Sketch Sets

Not sure what's going on with the other thread I tried to create of the same name, but here is my message...

Just been watching Mitchell and Webb, and something occurred to me that I've wondered before but never bothered to ask.

You know those interior sets that are used in comedy sketch shows, such as at 3'30" into this week's Mitchell and Webb - they look fairly cheap, but at the same time relatively expensive. They're on for just a few minutes, yet look fairly decently made considering their short use.

How much would such a set cost to build, and what would happen to it after?

I ask out of curiosity, and am not about to complain about such a shocking use of the licence fee - especially as I don't find it a shocking use of the licence fee.

I guess they can reuse flats and redecorate them, like the 'get me Hennimore' office set, which is used each week, could be redecorated to look like any generic office set

I saw this, that's a lovely set. The way those sets of stairs curl around are very reminiscent of the Fawlty Towers staircase, I must admit. Actually the layout of that hotel in the sketch is very similar to Fawlty Towers albeit at a 90 degree angle with a different entrance.

Bearing in mind you don't realistically need a full studio to create an atmosphere, I mean "Hennimore" realistically can sit in a corner somewhere. Set designers are creative on the basis Mitchell and Webb only has a limited budget like everything else and it has to go across the entire production so you have to plan these things out which typically involves re-using as much as you can. I would not be surprised if most of the material for the hotel set was taken to pieces and used elsewhere across the series, which is far cheaper than constructing individual sets on a permanent basis, though for long running production such as EastEnders, that is the preferred option.

That being said I have seen things like CBBC's 'Prank Patrol' programme where they seemingly go to town on the pranks despite the programme is effectively being made with next to no money but the overall effect is looking a little rough in places but fairly passable considering the target audience. I dare say 'Prank Patrol' has less than 5% of the budget of Mitchell and Webb so if you think 'Prank Patrol' can pull it off on a shoestring budget, it can't be all that expensive to create a set and hang a few pictures up from the props cupboard, after all you get what you pay for.

Do we really need two threads on this subject?

Are you sure that was a studio set though? I noticed the very old fashioned light switches and wondered if they had perhaps done it on some location type shoot?

The forum software went a bit bonkers; the other similarly titled thread, which does not contain posts relating to sketch sets, is simply a product of its madness.

DEFINITELY a studio. There's a very obvious painted exterior through the doorway as they come through the door. It's one of the tell-tale signs of a studio interior. The light switches are just a decent designer or art director doing their job properly.

You can get pre-made sets - which are useful for quick sketches (you can hire flats mounted to kitchen units etc.)
However for longer running series it is easier to do more of it as part of the production design - so that you can get the precise look you want - and not see the same stuff elsewhere. Wallpapering flats and screwing on some non-practical lightswitches is pretty quick... (It gets more complicated if you want running water from a tap...)

When you see windows on studio sets you either have a lot of net curtains (which diffuse the painted backdrop) or some real foliage close to the window and some painted stuff further back.

The Mitchell and Webb stuff is classic multi-camera three-wall sketch-show, not single camera location shot.

Shooting multicamera on a location is pretty tricky (as you need a LOT of space to house three or more cameras on decent peds and the lighting as well as the stuff you want to see on camera) It is also a lot more expensive - as you can shoot much more quickly and reset to different areas more quickly in a studio than on location - so you can get more done in a "talent day" - and have a live audience.

I wonder on Michell and Webb, when they do their 'between takes' sketch, what set up they've been filming in the background, as it's ususally the location shoot, this weeks episode seemed to be in some big back garden.

also didn't recognise the set pieces behind David when he was talking to the audience about the budget cuts.

guess on most sketch shows they have basic sets they only use once, like the Two Ronnies phone sketch which was basically a flat with two phones attached and one camera filming it
(you can see the entire studio reflected in the domes above the phones)

I suspect it's done like Little Britain was - some sketches pre-recorded single camera location (the outside ones), some pre-recorded in the studio and edited (complex sketches like Hennimore for example )and 3 or 4 sketches recorded on the night in front of the audience (simple one scene sketches) They can only fit 2 or 3 sets in the studio with an audience, they'll do a sketch, change while the pre-recs are being shown and then do teh next sketch etc

The sketches filmed in front of and shown to the audience won't be episode specific, as they might be 3 audience recording sessions and 6 episodes. Also if there's a running narrative series of sketches they might choose to show the whole lot to t he audience in one go

It was the Incident quiz show set, unlit

thanks, looks different without the lighting, also the camera image is different as well

If the same set is going to be used for several sketches across as series, they'll film all those sketches on the same recording, for example, I went to a recording of Touch Me I'm Karen Taylor last year, and they had three scenes set up in the studio, filmed at least 4 sketches in each, and the rest of the stuff was on VT. I imagine other studio-based sketches were done on other recordings.