Jillinda Palmer served as the music editor for Apple TV's Lady in the Lake, which stars Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. The series is set in Baltimore, MD, in the late 1960s, and music plays an essential role in helping to establish the setting.
Palmer, whose credits include Deadwood: The Movie,
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,
Virgin River and
Diary of a Future President, drew extensively from her experience singing in a 1960s-era soul band to help ensure the show's music was authentic and fit the period. She is currently working on Duke Johnson's upcoming film, The Actor, with music by Richard Reed Perry of Arcade Fire, but took some time to discuss her work on
Lady in the Lake with
Post.
Hi Jillinda! Can you share some insight into your responsibilities as music editor?
“I try to act as a liaison between the composers, directors/show runners, editors, music supervisors, producers and re-recording mixers. I work with the editors to build a solid temp score, which will be used as an initial guide for the composer. It gives an idea of the director’s taste, their preferred instrumentation, the emotion that music is conveying for each scene and overall tone that is being established with music. I document detailed notes on all music - score, source music and songs - while keeping track of picture versions and how editorial changes affect music so that the composers can remain consistent as the cut evolves. As the composers start writing and recording cues, I edit song and source music options provided from the music supervisor to be narrowed down and ultimately selected by the director. I keep track of all music deliveries and then edit the music as needed and conform it to locked picture, all while aiming to retain the composer’s original intent. I also handle all final music deliverables and attend the final mix. I’m a musician, so I always try to use my own musical experience and knowledge to help communicate and facilitate ideas.”
In the case of Lady in the Lake, what were your responsibilities?
“LITL was my first time to work in-office in editorial since the pandemic, so it allowed me to be hands-on in many ways that seemed to be lost during the years of working from home. I was really able to anticipate needs from everyone in editorial in realtime. Since our director and show runner Alma Har’el was also editing in-house, I was able to work on-demand directly with her alongside the rest of editorial to immediately handle many of the music editorial tasks so that the editors could then focus their time on other non-music related things within each episode’s cut process. I was able to streamline workflow by quickly delivering edited music back and forth directly to editorial via their network, which avoided a lot of extraneous communication. It also prevented the need to provide me with additional music turnovers for each request.”
Are you working within a system such as Pro Tools?
“I work with Pro Tools for editorial. I also use various spreadsheet software to create cue sheets, and I manage databases for searching within music libraries.”
Is there a scene in the series that you would point to where music plays a strong role?
“The end of Episode 1 really stands out to me musically. The viewer will first see Dora (played by Jennifer Mogbock) perform a beautiful and sultry version of the 1964 hit song by the Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go,’ which was pre-recorded, produced and arranged by Bekon, directly followed by a brutal discovery made by Maddie (Natalie Portman) and Judith (Mikey Madison). As the camera starts to spin, revealing the dead body of a 11-year-old girl, the viewer will hear a captivating version of the Lady In The Lake theme by composer Marcus Norris. I feel that this strong and sonically unique musical moment really sets up the mystery and leaves the viewer intrigued and inspired to keep watching the series.”