Quilty: Painting the Shadows airs on the ABC on Tuesday night and Lane co-wrote the score with former Go-Betweens member Amanda Brown.

While Lane said he did like Quilty's work he didn't feel that was a prerequisite for taking on the project.

"I don't think it's necessary to like it," Lane said.

"I did like what I knew of it but I know it a lot better now and it's come to have quite a lot of meaning to me because I've looked at it a lot.

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"Also, some of the themes explored in the documentary are quite important, and I agree with a lot of the political aspects of it."

Lane, who lives in Cambewarra, was a founding member of Wollongong band Dropping Honey, and has gone on to work on writing film scores.

In 2015 he won a Screen Music Award for his work on the short 1919 and was nominated for a second award.

Lane had been speaking to Brown about working together on a project, and when director Catherine Hunter offered Brown the job of the Quilty film score, she approached Lane about coming on board.

Lane said Hunter took a hands-off role in terms of the soundtrack.

"It was left a bit more up to Amanda and I," Lane said.

"We watched the film, had a talk about it and I was pretty delighted to find we were in the same wavelength straight away.

"There are certain sorts of sounds and approaches that are suggested by the subject matter and the visuals. So it came together very organically and intuitively."

The score features an unusual approach to playing instruments.

To get the right guitar sounds, it was played with a shaving brush, tuning fork and cello bow.

When writing a film score, Lane wasn't interested in having the music fade into the background but rather it should act as a complement to what is on the screen.

"I don't think that you shouldn't be able to notice it, because that suggests it's almost very 'backgroundy' and 'wallpapery'," he said.

"We definitely tried to make sure it was speaking to what the story was about and not overload the whole thing with music so it's not wall to wall, because then it becomes a bit meaningless."

The soundtrack has been released digitally and Lane said, even though the music was written to accompany the film, it can stand up by itself.

"It stood out as something that could withstand repeated listening on its own," he said.

"A couple of people have said the same thing, that it sort of sounds like an album."