Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Today we’re talking to Virginia Kilbertus, an award-winning film and television composer. Virginia holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition from McGill University, where she graduated with a citation for Outstanding Achievement in Composition, and a Master’s in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games from the Berklee College of Music. Her most recent accomplishments include the original scores for the feature film Astronaut, starring Richard Dreyfuss and seasons 1 and 2 of the Hulu series Endlings. She also worked on the orchestration for Robert Eggers’ drama The Lighthouse, starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. Virginia’s insight into her work is truly fascinating and we’re excited to share this interview with you.
Hi Virginia! How have you been?
Hello! I’ve been doing well, thanks! It’s been quite the year… but I feel so fortunate to have my family safe and close by.
What is it like working with a collaborator as successful as the leadership of Endlings? Tell us more about your working relationship and shorthand with them.
Endlings was a dream project to work on. The creator, J.J. Johnson, and Sinking Ship Entertainment are always pushing the boundaries of children’s and young adult television. They’re constantly exploring new territory. What I love about working with them is that they don’t shy away from heavier, more mature subject matter. I think children, especially young adults, are often more mature than we give them credit for. Given where technology and the media stand today, kids are a lot less sheltered from the goings on in the world, and I think it’s important to address these issues in a way that is accessible to them. One of the most pressing threats we are facing today is climate change, and I feel honoured to have been part of a show that addresses the issue and brings it to the attention to the younger generation, on whom much of the burden will fall. Not only this, but the show explores the lives of four foster children who have all experienced various forms of trauma. So many kids grow up experiencing loss, separation, neglect, or abuse – and often these stories and lives are not the ones that get portrayed in youth television. It felt pretty amazing to work on a project that works to tear down the outdated stereotype of what a “typical” or “normal” family looks like. In the same vein, J.J. was seeking a more adult sound for the score, and he gave me a general instruction that I’d never previously encountered: to try to exclusively use sounds that were not easily identifiable. This gave me incredible freedom to explore and create new soundscapes and textures. I loved playing around with extended techniques, synths, and plugins. For every sound or instrument that I used, I thought about how I could mess with it to make it different and interesting, and it just felt incredible to be able to compose creatively like that.
You brought a unique approach to Astronaut. Can you take us behind one or two of your favorite scenes? Tell us more about your process and how do you decide the right way to approach it?
Astronaut was another dream project to work on. I typically start by thinking of what kind of sonic palette I want to use for a film or series – what sort of instrumentation I want to use to create my soundscape. For Endlings, I started by thinking more globally about otherworldly textures and sounds, and those in turn are what inspired the creation of the rest of the score. For Astronaut, my process started off more character based. The story really centres around Richard Dreyfuss’ character, Angus, and his performance is so brilliant – I knew I wanted the score to be an exploration into the different nuances and facets of his character. The writer and director, the amazing Shelagh McLeod, and I immediately agreed the score needed to feel intimate, but also have hints of something bigger. Angus’ world is fairly small, but he thinks and dreams big. The score needed to feel nostalgic, but also whimsical. I wound up using a string orchestra to create a soft, cushiony backdrop, with foreground melodies in the clarinet and solo strings. The clarinet felt like a natural choice for its mournful, hollow quality, which I thought was perfect for Angus, and solo strings are just so expressive. Punctuation of metallic and melodic percussion instruments, especially the celesta, also dot the score to add that element of whimsy and sonic brilliance, to draw the ear upward along with the eye whenever the camera pans skyward.
One of my favourite scenes where these various elements converge begins with Angus and Len (Graham Greene) sitting on the porch of their retirement home witnessing a comet streaking across the sky. There is a sense of resignation, of regret, which then gives way to optimism, determination and mischief as Angus builds up the courage to enter his name into the space competition. Here, for the first time, the score also introduces a recurring ticking clock texture, which continues throughout the rest of the score and helps drive it through to the end. This is the turning point in the film where the score, along with the action, begins to expand.
I have to say the arrival of the contestants was also such a fun scene to score, since it was probably the most sonically humorous moment in the film, and of course the penultimate scene – the liftoff of the spacecraft – was so cathartic to compose.
What was it like to do orchestrations on Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse?
It was wild! It’s not often that I get to call back on my atonal roots, (I spent 4 years studying 20th and 21st century classical repertoire,) and I’m so glad I got to for this project. It was unbelievably fun trying to figure out how to translate the incredible textures Mark Korven created to notation, and then to hear them performed live. I feel so grateful to have been brought on such an amazing and unique project.
Did you approach character themes in Endlings in a specific way at all?
The character themes in Endlings were again more textural than they were melodic. There are so many characters and themes in the show – you have Mr. Leopold, Hewes, the children, and then a different endling in almost every episode – I wanted the ear to lock onto different sound worlds all together that were distinct enough from each other and yet cohesive. Julia, for example, is set apart from the others by the flashbacks she has of her time with her father. Her sound became associated with the blurry string textures we hear in the pilot during these scenes. Johnny loves listening to music, as we also learn in the pilot, and is associated with an electric guitar melody. Finn’s soundscape is soft and sweet, and Tabby’s is quirky and spunky.
What are some of your other favorite past projects?
It’s so hard to pick favourites! I’ve been extremely fortunate in my career to have worked with wonderful people on every project and have great collaborative working relationships. I’ve learned something new every time. The best part about film scoring is that no two projects are alike. Working on different genres keeps you on your toes and forces you to be innovative with each score. It’s impossible to get bored!
What were some of the other challenges you encountered with Astronaut? How did you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenge with Astronaut was restraint. I was able to record with both a live orchestra and an ensemble, and whenever you know you’ll be working with live musicians a part of you wants to indulge and write bigger, more elaborate cues. Shelagh McLeod was steadfast in her more intimate vision for the film though, and she kept me in line! I wound up learning so much and loving the way the score breathed and took shape. That director-composer or producer-composer relationship is always so essential on a project. It’s easy to get tunnel vision when you’re working on a cue – having that second opinion is invaluable.
What else is happening next in your world?
Right now, I’m hunkered down with my bubble like much of the rest of the world. I’m in the early stages of some exciting new projects and am actually taking a little detour from the film and television world for one of them: a concert choral commission. Musicians and the gig economy were hit so hard by the pandemic, it feels lovely to be writing a piece intended for a live performance. We’re not certain when exactly we’ll be able to host live concerts again, but it’s something to look forward to in the hopefully not-so-distant future!
—
You can learn more about Virginia at http://www.virginiakilbertus.com/ – thanks for reading!
