MAFS boss denies producers cause drama among contestants as sneaky editing trick revealed

A top TV boss has revealed a clever editing trick used for reality shows, after the head of MAFS fiercely denied claims producers create “villains” on the show.

A top TV boss has revealed a sneaky trick used by reality TV producers in the editing room.

Multiple Married At First Sight contestants from this season, including Olivia Frazer and Tamara Djordjevic, have called out the show for giving them a dodgy edit - and it turns out there is a nifty feature commonly used for reality shows referred to as a ‘Frankengrab’, in which various words of a conversation are moulded together to form what sounds like a single sentence.

“[Frankengrab] which is basically like where you might take different parts of what someone has said, and you can make a cleaner sentence, which is generally what we use it for,” said Creative Head of Post at ITV Studios Australia, Jaala Webster, according to TV Tonight.

Both Olivia and her ‘husband’ Jackson have claimed the teaching assistant was edited unfairly. Picture: Channel 9

While there has been some shocking examples of ‘Frankengrabs’ this season - namely this one with groom Dion Giannarelli - Webster said it can’t be used to completely fabricate sentences.

“When it comes down to it I can’t make you say that thing,” Webster said. “I can’t Frankengrab you together having a fight with someone. I don’t have the capacity to do that. So if you look back in the edit, it’s probably because you did say or do something not so great.

“I can of course heighten that by the music choices I make for the scene, or how I juxtapose that with the scenes before and after.”

And in an interview with Variety Australia, Nine Network’s head of content production and development Adrian Swift also rejected claims they manipulate edits, revealing there were often things he didn’t want to go to air but had no choice because of how greatly the group had been impacted.

“We don’t make things happen and we don’t excise anything that has happened,” he told the publication.

Olivia said she was “blindsided” by her edit. Picture: Channel 9

Swift then gave an example of an incident he didn’t want to go to air, which happened back in season 7 when MAFS groom David Cannon infamously cleaned the toilet with his ‘wife’ Hailey Vernon’s toothbrush.

Given the scandal rocked the experiment and became contentious at subsequent dinner parties, producers would have been left with gaps in content had they cut it.

“More than anything in the world, we didn’t want to put that to air. We thought it was just stupid and mean and awful and undergraduate, just everything,” Swift said.

“But it was so material to all the relationships in that group, that we couldn’t excise it.

“So we’re kind of hoist on our own petard a bit here. We put things to air that we don’t want to go to air, but we certainly don’t believe all publicity is good publicity and we believe that it is absolutely possible to go too far on these shows.”

It comes after Olivia, 28, told Mamamia’s No Filter podcast she was left “blindsided” by her portrayal when the show went to air.

Despite admitting to finding and leaking Domenica Calarco’s nude photo during the experiment, Olivia claimed the scandal was mostly the result of manipulative tactics from producers and tricky editing.

“The whole storyline looks like I’m out for revenge and a malicious person, and I’m not. I had the dumb luck of being the cast member who was sent the [photo]. Everybody who was in the room has stuck up for me and said it wasn’t shared maliciously,” Olivia said.

Domenica smashed a wine glass at the couple’s retreat – which kicked off all the season’s drama.

“I mentioned [the nude image] to my producer who didn’t think it was a big deal either, and didn’t think I thought it was a big deal … and I was just really blindsided by production because they were putting words in my mouth and saying I did it out of revenge.

“That ‘revenge’ word is such a massive trigger … like, they’ve got my face on the ad with the big red ‘revenge’ title above it … That’s a really serious accusation, and that’s not what happened.”

Speaking about the experience of being on the show, she claimed she’d felt “comfortable” with filming until about halfway through – around the time of her infamous showdown with Domenica, who smashed a wine glass on the dining table during a heated discussion with Olivia.

“It was always very obvious that we were there to make a show, and Jackson [Lonie] and I got along from day dot so I felt very comfortable,” she said.

“It wasn’t until about halfway through that I started to feel unsafe … like there was something very not OK with this situation.”

Originally published as MAFS boss denies producers cause drama among contestants as sneaky editing trick revealed