By Randi Altman

Gets Good Light offers viewers a glimpse of what it’s like to be undocumented in America. This short film, which premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, tells the story of a real estate broker named Andrell, who puts his career and freedom on the line to help his undocumented coworker Manny, who is being targeted by I.C.E. In the evenings, Andrell offers Manny and family the comfort and safety of a luxury condo he’s been showing in Brooklyn.

According to Gets Good Light composer Elizabeth Phillipson-Weiner, “This film is really an exploration of solidarity and asks the question, ‘How far would you go to help someone in their most dire situation?’”

Directed by Phillipson-Weiner’s filmmaking partner and co-founder of Teddy Tracker Entertainment, Alejandra Parody, the short is executive produced by The View co-host Sunny Hostin.

In addition to composing, Phillipson-Weiner is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. We reached out to her to find out more about the film and her process.

Have you done many short films before? How does working on this differ from other projects?
I’ve had the opportunity to work on a lot of shorts. I tend to approach all my work in a similar way — I compose themes for character and story elements and transform them to reflect the changes of the story arc. Whether I’m working on a commercial, a musical, a song or a score for a short or feature, I’m always rooting the music in storytelling and building the soundscape around that.

Elizabeth Phillipson-Weiner – Credit: Anna Azarov

My music is pretty much tailored to the project I’m working on. I think there is a unique skill set required to write sync to picture. I can’t really think of a time when the music I wrote freely was then used in its existing form in a project. That being said, I also do write a lot for my own passion projects to find new sounds for future projects and just for fun. I definitely have gotten ideas from “just writing” that I then apply in some way to projects I’m working on.

What instruments did you use, and can you describe the score?
Gets Good Light has a score composed of synthesized sound and live cello. I created some of my own synthesized sounds out of altered ukulele and used sample libraries from Spitfire, Keyscape, Roli and Heavyocity as well. The live cello is played by Tiger Darrow, a friend and a musician, engineer and music producer. I would describe the score as dark, cinematic, tense, and brooding.

You are mainly a composer, but on this project, you’re a producer as well. Can you talk about managing those different roles?
I actually find composing and producing to be weirdly symbiotic. It allows me the opportunity to be involved with a project from the start and immerse myself in the characters and story. I had the unique opportunity to have months of in-depth conversations with the director, , about her vision and the world she was building.

By the time we got to post, I was able to jump in fully prepared to execute on all the things we’d been discussing. Producing is such a high-stress role, so it is great to get to also dive in as a composer — it sort of feels like coming home and relaxing for me. One thing that set the scoring process for Gets Good Light apart from other films I’ve scored is the trust between Alejandra and me. The score features a specific cello technique that can’t be easily demonstrated via sample. Alejandra trusted my vision even though she couldn’t actually hear how it would sound when finished. That was definitely different from the normal scoring process and gave me so much freedom to develop the score in stages.

What was your process on Gets Good Light? How did you begin?
It was super-helpful to have so much time working with Alejandra prior to getting started on the score. I really had a solid idea of the direction I wanted to go in. Alejandra had discussed the world of one of the protagonists, Manny, at length.

For many people, New York City is a place full of opportunities and dreams, but for someone undocumented, the city feels insidious — there’s real danger lurking at every corner. I decided I wanted to convey the sound of a siren in the score. For most New Yorkers, sirens are such a ubiquitous sound that they go ignored, but for someone like Manny, they’d be a constant stressor. To create the siren effect, I wrote long portamento, sliding movements for solo cello. This contrasted with an eerie bed of synth sounds to create the basis of the whole score.

What are your favorite instruments to write with?
It’s so hard to pick! I really love writing with the ukulele, whether I’m just playing it as it sounds or altering it to make synthesized sounds. I think it’s so versatile. I also love writing for cello. I’m not a cello player, but it’s one of my favorite instruments, and you can do a ton with it. In my studio I love to play around and find sounds that spark my interest. I have a Moog Subsequent 37 that has really been a game-changer for me in terms of soundscape and creativity. I also am obsessed with my Roli Seaboard Block and a lot of the Roli libraries — Cypher 2 isone of my favorites.

Can you walk us through your workflow?
I always start with research. No matter what project I’m working on, I want the music to be completely rooted in the story and characters. Once I get the film or spot, etc., I can start the technical process of scoring. I work in Logic Pro, and I do use a template, but my template purposefully doesn’t have any samples or instruments preloaded into it; it’s more set up to make the mixing process seamless. I don’t preload samples because I find I get locked into a particular soundscape if I do that, and I want to have a completely open mind when I start a new project.

From there I work cue by cue, putting in markers to map out the hit points within each cue. Once I have a cue mapped, I start loading sounds that I’ve been thinking about based on my research. I definitely find the full soundscape as I score the film — it’s sort of like uncovering the film’s voice. I’m also crazy about labeling my sessions and organization. It can get super-overwhelming without a good system, so that’s really important.

As I work, I typically start to hear which live instruments I want to record for the score. If I play them, I record them as I work in my studio, and if I don’t, I hire talented friends from my network to play on my scores. I send versions of cues back and forth with my director and simultaneously make revisions while writing new material for the rest of the piece. I always like to jump on the phone or a video call or (pre-COVID) meet in person to discuss revisions because I think it just gets you on the same page so much faster with your collaborators — a lot is lost via text and email. I always take time throughout the process to watch the film in its entirety with the score drafts. You can miss a lot if you just watch the film cue by cue. When the score is approved, I give it a final mix and then send it off to the sound team.

Can you name some other recent composing projects?
I recently scored the feature film Triple Threat directed by Stacey Maltin and produced by Besties Make Movies. It premiered at Cinequest Film & VR Festival. It’s beautiful original musical, and I’m so excited for everyone to see it. I also recently scored the documentary film No Man’s Land from Anna Andersen and Gabriella Canal. The film follows a lesbian separatist community in Alapine, Alabama. For that one, I got to do some research into Alabama folk music traditions. The film is premiering at the Florida Film Festival this month.

There doesn’t appear to be a lot of female composers in the industry. Any idea why this is?
The statistics on the number of women and composers of color are embarrassing. From my perspective, there is an assumption from people making hiring decisions that men have a presumed level of competence that women have to prove in order to get the same jobs.

In my experience, female directors and producers are much more likely to put the effort into finding and hiring female composers. If you look at my credits, you’ll see that reflected. This could be due to the fact that there are numerically fewer female composers and therefore it is slightly harder to find one to hire. Hiring diverse composers begins with the work of finding a diverse pool of applicants. I would implore producers and directors to do the extra leg work to find diverse collaborators.

Any tips for females who are looking at composing?
My advice to female composers would be, “Go for it.” We need your voices desperately. Develop your own unique voice and absorb as much advice as you can, but don’t let any of that advice knock you off your path. Being an artist of any kind can be really tough and requires tenacity. My favorite piece of simple advice is just don’t quit.

Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 20 years.