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Chapter 1: What secrets about Married At First Sight does the producer reveal?
Hello and welcome back to the Mass Funny Podcast with me, Joshua Fox.
Today we're doing something very special and potentially something that's never been done before and I'm about to interview a former Married at First Sight producer and they're going on the record, they're using their name and this does not happen because these people usually like live in the shadows, everything's so secretive, they never really want to talk about what happens behind the scenes, how they make the show.
The lady I'm going to talk to today is called Alex Fennell. She worked for two seasons on Maths as a post-producer. And if you're wondering what a post-producer does, I'll let her explain. Maybe one thing you guys didn't know is on shows like this, there's so many different types of producers.
Chapter 2: What does a post-producer do on reality shows?
You've got like the casting producers, you've got day-to-day producers, you've got executive seniors, you've got so many different departments. Each couple is even assigned their own producer who's pretty much like a babysitter day-to-day. So Alex is going to come on and answer my question. She's going to answer some of the questions you guys have been sending.
She no longer works in TV, which is why she's comfortable kind of coming on to do this. And she also has her own podcast that she does with her best friend, Jordi Lucas, who you guys may know as a former actress from Neighbours. Jordi is also now a host and presenter. And between them, they've basically worked on the biggest shows in this country. And that's what they talk about on their podcast.
But today she's coming on here to tell me exactly how Married at First Sight is made.
Hello, Alex speaking.
Hello, Alex. It's Josh.
Oh, hi, Josh. How are you?
I'm good. How are you doing?
Yeah, good, good. A little nervous, actually.
Are you just giving the people the answers they want?
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Chapter 3: How is footage selected and edited for reality TV?
But in reality, you have, like, a team of casting producers. You've got day-to-day producers. Each couple is assigned a producer who's almost like a babysitter.
Yes.
So do you know what's happening day-to-day? Do you know, like, the maybe tactics they've used to get the footage that you're then sent? You know, like...
No idea.
So you kind of go into it blindly.
We just get a top line rundown of what, what each conversation was about. Once we've watched the footage. And so while we're watching it, we're transcribing it and taking notes like, you know, X goes here, dah, dah, dah. Even the boring things, it's all transcribed. We don't miss anything. Then we have story meetings. And in that meeting, we talk about what's been going on.
And that's when you all talk about, well, what's been going on in the wider context of the show on set. And so you say, well, this happened, this happened, this happened. They had a fight about this, blah, blah, blah, got upset, blah, blah. And then as a group, you discuss what the angle is that we're going to hone in on. Because essentially,
You've got hours and hours worth of footage, 70 hours sometimes. You can't put it all on air. You have to put it into a two or three, five-minute scene. You have to decide which bits you're going to keep.
This is interesting because, you know, every year people come out and blame the edit. They go, the edit stitched me up, the edit this, but I'm now speaking to the person who does the edit.
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Chapter 4: What role does editing play in shaping a contestant's image?
I watched, you know, you from morning to night. I watched you at dinner. I know you. You don't know me. I know you. And that is what you're like.
Well, one example I think we can use here that's kind of relevant, like this season is... Lauren's sister, Tamara, she was the first person this year to kind of be branded a villain. She, you know, she was unhinged at that wedding. She made it all about herself. And then she came out and I'll read you this quote. She says, I know how it looks. I watched the same episode as everyone else.
And without context, I totally get it. But there's over 18 hours of footage you didn't see. I'll be sharing a tell all soon. So stay tuned. But just a little reminder, this is a reality TV show heavily edited to get the highest ratings.
I would ask Lauren herself, does she think her sister was taken out of context? We saw what we saw. Sure, we didn't have all the other scenes around it, but she did say most of those things, right? She did do those things. She did behave in a certain way. I would presume they've spotted her. She was obviously being a certain way.
A dickhead.
Probably. And then the producers have been like, This is somebody we should speak to. And maybe the more they spoke to her, the more she acted out of sorts. I highly doubt she was a wallflower and a lovely, good person. And then the producers just out of nowhere plucked it out of thin air and thought, let's ruin this woman today. Let's ruin her life. Like, I just, it doesn't work like that.
It's the people's behaviour leads the edit.
Okay, so with this example we're using, so I was there at Lauren and Elliot's wedding. I was outside and I was there. I kind of watched her in the lobby and producers were chasing her around. How I think this has played out is, as you said, she's rocked up at the wedding. She's a bit out there. She's a bit outspoken. Producers have gone, okay, here we go. We've got a character.
And then throughout the day, they've probably kept going, how are you feeling? God, that was a bit weird, wasn't it?
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Chapter 5: How do producers decide which storylines to highlight?
Oh, can you believe she said that? She probably hasn't realized this extra attention she's getting compared to other guests is because they have this...
vision in mind that they are with their producers they're producing her to to create something that's entertaining and then she's come out and says you know there's over 18 hours of footage you didn't see and then she probably didn't realize on the day that she was the only one getting this extra attention she probably thought well these 18 hours of everyone so then when she's watched the condensed what 20 minute package of the wedding and she's like fuck i'm 15 minutes of this
But then you would have got the 18 hours. You would have just had these notes, right? From the producers on the day being like, this happened, this happened. This sister was a bit unhinged. The sister maybe said this. So you maybe looked at those notes and you would then go into watching 18 hours. And is this true? You would then already maybe having your head down. Okay.
I'm told this person's maybe the standout of this episode. So yeah.
correct uh but you would have had no wider context of the day being like she was probably pushed into saying more than maybe she would have liked to no we would not be no way do you do you think the the production are gonna tell pose oh yeah we chased her oh yeah we gave her six glasses of champagne and said say this no as post producers it's our job to watch all the 18 hours of footage
And even without any context or notes or instruction to look at her, we would spot that ourselves.
Okay.
And then we would pitch that ourselves. I would say even if there was no mention of the – because we watch all the voxies that are done with the bride and groom's friends and family. That's just part of the workflow. And so if I watched that and saw that, I would say, oh, and – Here's one. The bride's sister is pretty unhinged.
Okay. And then you have that meeting with the wider post-producer team. And then, you know, you're the boss of that team would then go, yeah, that's the one. That's the storyline. And then is it your job to then, when you make this edit, are supposed to make it mostly about her? Because you guys have now decided, okay, that's the storyline. Anything else is almost irrelevant.
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