Exclusive Interview With Jennifer A. Brown
The Music Supervisor and Actor Shares Her Views on Hollywood
Feb 13, 2009
Music supervisor, agent for music supervisors, actor, Internet radio host, and former advertising account executive Jennifer A. Brown looks at life’s obstacles as opportunities. Although she once worked in New York City as an account executive at a major advertising agency, she realized that her secure high-end job looked great from the outside, but failed to satisfy her inner creative needs.
Capitalizing On Her Love of Music
Dissatisfied with her chosen career, Brown decided to focus on her greatest strengths. She concluded that her ability to network provided a constant flow of new friends and associates, but wasn’t exactly sure how to best use this skill to her advantage.
“I gave some thought to what made me feel good, and I realized that it was working in a networking kind of capacity,” Brown said during a recent telephone interview. “My friends at the advertising agency suggested that I start representing advertising directors…and from there, someone else suggested that I start representing music composers and music supervisors. I hadn’t realized before that there was money available in the music world if you weren’t a musician or composer. I ended up landing a job at a great music house in New York.”
Working as a Music Supervisor
Eventually she moved to Los Angeles and started working as a music supervisor for films, in addition to representing others and taking on occasional acting jobs. This shift in careers allowed her to concentrate on networking and music.
“Music carries a lot of the emotion of a film,” she says. “Most of the time when I work with new film directors, they can see the film but they can’t hear it. We’re still mostly visually oriented people. For me, I’ve always lived more through my ears than through my eyes. This allows me to explain to younger directors that we need to know how they feel about a scene even though they might already know how they see a scene. I’ll make the music fit that. From there I have to match up the psychological elements of the composer with the director and writer. When everybody can integrate their work together, then it takes a C film to an A film.”
Brown, who worked as a music supervisor on several films including The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Conventioneers, says movie lovers don’t usually appreciate how important music is to a film. She describes all cinematic music as a powerful thing, despite the fact that some music only last a few seconds, such as when a character searches for songs on a radio or walks into a club or restaurant.
Jennifer Brown in Front of the Camera
In addition to her work as a music supervisor with Transition Music, representative for others, and former Internet radio host for the program From the Inside Out, Brown also does some acting.
“For the past few years, I’ve also been doing some background work as an actor,” she says. “I got into the union, and am now giving acting a serious go. I pulled out of music a little bit and am taking acting classes. It’s a little risky, but I don’t have a husband or kids to worry about, and I do have part-time jobs. There isn’t a direct marketing plan for succeeding as an actor out here – it’s network, network, network. You have to talk to people you know.”
On the Set of Just Shoot Me
Her networking got her an acting job on the television series Just Shoot Me. What started as a fun diversion from her music supervisor work turned into a five-year assignment.
“My good friend, an actor on the show, introduced me to the set of Just Shoot Me,” she says. "He got me some work helping out with the show, and then he got me hired every Friday as a New Yorkie in the background. Then I had to negotiate with Transition Music to work a four-day week. I found myself a regular job on a network sitcom. It was absolutely thrilling.”
Brown was surprised to discover that even though the actors on the stage appear to be having fun, the film and television industry is much like the corporate world she thought she’d left behind in New York.
“You must have your act together if you want to fit into the network primetime thing because it’s really just corporate structure on a stage,” she says. “I’m taking a risk now by moving more into the acting side of things, but actually it’s all risky if you don’t have a regular job and a scheduled life. Even so, it’s definitely worth the risk.”
For more information about Jennifer A. Brown, visit Internet Movie Database.
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