"Off air recordings" and A, B and C rolls

Hoping some people in the industry here (which are quite a few I think) could help me on this.

Was just watching a show called The Fight for Saturday night on BBC4 where they were talking about Cilla Black quitting Blind Date during its first and only ever live show, unknown to her producers. They showed a clip of an "off air recording" from the studio with Cilla's producer talking to her and the studio audience after the broadcast had finished on ITV. I'm just wondering how commonplace such "off air recordings" are and if there are any specific purposes for them? For a casual eye I'd find it odd that such a thing was still around for them to use on the BBC4 show. Is it luck of the draw or for a special occasion whether such recordings are laid down to tape and kept or is there specific procedures for all live shows or studio recordings such as this? I know of A roll, B roll and C roll etc but not completely up on their definitions. I presume A roll is the show as broadcast (free of adverts which come from the broadcaster, with VT clock in place), B roll is a back up at the time of recording?, and not sure about C roll. Or is there a clean camera feed right the way through recordings, then one with VTs overlaid, and then one that is the final product? Again what is the purpose of all this?

I know this may seem overly geeky but I am interested in this wider subject area, thanks for your time all

For live shows it was commonplace for the recordings to continue well after the live broadcast had finished.
One such show was Noel's House Party. I have digibetas full of pre and post show stuff that was recorded in presentation in the run up to and after the live shows. Especially the final show where Noel made quite an emotional speech to the audience once the final House Party came off air which is after what seams like ages of Freddie Starr still foaming people long after the red light had gone off!!

Thanks Media Boy - Presentation must see some interesting stuff at times

You might need to clarify the terminology here - off air recording usually means a recording of the broadcast as received. You're talking about unbroadcast footage, (whilst the studio was off air).

It seems to have been common practice to record these bits, there is footage of Stewart Morris doing a similar speech after the final of Opportunity Knocks with Les Dawson.

Yes sorry Steve you're absolutely right - I thought too that off air record means the broadcast itself (straight off the telly rather than even straight from the production itself). It's just that the BBC4 doc described it as this, though I'm pretty sure you are correct.

I'm sure it varies from show to show, but Blind Date's graphics were always added in post with clean camera feeds recorded for editing later.

I would have thought that applies to most recorded shows, unless it's done "as live".

Sometimes the actual episode contains the post-transmission footage at the end of it. I think there are producer guidelines that say something like you need to hold the production slide for 15 seconds then another 15 seconds of black(?) but after that, it's common to have footage from the studio.

A roll, b roll etc means quite a few different things.

One use is main and second, third etc cameras when recording rushes in the field - say you're doing a location drama where there's a big effects laden stunt, explosion etc. you might only be able to actually do it once, so you set up three cameras on it, perhaps one fining slow motion, the others doing the main shot and a big wide. When these get back to the edit, these will often be labelled A roll, B roll and so on

Another is where promotional footage of a feature film or TV programme is supplied to another programme, often to supplement the appearance of an actor on something like a chat show. I've often heard this referred to as B Roll footage (or EPK - Electronic Press Kit).

I've not heard this terminology in television recordings of programmes though - if it's a live show, there'll be a PasB (programme as broadcast) or a RoT (recording of transmission). Depending on where these have been made though these may or may not include anything done before or after the actual transmission. It's also not always the case these things survive after transmission.

Many thanks for the info Deejay. I've heard lots of meanings over the years but things of course change and I've never bothered to pin down a definitive meaning at any time. I have heard the production assistant in a studio gallery say "Run A roll" at the beginning of a recording but this was a good while ago.

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but it is sort of related...what are the different versions of a recording of a show called? For example, a recording without the clock, without GFX, with all GFX burned on etc.

Not off topic at all really mate, the kind of thing I was trying and perhaps failing to get at :p