Inside the Cafe

maltrab

maltrab

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Staff member
I noticed that in the Special "Getting Sam Home" it does look like the actually filmed some scenes inside the Cafe instead of the studio, there looks to be more space and if you watch the bit where Ivy tries to eavesdrop as she walks away you can see the actual doorway behind the real counter
 
You have to wonder what dictates whether they use the studio or location , clearly availability / health of the actors must be one factor but I am sure there are more . With Auntie being publicly funded does anyone believe cost comes into it , the show would have a budget probably per episode which would certainly be different in the context of a normal series episode v a special .

Filming in the Cafe would incur a sizeable cost that you would associate with location filming , transporting the actors and crew plus providing accommodation is only a small percentage of the overall cost I imagine. It would be fascinating to gain an insight as the real mechanics behind the show but sadly we will never be privileged enough to see the full picture even though we are technically shareholders in Auntie having paid the licence fee that helps pay for the making of programmes.
 
In Chapter 8 of Alan Bell's book ... From the Director's Chair, Bell describes the pressure to bring the Getting Sam Home project in on time and on budget or preferably early and under budget, after he had won the bid for it based on a nearly unrealistic time and budget estimate, so "In the script, there was only one short scene to be filmed in the café, and it wasn’t worth the expense of building the set in the studio. Instead, I decided to film it inside the Ironmonger’s paint store. This meant that we would have to make the interior of the paint store look exactly like the well-known café set that was seen in the studio. There wasn’t much room for the camera and our lights, but the scene was static and didn’t need much room."

I have the eBook version of this book, so it's a lot easier too verify this kind of thing, as long as I choose the right keyword to search on.
 
I remember some of the early episodes with Sid in them and there being quite a bit of room behind the counter and then watching one with Ivy and Crusher (Milburn) and noticing that there wasn't a lot of room even with Crusher there.
 
I remember calling into the cafe around the time they would of filmed the last 3 to 4 series,I found it odd that there was large studio type lighting fixed to the ceilings,I know around that time Alan Bell was pushed on budgets,at the same time we start to see many of the crew used as background artist,some dressed up as traffic wardens, bar staff and very small parts in some scenes
 
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