RECORDING August 2022 - 65

A UGUST 2022
TAXI's Virtual Road Rally 2021
How TV Editors Pick and Place Music
With TV Editor, Laurel Ostrander, Part 4
Interviewed by Michael Laskow
Laurel Ostrander is an A-list TV editor who has
wowed the audience during the previous Road
Rally ballroom presentations she has done. She's
incredibly smart, and one of the best teachers
who has ever graced our stage. Laurel's going to
tell you why she chooses one piece of music over
another, what type of instrumental cues and
songs work best, and how she uses music to make
scenes in the shows that she edits much more
impactful. Her recent credits include Rhythm and
Flow, Wipeout, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, and
Married at First Sight. She has created content for
networks including Netflix, Disney+,
Paramount+, Fox, CBS, MTV, and many more.
From family-oriented docu-follows to horrorthemed
game shows. Laurel uses music as a tool
to create compelling and entertaining stories.
Editor's note: In this final part of the interview
with Laurel, we were taking questions
from the audience members during the live
broadcast.
This question is from Chris Williams: " I've had
placements that I got paid 41 seconds for, but I
saw it on YouTube, and it was used for two minutes.
Why is this? Were there two versions, or is
this an actual mistake? "
That's a good question. I wish that I had an
answer for that specific situation. But oftentimes
we edit, or we're asked to edit, extended
versions it seems. There is something called
the " snap-in. " If a show airs on, I don't know,
like OWN, and then it's gonna be sold to air
internationally on another network, they'll ask
for extended versions to see.
There you go, that's probably the answer.
This one is from Casey Hurwitz: " Is it a good idea
to play your cues at low volume and see what
sticks out under dialogue? "
I think it certainly can't hurt, because that's
how ideally you want it to be played in an
Michael Laskow and Laurel Ostrander at TAXI's Virtual Road Rally.
episode. Sure.
Somebody asked about the direction with the
scoring stuff. I think when a lot of people hear us
talking about " scoring, " they're thinking orchestral
scoring, but it's not. Many shows today will
" score " using songs, not traditional orchestral
score.
Well, you know, we are getting some orchestral.
But one directive I got for a Netflix series
that I did this year was, " We want every
episode to have its own unique sound, and we
" I think it certainly can't hurt to
really have your ear to what is popular
and current, and think about how
you can make instrumental versions
of that music. "
-Laurel Ostrander
all want it to sound current. So this episode we
want to be the Billie Eilish episode; this
episode we want to be the Beyoncé episode;
this episode we want to be the Drake episode. "
And we're using music that sounds like those
artists, but we're using it to score the scene. So,
I think it certainly can't hurt to really have
your ear to what is popular and current, and
think about how you can make instrumental
versions of that music.
I know that libraries used to commonly use in
their metadata or search terms, they would put
in stuff like " Sounds like Billie Eilish. " And now,
because of the massive lawsuit, they are much
more afraid, because they can no longer make
the claim, " No, we didn't want that to sound like
Billie Eilish, " because if it sounds like Billie Eilish
and the library put that in the metadata... So, is
it common that when you guys get a directive
from the network or from the EP telling you that
we want this episode to sound very Billie Eilishish-I've
never had to say that before-do you
then go in and search library with the term " Billie
Eilish, " and hope that stuff pops up that was
tagged that way?
Yeah, either me or our music department's
music supervisor.
So, I wonder if that's going to get harder for
libraries. I'm sure that they are backtracking now
Continued on page 66
RECORDING August 2022 65
RECORDING August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of RECORDING August 2022
