Expose on the horizon?

[23skidoo]

Intriguing. I heard about this on the Doctor Who News Page and dug up the original report:

http://www.lgcplus.com/topics/transparency/council-told-to-publish-dr-who-letters/5041914.article

Basically Cardiff City Council has been ordered to hand over all its records to a journalist with regards to the production of Doctor Who - including complaints made against the program.

I wonder what that's all about? Some expose in the offing? I imagine there may be folks in Cardiff (Cardiffians?) who aren't too cheery about their town becoming Hollywood UK of late. But the whole "costing the taxpayer" angle which was the first thing came to my mind doesn't quite work because the taxpayers in the UK are already paying for Doctor Who via their license fees so it wouldn't exactly be a big story over there. And Cardiff is expected to clean up in terms of tourism dollars and the like (especially once Doctor Who moves into the new Cardiff studio (up till now it had been filming out in the boondocks somewhere) and the Doctor Who Experience opens there full-time).

Alex

 

[MacLeod]

The license fee is paid to the BBC.
Cardiff council is funded by local taxes. So it would be the cost to them not the BBC.

Now as to the reason for this it could be down to a number of things.

DW being fairly popular

Wanting to see if the BBC is getting value for money.

Wanting to see if the local council is getting value for money.

People complaining to the press after getting no joy with the council for being adversely affected by DW production.

BTW it would be tourism pounds not dollars.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I read that article. It sounds to me like they're dealing with complaints over location filming in the city that may shut down roads and public buildings or cause disruption to the daily routine of businesses and residents.

I'm still amazed at how much location filming that they do, because there's no need for it. American series have been greenscreening virtual sets for years now. For instance, there's amazing work done to make other places look like Washington, DC. There's absolutely no reason that Doctor Who needs to be filmed live in front of a (studio) audience.

 

[Stevil2001]

Given how crunched the Mill always seems to be, and the fact that the production teams have obviously preferred using location filming to building sets, it must be the case that location filming is the cheapest option available.

 

[captcalhoun]

yeah, why fake 'a street in a small city in Britain' when you can take a crew outside and do it for real and freee up the VFX people for more important stuff like TARDISes flying through time-vortexes or legions of Daleks over-running Earth or the like.

 

[Starkers]

This appeals to me on two levels given I'm a Who fan and my job is Freedom of Information!

I somehow doubt it's an 'expose!' likely it'll be a story about how often roads have to close etc, possibly there won't even be a story there. Journalists just like fishing.

 

[MacLeod]

I read that article. It sounds to me like they're dealing with complaints over location filming in the city that may shut down roads and public buildings or cause disruption to the daily routine of businesses and residents.

I'm still amazed at how much location filming that they do, because there's no need for it. American series have been greenscreening virtual sets for years now. For instance, there's amazing work done to make other places look like Washington, DC. There's absolutely no reason that Doctor Who needs to be filmed live in front of a (studio) audience.

Yes but how much does all that cost to do, as a rule isn't location filming cheaper than FX shots?

And as far as I'm aware outside of location shoots their is no studio audiance.

 

[Cutter John]

I suspect some reporter heard that they're hiring at the Daily Fail and is turning some pensioner who couldn't get to the shop for his lottery ticket one afternoon because of a film crew into "THE BBC IS DESTROYING OUR WAY OF LIFE!"

Oops. Pardon my cynicism.


Actually this doesn't seem as big a deal as it used to be. They seems to be doing a lot fewer "Aliens invade Cardiff" stories than during RTD's era.

 

[ATimson]

Given how crunched the Mill always seems to be, and the fact that the production teams have obviously preferred using location filming to building sets, it must be the case that location filming is the cheapest option available.

I think the problem with building sets wasn't necessarily expense so much as that they didn't really have any place to put them in the old soundstages...