Wellington composer Lauren King wrote the music for Kāinga, the first feature film to screen on RNZ.co.nz. Photo: Supplied
The “powerful marriage” of music and film is hugely inspiring to Wellington composer Lauren King.
"That's why I love to do it, because I know the power of it," she says.
"When you get it right and you've got great music against great film, it's so moving."
King’s work plays an important part in Kāinga, an anthology film of eight vignettes about life in Aotearoa from an Asian perspective. It’s the first feature film to screen on RNZ.co.nz.
She told Three to Seven’s Bryan Crump that she wrote a separate score for each of the vignettes in the film.
“The challenge was kind of making sure that you were meeting the needs of the individual directors for each vignette, but also creating a score that was cohesive for the whole film so you didn't feel necessarily like you were watching several different short films, you were watching one feature film that all connected together.”
Kāinga is the third film that King has worked on with Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton of Brown Apple Sugar Grunt Productions, following the 2017 anthology film Waru, and 2019’s Vai.
“The first point of base is always Kerry and Kiel, and just discussing with them what they want for the film,” King says.
“We took the same approach for each three films because we felt that's what works the best. The approach was always to start with writing a thematic piece of music first, which summarises the emotional intent of the film. And then we use that piece of music to kind of extract ideas from and then plant those ideas throughout the different vignettes in the film. And it just helps to create that unity throughout the whole film, which was so important for a film like this.”
Photo: RNZ
All the vignettes in Kāinga are shot in one take, which heightens the vulnerability in the film, King says.
“That kind of emotion is exactly what I need as a composer to tap into… that intimacy is very helpful for me.”
King grew up playing violin and piano, but also spent about a decade as a guitarist, including completing a performance diploma as a guitarist.
“For writing, the piano is definitely the instrument I’m most comfortable with and I gravitate towards when I'm working out ideas or finding inspiration,” she says.
King says she’s learned to accept the “mixed bag” of feedback that comes with composing.
“I do feel like I know when I've written something well, but that doesn't necessarily mean that other people will think it's written well. It’s kind of hard when you've poured your heart and soul into something and it’s not right, but I feel like now it's quite easy for me to just step back from that.
“It's probably been something I've been working on over time as a composer. And it just comes with repeatedly having stuff that isn't quite the right fit.”
Prior to working with Warkia and McNaughton, King had mostly worked on short films and a feature documentary. She’s also composed the music for The Lie, an upcoming documentary about the 2018 murder of British backpacker Grace Millane.
“It’s a very challenging topic. Even just with the score requirements, they were obviously needing something really different to kind of where I reside as comfortably as a composer. But I think even though that that challenge was so uncomfortable in the moment, it was really important for me to kind of stretch outside what I'm used to and, and it was an awesome project to work on.
“If you are always comfortable and always doing things that feel easy, you're not really growing.”
Looking ahead, King is slowly writing an album of her own, when life doesn’t get in the way.
“I love writing music for film. But I also really love, the freedom of sitting down and writing something without any kind of perimeters on it.
“I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to this, but just the juggle of parenting and working and finding time for creative projects is full on, so I'm just kind of slowly getting back into writing now.”
