An Interview with Morgan Kibby and Jen Guyton from ‘Queens’

Several spotted hyena cubs at the entrance to the den. (National Geographic for Disney/Mark McClean)

Morgan Kibby and Jen Guyton are a pair of accomplished creatives that normally, that work in fields we don’t discuss all that often. For Morgan works with music and scoring and Jen is a renowned photographer. But come Monday, their talents will be celebrated. For they both worked on the upcoming National Geographic series, Queens, and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with them to discuss their contributions to this incredible new series.
 
John Betancourt: Let’s talk about what attracted each of you to work on this project.
 
Morgan Kibby: I've never worked in the genre before. So, for me, this was a massive opportunity to do something fresh and new, and to challenge myself. And the massive cherry on top was that they, really the creators, specifically Chloe, she really wanted me to bring, I think, my background in electronic music as a fresh kind of flavor, if you will, to the score for this series.
 
Jen Guyton: So, I shot the cover story for National Geographic magazine on spotted hyenas that's linked to this series. And for me, I've always been so fascinated by hyenas. And as soon as the magazine approached me with this idea I was on board.
 
John Betancourt: Now since you two have a slightly different perspective on this series, I’ve very curious as to what you think audiences will take away from it?
 
Jen Guyton: I was absolutely blown away, in particular, by you know, the ‘African Queens’ episode and just how much they managed to capture in, you know, just a short period of time out filming in the field. And so, I hope that the audience has a better understanding of, you know, hyena behavior and gets really excited about this really cool world that they unveiled.
 
Morgan Kibby: I think in tandem, you know, each episode, I personally learned something that just blew my mind. So even if there's just one fact, from each episode that the audience takes, I think that's an incredible thing. But for me, personally, I have to say, every time I got a new episode from the editors to start working on it, I would sit down, watch the whole thing through, and there was inevitably a moment where I would just start crying about something. And it's really emotional. And that is so fresh. And I really hope, frankly, that the audience has the same emotional reaction and experience that I was lucky enough to have.
 
John Betancourt: What does it mean to each of you to be involved in such a poignant series?
 
Morgan Kibby: You know, the best things that happen in life are never things you really understand until they happen. And I guess, I'll just say, I just feel so fortunate that the experience over the last year of making this series has been so rich, and so rewarding, both creatively and personally. I mean, I've made friends for life on this project. And it's brought out parts of my own creativity that I didn't know could exist. I, you know, I didn't know that there was going to be space for a score like this within this genre. And I feel really excited about that. But it's kind of I don't know, it's just kind of hitting me right now that that it is what it is, because you're so in the trenches with it that you don't you know, it's a year’s worth of work. So, it's a lot. So, I'm just very thrilled to, frankly, just be a little satellite around this, this creation.
 
Jen Guyton: Yeah, I think I'm even more of a satellite than Morgan, as I unfortunately, didn't have the opportunity to work directly with the filmmakers on this, but it's just been an incredible thing to witness. And I think it's going to, you know, start a whole new movement within natural history storytelling.
 
John Betancourt: What are you each most proud of when it comes to your work on this project?
 
Jen Guyton: I'd say I'm most proud of being able to deliver some sort of never-before-seen scenes of hyena life. And that was accomplished through using infrared technology, infrared cameras, infrared lights, in a way that didn't disturb the hyena’s behavior. And so, we were able to get these like incredibly intimate scenes of the hyenas that are running in the magazine story.
 
Morgan Kibby: I'm just really proud that the team is happy with the work that we did together. Like ultimately, I'm in service of Chloe's vision, and I'm really happy that we clicked the way that we did and I'm very proud of our collaborative process.
 
John Betancourt: Okay, last question that I have for each of you today. If you had to describe Queens in one word, what would that word be?
 
Morgan Kibby: Inevitable.
 
Jen Guyton: That’s really good. I don't know if I can beat that. I don't know. I might just go with… badass.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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