Lucy Bright: The artist is the film director & you are there to serve their vision
One of my rituals when I go to the cinema (remember the cinema? The place with the big screen where you sit in the dark next to lots of people and have a collective experience?) Well, when I go I like to sit through all the credits at the end because I’m always amazed at how many people it takes to make something that’s 90 minutes long. It’s such a vast network of vital, interconnecting people. And one of those vital people is a music supervisor. I like to think of them as a DJ or selector for a movie but of course it’s far more complicated than that. Which is why I have on today’s episode, Lucy Bright to tell us more about it.
With a degree in History of Art, Lucy started out at Mute Records during her gap year Mute records represent the likes of Nick Cave, New Order, Depeche Mode, and Goldfrapp. She then moved to Warner Classics for six years before leaving to manage acclaimed composer Michael Nyman - he wrote the music for the Oscar winning film The Piano & The 2018 Alexander McQueen documentary amongst many others. She was at music publishing company Music Sales for 10 years overseeing an extraordinary roster of film composers including Gabriel Yared (Cold Mountain,The English Patient), Ludovico Einaudi, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly (The Reader), Hildur Guðnadóttir (the woman who won the Oscar and every award going this year for her scoring of Joker). This year Lucy is starting a new venture with the launch of her own music publishing company, Bright Notion Music.
Lucy has music supervised some of the most critically-acclaimed British films of recent years: Samantha Morton’s directorial debut The Unloved, Lynne Ramsey’s The Swimmer, John Maclean’s Slow West, Justin Kurzel’s Assassin’s Creed, Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime and Sean Durkin’s The Nest starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon which premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2020. Her work in television is equally renowned including Southcliffe, McMafia and Shane Meadows’s This is England ‘90 and The Virtues. She is currently working on TV drama Little Birds for Sky Atlantic and LIFE for BBC One (jointly with Catherine Grieves).
We talk about her journey into music supervision, what inspires her, the role of a composer within the context of film, the under-representation of female composers in the film industry, and the lessons learned along the way.
Guest: Lucy Bright
Title: ‘The artist is the film director and you are there to serve their vision'
Artist/ Album on Playlist: Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy, Leonard Cohen - ‘Memories’ from the album Death of a Ladies’ Man & Rob Simonsen - Reveries
Content: Article about Lucy in - The Gentlewoman
Films/TV Lucy has music supervised on - Sean Durkin’s The Nest
TV Drama for Sky Atlantic, Little Birds
TV series for BBC, LIFE