Recording - May 2017 - 55

May 2017
TAXI Road Rally 2016

Picking and Placing Instrumental Cues in Reality TV, Part One
Michael Laskow, Moderator
PANELISTS
Jonathan Weiss
David McIntosh
Jonathan Weiss is a Los Angeles-based music
supervisor and music producer for film and
television. He was Music Supervisor for over
130 episodes of the MTV series, The Real
World/Road Rules, as well as for two seasons of
the E! Entertainment series, I Am Cait. Jonathan
also supervised music for over 60 episodes of
Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E! Entertainment, the debut season, Motor City Masters
on Tru TV, and Love Games for the Oxygen
Channel. Other music supervision credits
include The Weinstein Company feature film
documentary and PBS's American Masters
Salinger, Interscope Presents The Next Episode for
Showtime Entertainment, The Education of Max
Bickford for CBS, U.C. Undercover for NBC,
Celebrity Undercover for MTV, and the Warner
Bros. Pictures theatrical release, The Big Tease.
Jonathan has also worked in A&R for Capitol
Records and Universal Music Publishing, as
well as TAXI.
David McIntosh is a Reality TV Editor with
Bunim-Murray Productions. Some of his credits include, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, E!
Entertainment, Born This Way, A&E Networks,
Rivals III, The Challenge Bloodlines, I Am Cait,
Total Divas, Million Dollar Maze Runner, and
MTV, just to name a few.
Jon, as a music supervisor in reality TV, where
does the process begin for the selection of music?
With the executive producer, or is it a meeting of
many people; is it a spotting session? Tell us about
this process.
Jon: Well, I think for a new show like I Am
Cait-which is the most recent new show-it's
a meeting with the production staff, probably
some of the lead editors, and the post-supervisors. They do talk about the direction, like for
that show we wanted it to be a little bit more

Video editor David McIntosh (left) explains how he back times a music cue in a reality show, while music supervisor Jonathan
Weiss listens intently.

serious in tone. A couple of the producers
found other shows that were good examples of
what they thought the show should sound like.
We didn't want it to be too dark, and I think
everybody agreed that we actually went a little
bit too dark at first on our first couple of cuts.
One of our executive producers said, "You
know, this isn't a PBS documentary. It's a serious subject of Caitlin Jenner transitioning, but
it's on E!, so let's try to make it fun too!" So we
held back little bit more on the serious stuff
and got into more of some of the fun material.
So you're right, Michael. It was a collaboration
of all the production execs, music supervisors,
editors, and we just sort of decided what the
direction was. And then at that point, as the
music supervisor, I had to go out and hire a
composer-in this case-to write cues, not to
picture, but for the show that were going to be
some of the more serious cues. And then gather
up all the fun stuff from music libraries and
other sources. And if there was a scene or two

where we needed a specific cue with an artist,
then I would find that one. So that's sort of
how it all started.
Let's talk about the composer stuff, where you
create a library for the show. So you set a tone...
kind of a sonic palette, if you will, and come up
with your own internal library that's used over
and over, episode after episode, to give continuity. And then you use the library stuff for other
specific instances. So once you've rounded up all
that stuff and you've built that catalog from the
composer and you've gotten the libraries... They
give you the stuff on drives, right? How many
pieces of music do you get from each library, and
how many libraries do you get music from?
Jon: Well, I think some of these networks actually have blanket deals with some of the bigger
libraries already. Like, I know E! has blanket
deals in place, so I was able to just pay them a
flat fee for a library per season. So instead of
just giving Dave (the editor) a huge drive from a
Continued on page 56
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2017

Contents
Recording - May 2017 - Intro
Recording - May 2017 - Cover1
Recording - May 2017 - Cover2
Recording - May 2017 - 1
Recording - May 2017 - 2
Recording - May 2017 - 3
Recording - May 2017 - 4
Recording - May 2017 - 5
Recording - May 2017 - Contents
Recording - May 2017 - 7
Recording - May 2017 - 8
Recording - May 2017 - 9
Recording - May 2017 - 10
Recording - May 2017 - 11
Recording - May 2017 - 12
Recording - May 2017 - 13
Recording - May 2017 - 14
Recording - May 2017 - 15
Recording - May 2017 - 16
Recording - May 2017 - 17
Recording - May 2017 - 18
Recording - May 2017 - 19
Recording - May 2017 - 20
Recording - May 2017 - 21
Recording - May 2017 - 22
Recording - May 2017 - 23
Recording - May 2017 - 24
Recording - May 2017 - 25
Recording - May 2017 - 26
Recording - May 2017 - 27
Recording - May 2017 - 28
Recording - May 2017 - 29
Recording - May 2017 - 30
Recording - May 2017 - 31
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Recording - May 2017 - 33
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Recording - May 2017 - Cover3
Recording - May 2017 - Cover4
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