Are the original studio facilities still used?
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
either "on location" (either in the real city or a fake
city), or in some remote place (like Canada) to save money.
Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
we used to see in photographs of Hollywood? For example,
Warner Bros had a big studio complex--what is made there?
Paramount had its own plus Desilu next door--what is made
there? CBS built "Television City", is that still used?
Also, do TV shows still have live studio audiences?
zaryza...@yahoo.com
hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
> we used to see in photographs of Hollywood? For example,
> Warner Bros had a big studio complex--what is made there?
> Paramount had its own plus Desilu next door--what is made
> there? CBS built "Television City", is that still used?
I don't know about those specific places, but I think that they do
still make a lot of movies and TV shows on the Hollywood lots. (I
suppose some of them might not be in Hollywood proper, but the area.)
The West Wing, for instance, famously has a set there that is a close
copy of the real White House. Also, I think in some cases they film
some scenes inside the studios there and other scenes are filmed other
places. I think this is particularly true of movies (as opposed to TV
shows). You're right, though, that a lot of times things are filmed in
Canada, because the cities there look a lot like American cities, but
the costs are lower.
> Also, do TV shows still have live studio audiences?
If your question is about live audiences versus laugh tracks, I'm
pretty sure that most sitcoms (that actually have audience noise, as
opposed to, say, "Scrubs") use real audiences. However at the moment
there aren't a lot of sitcoms on the air, and outside of the very early
days of TV dramas generally didn't have audiences at all and still
don't. Game shows still use them, though.
Barry Margolin
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
> we used to see in photographs of Hollywood? For example,
> Warner Bros had a big studio complex--what is made there?
> Paramount had its own plus Desilu next door--what is made
> there? CBS built "Television City", is that still used?
I think Wisteria Lane is on the backlot, but I'm not sure.
I saw Nicki Cox on a talk show last week, and she mentioned that Las
Vegas is filmed on the biggest studio set in Hollywood, to recreate the
Montecito casino.
>
> Also, do TV shows still have live studio audiences?
Most sitcoms still do.
--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
Jack Ak
Few TV shows are broadcast live.
Late night talk shows have live studio audiences
for late afternoon to early evening tapings.
The daytime talk shows also have audiences for the taping.
William George Ferguson
>It seems a great many TV and film productions are filmed
>either "on location" (either in the real city or a fake
>city), or in some remote place (like Canada) to save money.
>
>Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
>we used to see in photographs of Hollywood? For example,
>Warner Bros had a big studio complex--what is made there?
>Paramount had its own plus Desilu next door--what is made
>there? CBS built "Television City", is that still used?
The big lots, Universal [now NBC-Universal], Paramount, Warner, Fox, are
still in heavy use. Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls) is a permanent outdoor
set on the Warner backlot. The movie version of Firefly (Serenity) was
shot on Soundstage 12 (the largest soundstage on the Universal lot).
Most of the pilots for the upcoming tv season (both successfull and
unsuccessfull)were shot on on or another of the big lots.
>Also, do TV shows still have live studio audiences?
Most talk shows and most 'three-camera' shows are film in front of a live
audience (that is, the show isn't really 'live' but the audience was
there when they filmed it).
--
I have a theory, it could be bunnies
Rob Jensen
>It seems a great many TV and film productions are filmed
>either "on location" (either in the real city or a fake
>city), or in some remote place (like Canada) to save money.
>
>Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
>we used to see in photographs of Hollywood?
Many network shows are still filmed on the traditional studio lots in
the traditional studio ways -- syndicated and basic-cable shows are a
totally different story, though, being mostly outsourced to Canada --
the Stargates, Andromeda, Mutant X, The 4400, The Dead Zone -- even
when they're done by major studios.
Basically, a good rule of thumb to use is: if the actor lives in the
LA/Burbank/Hollyweird area while his/her series is being filmed, then
chances are, the series was filmed on the studio lot of the studio
that produces it, although there are exceptions, such as Angel, which
I note below.
The traditional studio-filming process is *far* from dead. IMO, the
primary reason that shows are outsourced to Canada or filmed in other
regions like San Diego (Veronica Mars) or Wilmington, NC (Dawson's
Creek) is more than anything else because so much of the
larger-than-one-might-think studio space and behind-the-scenes talent
in LA is perpetually in use that there just isn't enough space to go
around. Hence, there's a premium added to the cost of filming in LA
beyond the higher cost of living there
For example,
>Warner Bros had a big studio complex--what is made there?
I took the WB studios tour *twice* last year (March and August)
Gilmore Girls is filmed *entirely* on the backlot of Warner Brothers
studios (except in a few isolated cases where, like any studio show,
it's more efficient to film at a local location for a special
one-time-only use, like a major-chain supermarket.) The exteriors are
all on the lot to the east of all those warehouse soundstages you see
in the logo at the front of every WB-produced movie these days. The
gazebo used to be the gazebo on the Dukes of Hazzard (Stars Hollow
*is* Hazzard County) and the exterior of Lorelai's house used to be
Uncle Jesse's house on that show.
Besides the business that line the town square, all the exterior
houses are also in that general vicinity on the lot. The interiors
are all filmed on the WB soundstages. One notable exception is that
the exterior of the Dragonfly is filmed on a WB-owned ranch elsewhere
-- the Dragonfly was the Waltons' house and therefore exteriors around
that house for The Waltons were obviously filmed there, too, and not
at the studio proper.
Besides Gg, other shows with all of its primary interiors and
exteriors filmed on the WB lot this past season are The West Wing,
Everybody Loves Raymond, Joey, ER (the ER Ambulance bay and El train
platform are about a block and a half north-ish of Luke's Diner,
around a corner. The interiors of ER's hospital set (a soundstage
halfway across the lot from the Ambulance Bay entrance facade) were
now-famously used in a couple of episodes of Gilmore Girls (when Rory
broke her wrist in the s2 car crash and when Asher had his heart
attack in s4). Joey is filmed on the Friends Soundstage that's just a
hop, skip and a jump from the Stars Hollow exteriors in the last row
of soundstages. Some parkland behind Miss Patty's on Gilmore Girls
doubled for Central Park in an episode or two of Friends.
In the recent past, The Drew Carey Show and Lois & Clark were both
filmed on the WB lot. Less recently, interiors and some exteriors for
the sci-fi miniseries and series "V" and the sitcom Night Court were
also filmed on the WB studio lot -- Night Court was probably filmed in
one of the WB's sitcom-dedicated soundstages (there are several of
them). And the courthouse facade used in the credits of Night Court
is actually a permanent extension off the side of the Friends
soundstage bordering the general Stars Hollow exteriors.
And that's just the WB shows that I remember off the top of my head.
>Paramount had its own plus Desilu next door--what is made
>there? CBS built "Television City", is that still used?
The physical campus of Desliu is now known as Ren-Mar. Seinfeld is
probably that studio's most famous occupant since Star Trek: TOS.
(this via the Seinfeld DVDs).
On the Paramount lot: the various Trek series since TNG. Angel was
filmed on the Paramount lot even though it's a FOX-studios-owned show.
Because that's the studio space that was available at the time that
fit Angel's needs. That's why the Paramount studio gates were used at
the beginning of the "Welcome to Plrtz Glrb" four-parter that ended
the second season of Angel. (FTR, Buffy filmed primarily on the Fox
lot.) And Charmed moved into, IIRC, Angel's soundstages at Paramount
when the WB axed that show (boo! hiss!), but Charmed had previously
filmed offsite in independent warehouse soundstages, IIRC (also).
>Also, do TV shows still have live studio audiences?
The sitcoms where you hear audience laughs still do. Almost Perfect,
Grounded For Life, Joey, Seinfeld (when it was on the air), Everybody
Loves Raymond, That 70's Redhead, all the crud on ABC. Two-and-a-Half
Men. *All* of those and all the other sitcoms with audience laughs
still film in front of live studio audiences -- although far more than
most live-filmed sitcoms, Yes, Dear and Still Standing probably spike
their audience reactions with the much-hated pre-recorded laugh tracks
that Desi Arnaz instigated for I Love Lucy (to this day, you can still
hear Desi's own laugh in bonafide many laugh tracks if you know how to
hear for it).
And you can get free tickets for those sitcom tapings from a couple of
booking companies, but make sure to plan at least 3-4 months ahead for
the most popular shows versus the August-April taping schedule for all
sitcoms.
-- Rob
=============================
LORELAI: In the movie, only boy hobbits travel to Mount
Doom, but that's only because the girls went to do something
even more dangerous.
GIRL: What?
LORELAI: Have you ever heard of a Brazilian Bikini Wax?
philcycles
Rob Jensen wrote:
> The traditional studio-filming process is *far* from dead. IMO, the
> primary reason that shows are outsourced to Canada or filmed in other
> regions like San Diego (Veronica Mars) or Wilmington, NC (Dawson's
> Creek) is more than anything else because so much of the
> larger-than-one-might-think studio space and behind-the-scenes talent
> in LA is perpetually in use that there just isn't enough space to go
> around. Hence, there's a premium added to the cost of filming in LA
> beyond the higher cost of living there
>
Production goes to Canada for one reason: money. The American dollar
buys more there and the Canadian government subsidises filming done
there. This is a big beef. I'm a sound mixer and I can't work in
Canada-has to be Canadian. It sucks.
And there's lots of stage space in Hollywood, far more than you think
and it isn't all in Hollywood or the Valley. There's a big complex in
Mahatten Beach where lots of David Kelly stuff is/was filmed and stages
up in Santa Clarita. Trust me, if you want to shoot in LA you can find
the stage space.
Phil Brown
ANIM8Rfsk
Margolin at bar...@alum.mit.edu wrote on 6/27/05 2:19 PM:
> In article <1119904163.5...@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
> hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>
>> Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
>> we used to see in photographs of Hollywood? For example,
>> Warner Bros had a big studio complex--what is made there?
>> Paramount had its own plus Desilu next door--what is made
>> there? CBS built "Television City", is that still used?
>
> I think Wisteria Lane is on the backlot, but I'm not sure.
Yes
Rob Jensen
wrote:
>
>
>Rob Jensen wrote:
>
>> The traditional studio-filming process is *far* from dead. IMO, the
>> primary reason that shows are outsourced to Canada or filmed in other
>> regions like San Diego (Veronica Mars) or Wilmington, NC (Dawson's
>> Creek) is more than anything else because so much of the
>> larger-than-one-might-think studio space and behind-the-scenes talent
>> in LA is perpetually in use that there just isn't enough space to go
>> around. Hence, there's a premium added to the cost of filming in LA
>> beyond the higher cost of living there
>>
>
>Production goes to Canada for one reason: money. The American dollar
>buys more there
Far less More than it used to -- that's why . .
and the Canadian government subsidises filming done
>there.
Except that, due to the US dollar's far better shape against the
Candian dolar, the CN subsidies are a moot point. That's part of why
Fireworks pulled out of its partnerships with Tribune for Andromeda
and Mutant X, causing Tribune to beg Skiffy to co-fund the last season
of the former and causing the cancellation of the latter when no new
partner could be found -- and on a weird cliffhanger that begs
explanation/disavowal yet!
This is a big beef. I'm a sound mixer and I can't work in
>Canada-has to be Canadian. It sucks.
>And there's lots of stage space in Hollywood, far more than you think
>and it isn't all in Hollywood or the Valley. There's a big complex in
>Mahatten Beach where lots of David Kelly stuff is/was filmed and stages
>up in Santa Clarita. Trust me, if you want to shoot in LA you can find
>the stage space.
The high cost of the special effects work involved in the SF genre
shows that are the most prevalent shows outsourced to Canada makes
space availability anywhere in the LA basin a moot point for those
shows -- it's just too darn expensive for those shows to shoot in LA
*given* how the current level of availability affects the costs
incurred in filming there. Most decent stages in LA aren't vacant
long enough to make their prices competitive with Canadian shoots for
the purposes of the saved money that these shows *need* to divert to
VFX (or else not have the show at all). Even the availability of LA
stages as it is wouldn't help these outsourced shows that *have* to
work on those more stringent budgets.
Double the amount of available stage space in LA from what it has
right now and *maybe* the prices will come down to competitive with
Canada.
ra...@vt.edu
> It seems a great many TV and film productions are filmed
> either "on location" (either in the real city or a fake
> city), or in some remote place (like Canada) to save money.
> Do they still make stuff in the traditional studios
> we used to see in photographs of Hollywood? For example,
Oh, Hollywood, I thought you meant the original studios
in New Jersey. ;-) Actually, there are sone scenes in
"The Forgotten" that look to me like they might have been
shot in some of those really old studio buildings in
the New York area. Probably not, but they reminded me
of some of the pictures I've seen of those old studios.
Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.
philcycles
Well, Rob, you may have better knowledge than I but labor costs are a
far more important item than stage rental. You can get-for example-a
sound mixer, which I think we'll all agree is an important and skilled
position, in Canada for a third of what a union mixer will cost in LA
and all the other crafts are the same.
Phil Brown
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
Rob Jensen wrote:
(Thanks for your detailed information).
> ... the courthouse facade used in the credits of Night Court
> is actually a permanent extension off the side of the Friends
> soundstage bordering the general Stars Hollow exteriors.
I thought facades of such major buildings like schools, hospitals,
court houses, etc were merely stock photos of a building (that
could be anywhere), retouched with the name as necessary. Even
the front of a character's home is just a picture; the house itself
isn't actually used. The picture may or may not be in the city
the show takes place. (The Days and American Dream took place
in Phila but was filmed way distant, but Sherman H
(George Jefferson)'s show about a church used a real
Philadelphia house front photo.
When "Rocky" was filmed in Phila people rented their houses
to the moviepeople. The exteriors were used but not the
interiors, and the people were a bit upset when rather dumpy
interiors were shown for their homes, which wasn't the case.
(Sadly the working class neighborhood shown for Rocky has
decayed, a lot of drug dealing now.)
> On the Paramount lot: the various Trek series since TNG. Angel was
> filmed on the Paramount lot even though it's a FOX-studios-owned show.
> Because that's the studio space that was available at the time that
> fit Angel's needs. That's why the Paramount studio gates were used at
> the beginning of the "Welcome to Plrtz Glrb" four-parter that ended
> the second season of Angel. (FTR, Buffy filmed primarily on the Fox
> lot.) And Charmed moved into, IIRC, Angel's soundstages at Paramount
> when the WB axed that show (boo! hiss!), but Charmed had previously
> filmed offsite in independent warehouse soundstages, IIRC (also).
I thought both "Angel" and "B/VS" were filmed offsite in
rented warehouse space. Initially, B/VS was filmed at Torrance
HS, which was also used by 90210 as well as other TV shows.
My impression in reading interviews that a number of TV sets
are not in the classic studios but rather in rented warehouses
or other places (like NC for Dawson's Creek); this was what
prompted my question.
I understand Scrubs was filmed in a vacant hospital building.
Sometimes if you peer hard enough you can see a "thanks to
the people of ...." in the credits that would tell a remote
location.
philcycles
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> Rob Jensen wrote:
> I understand Scrubs was filmed in a vacant hospital building.
Yeah, the hospital wasn't being used anymore and the owners decided to
rent it out. It's on Riverside Drive in North Hollywood.
Phil Brown
Rob Jensen
>
>
>Rob Jensen wrote:
>
>(Thanks for your detailed information).
>
>
>> ... the courthouse facade used in the credits of Night Court
>> is actually a permanent extension off the side of the Friends
>> soundstage bordering the general Stars Hollow exteriors.
>
>I thought facades of such major buildings like schools, hospitals,
>court houses, etc were merely stock photos of a building (that
>could be anywhere), retouched with the name as necessary. Even
>the front of a character's home is just a picture; the house itself
>isn't actually used. The picture may or may not be in the city
>the show takes place. (The Days and American Dream took place
>in Phila but was filmed way distant, but Sherman H
>(George Jefferson)'s show about a church used a real
>Philadelphia house front photo.
Stock location footage is merely *one* technique among a lot of others
to depict setting. And stock footage may be the case in other shows,
but I'm stating outright that the Night Court courthouse is a facade
that's extended off a side of the Friends soundstage at WB studios.
This is simply an incontrovertible fact in this specific case.
>> On the Paramount lot: the various Trek series since TNG. Angel was
>> filmed on the Paramount lot even though it's a FOX-studios-owned show.
>> Because that's the studio space that was available at the time that
>> fit Angel's needs. That's why the Paramount studio gates were used at
>> the beginning of the "Welcome to Plrtz Glrb" four-parter that ended
>> the second season of Angel. (FTR, Buffy filmed primarily on the Fox
>> lot.) And Charmed moved into, IIRC, Angel's soundstages at Paramount
>> when the WB axed that show (boo! hiss!), but Charmed had previously
>> filmed offsite in independent warehouse soundstages, IIRC (also).
>
>I thought both "Angel" and "B/VS" were filmed offsite in
>rented warehouse space. Initially, B/VS was filmed at Torrance
>HS, which was also used by 90210 as well as other TV shows.
I might have been wrong about BTVS, but Angel was filmed on the
Paramount lot. There's too much documentation about Angel's filming.
Buffy was only filmed at Torrance HS for the filming of just the
*exteriors* of Sunnydale high. The interiors of Sunnydale High and
the rest of the interiors and exteriors (with the occasional location
exception, as needed) were filmed in Buffy's soundstages at the Fox
lot. The main street Sunnydale exteriors including the Magic Shop are
on the Fox lot. Now, I don't remember if Buffy's main soundstages
(which included The Bronze) were on the Fox lot all along off the top
of my head (it's been about 6 years since I visited the Fox lot for a
Dharma & Greg taping), but if they weren't, Buffy used more of a mix
of studio and independent soundstages and lot areas than most network
shows. Usually, shows are either/or, not both, in LA, because they
don't have the time to do a lot of travelling from their soundstages
and regular exteriors, except for the occasional necessary location
shoot.
>My impression in reading interviews that a number of TV sets
>are not in the classic studios but rather in rented warehouses
>or other places (like NC for Dawson's Creek); this was what
>prompted my question.
Well, the easiest answer to that question remains, "It depends on the
show and it depends on what network or channel the show is on, given
that where the show is going to be broadcast ultimately determines its
budget needs." The studio production system is still in use and is
the most commonly used type of production system, but it's no longer
(and far from) the *only* type of production system used.
>I understand Scrubs was filmed in a vacant hospital building.
Scrubs *is* filmed in a vacant hospital building. Technically,
though, any building specifically dedicated to filming a movie or
series is a soundstage for the duration of its use for filming.
Which can cause a *lot* of confusion in discussing what constitutes a
stage, soundstage or other filming location.
>Sometimes if you peer hard enough you can see a "thanks to
>the people of ...." in the credits that would tell a remote
>location.
That's not necessarily reliable, as the first Scream used that sort of
special thanks credit sarcastically to send a gigantic "fuck you" to
the Governing Board of the Santa Rosa (CA) School District for
forbidding that movie from filming at the local high school, which
caused them to scramble to move about 10 miles north to the lesbian
enclave of Healdsburg.
William George Ferguson
Buffy was filmed at a converted warehouse complex in Santa Monica for its
entire run. There was a large warehouse-looking building that was
converted to a soundstage, which housed all the indoor standing sets, and
a fairly large lot, which housed the graveyard and the main street
standing sets, as well as other outside shooting. As far as I know, it
never filmed on one of the major studio lots (20th, Warner's, Paramount,
etc.). The street address for the former Buffy lot is 1800 Stewart
Street, Santa Monica, CA.
Angel filmed on the Paramount lot as indicated. However, the production
offices were still located at the Buffy lot
Firefly shot on a soundstage at 20th, and Serenity shot on Soundstage 12
at Universal.
>Buffy was only filmed at Torrance HS for the filming of just the
>*exteriors* of Sunnydale high. The interiors of Sunnydale High and
>the rest of the interiors and exteriors (with the occasional location
>exception, as needed) were filmed in Buffy's soundstages at the Fox
>lot. The main street Sunnydale exteriors including the Magic Shop are
>on the Fox lot.
See above, they were at the lot in Santa Monica (which may well be owned
by Fox, but is not the 'Fox lot'). Fun trivia, the next tv series to use
that facility after Buffy ended was Miss Match, also a Fox Television
production.
>>My impression in reading interviews that a number of TV sets
>>are not in the classic studios but rather in rented warehouses
>>or other places (like NC for Dawson's Creek); this was what
>>prompted my question.
>
>Well, the easiest answer to that question remains, "It depends on the
>show and it depends on what network or channel the show is on, given
>that where the show is going to be broadcast ultimately determines its
>budget needs." The studio production system is still in use and is
>the most commonly used type of production system, but it's no longer
>(and far from) the *only* type of production system used.
And even when it is used, as you've said, production overload can lead to
a studio using off-lot leased facilities, including (like Angel)
facilities at another studio.
--
... and my sister is a vampire slayer, her best friend is a witch who
went bonkers and tried to destroy the world, um, I actually used to be
a little ball of energy until about two years ago when some monks
changed the past and made me Buffy's sister and for some reason, a big
klepto. My best friends are Leticia Jones, who moved to San Diego
because this town is evil, and a floppy eared demon named Clem.
(Dawn's fantasy of her intro speech in "Lessons", from the shooting script)
Rob Jensen
Thanks for the correction, some of the soundstage location stuff blurs
on me or I flat-out forget after awhile. And great reminder on the
Miss Match factoid.
Buffy-location factoid #2 -- the original Sunnydale High interiors
(specifically, the hallways, at least) were also later used in Joan of
Arcadia.