Candy, and pumpkins, and cake, oh my!
No, we’re not talking about our office Halloween party… we’re talking about captioning one of our favorite spooky, seasonal TV programs, Halloween Wars on the Food Network!
Since 2011, five teams of three comprised of an award-winning cake artist, sugar artist/candy maker, and critically-acclaimed pumpkin carving artist compete each Fall for the grand prize of $50,000. The show is a take on the network’s year-round programs, Cupcake Wars and Cake Wars.
Each week, the aptly-named squads (Screams, The Underbakers, Sugar Psychos, etc.) must create a “small scare” themed display containing the cake, sugar, and pumpkin. The winning team gets a small advantage in the main event where all troupes must fight head-to-head to create the biggest, scariest, most detailed Halloween display, while creating a themed “tasting element” for the judges(some guest judges have been the likes of horror legends and icons such as Rob Zombie, Tom Savini, and Elvira).
One of the most frightening aspects of the show for the contestants: the challenges are timed!
“Working on them isn’t any different from a typical cooking competition show, though I find it pretty difficult to believe the up-tempo tension of it when the teams are ‘rushing’ to make their cakes in three or so hours,” said DJ, one of our offline captioners.
And while it may not be dissimilar to a lot of the other shows involving cooking and baking competitions, our captioners do have to add some bewitching flair when captioning Halloween Wars.
A recent sound effect in the show was captioned as, [ Pumpkin thuds ], while the musical introduction to the show is captioned as [ Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” plays ].
Our offline captioners look forward to working to working on seasonal programming that start this time of year.
“I do like working on them because I feel like they get me into the spirit of the holidays…” said Steve, another one of our offline captioners.
Offline Captioner Sarah said that these shows also get her in the “holiday spirit.”