Fort Boyard, I'm a Celeb, The Cube, Million Pound Drop, virtually any new game show Endemol come up with. Even recent Big Brother/Secret Story revivals now share houses between two or three countries.
I know the cube is used many other tv stations, but how many really use im celb?
Fort Boyard, I'm a Celeb, The Cube, Million Pound Drop, virtually any new game show Endemol come up with. Even recent Big Brother/Secret Story revivals now share houses between two or three countries.
Sorry, I discounted Fort Boyard as its the name of the site.
I'm a Celeb films in locations all over the world. Brazil and Costa Rica, and I'm sure there's a site in Argentina. The Americans only reused the Australian set once, didn't they?
Are you saying The Cube and Million Pound Drop shoot versions for Germany, the Ukraine and Russia at Fountain Studios (or wherever they're taped)? Hmm.
Wipeout (like Boyard) has 20 versions made on the same site. I don't think the comparison is the same with studio shows doing a couple of European versions on them.
Are you saying The Cube and Million Pound Drop shoot versions for Germany, the Ukraine and Russia at Fountain Studios (or wherever they're taped)? Hmm.
I've had SRO Audience emails for Arabic and Italian versions of The Cube at Fountain. They were even offering £20-25 travel expenses "regardless of where you have travelled from".
Are you saying The Cube and Million Pound Drop shoot versions for Germany, the Ukraine and Russia at Fountain Studios (or wherever they're taped)? Hmm.
I've had SRO Audience emails for Arabic and Italian versions of The Cube at Fountain. They were even offering £20-25 travel expenses "regardless of where you have travelled from".
Isn't the Cube itself just a big perspex box with an LED floor?
I know that the camera(s) they do the "game freeze" shot with probably takes some time to set-up - but what am I missing here? Is there more to it, or is it just more economic to fly a few hundred people into London and hotel them for a night?
Do a British audience have to watch an Arabic/German host making programme smalltalk?
They rely on ex-pats too though, just as ITV did for Beat the Star in Germany, though the second series of that transferred to the UK (Pinewood I think). ITV have also filmed the pilot of My Man Can on the German set - whether the series (if it goes ahead) will film there are not remains to be seen, but I suspect like with Beat the Star it would be more cost effective to fly Brits out there for the filming of a first season then possibly recreate the set here if it goes into a second series.
Fear Factor had a base in Argentina for non-European versions too - and if any other country bought 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow it would have been filmed there too. There is also a site set up for XXS there too.
And like with I'm a Celeb various countries share locations for Survivor too. Talking of I'm a Celeb though I'm surprised ITV have never considered switching to one of the other locations as a twist one year - and actually timing wise Costa Rica would probably be better for them rather than having to produce a live show at 5am in the morning.
Back to the original point though about The Crystal Maze and I suspect if it ever was to be revived here now it would be because another country had taken it on and set up an international base to film it on.
it's true that Futuristic Zone looks dated now, just in the space of 20 years. I'd probably argue if a remake did happen and Futuristic Zone did return, it'd be more along the lines of Star Trek/Wars, or major space travel (albeit touched on during the Tudor-Pole era but not developed.
Yes I’ve always imagined it would be very white and sterile.
I think if the show was to be remade, and I know it’s very unlikely, these changes would need to happen.
The Crystal Dome set would need to be improved, as it’s very tall and odd looking, the dome would need squashing. I’d even argue the entire Crystal Dome end game would need rethinking to make it a bit more television friendly. But that might be messing too much.
More dynamic camera shots would need to be used.
Futuristic would need a drastic rethink.
Medieval could be more scary and have more of a haunted feel.
I’d say music would need to be used during each game, like in Fort Boyard, music that is dramatic but also reflects each zone whilst fitting in with the theme music.
The prizes would probably need to be made better.
I’d imagine they’d want to mess around with the zones, but I think they’re fine, they just need to look better apart from Ocean.
This is probably the best Crystal Maze related video on the Internet in terms of behind the scenes.
It would be good to hear from someone who worked on on designing the set, to see some of the original plans, what happened after etc.
Was there a pilot created, was it created on Fort Boyard or a version of the maze made for it?
In a dream would it could probably get a couple of million viewers if shown on Channel 4, but the initial buzz would probably ware off. But imagine people who watched it when they were in their 20's are now in their 40's, people who were very young when it first started and remember watching at the time and have had constant reminders with it being repeated on Challenge all this time.
A lot of people younger then me are probably aware of it thanks to Challenge and YouTube clips etc. It's quite well known even amongst those who weren't old enough to watch first time round, which I doubt is the same as any other show, except perhaps Bullseye.
Last edited by Jon on 14 April 2012 10:30pm - 2 times in total
The Crystal Dome set would need to be improved, as it’s very tall and odd looking, the dome would need squashing. I’d even argue the entire Crystal Dome end game would need rethinking to make it a bit more television friendly. But that might be messing too much.
More dynamic camera shots would need to be used.
I believe the version of the Crystal Dome that we see on screen IS the television friendly version. Apparently when the contestants went in the Crystal Dome the best tactic was to just pick up the tokens from around the edges. This didn't make interesting television so they go back in again and are told to jump around like idiots instead.
It is clear on screen that there are at least two takes, since sometimes we see shots from a camera in the dome itself which is not there on the long shots.
It is clear on screen that there are at least two takes, since sometimes we see shots from a camera in the dome itself which is not there on the long shots.
I'm just think the end game, always seemed like much of anti-climax the Fort Boyard one is much more exciting.
Everything was done with two takes on the show wasn't it - the first playing for real then the second getting the close ups. I wouldn't want to see the Dome replaced completely, but they'd need to think about how to make it more exciting.
As for Fort Boyard - when it first aired here on C5 I thought the end game was rather dull compared to the Dome, but even though it's basically the same I think it works rather well in the new ITV version - perhaps making it head to head makes all the difference.
