What phone does big bang use

6.3k Views • Upvoted by Eric Kolovson. worked in cable television

Many people have asked how can you tell when a show is using a laugh track or is filmed before a live audience. The trick is to focus in on the actors. When taped before a live audience, the timing of the comedy will revolve around when the real audience stops laughing. Actors will generally not deliver dialogue over people laughing. They will also deliver their dialogue louder, since living people in the studio need to hear the jokes in order to laugh.

When an episode is taped on a close set, it becomes something of a crap shoot. Actors will time their delivery and leave gaps for the insertion of the laugh track. Dialogue will generally overlap with the taped laughter and may not be delivered loudly, since there is no studio audience.

An excellent comparison can be found in Sean Hayes' short-lived sitcom "Sean Saves the World." The first 11 episodes used only a laugh track. By episode 12, the timing and rapport between actors had noticeably improved when a live audience was featured.

There are times when multi-camera shows are taped in front of a studio audience and the reactions received were not as producers had hoped for. Actors may also become prim donnas and insist on reshooting certain scenes after the audience has left. In cases like this, the "sweeteners" are brought in.

Every show in production that is taped in front of a studio audience is "sweetened" during post-production. Reactions are shortened, elongated, mixed down, etc. It is all part of creating the final product. TWO AND HALF MEN was notorious for the studio audience laughing too loud and long because of some of the genuine shock value of the humor. Re-recording mixers are godsends in this respect, as they must control this situation during post-production. Their work is an art and seamless.