It is my understanding (but maybe I’m naive here, so correct me if I’m wrong) that in some TV sitcoms like Seinfeld or Two and a Half Men, the laughter that you hear in the background is not canned, but is actual laughter from an actual studio audience which is present while the show is shot. If that is true, I wonder how, exactly, the show is filmed. Presumably, the studio contains a stage with the backdrop of the room where most of the action takes place, typically the living room in the protagonist’s home. But then, how do they film sequences that take place elsewhere, e.g. in other rooms? Are these shot on another day in a studio where the other setting is set up, wioth another live audience present? Or are they filmed separately without a studio audience, and the laughter is canned for those sequences? Or are they shot separately and then screened to the live audience that is present for those parts taking place on the main stage, recording the live audience’s actual laughter?
Another question relates to the fact that even the parts that take place on the main setting are evidently shot using more than one camera. Does this mean that there are several cinematographers present on the stage where the actors enact the sequences in the presence of the live audience? Must be quite disruptive to the spectators, especially if they need a number of takes for the same sequence.
Sitcoms are filmed on sound stages that are modified specifically for the purpose. Most “live” sitcoms are filmed with three cameras so that the director can cut back and forth. The audience is usually in steep risers to make it easier to see over the cameras. It’s an artificial situation, but they make do. Multiple takes, wardrobe changes, technical glitches can all wear down audiences but there is a warm-up comic or personality whose job it is to get them into the mood and keep them up and ready to laugh even at things they’ve seen before. When all else fails, canned laughter is added.
The sound stage will have several permanent sets. All of them will be angled in a way to play to the audience. Individual shows will have new sets built for scenes elsewhere. There may be in a corner of the sound stage visible to the audience, or there may be in a different space and laughter will be added later, just as it would be if an actual outdoor shot was done. They might be shown to the audience so that they have the context to understand what is happening next live. All the possible answers are true for some show at some time, because each will have a different basic set, different amounts of wiggle room, and different special needs.
On Seinfeld, the cast of the show very much interacted with the studio audience, as can be seen in this video (starting at 3:56):
At times, the audience became overexcited, for instance they would routinely break into a long and loud applause whenever Kramer entered Jerry's apartment which brought the scene to a halt. The production assistants had to ask them to cut it down a bit.
Here is what I wonder: When a scene requires multiple takes, where does the laughter come from on say, take #4? Maybe the editors later add the laughter captured at the initial take?
mmm
For the most part, though sometimes some canned laughter is added if the joke wasn’t that funny or the audience was worn out by that time.
No, sitcom sound stages are very very wide and contain multiple sets simultaneously. The audience has monitors so they can see what’s going on in parts of the stage that are far away. Most sitcom episodes will be shot over about three-to-five hours in a single night. There are warm-up comics to keep the audience energized during all the lighting and wardrobe changes and multiple takes during the production. Any temporary sets needed for that episode will be built during the week and used once, then taken down.
Occasionally if they need to shoot some real stuff on location, those scenes will be shot ahead of time and then shown to the audience at the appropriate time. Sometimes the scheduling for that won’t work out and canned laughter will be used for those scenes instead.
There are several camera operators, but one director who will live-edit as much as he can, just like a talk show. The format is called three-camera but modern sitcoms may have as many as five or six. Additional editing is done in post-production to clean things up. The audience is on bleachers above the camera alley, so they can usually see without trouble.
Here is a video where Jim Parsons takes a fan on a tour of the Big Bang Theory set. You can see the long camera alley and the cafeteria set next to Sheldon’s apartment, with the hallway and Penny’s apartment beyond it.
The late Stanley Kubrick would occasionally (and notoriously) demand over a hundred takes for a single line delivery while making a film. On the other hand if you watch a stage play the whole thing is delivered live in what is effectively a single take. Recording a Sit-Com is somewhere between the two extremes and much nearer the stage play than a Kubrick production.
Typically with a Sit-Com the actors shoot an episode a week. The process starting with a round the table script reading. Move onto rehearsals on the sets without an audience and without recording. By the time the audience is shipped in and cameras running they should be reasonably polished. Should be.
There will be script writers on stage as well and producers use filming as a final, fine tuning session. There shouldn’t be many changes but if a specific joke absolutely falls flat then the line can be changed.
From an audience perspective, extra scenes will almost certainly be shot and then excluded from the final product during editing. That provides them with extra laughs to help pass the time.
But, as previously mentioned, audiences tend to be experienced in what to expect. A convivial atmosphere is generated by warm-up comics, actors deliberately goofing around and even acknowledging the audience during lulls and breaks.
Finally, once a show is established, the show and the stars will have a fan base who will already be excitable just to be there, seeing their idols.
You generally don’t have that good of a view of the primary sets. And little to no view of the secondary ones. You watch the monitors a lot.
You can see the result of this when the camera pans or pulls back to reveal something and then the audience laughs. If they weren’t watching the monitors, there would be nothing to reveal, they’d see it already.
Scenes shot elsewhere are played back for live audience reaction. Some sitcoms were actually shot entirely without a live audience. They were then played for an audience and those yuks were mixed to the soundtrack.
The repeat takes, delays, etc. are real pain for the audience and the actors.
Note that having a live audience in no way means that the yuks you hear came from that live audience. The Big Bang Theory is notorious for heavily sweetening the laugh track. Watch this video of their famous flash mob gag and pay attention to how the audience reaction sounds completely different from standard sitcom laugh bursts.
An example of the effort it takes to shoot something simple, consider the standard bit on TBBT of people walking up the stairs. There is only one stair set. It is redecorated to represent different floors. So the actors walk up one flight saying some lines. Then cut. Redo the set. Then continue with the next lines. Cut, etc.
In editing, the laughter at the lines is edited in such a way to make it seem continuous. But the actual laughter wouldn’t work that way. There would be a noticeable splice in sound between the two takes.
Another standard difference between filming and the show, is that scenes are often shot out of order. E.g., all the bedroom scenes are shot back to back, then the living room scenes, etc.
