Jemma Burns is an Australian music supervisor. One of her recent projects was the Netflix reboot of Australian series Heartbreak High, which included 128 songs from inner-city Sydney underground trap and drill to pop acts like Dua Lipa and Tame Impala.
Jemma Burns
She also recently worked on the film Foe, directed by Garth Davis and starring Saoirse Ronan as Henrietta and Paul Mescal as Junior. Foe is a psychological thriller about the anachronistic dynamic of a couple’s relationship being called into question by the arrival of a third character into their lives. It also centers on the ramifications of AI and the state of the world we will soon be trying to survive in.
We reached out to Burns to talk about her role on the film.
What were you tasked with doing on Foe?
My role involved helping to source the right composers, establishing a broad sound for the film and coming up with song ideas for specific scenes. I also negotiated the fees, rights and licenses for the songs.
What does the job of a music supervisor entail?
All of the above, plus we spend time discussing the music during spotting sessions with the team. In these conversations we home in on what is and isn’t working musically in each scene. The music supervision role can be creatively intrinsic to the film, or it can predominantly be about managing the budget/negotiating fees/rights with copyright holders and obtaining approvals from the artists and songwriters. Often, it’s a bit of both.
How do you work with the director on Foe? What direction are you given, and then what is your process after that?
Garth and I have worked together for 10 years, and given how crucial music is to his process, I was one of the first people he called before the film was financed. We started with some references, such as Bernard Herrmann’s work with Hitchcock, and went on quite a journey finding the perfect composers.
I sent Garth the work of Park Jiha, a brilliant Korean multi-instrumentalist whose sound is incredibly haunting and emotive but also very singular and eerie — it really lends itself to a psychologically unsettling story set in the future.
I don’t think we’ve heard piri, yanggeum and saenghwang on many western soundtracks, but the first time I heard Jiha’s music, I knew it would be magical in a film context. Garth was instantly bewitched. Since Jiha hadn’t done film work before, I also brought Oliver Coates into the conversation. We have worked together previously, so I knew their sounds would complement each other, and I felt his incisive approach was just what we needed. Oliver is a deeply intelligent composer equally at home in classical and experimental worlds. In Foe, Jiha’s music speaks more to the dying Earth and the unsettling motives of the couple’s visitor, while Oliver’s was more focused on the emotional journey of the husband-and-wife characters — it’s the “heart” of the film.
Third, we always wanted a female voice for Hen’s piano music, given it’s a reflection of her spirit and where she’s at emotionally throughout the film. After exploring the work of many female pianists, we landed on Agnes Obel. We were blown away by how she nailed every piece with her first round of demos, having not composed in response to a brief before. Garth was brilliant at mapping out Hen’s emotional journey so that Agnes could really get inside Hen’s psyche and deliver exactly what we needed.
What kind of music was needed for this particular film? How did you go about finding the right songs?
As for songs, we wanted a soundtrack that at times spoke to the anachronistic nature of the relationship but also the world the characters chose to live in, which is adjacent to the modernity of the near future. Each song is laden with meaning specific to the context of the scene… Knowing Garth’s sensibility and what we were trying to achieve narratively, I was able to supply ideas that I knew would resonate with him (which isn’t always easy!).
Was there a song you really wanted but couldn’t get access to?
No, we were really very lucky on this film. We even managed to secure the rights to an obscure early Fleetwood Mac song written by an early band member (who, sadly, history seems to have forgotten).
What were some of the challenges on Foe? Any big wins, things you were most happy with?
Securing the rights to a very specific recording of Jacqueline du Pre performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor was quite challenging. It’s from a filmed performance, and the company that looks after the estate is extremely protective of how any material is used, which I completely respect.
The scene in which we hear it is such an important dynamic shift in the story, so I was thrilled that we got it in the end. I can’t imagine it working with any other piece. It also speaks to Terrance’s (Aaron Pierre) god complex and world view, which are completely at odds with Junior (the husband character).
What was your dynamic like collaborating so closely with the composers for this project?
On this film, my role was mostly about sourcing composers with the right sensibility, sound and temperament. We did discuss cues along the way, but Garth is such a wonderful communicator that I tend to leave him to discuss the film with the composers himself. I don’t want to interfere in a nascent creative relationship unless I have to.
Of course, I’m always there as a sounding board for the composers as well as the director. I always try to be available and supportive to composers who may not have worked in this arena before.
