The SFX Awesome TV Preview

[si]

Er…I received my new SFX this morning. Issue 226, it’s got Matt Smith on the cover. Anyway, pages 51-74 of the mag are given over to The Awesome TV Preview. It starts with 5 pages about Doctor Who s7, but there’s also a page or so given over to the small rouge one, which is essentially a brief (about a full page column’s-worth of text) interview with Doug, who talks about wanting an audience and how good they’ve been at not revealing spoilers online, and keeping the series fresh.
Anyway, just thought it was worth mentioning. Don’t think it’s on the shelves yet – next wednesday, I think it’s out. But worth picking up in WHSmiths and turning to page 64 for, at least.

Topic

[mick]

I’ll do my usual underhand trick of opening it in the shop and quickly photographing it with my phone.

[ori-STUDFARM]

And I’ll do my usual of waiting for a copy to turn up at work. Usually only a year or two after release. I loves working in a recycling depot. You get allsorts :)

[Alex]

He means jazz mags.

[Ben Paddon]

I’d like to do my rarely-performed trick of letting one of you lot buy it, scan it, and email me the thing.

[si]

A bit from the Doug interview is now on the SFX website:

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/08/24/red-dwarf-the-show-was-at-its-funniest-with-an-audience/

It includes a bit from Doug that’s not in the magazine (out now, third shelf back, WHSmith’s, page 64, go have a nosey), which I’ll copy and paste on your behalf:

“I think Red Dwarf was at its funniest with an audience,” Naylor told SFX. “The only reason the audience was dropped on series seven was because we were looking at doing a movie, and Ed Bye who was directing suggested we should do it that way because it was good practice for the film – it would be a different vibe. I totally bought that idea, so we did it like that and then played it to an audience and it was a bit of a mess, because you can’t really gap it for laughs – you can’t expect the cast to accurately guess every gap. Then we went for the slightly different format with the prison on series eight, but I brought the audience back, and that was a bit raucous that audience, it was like having a rock and roll night. Despite that the cast love working with an audience, it brings them alive. It’s show night so they produce this energy that you don’t necessarily get if you’re shooting five days a week with single camera. It’s a different skill.”

You’re welcome.

[Pete Part Three]

Doug Naylor – Great interviewee. Fantastic candour.

[pfm]

> and that was a bit raucous that audience, it was like having a rock and roll night.

*translation* they were so up for it they would have laughed at the cast making animal noises for 3 hours. :P

[Carlito]

Hmm, is he suggesting that the audience had a negative effect on series VIII?

The performances were very ‘big’ in VIII, which annoyed a lot of people. Could the “raucous” studio crowd have been a factor?

[ChrisM]

I can see it being a factor certainly.

One of the most important roles of the audience is to provide a gage for the actors so they can see what performance and jokes work best and alter their performance accordingly. I understand there are even times when the writer or director will do on the spot changes to the script to see if something else words better, although I imagine they probably prepare a number of backup variations before hand.

With a raucous ‘up for it’ audience which laugh at everything that gage is going to be skewed.

That reminds me of when I sat in the audience in an American sitcom when on holiday over in LA years back. The comedian ‘warm up’ guy actually rebuked us (mildly to be fair) for not laughing. ‘Come on give the actors encouragement…” etc.

I did have a good time at that recording, but the honest laughs, on my part, were for the comedian’s antics between takes rather than the show itself, which I found rather boring. I can’t even remember the name of the sitcom, although that’ says more about my memory than the quality of the programme.

[Carlito]

Yeah, we’ve heard for years how RD scripts would be adjusted if the audience reaction was lacking, plus editing decisions would be made based on the crowd response too. And there was chatter during the recent recordings of on-the-spot changes being made and pick-ups incorporating brand new material after the recordings… so I suppose a raucous audience at VIII could have created a false sense of security in the material and the OTT performances. Interesting thought.

I wonder how VIII would have turned out if it had been filmed without an audience and the laugh track recorded later, a la VII.

[Author]

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