This time we are talking with one of the most passionate and prolific music supervisors working today, Heather Guibert, head of Francium Enterprises and Vice President of the Guild of Music Supervisors. Her path into the business wasn’t linear. One soundtrack – one aural moment of clarity – deflected her attention from a future in aerospace engineering towards a world of music supervision and literally hundreds of film & TV credits.
In this conversation, we hear how she approaches a job that constantly balances emotions with logistics, stories with rights, instincts with budgets, but where, ultimately, music is the thing that shapes what we feel. Heather talks openly about the job’s two-sided nature. The creative spark matters, but so does the rights clearance slog. She explains why collaboration always beats selfishness, and how understanding your role in the bigger picture can end up giving you more influence and focus on serving the vision.
We touch on the different mindsets needed for a tight, catalogue-driven music documentary versus a sketch show that jumps across genres, and hear about the small habits that help her keep ideas flowing when deadlines are unforgiving. When a cue lands perfectly, it feels like magic but when it doesn’t, she knows how to break a scene apart, find the piece that’s missing, and build it all back together again.
There’s also mentoring, inclusion, and the Guild of Music Supervisors’ mission to advocate for fair credit and compensation across film, TV, advertising, games, and trailers. Misunderstandings about the role still lead to undervaluation, and Heather shares how the guild is working to shift that.On technology, she is pragmatic: AI and analytics can be tools, but they can’t replace taste or emotional intelligence where, at the heart of the decision, is always the protection of the story.
(We recorded this conversation at De Oosterpoort during Eurosonic Festival in Groningen on Friday 17th January 2025.)
We hope you enjoy the episode and thank you for listening!
Find out more about our guest:
Heather Guibert Credits
