Hey you! Waaayyy back there!

[KidChaplin]

Again, my curiosity started in again while watching a "Little House on the Prairie" and it's something I never thought of before.

There is one episode titled "Meet Me at the Fair" in which the Ingalls and Olesons attend the county fair. My curiosity peeked when they were doing close scenes of the Ingalls, but there were scores of people in the background. I didn't know if someone here could answer....if a tv show or movie is doing a close scene in a huge area where there are lots of people and something goes wrong where they have to cut the scene and do it again (or again and again), do they get the attention of everyone in the entire area to cut? I don't mean big city scenes or scenes they cant control, but I believe LHOTP used Old Tucson Ranch for that episode, so it would be a closed set with a ton of extras. 

And secondly, if you can answer this too, how do you get people to mingle, talk and casually walk and go places in far background? If LHOTP is shooting a close shot of the Ingalls, would they tell all those extras "Just mingle and walk around like you were really at a fair."

 

[slaytonf]

15 minutes ago, KidChaplin said:

If LHOTP is shooting a close shot of the Ingalls, would they tell all those extras "Just mingle and walk around like you were really at a fair."

Yes.

[Tikisoo]

10 hours ago, KidChaplin said:

My curiosity peeked

This is peeking:

...this is a peak:

What you're saying is  spelled "piqued"

[KidChaplin]

Thanks Tiki. I didnt even notice that. 🙄

[txfilmfan]

13 hours ago, KidChaplin said:

Again, my curiosity started in again while watching a "Little House on the Prairie" and it's something I never thought of before.

There is one episode titled "Meet Me at the Fair" in which the Ingalls and Olesons attend the county fair. My curiosity peeked when they were doing close scenes of the Ingalls, but there were scores of people in the background. I didn't know if someone here could answer....if a tv show or movie is doing a close scene in a huge area where there are lots of people and something goes wrong where they have to cut the scene and do it again (or again and again), do they get the attention of everyone in the entire area to cut? I don't mean big city scenes or scenes they cant control, but I believe LHOTP used Old Tucson Ranch for that episode, so it would be a closed set with a ton of extras. 

And secondly, if you can answer this too, how do you get people to mingle, talk and casually walk and go places in far background? If LHOTP is shooting a close shot of the Ingalls, would they tell all those extras "Just mingle and walk around like you were really at a fair."

 

The director controls all aspects of the shoot on a closed set, including the background actors and extras.  Background actors are a specialty.  The actor's union SAG-AFTRA has a background actor's digest

https://www.sagaftra.org/files/Oct20_bkgrndigest_print_F.pdf

[KidChaplin]

A background actors digest?  🤨

Sorry.....just trying to fathom a "background actors digest."  I'da never thought something like that existed. 🤷‍♂️

[KidChaplin]

I knew the director controlled everything. I was just wondering if I was overthinking the process. If a close up shot goes wrong (flubbed or forgotten lines, someone trips and falls in the shot, etc.), did the background actors, as a crowd, just keep milling and mingling? Or did the entire crowd come to a stop? Did the director stop everyone? 

I have seen indoor crowded places, like a restaurant scene, all stop in bloopers. But that's a lot more easy to manage, I figure.

[hamradio]

21 minutes ago, KidChaplin said:

I knew the director controlled everything. I was just wondering if I was overthinking the process. If a close up shot goes wrong (flubbed or forgotten lines, someone trips and falls in the shot, etc.), did the background actors, as a crowd, just keep milling and mingling? Or did the entire crowd come to a stop? Did the director stop everyone? 

I have seen indoor crowded places, like a restaurant scene, all stop in bloopers. But that's a lot more easy to manage, I figure.

The director want everything to go by the plot / script, extras must follow instructions same as the main actors.

There is a unique movie you might be interested in, "Lovers and Lollipops" (1956).  Directed by Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin.  It was shot like a home movie, instead of hiring extras the public were simply used with no instructions given.  The only instructions to the actors.. follow the script but act normally.   Funny, normal everyday life is a bit boring. 

[txfilmfan]

10 minutes ago, KidChaplin said:

I knew the director controlled everything. I was just wondering if I was overthinking the process. If a close up shot goes wrong (flubbed or forgotten lines, someone trips and falls in the shot, etc.), did the background actors, as a crowd, just keep milling and mingling? Or did the entire crowd come to a stop? Did the director stop everyone? 

I have seen indoor crowded places, like a restaurant scene, all stop in bloopers. But that's a lot more easy to manage, I figure.

Things come to a stop.  The director has to instruct the cast & crew about what went wrong and what needs to be corrected and what's coming next.  In some cases, the background folks need to get back to their starting position.

The digest is a collection of union contract rules.  There are thousands of pages of union rules governing stage & screen productions.  The link I gave will open the digest.

[Dargo]

26 minutes ago, txfilmfan said:

Things come to a stop.  The director has to instruct the cast & crew about what went wrong and what needs to be corrected and what's coming next.  In some cases, the background folks need to get back to their starting position.

The digest is a collection of union contract rules.  There are thousands of pages of union rules governing stage & screen productions.  The link I gave will open the digest.

Although I HAVE heard of cases where the union rep will only carry around the Reader's Digest Abridged version of this digest.

(...it's much easier to tote around from set to set, ya know)

[Tikisoo]

1 hour ago, KidChaplin said:

Thanks Tiki. I didnt even notice that. 🙄

Most likely Otto did it-I just found out Slangboy Otto refuses f e c e s but allows poop!