Greetings over your interweb devices
“Stop, stop, stop all the dancing
Give me time to breathe
Stop, stop, stop all the dancing
Or I’ll have to leave.”
In the world of multi-camera sitcoms, one of the advantages of shooting on video instead of film was “the booth” — in which the director and his or her team would coordinate to show the audience a live edit of the show cutting back and forth between the four cameras in a pattern rehearsed for effect, emphasis, and to maximize laughs. It was also the central hub for all the information flow delivered over the PL (private line) we mentioned the other day.
In some booths, there was a back row in which producers would sit and make notes during the performance and even pitch lines they thought needed a last minute revision. At times this discussion could get a little loud, which conflicted with the director’s task at hand. So at Witt-Thomas-Harris, they had two booths — one for the director and one for the producers. Everyone could talk as much as they needed and best of all no one was on the floor to interrupt the show. After each scene, there was short discussion between the booths, the director would relay pertinent information to the actors through the stage managers, the associate director would adjust any camera shots affected by possible script changes with the camera team, and the script supervisor would call out line changes to all concerned departments. All of this took place efficiently, and the warm-up kept the audience entertained with a few jokes and contests.
Film shows, on the other hand, originally had no video return to show the audience, so the director and the writers and producers congregated on the side of the set, just out of the way of the camera aisle (at least that was the plan).
Eventually the difference between film and video disappeared starting with video taps in the film cameras — and ultimately, the whole thing went digital. Along the way, there needed to be a melding of the procedures and the booth went the way of the buggy whip. While I suppose it is more fun to be on the floor where all the action is, the scrum that forms around the monitors can get pretty crowded. In fact, on one show I would slowly get pushed farther and farther away from the monitors by competitive producers . . . and it was my job to be able to see those pictures.
In my humble opinion, rather than taking the best parts of both systems, the current system pretty much does the opposite, but then no one asked my opinion.
Tom Carpenter, this one is for you.
To one and all, Be Safe-Stay Healthy