanted to envelop you as the audience into this dark, ominous world of mysterious unfortunate events (to say the least!) and also prepare you for this roller-coaster ride of a movie, which feels at least to me like a hybrid between a found-footage/vlog style presentation and a more high-end, bigger budget experience. When I would meet with Antoine Le (Director) and Matthew Ryan Brewbaker (Producer/Editor), we would discuss the philosophy behind the score, and all felt that since the footage was found by a team of producers, we could have a more full-on score experience in places, rather than just free/cheap licensed tracks that the vloggers used (there are places for that in the movie as well, but overall we scored it). For the closing, there is a short cue which is a big question mark, and then we slam into a banging hip hop/rock track (“Problems” featuring Kingidiom on rap vocals), the idea being that you leave the theater/drive-in/couch feeling bad-ass and upbeat, and excited for the sequel!
When working on a film like Followed, do you almost feel like the music acts like another main character because it is so important in the storytelling process and how the emotions are conveyed?
I feel like in this film, the music acts like a three-dimensional, enveloping/surrounding background to the painting, if that makes sense, providing support to what you see on screen, and what you feel might be coming. One of the paths that Antoine encouraged me to keep going down was to make the audience FEEL the music, not always hearing it, so that there is a turbulence/something unsettling putting you on edge – so I used a lot of sub bass/very low frequency rumbling synths and growls, often really deep and big and wobbly! You don’t always hear notes per se, but you will feel the underbelly there, setting a mood. There are also moments in the film which aren’t scary, and more about friendship and love, and the underscore is lighter and more melodic/thematic/musical in those moments – it was a great experience being able to score such different emotions within this story. When we get to the basement of the hotel, that was a bit of a character in itself (and bizarre stuff happened during filming as well!) and so a lot of what set that mood was sound design as well as more of my rumbles and such.
Followed is the first film that you were the lead composer. How has this project prepared you to make more films as the main composer?
I think firstly it has given me a lot of confidence. Being the main composer, especially at this point in my career, where I don’t have a team of assistants etc, means you have to be very organized, keeping track of where you are in terms of project management, which versions the client has approved and so on, setting and meeting deadlines, delivering everything correctly. Also, you are the creative behind the music, so you have to be the composer and the composer’s technical assistant in one. I would have to bounce between both modes. I was a composer’s technical assistant for a few years on big productions so I learned a lot from that, which helped massively. I also had the good fortune of being able to sit in on meetings and watch how the lead composer/s worked with the filmmakers and handled things when perhaps the music wasn’t working. I was really excited on Followed to be able to follow my instincts and write music that came from my reaction to the film, and I am boosted by the fact that the filmmakers are really into what I did, and want to work with me in future. Also, I am thankful to have had a great response to the score in the press/reviews so far. So, moving on to more films as main composer, I feel assured that I have what it takes to be able to excel on the creative side, as well as comfortably handle project management. Of course, I am sure there will be challenges, and you can’t please everybody, but it’s always my goal to go above and beyond, and work my hardest until we crack it! I hope to eventually build a team of my own, to mentor others as I have been mentored, so that we can all move up together. I am a big believer in that! I am so thankful to everyone who has taught me and encouraged me along the way and I really enjoy doing that for others as well.
We read that you are a singer/songwriter and used to perform at places like Hotel Café in Los Angeles. How did you transition from that world to composing?
Around 11-12 years ago, a fellow singer-songwriter friend, Alex Vargas, was in LA from London and invited me out for a drink. Alex and I were joined by another friend of his and at some point she asked me what I did. I said I was a singer-songwriter but that I would love to do film music one day. She was asking me some very specific questions, so I asked her why she knew so much about film music and she said, “my dad’s a composer.” Later that night, she offered to show Alex and I in her dad’s studio and I was super excited – I love studios!
We got there around 2 am, went inside, and she asked the armed security guard if she could show us her dad’s room. We entered into this amazing, mostly black and red room, with lots of sofas, a beautiful grand piano in one corner, a huge wall of moog, lots of guitars, computer screens, racks and racks of computer equipment, and movie memorabilia… I asked, “who’s your dad?” She replied, “Hans Zimmer.” She (Zoe) said that if I was serious about pursuing this, she would introduce me to the studio manager, at that time Czarina Russell, to see about me interning. I went on to intern at Remote Control Productions, which led to me being hired by composer Matthew Margeson as his technical assistant. Matt took me under his wing, helping me develop my scoring and engineering skills, and he continues to mentor me to this day.
When first getting started in the composer world, what surprised you the most?
I remember being blown away by how complex the composer studios are – especially when I started (and before) with even the most powerful commercially-available computers not being what they are now, even up-and-coming composers (like Matthew Margeson, who gave me my first technical assistant job) had 13+ computers in their setups! Now, many have just 2 or 3 computers (some even 1 absolute beast machine!). Also, I remember feeling part of the family at Remote Control pretty quickly, with even the busiest of people taking time to say hello and chat sometimes (schedule-dependent!) so that was really wonderful! I was also surprised at how open people were at sharing their techniques, and their curiosity of others’ ways of doing things as well.
Are there movie scores that you heard growing up that really made an impact on you?
Of course!! Some more typical, like Star Wars, Superman, Back To The Future, Driving Miss Daisy, Gladiator; but I also remember being particularly struck by the score to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Amelie, and Memento.
Sounds design and score often times can get interwoven. How closely did you work with the sound design team on Followed?
The sound design team (Pyata G. Penedo and Christopher J. Thomas from figure8sound) were AMAZING!! They created a uniquely disturbing sonic world from Followed – they did the final mix as well as the sound design, and were dedicated to making the movie as immersive as possible, enhance by the sounds they made, as well as how they balanced these sounds with my music so that they worked well together. I was in regular communication with them as soon as they came on board. There was one sequence in particular which I ended up re-writing the music for based on how my original cue was not quite working with the sound design – and we were all happier with the more intense and exciting result!
What genre of film would you like to score that you haven’t been able to yet?
I would love to do one of the Bourne movies! A spy/action/thriller with some brilliantly choreographed car chases would be a dream!