Guide For Writing Instrumental Cues for Reality TV Shows
Have you ever dreamed of writing music for a reality TV Show?
Below are helpful tips created by eight-time Emmy-nominated
Music Supervisor, Director of Music, Music Editor
Rick Livingstone
Rick has worked with Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, E!, GSN, MTV, OWN, SPIKE, SYFY, TruTV, and Food Network,
plus Peter Engel Productions and Mark Burnett Productions.
He has worked on Survivor, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, The Amazing Race, and many more.
See Rick's IMDb credits HERE
Rick has graciously shared his Guide To Writing Instrumental Cues for Film & TV below
Below are helpful tips created by eight-time Emmy-nominated
Music Supervisor, Director of Music, Music Editor
Rick Livingstone
Rick has worked with Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, E!, GSN, MTV, OWN, SPIKE, SYFY, TruTV, and Food Network,
plus Peter Engel Productions and Mark Burnett Productions.
He has worked on Survivor, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, The Amazing Race, and many more.
See Rick's IMDb credits HERE
Rick has graciously shared his Guide To Writing Instrumental Cues for Film & TV below
Rick said, "Most of my television work has been in the narrow little television niche of Reality TV. A lot of people send me links to their cues that, while they may work well for music supervisors who deal with drama TV or comedy or even movies, it's worlds away from what I have to deal with. I am pretty specific about the (production music) libraries I chose, largely because I had such a huge selection to choose from. I prepped all of my shows to be AVID ready when the editors arrive so with that in mind, here are some general guidelines for the cues I tended to use."
- Cues are different than songs
- Cues should have a 1 or 2 word name maximum. Any longer tends to get cut off when they are brought into AVID editing systems
- If you’re working with more than one composer, a composer code (numeric or alphabetical) should be included in the cue name at the end. It helps immensely when cue sheets have to be done for the PROs.
- Also a 2 or 3 letter prefix in front of the cue helps immensely when creating cue sheets by separating the music from the dialog or sound effects when you do a sort.
- Cues don't have to be any more than 60-90 seconds long. Editors will only use 20-30 seconds of any cue.
- Cues should have DEFINITE ending. (no fade outs)
- Cues should go somewhere melodically and rhythmically, not just obvious loops stuck together. Possibly stopping somewhere in the middle of the cue for editing purposes. A good stop though, maybe somewhat similar to the ending.
- Cues should have what I call minus mixes and the minuses should be indicated in the cue title. This is hugely important! A full mix, a mix with just drums, a mix with bass and drums, and then a couple of mixes, say, one without orchestra or one without the lead solo. Maybe a total of 5-8 different mixes. If there are only 3 or 4 tracks in a cue, minus mixes probably wouldn't be useful though because minus mixes are only useful when there is a fully developed cue. Too sparse is usually not good.
- Vocals are only sometimes helpful and not always necessary.
- All genres are welcome. Modern Orchestral Tension cues are the staple of reality television but any genres from rock to country to hip hop to jazz are useful.
- And, last but also hugely important, if you want a leg up against the massive amount of competition there is for library music, make your cues AVID ready (Editor's note: Or find and work with music libraries that can do this step with your cues). MXF MediaFiles linked to an AVID bin (or second best solution .aaf files with attached metadata, yes, that’s .aaf not .aif) with these descriptions moves you to the front of the line:
- Cues should have a 1 or 2 word name maximum. Any longer tends to get cut off when they are brought into AVID editing systems
- If you’re working with more than one composer, a composer code (numeric or alphabetical) should be included in the cue name at the end. It helps immensely when cue sheets have to be done for the PROs.
- Also a 2 or 3 letter prefix in front of the cue helps immensely when creating cue sheets by separating the music from the dialog or sound effects when you do a sort.
- Cues don't have to be any more than 60-90 seconds long. Editors will only use 20-30 seconds of any cue.
- Cues should have DEFINITE ending. (no fade outs)
- Cues should go somewhere melodically and rhythmically, not just obvious loops stuck together. Possibly stopping somewhere in the middle of the cue for editing purposes. A good stop though, maybe somewhat similar to the ending.
- Cues should have what I call minus mixes and the minuses should be indicated in the cue title. This is hugely important! A full mix, a mix with just drums, a mix with bass and drums, and then a couple of mixes, say, one without orchestra or one without the lead solo. Maybe a total of 5-8 different mixes. If there are only 3 or 4 tracks in a cue, minus mixes probably wouldn't be useful though because minus mixes are only useful when there is a fully developed cue. Too sparse is usually not good.
- Vocals are only sometimes helpful and not always necessary.
- All genres are welcome. Modern Orchestral Tension cues are the staple of reality television but any genres from rock to country to hip hop to jazz are useful.
- And, last but also hugely important, if you want a leg up against the massive amount of competition there is for library music, make your cues AVID ready (Editor's note: Or find and work with music libraries that can do this step with your cues). MXF MediaFiles linked to an AVID bin (or second best solution .aaf files with attached metadata, yes, that’s .aaf not .aif) with these descriptions moves you to the front of the line:
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Genre (drama is not a genre)
Americana Atmosphere Blues Southern, Chicago Etc. Country Traditional, Rock Etc. Electronica Electronica Dance Ethnic African, Asian, etc. Funk Hip Hop Jazz Modern Orchestral Orchestral R & B Rock Alt Rock Hard Rock Metal Rock Pop Rock Southern Rocktronica Urban World |
Mood
Action Aggressive Confident Dramatic Funny Happy Hopeful Melancholy Mystery Positive Quirky Reflective Relaxed Sad Sexy Suspense Tension Tension Drone Tension Light Triumphant Upbeat |
Tempo
Fast Med Fast Medium Med Slow Slow Mixed None Tempos vs BPM: <85 slow 85-99 med slow 100-124 medium 125-149 med fast >150 fast FOR MORE KEYWORDS,
CLICK HERE |
