What is the role of a music supervisor?

It's a sort of delegated producer of music, whether for television, cinema, advertising, documentaries... I work personally for TV and cinema, and I take care of the artistic, legal and financial side of producing a film score, which is made up of three poles.

The first is the purchase of rights to all existing tracks that we may wish to use as soundtracks, either as they are or to have them performed by other artists in the film, or to edit them from specific extracts specified in the script. This is what we call the sync right: it covers everything we need to buy in advance of shooting.

Once the film has been shot, we work more on the music that reinforces the emotions of the scene, supporting a moment of tension or panic, for example. This is called original score production. We call in a composer to work with the director, who in turn chooses where to place the music. We accompany this production by helping them first to communicate, then to produce. In other words, hiring musicians, choosing studios, engineers and the way in which all this will be implemented...

For these two parts, contracts need to be drawn up for all those involved: composers, musicians, engineers, etc. Then there's the matter of managing the budget for these tasks. Then there's the matter of managing the budget allocated to these tasks.

The third part of the job is artistic. The composer sometimes needs our opinion before presenting his creations to the director. When the filmmaker wants a piece that the budget doesn't allow, the music supervisor also suggests other music, trying to meet the filmmaker's expectations.

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When does the music supervisor intervene in a work?

Every film has its karma, its story, its advantages and its constraints. On some productions, I'm given the script to read well before shooting. This gives me time to talk with the producer and director about buying the rights to the titles already in the pipeline. But sometimes I get a call for a project that's already been shot. There are no rules. Some directors know exactly what they want, others need a lot of guidance. I'm used to telling my clients that I'll take whatever space I'm given. If a director needs to talk often, I'm there for him. If he already has a certain complicity with a composer, I let them communicate with each other. My degree of involvement also depends on the scope of the task: the number of rights purchases, the importance of the score, the use of an orchestra in the score...

What qualities do you need to become a music supervisor?

You have to know how to put yourself at the service of the other person, forget your personal tastes and try to accompany the director and the composer in their way of seeing the project, even if sometimes we don't agree artistically. You also need to be rigorous, as the profession requires a strict legal and financial framework. Lastly, you have to be a good listener. The creative process can sometimes strain people's sensibilities, and some go through moments of doubt, or even pain. We have to try to help them, to listen to them, to understand them. This psychological part is not negligible.

You work on both series and films. Are there any fundamental differences in the way you officiate between these two worlds?

The means aren't the same, of course. But it's the same business, always with the artistic, legal and financial aspects of music. That said, on a series, for a first season, we define a style with the composer and director: this will be the "color code" of the project. If there's a new season, we take the credits and main themes from our database, which grows as the series continues. This saves us an enormous amount of time compared to the cinema.

What was the first film you worked on?

JCVD by Mabrouk El Mechri. A truly incredible memory and experience that gave me my foot in the door. I loved all the projects for the exciting human adventure they represented. I particularly remember Christophe Gans' Beauty and the Beast: with composer Pierre Adenot, we were able to record at Abbey Road with a large orchestra. It was a moving experience, as is often the case in this business. That's why it's so beautiful.

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Since 2005, Varda Kakon has supervised over 100 films, including La promesse de l'aube (Eric Barbier), Django (Étienne Comar), Alibi.com (Philippe Lacheau), Chocolat (Roschdy Zem), Floride (Philippe Le Guay), La glace et le ciel (Luc Jacquet), La famille Bélier (Éric Lartigau), La belle et la bête (Christophe Gans), Les herbes folles (Alain Resnais). On the series front, she has worked on Chefs (Marion Festraëts, Arnaud Malherbe), Baron noir (Ziad Doueiri, Antoine Chevrollier), Trepalium (Antarès Bassis, Sophie Hiet), Kaboul Kitchen (Allan Mauduit, Jean-Patrick Benes) and Dix pour cent.

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