Music Can Make Something from Nothing

OK...I worked on this show called Next Food Network Star for Food Network and the episode I edited aired recently. I've wanted to discuss this show for some time now.  Essentially nothing ever happens on this show.  I'm not kidding.  Nothing ever happens.  People are told to cook food and do challenges and they run around.  In a way its a lot like Amazing Race but with Food.  It was a pretty silly show to work on, but I always try and take something away from my experiences in the production trenches (aside from my salary). The main thing that I took away from my experience on this show is that Music plays a bigger role than one would think in these shows. As a composer, time and time again I see producers underestimate the value that stock music plays in the role of the show. In this case, I worked with a producer who was so meticulous about his music choices, it opened my eyes to a whole new realm of possibility in narrative structure.  

As a simple experiment I suggest you watch the clip from the show with sound on then rewind and watch it with sound off.   When you watch the below clip with sound off you will see a bunch of people cooking and walking around at a leisurely pace (or sometimes in a state of panic as time runs out).  When you watch it with sound on, you will notice that the Michael Bay type music cues and totally over the top dramatic stings used as a counterpoint to peoplewho are essentially cooking and this creates a sense of tension and drama that never fully releases until someone is dismissed from the competition for not being a good...um...cook or star (I worked on this show and still don't understand what the point of the program is.)?  

The point is that while many people just throw any sort of musical junk into their timelines when creating TV, the whole genre of reality TV relies on strong musical choices that bring to the forefront what amateur actors, contestants and or regular people have a hard time communicating in this genre.

Next Food Network Star: Ep #3 (excerpt) from Jared Gutstadt on Vimeo.