What is seeing RD live actually like?

[tombow]

I’ve obviously never seen a live taping and I’ve always wondered what it actually entails. Like is there a long gap between scenes as they get things ready? What happens when the action moves location, like hunting the Polymorph in the tunnels – is that just shown on a screen?

Topic

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

They film 30mins over 4 hours. And some of that is pre-recorded. There’s a lot of stop start. There’s a lot of waiting between scenes and set changes. They do try to film (and show pre record) in order so the audience can follow along. But you ought be sat at that one end of the room unable to see what’s happening three sets over do you know watch on screens and struggle to hear the low audio. 

But, it’s red dwarf and hells fun. 

[Ian Symes]

There are reasonably long gaps between scenes, but with a combination of skillful warm-up acts and being able to have a nose at what the cast and crew are getting up to, you don’t really notice, there’s always enough to keep you occupied. The only bits that sometimes drag for me are when they do multiple takes of the same scene, sometimes three or four times in a row. But then you remember that you’re watching Red Dwarf being made live in front of your actual eyes and you get over it.

Further reading: https://www.ganymede.tv/tag/set-reports/

[tombow]

There are reasonably long gaps between scenes, but with a combination of skillful warm-up acts and being able to have a nose at what the cast and crew are getting up to, you don’t really notice, there’s always enough to keep you occupied. The only bits that sometimes drag for me are when they do multiple takes of the same scene, sometimes three or four times in a row. But then you remember that you’re watching Red Dwarf being made live in front of your actual eyes and you get over it.
Further reading: https://www.ganymede.tv/tag/set-reports/

Thanks. Reading about Trojan I just can’t imagine how big it is with 3 sets and a corridor. Do the audience have to move to see each set or is it all just lined up and visible?

[Ian Symes]

Nobody moves around unfortunately, so it depends on where you’re sat as to how much you can see – if you’re in the middle you can see most of every set, but the further out you go to the sides, the less you can see the other end. But that’s before the pesky things like cameras and microphones turn up between the set and the audience, which tend to block quite a lot unless you’re lucky. Thankfully there are multiple monitors visible at all times to fill in the gaps.

[loadoftottnumb]

I saw Officer Rimmer recorded and had a great time. There are gaps but like Ian Symes said they keep you entertained. I was lucky to have the warmup guy who appeared in M-Corp as a ‘friend’ he went by the name ‘Ray’ I think at the time and later Ian for some reason. He did quizzes and gags throughout and organised s windup of Craig Charles where he told him an audience member wanted to lick him. 

The thing you have to remember is you aren’t there to see a show like at the cinema or theatre, you are there as part of the production, so do your job and laugh when you are suppose to even if it’s the 5th time you’ve heard the joke 🙂. 

[cwickham]

I wrote this about being in the audience for Siliconia: https://cwickham.blogspot.com/2018/02/red-dwarf-xii-siliconia.html

[Starbugger]

I was lucky to have the warmup guy who appeared in M-Corp as a ‘friend’ he went by the name ‘Ray’ I think at the time and later Ian for some reason.

Ian Boldsworth, stage name Ray Peacock. No idea why he alternated. He popped up in Doctor Who: “Blink” as well.

[Warbodog]

Ian Boldsworth, stage name Ray Peacock. No idea why he alternated. He popped up in Doctor Who: “Blink” as well.

The stage name sounds like a “bit dodgy” pun, though he’s said it wasn’t intended to be.

[Frank Smeghammer]

The stage name sounds like a “bit dodgy” pun, though he’s said it wasn’t intended to be.

Good lord I never considered that before… I very much believe him that he didn’t mean for the pun. How unfortunate 

[Stephen Abootman]

If he’d used ‘Drew’ as a first name instead, everyone could have enjoyed that

[Ridley]

Clean Boldsworth

[Formica]

Clum

[Jonsmad]

I’ve seen 2 episodes of X, and 1 each of XI and XII.    You queue and then go in like just like a small theatre, but you arent allowed to move out of your seats during production. Toilet breaks means putting a hand up outside of takes. In  front of you is the sets just like a play. but more like a concert there is a level of people standing infront of you photographing/filming. A warm up man is like seeing a stand up comedian, but more like when they are bantering with the crowd rather than them doing long jokes, and the warm up man is also a bit more like a tour guide when he’s explaining what you do next and what the show is going to show you. Especially if FX’s arent yet complete. Or if a part of the show isnt ready for you. For example I saw Entangled and that night they didnt film an ending so we went home without seeing the shows end. Which is why I like that episode more than people who saw it on broadcast!  It great fun seeing the cast in costume. They come over at the start and say Hi and fool about and later they bow at the end. Otherwise they are at work. So It’s like watching an episode, the smeg ups and behind the scenes all rolled into one. You see alternative angles and takes of each bit. So It’s like rewinding your dvd each time the set changes. so episodes do seem longer like this. But it feels like a great night out seeing Dwarf History happen. 

[Rudolph]

I remember trying to get tickets for X when they were basically raffling them off. I didn’t get a ticket, but a colleague I didn’t much care for did, and then I found out he didn’t even bother going in the end.

[Flap Jack]

I didn’t get a ticket, but a colleague I didn’t much care for did, and then I found out he didn’t even bother going in the end.

[si]

I went to see Dear Dave. It was a lot better on the night, but a lot of what made up the final episode – ie most of the middle bit – wasn’t actually recorded that night. It was most mostly the scenes in the bunkroom with all the letters. So we were treated to a look at an early edit of Trojan as well.

[Author]

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