) I guess the next on will be Poland then...
SPOILERS - My trip to last taping of the US Fall Millionaire
Aug 22, 2015 17:01:48 GMT -5
FinalAnswer19, Misp, and 2 more like this
Post by retched on Aug 22, 2015 17:01:48 GMT -5
SPOILERS! (I'll add in some photos later.)
I don't have many photos as I didn't want to test the studio's "No digital equipment, cameras, ... " rule that was printed on my ticket. (Even though I saw EVERYONE, including the studio employees take out their cellphones and snap photos.) Now to be fair, the security guards didn't take my camera nor tablet as I brought it inside... and they handed it back to me. So ehh... Anyway.
I got to the Stamford Metro North station (the furthest north I've ever ridden that train) at about 9:20, mind you the "cut off" time is about 9:45. My panicked outself goes ahead and buys a day pass (you'll see why I didn't need this in a moment). I hop on the 11 bus to the start of Stillwater Avenue. (9:30) (The Connecticut Film Center is at 300 Stillwater Avenue, at this point I'm at 55 Stillwater Avenue.) I end up trekking the entire half mile up the hill and bend and find myself passing several food stands, etc. I arrive at a big lot with a lot of shrubbery around, confusing the hell out of me. I see in the distance a woman standing in the parking lot of what is the Connecticut Film Center and make my way forward. As I approach I ask her "Is this for the Millionaire taping?" To which her reply was "Yes" and she kindly pointed me to the line ahead forming in the front of the building. (It's now 9:43 AM) After signing a talent release (essentially agreeing that you will be filmed and that you assign any and all rights of the usage of your image to Valleycrest Productions, DADT Productions, etc. with no compensation, etc. etc.) you're given a ticket. (This ticket is more or less where you'll be starting out ... Red Section, Blue Section, Yellow Section. During the intermissions, you may be moved around. Keyword: MAY... I ended up faking out and staying in one section.)
You enter the CFC building (evidently Valleycrest Productions take up the Second Floor).
Once inside, you pass through a magnetometer. (I put my phone, camera, and tablet aside as well as my keys.) Here you are given a light search through and making sure no weapons are coming in. From here you walk through a long corridor where you'll be greeted by another Millionaire staffer. Make a left turn and enter upon the door that is open and you'll pass by a two additional doors (one room and one hallway) and you'll be taken to a giant gym sized open room. In this room are several curtains partitioning the room off. Black curtains (behind which you'll hear various sound effects, this is the "studio") and blue curtains (acting like walls and hiding the actual bare walls). Once inside this room, you'll be directed to one of two areas: testing and non-testing. I, of course, opted to take the test so I walked over towards the large U-table where there were several scantron sheets and the contestant application. The contestant application of course contained the usual qualification questions ("Were you ever an employee of anyone associated with the production or airing of "Millionaire" or it's distribution?" and "Do you agree that you will be responsible for your travel and boarding to and from the studio for your appearance?") to your usual "feeler" questions for the producer's ("If you can nominate yourself as "Best of___" or "Most Likely to_____", what would it be?" and of course "What would you do with $1 Million?"). I managed, for once, to complete the entire questionnaire. But that all will be for naught unless you pass the test.
The test is a 30 question, 10-minute time limit multiple choice test. Without getting into the details (unless I go back next season and see different questions...) I will note that many, if not all, of these questions were former questions pulled from the various tapings. (Notably ones that people got wrong.) Once the time limit is expired, the audience coordinators come around and recollect the paper test and scantron sheets.
After this, the audience coordinators want to know who wants to try out for "Who Wants To Be a Thousandaire?" aka the audience participant question. I stand on line, chat it up with the other people there. (For some reason I was actually chatty today.) Some go over some of the questions asked. I of course give my two cents as to what the answers were. (We also talk about Terry Crews and how people loved him as the host. People were unsure why he left, I made note that he's doing "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", another TV show for Spike, as well as a few movies.
Unfortunately just before I could get to the front of the line to "try out", we get told that they're ending it early since they're ready for taping. We're given a chance to run out to the bathroom... and then it's onward into the "studio" (through the black curtains) for the taping.
The stage manager and "warm up comedienne" start to go over what's going to happen. I'm of course in the back and the top, next to the question board. ("Try to keep the [ask the audience] clickers in your laps, you won't need them immediately. If you happen to win any T-Shirts, please tuck them under your laps. Try not to shout out the answers"... and onward.) From there we're introduced to the host, Chris Harrison. Rather than a Q&A, they just wanted to get to the taping. (This was the last tapings of the season, so they likely wanted to get to the party afterward.) So from there... we're told about an inside joke about one of the answer choices and that they make him read the funny answers just so that they can make fun of him afterward.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Chris does a cold open for the show in the same manner that Regis used to do when he was on air. ("Can I guarantee that someone will win a million dollars tonight? No. But at least we'll be given then a chance to make a lot of money while having a lot of fun. Welcome to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire!?") A crash out to the same logo theme and graphics used for Terry/Cedric/Meredith. From there Chris introduces our first contestant. The dialogue introducing the game is different but the question bed "explain the rules" isn't, it's the same one used during Terry.
* cut to the money board screen. It still uses the same border style of shuffle format. The monies' background flashed green as they climb up. All with white text at first. No coloring for safeties. All with the same blue background. *
"You are just 14 questions away from one million dollars. You are free to leave the game at any time with any money won. But if at any point in time you get a question wrong, you lose everything. That is unless you cross a safety net or threshold. There are two of them. One at $5,000 and the other at $50,000. Once you get those questions correct you are guaranteed to leave here with no less than that."
*The safety net texts are now highlighted in gold as Chris mentions them*
"Let's talk lifelines... you get three. Ask the Audience (leftmost bubble), where we'll poll our audience as to what they think the answer is. Fifty/Fifty (center bubble) where the computer will randomly take two wrong answers and remove them from the board. And Plus One (rightmost bubble) where we'll let you bring someone on to the stage to help you with the answer... and who did you bring with you today..."
(You get the gist at this point.)
Once the contestant goes through the intro of themselves and their Plus One: "Let's Play Who Wants To Be .... a Millionaire!" Lights down (same music cue from Round 1 during US Shuffle) and here's questions one. (Music is muted in studio during questions 1 through 5 and added during post production... So I can't hear anything.) The "question correct music" is similar to Classic millionaire (Regis) and the money is shown on the big question board immediately once it's won. After the question is correct, they cut to the wide shot of the money tree and show the money tree is delayed in moving the gold bar up but the money is already added into the "Bank" and still reads as "________________'s Bank".
Once the contestant gets to $5,000 there are brief fireworks on the question board and it vanishes. We cut to the first break and left clapping for about 15 seconds. We cut back in to applause and Chris goes over the status with them and continues. Lights down (same music cue from classic, different lighting from Round 1) and let's play! The music is now being pumped into the studio for Question 6 and onward... the music is slightly different than Shuffle but not sure if it's the same from Meredith's run or something new. It wasn't so much heartbeats that I was hearing but there was a heartbeat-like rhythm.
Unfortunately, $50,000 seems to be the new "gatekeeper" as no one was able to successfully traverse up the ladder into "Round/Tier 3" and either walked away or got the $30K (#8) question wrong.
We hear everyone's name who passed the test, I didn't get it
, but we clap and acknowledge all of those who did. We're taken into the same process again for four additional contestants after each two the audience participant came down to play. One question was asked and I almost jumped out of my seat wishing it was me as it was a cakewalk involving video games. After the contestant won, Chris started handing out the money "Chuck Woolery style" ($100, $200, $300, $400, $500, $600, $700, $800, $900, $1000!). And that was the end of "Week 1". We repeated the process three additional times (thus making it about three weeks worth of tapings). Unfortunately the audience members went two for three in audience questions.
And after the third "week", that was the end of the session. Chris thanked all of us for coming out as this was this last session of the season and thanked his staff and the audience for coming out. (Side note: On the "Preview" monitor I can see: "Congratulations everyone for making through another season! Now come on and let's drink!") That was the end of the audience as a whole, of course the producers kept anyone who passed to answer questions. I sat next to one of them
. Congratulations to that gentlemen, maybe next time for me.
Notes/first impressions about Chris:
- For those of you who wanted a Regis Philbin-like experience to Millionaire, you're getting it with Chris. The only complaint that I have is that he blazes through the answers. No pauses like you've heard with everyone. I thought I talked fast... he just runs through it. He's definitely chatty, not so much stoic like Terry. Voice in person sounds like Ryan Seacrest for some reason....
Other studio notes:
- One of the contestant's Plus One's (his father), accidentally dropped his pack for his lavalier and just said screw it and walked on anyway. No need for a retake there, the studio producer left it on and carried on. He got the question correct though.
- When the workers means pencil's down... it's pencil's down. You're done. If you're still filling out the application when they're ready to start. STOP FILLING OUT THE APPLICATION WHEN THE TEST IS READY TO START. They won't give you a test until it's put away. (You'll be able to fill it out when they're done.)
- There were a few retakes and re-reads. (Guy next to me: "Wait they're doing it over?" Me: "Yeah they tend to do that when the host flubs something like annunciation or pronunciation of a word.) One of the audience questions had to be redone. (Chris to contestant: "Do you want to change your answer?")
And that's it. I think I heard one of the interns mention this is it for the year. But we'll see.
As for the Host Screen, part of the main reason why I even went to the studio that day. Not so much to see Chris but to get notes on the "new" board... it's similar to the already used board during Meredith's run and shuffle. (I found a shuffle board where everything is still the same, EXCEPT as follows:
- Nothing appears under the text "Money Board" (Money Board still appears next to the money tree though)
- the gold "milestone" (which was used to note the question of double money during shuffle) isn't on the screen.
- Where "Loss" is, replace it with "Lose" as in "If you get this wrong, you'll lose $25,000".
- Remove the background of the number "To Rn 2" and "To $1M" and put it a black box like the question box. (the text on top stays the same color except "To Rn 2" to "To Safety".
- A white box pops up with the note from the producer about the question/answer. Immediately when the answer is shown.
- The greybox next to the answer is still used for Ask The Audience, popular answer has its percentage highlighted gold.
- The current question is denoted by a YELLOW box with ">>" in it to indicate that is the current question. Any questions already answered are denoted with a gold, center aligned bullet in its wake. Not reached safety nets appears in a box with a gradient background (bright orange at top, dark orange at the bottom). The current question is also highlighted yellow.
- The current question number and it's value is shown in a white box with dark grey centered text underneath the answers. (If you want to stay true to form of the studio, and don't ask why, the question doesn't adjust until it's ready to play. That is: If I just got question 4 correct, Question 4 still occupies the question and answer spaces BUT the white box will show "Question 5 ($1000)". When the big screen wipes, the host screen question/answers wipes blank.)
- Also as a side note: the host screen sometimes glitches out and retains the last entered "Ask The Audience" percentages. (It's normally kept when it's not consequential to the game.)
- Another side note: Ask the audience takes about 20-30 seconds. 20 seconds for the audience to poll... 10 additional for the graphics to be prepared.
(EDIT) - As a side note, when a new question is put in play, the whole is replaced with five boxes. One big rectangle for the question and four smaller rectangles of equal height to represent the question answers. Once the host reads the fourth answer, it immediately cuts to the normal board.
Well that's it for now, I'll add it more notes when its back to me.
I don't have many photos as I didn't want to test the studio's "No digital equipment, cameras, ... " rule that was printed on my ticket. (Even though I saw EVERYONE, including the studio employees take out their cellphones and snap photos.) Now to be fair, the security guards didn't take my camera nor tablet as I brought it inside... and they handed it back to me. So ehh... Anyway.
I got to the Stamford Metro North station (the furthest north I've ever ridden that train) at about 9:20, mind you the "cut off" time is about 9:45. My panicked outself goes ahead and buys a day pass (you'll see why I didn't need this in a moment). I hop on the 11 bus to the start of Stillwater Avenue. (9:30) (The Connecticut Film Center is at 300 Stillwater Avenue, at this point I'm at 55 Stillwater Avenue.) I end up trekking the entire half mile up the hill and bend and find myself passing several food stands, etc. I arrive at a big lot with a lot of shrubbery around, confusing the hell out of me. I see in the distance a woman standing in the parking lot of what is the Connecticut Film Center and make my way forward. As I approach I ask her "Is this for the Millionaire taping?" To which her reply was "Yes" and she kindly pointed me to the line ahead forming in the front of the building. (It's now 9:43 AM) After signing a talent release (essentially agreeing that you will be filmed and that you assign any and all rights of the usage of your image to Valleycrest Productions, DADT Productions, etc. with no compensation, etc. etc.) you're given a ticket. (This ticket is more or less where you'll be starting out ... Red Section, Blue Section, Yellow Section. During the intermissions, you may be moved around. Keyword: MAY... I ended up faking out and staying in one section.)
You enter the CFC building (evidently Valleycrest Productions take up the Second Floor).
Once inside, you pass through a magnetometer. (I put my phone, camera, and tablet aside as well as my keys.) Here you are given a light search through and making sure no weapons are coming in. From here you walk through a long corridor where you'll be greeted by another Millionaire staffer. Make a left turn and enter upon the door that is open and you'll pass by a two additional doors (one room and one hallway) and you'll be taken to a giant gym sized open room. In this room are several curtains partitioning the room off. Black curtains (behind which you'll hear various sound effects, this is the "studio") and blue curtains (acting like walls and hiding the actual bare walls). Once inside this room, you'll be directed to one of two areas: testing and non-testing. I, of course, opted to take the test so I walked over towards the large U-table where there were several scantron sheets and the contestant application. The contestant application of course contained the usual qualification questions ("Were you ever an employee of anyone associated with the production or airing of "Millionaire" or it's distribution?" and "Do you agree that you will be responsible for your travel and boarding to and from the studio for your appearance?") to your usual "feeler" questions for the producer's ("If you can nominate yourself as "Best of___" or "Most Likely to_____", what would it be?" and of course "What would you do with $1 Million?"). I managed, for once, to complete the entire questionnaire. But that all will be for naught unless you pass the test.
The test is a 30 question, 10-minute time limit multiple choice test. Without getting into the details (unless I go back next season and see different questions...) I will note that many, if not all, of these questions were former questions pulled from the various tapings. (Notably ones that people got wrong.) Once the time limit is expired, the audience coordinators come around and recollect the paper test and scantron sheets.
After this, the audience coordinators want to know who wants to try out for "Who Wants To Be a Thousandaire?" aka the audience participant question. I stand on line, chat it up with the other people there. (For some reason I was actually chatty today.) Some go over some of the questions asked. I of course give my two cents as to what the answers were. (We also talk about Terry Crews and how people loved him as the host. People were unsure why he left, I made note that he's doing "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", another TV show for Spike, as well as a few movies.
Unfortunately just before I could get to the front of the line to "try out", we get told that they're ending it early since they're ready for taping. We're given a chance to run out to the bathroom... and then it's onward into the "studio" (through the black curtains) for the taping.
The stage manager and "warm up comedienne" start to go over what's going to happen. I'm of course in the back and the top, next to the question board. ("Try to keep the [ask the audience] clickers in your laps, you won't need them immediately. If you happen to win any T-Shirts, please tuck them under your laps. Try not to shout out the answers"... and onward.) From there we're introduced to the host, Chris Harrison. Rather than a Q&A, they just wanted to get to the taping. (This was the last tapings of the season, so they likely wanted to get to the party afterward.) So from there... we're told about an inside joke about one of the answer choices and that they make him read the funny answers just so that they can make fun of him afterward.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Chris does a cold open for the show in the same manner that Regis used to do when he was on air. ("Can I guarantee that someone will win a million dollars tonight? No. But at least we'll be given then a chance to make a lot of money while having a lot of fun. Welcome to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire!?") A crash out to the same logo theme and graphics used for Terry/Cedric/Meredith. From there Chris introduces our first contestant. The dialogue introducing the game is different but the question bed "explain the rules" isn't, it's the same one used during Terry.
* cut to the money board screen. It still uses the same border style of shuffle format. The monies' background flashed green as they climb up. All with white text at first. No coloring for safeties. All with the same blue background. *
"You are just 14 questions away from one million dollars. You are free to leave the game at any time with any money won. But if at any point in time you get a question wrong, you lose everything. That is unless you cross a safety net or threshold. There are two of them. One at $5,000 and the other at $50,000. Once you get those questions correct you are guaranteed to leave here with no less than that."
*The safety net texts are now highlighted in gold as Chris mentions them*
"Let's talk lifelines... you get three. Ask the Audience (leftmost bubble), where we'll poll our audience as to what they think the answer is. Fifty/Fifty (center bubble) where the computer will randomly take two wrong answers and remove them from the board. And Plus One (rightmost bubble) where we'll let you bring someone on to the stage to help you with the answer... and who did you bring with you today..."
(You get the gist at this point.)
Once the contestant goes through the intro of themselves and their Plus One: "Let's Play Who Wants To Be .... a Millionaire!" Lights down (same music cue from Round 1 during US Shuffle) and here's questions one. (Music is muted in studio during questions 1 through 5 and added during post production... So I can't hear anything.) The "question correct music" is similar to Classic millionaire (Regis) and the money is shown on the big question board immediately once it's won. After the question is correct, they cut to the wide shot of the money tree and show the money tree is delayed in moving the gold bar up but the money is already added into the "Bank" and still reads as "________________'s Bank".
Once the contestant gets to $5,000 there are brief fireworks on the question board and it vanishes. We cut to the first break and left clapping for about 15 seconds. We cut back in to applause and Chris goes over the status with them and continues. Lights down (same music cue from classic, different lighting from Round 1) and let's play! The music is now being pumped into the studio for Question 6 and onward... the music is slightly different than Shuffle but not sure if it's the same from Meredith's run or something new. It wasn't so much heartbeats that I was hearing but there was a heartbeat-like rhythm.
Unfortunately, $50,000 seems to be the new "gatekeeper" as no one was able to successfully traverse up the ladder into "Round/Tier 3" and either walked away or got the $30K (#8) question wrong.
We hear everyone's name who passed the test, I didn't get it
, but we clap and acknowledge all of those who did. We're taken into the same process again for four additional contestants after each two the audience participant came down to play. One question was asked and I almost jumped out of my seat wishing it was me as it was a cakewalk involving video games. After the contestant won, Chris started handing out the money "Chuck Woolery style" ($100, $200, $300, $400, $500, $600, $700, $800, $900, $1000!). And that was the end of "Week 1". We repeated the process three additional times (thus making it about three weeks worth of tapings). Unfortunately the audience members went two for three in audience questions. And after the third "week", that was the end of the session. Chris thanked all of us for coming out as this was this last session of the season and thanked his staff and the audience for coming out. (Side note: On the "Preview" monitor I can see: "Congratulations everyone for making through another season! Now come on and let's drink!") That was the end of the audience as a whole, of course the producers kept anyone who passed to answer questions. I sat next to one of them
. Congratulations to that gentlemen, maybe next time for me.Notes/first impressions about Chris:
- For those of you who wanted a Regis Philbin-like experience to Millionaire, you're getting it with Chris. The only complaint that I have is that he blazes through the answers. No pauses like you've heard with everyone. I thought I talked fast... he just runs through it. He's definitely chatty, not so much stoic like Terry. Voice in person sounds like Ryan Seacrest for some reason....
Other studio notes:
- One of the contestant's Plus One's (his father), accidentally dropped his pack for his lavalier and just said screw it and walked on anyway. No need for a retake there, the studio producer left it on and carried on. He got the question correct though.
- One of the questions to the show was about the full name of the court that Wimbledon is played on. The contestant was so full of energy that he was ready to give the answer before Chris read the answers to him when they popped up on the big screen. (The audience popped for that... Chris quipped "Mind if I read them to your first?" Contestant: "Haha... well I see them on the big board here...") He of course got it right.
- The workers couldn't let us go past the partitions behind us... that's because The People's Court is taped immediately behind where we were. The entrance was on the other side of the building.- When the workers means pencil's down... it's pencil's down. You're done. If you're still filling out the application when they're ready to start. STOP FILLING OUT THE APPLICATION WHEN THE TEST IS READY TO START. They won't give you a test until it's put away. (You'll be able to fill it out when they're done.)
- There were a few retakes and re-reads. (Guy next to me: "Wait they're doing it over?" Me: "Yeah they tend to do that when the host flubs something like annunciation or pronunciation of a word.) One of the audience questions had to be redone. (Chris to contestant: "Do you want to change your answer?")
And that's it. I think I heard one of the interns mention this is it for the year. But we'll see.
As for the Host Screen, part of the main reason why I even went to the studio that day. Not so much to see Chris but to get notes on the "new" board... it's similar to the already used board during Meredith's run and shuffle. (I found a shuffle board where everything is still the same, EXCEPT as follows:
- Nothing appears under the text "Money Board" (Money Board still appears next to the money tree though)
- the gold "milestone" (which was used to note the question of double money during shuffle) isn't on the screen.
- Where "Loss" is, replace it with "Lose" as in "If you get this wrong, you'll lose $25,000".
- Remove the background of the number "To Rn 2" and "To $1M" and put it a black box like the question box. (the text on top stays the same color except "To Rn 2" to "To Safety".
- A white box pops up with the note from the producer about the question/answer. Immediately when the answer is shown.
- The greybox next to the answer is still used for Ask The Audience, popular answer has its percentage highlighted gold.
- The current question is denoted by a YELLOW box with ">>" in it to indicate that is the current question. Any questions already answered are denoted with a gold, center aligned bullet in its wake. Not reached safety nets appears in a box with a gradient background (bright orange at top, dark orange at the bottom). The current question is also highlighted yellow.
- The current question number and it's value is shown in a white box with dark grey centered text underneath the answers. (If you want to stay true to form of the studio, and don't ask why, the question doesn't adjust until it's ready to play. That is: If I just got question 4 correct, Question 4 still occupies the question and answer spaces BUT the white box will show "Question 5 ($1000)". When the big screen wipes, the host screen question/answers wipes blank.)
- Also as a side note: the host screen sometimes glitches out and retains the last entered "Ask The Audience" percentages. (It's normally kept when it's not consequential to the game.)
- Another side note: Ask the audience takes about 20-30 seconds. 20 seconds for the audience to poll... 10 additional for the graphics to be prepared.
(EDIT) - As a side note, when a new question is put in play, the whole is replaced with five boxes. One big rectangle for the question and four smaller rectangles of equal height to represent the question answers. Once the host reads the fourth answer, it immediately cuts to the normal board.
Well that's it for now, I'll add it more notes when its back to me.
