Are BBC shows filmed out of order, just like most American shows? For shows that are filmed out of order, do directors tend to at least film the very first episode (pilot) first, or is it quite possible that the very first scene you watch was actually filmed very last? Also, suppose a British show airs on November 23, 2008. When did it likely wrap up filming?
I suspect they’re filmed (like American shows) not deliberately “out of order”, but rather in whatever manner is most efficient - I know, for example, that the “upstairs” and “downstairs” scenes in Downton Abbey were filmed on completely different sets, weeks apart, and edited together later.
I can’t see much reason that pilots in UK TV would be much different from US shows in that you film the first episode and then try and sell it to the network. If it gets bought and made into a series sometimes changes will be made that make the pilot somewhat different from the subsequent series (sometimes not).
The biggest difference between US & UK television shows is quantity. Here in the US a season for a network TV show will be at least 22 episodes. In the UK, first of all what we call a ‘season’ they call a ‘series’, and second it’s fairly common for a series (season) to consist of no more than 13 or very often only 6 episodes. Even once it’s picked up and even if it’s wildly popular the BBC never seems to demand the number of episodes that US networks do. One benefit of this is there are a lot of Brit-coms that emphasize quality over quantity (Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, AbFab etc.).
How long is a piece of string? For a big-production-value period drama, parts of it could have been filmed a year or more before screening, or more if the transmission was delayed for scheduling reasons.
A specific example, The White Queen, the new BBC drama set during the Wars of the Roses, was filmed (in Belgium!) between September 2012 and March 2013, and started airing last weekend. Cite.
More studio-based shows eg sitcoms tend to be filmed closer to the air date, or at least that was the case in the past. Eg the first series of Fawlty Towers didn’t complete filming until early September 1975, and transmission finished the following month.
Of course some shows, just as in America, are partly filmed in a studio with a live audience. I have been to some of these (free entertainment) and it can be interesting. The exterior shots are usually shown on a big screen, and there are two or three sets on the stage (different rooms usually) although the door between one set and another might actually look in the final cut as if they are in different buildings.
As for lead times - that is a piece-of-string question.
One big difference is that our shows rarely (if ever) have huge teams of writers. The best have usually been written by one or two - Galton and Simpson being probably the best known.
I dispute the “fact” that American shows are filmed out of order. That rarely if ever happens.
Pilots are always shot first. (Only a handful of shows are ever made without pilots.) It sometimes happens that the pilot is not shown first or not shown at all, but these days that’s also very rare. Most shows are scripted during the run; meaning that the later shows have not yet been written when shooting starts. It is almost impossible to shoot a last episode first. Shows change during a season as characters gain popularity or storylines fail to work. (At least on networks. Cable shows are usually run after all the shooting is done.)
Shows are sometimes not aired in the desired sequence, for a weird variety of reasons. That can only happen on a show in which each episode is independent, though.
Moved to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Not always. Season 8 of Scrubs was shuffled around, so we see Bob Kelso retire and leave, and then show up for work for two more episodes. Happy Endings was broadcast out of order, so the relationship between two characters progressed in a bizarre way. I’m sure there have been many others.
We just watched Kingdom, and the extra feature for the third season included a clip of them wrapping up filming for the season at a racetrack, which was part of the next to last show - so that is an existence proof of some scenes being shot out of sequence, at least. There were only six shows in the season, so not that hard.
ST:TOS was not shot in the sequence aired, because of special effects, I think. Not counting the second pilot, The Corbomite Maneuver was filmed first (and did not have the usual opening and had weird uniforms) but Man Trap, with fewer effects, was shown first.
I’m sure the last show of a long season is not shot early because it is unlikely that the show runnier would have it together enough to be that far ahead. But even if there is continuity, I could see shows being shot out of sequence (or scenes in shows) in order to meet a guest star’s schedule.
I’m not sure how much pilot episodes feature in British television - although I guess there must be something to show to the commissioning editors. “Sherlock” did have a full kinda-sorta-pilot, but that was a slightly unusual scenario. Programmes are usually commissioned in full production blocks (smaller than the usual US run), and it’s rare that the whole lot won’t be shown. Mind you, a right stinker is liable to find itself rescheduled to a bad broadcast time, but it’s usually all shown.
In a filmed TV series like Star Trek or The Prisoner, the scenes are never filmed in the order you see them. All of the bridge or dome shots are filmed in one or two goes and then edited into the final film. Detailed production schedules referred to as call sheets are issued every day, saving a great deal of time and money. At the end of each day, production reports are compiled that compare the progress actually made to the call sheet. Often it’s necessary to revise the overall production schedule on the basis of the report.
In a three-camera sitcom, you’re essentially shooting a stage play in front of a live audience, so most (if not all) of the scenes must be filmed or taped in the order they’re presented in the script. (Most shows like this do two shoots, each with a different audience, to make sure they actually have enough footage with laughs to cobble together a whole episode. If a joke bombs in the first shoot, the script is revised for the second.) Pick-up scenes also have to be shot to provide filler, different angles, and so on.
Story arcs that last for several or more episodes have to be planned well in advance so that the writers can start work on them ASAP. Scripts produced by different writers have to be thoroughly reviewed to ensure continuity.
I really like the British system with fewer episodes per season. So long as quality is maintained and a show remains popular, it can be put on the schedule every year so long as the writers and actors agree to it. (I’m thinking here of Foyle’s War, which originally wrapped after two good seasons but was put back in production in response to the show’s fans.)
Many years ago, a pilot was necessary to sell a show. This is much less common nowadays due to high production costs. Some popular shows have actually been pitched and picked up on the basis of a phone call, the most notorious example of this being Hee-Haw, described as "a hillbilly Laugh-In.
Different TV market for these though?
If you look at that list, you’ll see that a lot of the shows are either retreads or spinoffs; in other words, the concepts and formats are already established. Projects also spend a lot more time in development nowadays before production actually begins.
Yes, they still make pilots, but they’re no longer required to sell a series. They’ve always been something of a marketing tool, to see what test audiences like and dislike before committing larger sums of money. (Watch the unaired Big Bang pilot sometime and compare it to the show we know and love today.)
We’ll have to disagree on this, at least for the standard networks. There might be a trend toward not relying on pilots but most production companies make them and need them to sell a series. They’ve never been a marketing tool; their target audience are the buyers for the networks and no one else. Of course they’re tested and focus grouped and anything else they can use to CYA but the suits can say yes or no despite any other opinions if they choose.
That’s not the case when you include US cable, where a season’s usually closer in length to a UK series, and even on broadcast they’ll often only order up 13 eps then wait and see how those do. If they like the results, they’ll order the “back 9” to get the full order up to 22, but it doesn’t always happen, and these days they’ll sometimes cut a season short at 13 or so even if they aren’t necessarily canceling the show.
Am I the only one curious why the OP wants to know this? It seems like there’s a story behind the question.
I’m sure the most recent series of BBC’s Doctor Who was filmed out of order, as I remember reading in some review saying that Clara’s performance one week (several episodes into the storyline) appeared rusty, as it was one of her first actual scenes with Matt Smith. No cite though, sorry.
So if a BBC show aired in November of 2008, when did it most likely finish filming (including re-shoots)?
Tell us which show and we might be able to be more specific. Otherwise all we can say is “probably some time between January 2007 and September 2008”.