Not a regular Bill watcher (last time I saw it was the big Sun Hill fire) and this episode was quite good - interestingly, nobody effed up their lines and nothing went wrong, not even a boom mike in shot, and if anything did go wrong they either covered it up pretty well or I didn't notice...
And of course, just to prove that it was live, just in case anyone had any doubts... the "time of death" that was given was exactly correct! 20:49! But I don't know whether the pause before the time was given was meant to be in there or not (if the pause was unintended it was probably because they couldn't work out the exact time so had to be told by the director or someone! lol!)
Andrew posted:
And to see if they get their lines right, put subtitles on!
I did just that and it was interesting... I presume the subtitles were the original script but when it was spoken the actors seemed to miss big chunks and changed a few words!
Yeah i have "Woodentop" on ITV 2 i see Pete Beal is on there from Eastenders. How did the name change come around? "Woodentop" "The Bill" they don't link in anyway in the name.
Yeah i have "Woodentop" on ITV 2 i see Pete Beal is on there from Eastenders. How did the name change come around? "Woodentop" "The Bill" they don't link in anyway in the name.
"Woodentop" was written as one of a series of one off plays for ITV, collectively known as "Storyboards" (as seen in the "titles" before the programme started). The idea was, that if any of the plays were recieved well enough by the public, then there was a possibility that it could be developed into a series - obviously this was the case for this particular programme!
When Geoff McQueen, the creator of "The Bill" first penned his script, it was under the title "Old Bill", but when it was accepted, it was agreed that "Woodentop" would be a more suitable title. When it was decided that "Woodentop" would be developed into a series, they decided to revert back to a version of Geoff's original title - "The Bill".
Thought it was fab from start to finish. Everyone put in very polished performances, obviously a lot of work went into it. I expect there was a real buzz on set and probably a big party afterwards.
In the old days when The Bill had a production team that took the programme seriously, they deliberately left in errors to highlight the realism to the programme
They went through a *brief* period of doing this. They stopped after receiving thousands of complaints.
While it sounds like a good idea to leave fluffs in, on the grounds that everybody makes mistakes in speech all the time in real life, the truth is that it doesn't work for dramas. The problem is that it doesn't sound like real people speaking - it sounds like actors forgetting their lines.
Then ohwhatanight said...
I feel this LIVE episode was basically a talking shop and a 'filler' episode where not THAT much happened apart from some easy talking scenes
*Easy* scenes? Do you have any conception of just how complex this episode was to stage? Remember, while they had 2 weeks of rehearsals (and they don't rehearse for standard taped episodes), they still had a full shooting schedule to keep up with.
I'm incredibly impressed with what they achieved...
In the old days when The Bill had a production team that took the programme seriously, they deliberately left in errors to highlight the realism to the programme
They went through a *brief* period of doing this. They stopped after receiving thousands of complaints.
While it sounds like a good idea to leave fluffs in, on the grounds that everybody makes mistakes in speech all the time in real life, the truth is that it doesn't work for dramas. The problem is that it doesn't sound like real people speaking - it sounds like actors forgetting their lines.
Then ohwhatanight said...
I feel this LIVE episode was basically a talking shop and a 'filler' episode where not THAT much happened apart from some easy talking scenes
*Easy* scenes? Do you have any conception of just how complex this episode was to stage? Remember, while they had 2 weeks of rehearsals (and they don't rehearse for standard taped episodes), they still had a full shooting schedule to keep up with.
I'm incredibly impressed with what they achieved...
Yes i was equally impressed but that comment was stating that I felt some of the scenes were 'filler' scenes whilst other locations were setting up ready to go. Overall a great achievement and programme - well done (again) to everyone involved!
I thought the whole thing was pretty impressive - interesting to see that Roz Storey vision mixed it - she is one of the best live music vision mixers, in fact one of the best live vision mixers full stop. There was some very polished cutting on reactions, and action.
I didn't see a director credit though - did anyone catch who directed the episode?
I also notice that the vision credit was an ex-BBC OB vision supervisor - the racking and camera matching was pretty good. Does anyone know if the Family Affairs facilities were used - they are multicamera, unlike the normally single camera "The Bill" - or was an OB facility used?
: