Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience

squonk

Lots of comedies still use live studio audiences for filming. The laugh track does benefit some comedies. It occurred to me though as I was watching Mulaney last night and finding it incredibly unfunny, just where do they get those people for the audiences? I suspect canned laughter is supplemented or just used instead if the audience don't quite cut it but, if that's not the case, do they liquor/drug these people up beforehand to the point where they'll laugh at anything?

AnonoBoy

squonk wrote: »

I suspect canned laughter is supplemented or just used instead if the audience don't quite cut it but, if that's not the case, do they liquor/drug these people up beforehand to the point where they'll laugh at anything?

They liquor people up a bit but people are more likely to laugh when they feel like they're part of the show. They'll be warmed up by a comedian, the star might come out and chat to them - everyone is having fun. It's like at a stand-up show you might laugh away at jokes that you would never find funny if you saw them cold on TV. It's the live setting that helps.

Canned laughter doesn't really exist any more.
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/aug/13/canned-laughter-critics-complaining

pickarooney

I find it hard to believe the audience would laugh enthusiastically on the fourth of fifth take of a scene.

Toto Wolfcastle

I was at a filming of Pointless and they recorded various levels of clapping and cheering in case they needed to slot it in somewhere. The warm up guy did it with us. Do they do the same for laughter at comedy tapings?

AnonoBoy

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

I was at a filming of Pointless and they recorded various levels of clapping and cheering in case they needed to slot it in somewhere. The warm up guy did it with us. Do they do the same for laughter at comedy tapings?

I'd say so but it'd be used more in a gameshow I think. That's mostly to cover the edits. On a gameshow there's lots of stops and starts (as you presumably saw at the filming) so they use the wildtrack of applause to mask the edits.

pickarooney wrote: »

I find it hard to believe the audience would laugh enthusiastically on the fourth of fifth take of a scene.

They could potentially use the laugh from an earlier take if a scene needed multiple gos to get right. I'm not entirely sure.

Wise Old Elf

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

I was at a filming of Pointless and they recorded various levels of clapping and cheering in case they needed to slot it in somewhere. The warm up guy did it with us. Do they do the same for laughter at comedy tapings?

There was a "making of" programme about Friends before it finished, and they did the same thing; recording different level of laughter/cheering, which they'd use if the audience reaction didn't match what the production team wanted to go out, or if they had to do retakes. Interesting how it's done.

bnt

Have a read of this, about a taping of The Big Bang Theory and the way it's made. No mention of drink at all, and if you arrived hammered you probably wouldn't get in. They shoot every scene at least twice, make adjustments as they go, have different cameras positions, and so on. A burst of laughter from one take might be used over another take.

Toto Wolfcastle

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I'd say so but it'd be used more in a gameshow I think. That's mostly to cover the edits. On a gameshow there's lots of stops and starts (as you presumably saw at the filming) so they use the wildtrack of applause to mask the edits.

Not that many at Pointless. It's pretty much filmed as you see on TV unless a shiny forehead needs a touch up. Probably depends on the show.

AnonoBoy

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

Not that many at Pointless. It's pretty much filmed as you see on TV unless a shiny forehead needs a touch up. Probably depends on the show.

I just used to work on the cheap, badly made shows then!

Toto Wolfcastle

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I just used to work on the cheap, badly made shows then!

Ah no, I think it comes down to the format. Certain shows would allow for less breaks. With others it would be impossible to film it all in one go. It's interesting to see how it's done.

Wise Old Elf

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I just used to work on the cheap, badly made shows then!

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

Ah no, I think it comes down to the format. Certain shows would allow for less breaks. With others it would be impossible to film it all in one go. It's interesting to see how it's done.

I was at a taping of the Irish version of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" a good few years ago, and while they didn't record different versions of clapping, etc, there was a lot of stopping and starting. They had to add/remove podiums between the fastest finger first and normal game, which took ages. Recording time was probably more than twice the actual show time in that case.

RainyDay

Disco Stuart wrote: »

I was at a taping of the Irish version of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" a good few years ago, and while they didn't record different versions of clapping, etc, there was a lot of stopping and starting. They had to add/remove podiums between the fastest finger first and normal game, which took ages. Recording time was probably more than twice the actual show time in that case.

And loading Gaybo's storage barrels of patronising bullsh1t took even longer.

Raspberry Fileds

Reading the Guardian article linked in an earlier post, it seems that the author defines canned laughter as being a wholly manufactured laugh track. I would define it as any laugh track that is in some way manufactured. Tricks like using a track from an earlier take and amplifying the laughter, IMO, all contribute to the laughter being "canned". No one, no matter how stupid, can laugh at Big Bang Theory to the extent that the audience does. What Graham Linehan said about the laughter being for the benefit of the actors and not the audience is plainly false given the amount of post-production editing it.

AnonoBoy

Raspberry Fileds wrote: »

Reading the Guardian article linked in an earlier post, it seems that the author defines canned laughter as being a wholly manufactured laugh track. I would define it as any laugh track that is in some way manufactured. Tricks like using a track from an earlier take and amplifying the laughter, IMO, all contribute to the laughter being "canned". No one, no matter how stupid, can laugh at Big Bang Theory to the extent that the audience does. What Graham Linehan said about the laughter being for the benefit of the actors and not the audience is plainly false given the amount of post-production editing it.

Going by your definition there's probably not many audience shows in the world that don't used canned laughter then.

pickarooney

There were a couple of episodes of 30 Rock that were actually transmitted live with a studio audience. You can hear the difference between actual 'live' laughter and the edited/amplified shenanigans they use on sitcoms which that article is trying to claim is not canned laughter.

Robbo

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Canned laughter doesn't really exist any more.
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/aug/13/canned-laughter-critics-complaining

That may be so but it's the most surefire way of setting Graham Linehan off on one on Twitter. For that we are grateful.

AnonoBoy

pickarooney wrote: »

There were a couple of episodes of 30 Rock that were actually transmitted live with a studio audience. You can hear the difference between actual 'live' laughter and the edited/amplified shenanigans they use on sitcoms which that article is trying to claim is not canned laughter.

That's called a sound mix.