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BBAU Rewatch

Me too. Although having it upstairs also meant the staircase was left exposed so there was no separation between the house and the outside on eviction nights.
I may be biased but thats why I have always loved how Australian Big Brother had the audience and house separated.
 
I may be biased but thats why I have always loved how Australian Big Brother had the audience and house separated.
Both have their downsides… You do miss some of the natural reaction HM’s have by transporting them from the house to the stage vs having them walk right out in to the crowd.

I definitely prefer the old style BBUK evictions with the tension music, the BB voice doing the countdown, and the evicted HM waiting at the top of the stairs for the doors to open. It just had such an epic quality to it.

 
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Both have their downsides… You do miss some of the natural reaction HM’s have by transporting them from the house to the stage vs having them walk right out in to the crowd.
I liked in BB3 when they introduced the eviction plank. I found that on the way to the house nerves would increase and adrenaline would be pumping. And then having the evictee have to literally walk through the crowd boosted the excitement. Although the 2001 reactions were all more genuine as none of them knew how popular the show was or what it had become. Sara-Marie's eviction episode is probably one of my all time favourites.
 
I liked in BB3 when they introduced the eviction plank. I found that on the way to the house nerves would increase and adrenaline would be pumping. And then having the evictee have to literally walk through the crowd boosted the excitement. Although the 2001 reactions were all more genuine as none of them knew how popular the show was or what it had become. Sara-Marie's eviction episode is probably one of my all time favourites.
You have made me think how disappointing a modern day eviction is going to feel for any of the returning housemates that left with the adrenaline rush and excitement of a live eviction the first time around.
 
incremental changes in S1 as 10 found their way
^^
one thing that stands out to me is productions lack of fluency in the BB lexicon
That's what I was referring to. You're right that they had the opportunity to see how it was done by C4 and adopt their lexicon or come up with their own, so it is kinda weird looking back at it now that they were obviously just winging it before eventually developing their own style. I'm still only up to Day 44 and Gretel is still saying [name] it's time to go instead of it's time to go... [dramatic pause] [name]. Can't even remember if they switched during S1 or later.
 
Gretel is still saying [name] it's time to go instead of it's time to go... [dramatic pause] [name]. Can't even remember if they switched during S1 or later.

She starts that on the day 49 eviction. With the pause coming in very late into the season. And then I remember 2002 used a drumroll at some point ? Cringe.
 
The background hum from the wireless mics during S1 continues to annoy me. I'm surprised they didn't resolve this problem during the first week. Surely it was some issue in their audio mixing panel? Audio cables running too close to power cables or something? Hmm*

*or should I say mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
I wonder if 10 still has the original widescreen seasons and if they'll put them up on Paramount+? (not that I can access that).
Someone still has them. There was some project going on in Australia a few years back where they were digitising a shit ton of Australian shows before the original video film became too degraded and they were lost forever. Big Brother AU was one of the shows as someone working on it tweeted a message to some housemate that they were watching their eviction or something as it was converting.
 
Someone still has them. There was some project going on in Australia a few years back where they were digitising a shit ton of Australian shows before the original video film became too degraded and they were lost forever. Big Brother AU was one of the shows as someone working on it tweeted a message to some housemate that they were watching their eviction or something as it was converting.
That does sound vaguely familiar. I guess all the editing was done in analogue for Ten's entire run, despite being broadcast on digital from the get-go.

I found this article from 2007 (have a read, because I wonder how the staffing numbers at Seven compare):

More than 6000km of video tape is used in the production of Big Brother. Six video tape machines run simultaneously to record all of the action in the house.

At a guess I'd assume Nine switched to digital cameras and storage when they resurrected the show?
 
Someone still has them. There was some project going on in Australia a few years back where they were digitising a shit ton of Australian shows before the original video film became too degraded and they were lost forever. Big Brother AU was one of the shows as someone working on it tweeted a message to some housemate that they were watching their eviction or something as it was converting.
That does sound vaguely familiar. I guess all the editing was done in analogue for Ten's entire run, despite being broadcast on digital from the get-go.

I found this article from 2007 (have a read, because I wonder how the staffing numbers at Seven compare):

More than 6000km of video tape is used in the production of Big Brother. Six video tape machines run simultaneously to record all of the action in the house.

At a guess I'd assume Nine switched to digital cameras and storage when they resurrected the show?
 
Into week 3 of BB2, its not AS BAD as I anticipated. Week 1 is dreadful, it starts to pick up closer to the eviction. Katrina is annoying me. Only person I am semi interested in is either Jessica or Nathan.
 
Ooh, cheers for that reminder. I hope 10 makes them available on 10play or P+ at some point (after which hopefully someone will rip them back to Youtube or torrents). All the VHS wobbles make me twitch.
 
Into week 3 of BB2, its not AS BAD as I anticipated. Week 1 is dreadful, it starts to pick up closer to the eviction. Katrina is annoying me. Only person I am semi interested in is either Jessica or Nathan.
Good for you hanging in there. I won't watch S2. And I did rewatch S3 some years ago. I'll pivot to BBUK S7.

But I look forward to your continuing commentary so I can relive S2 vicariously.
 
Good for you hanging in there. I won't watch S2. And I did rewatch S3 some years ago. I'll pivot to BBUK S7.

But I look forward to your continuing commentary so I can relive S2 vicariously.
I watched UK7 this exact time 2 years ago, I had further planned to continue every single BBUK season, that was until Survivor Winners at War was announced so I was inspired to binge all 40 seasons especially when lockdown came 3 months later. I plan on a BBUK watch very soon as I have only ever seen 7,15 and 16 in full. I am not sure when I will face that challenge bit I didn't think I'd leave it this late. UK is such a big commitment, the 20 minute daily AUS shows make binging so much easier and less tedious. I will continue to comment on BB2 but tbh there is not much to really say overall. My write up will not be as extensive as BB1 one. I want to try my best to smash out BB2 as fast as I can so I can start BB3.
 
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I watched UK7 this exact time 2 years ago, I had further planned to continue every single BBUK season, that was until Survivor Winners at War was announced so I was inspired to binge all 40 seasons especially when lockdown came 3 months later. I plan on a BBUK watch very soon as I have only ever seen 7,15 and 16 in full. I am not sure when I will face that challenge bit I didn't think I'd leave it this late. UK is such a big commitment, the 20 minute daily AUS shows make binging so much easier and less tedious. I will continue to comment on BB2 but tbh there is not much to really say overall. My write up will not be as extensive as BB1 one. I want to try my best to smash BB2 as fast as I can so I can start BB3.
I'm weirdly interested in how the show developed over time. Changes in the production, the things they tweaked or did differently as they went on.
 
I'm weirdly interested in how the show developed over time. Changes in the production, the things they tweaked or did differently as they went on.
that was my main interest last time I began a rewatch, if uni didn't get in the way I would have watched all 11. I will say Gretel herself got more and more comfortable in the role as she went along. She was by no means poor or awkward in any way, she was fabulous throughout but she was really getting the hang of it as it went on. She's fantastic in front of a crowd. Obviously some key things being the use of the phrase its time to go only being adapted into its known form in the second half, and housemate goodbye messages only being introduced for the last 4 evictees.
 
I've watched the first few episodes and one thing that stands out to me is productions lack of fluency in the BB lexicon. HM's are referred to as "contestants", they alternate between task/challenge, and evictions are referred to as being "kicked out". It's a bit odd considering BBAU was a year behind the other English speaking BB's so all the work was pretty much done for them.
Although of course BBUS in the first series went with things like "Red Room" and "Banishment" instead of the Diary Room and Eviction. Not sure if that was them doing their own thing or came out of the translation of the Dutch/German versions.

BBUK pretty much set the mould for most future series - they were the first to have a weekly cycle of evictions compared to the two week cycle the European versions had in the early years, somethng most subsequent versions picked up. From documentaries at the time it was something they really had to fight the creators on though.


And back to the "airlock" conversatiion. I'm sure BBUS did add a short corridor between the diary room and main house in the original house too, but it wasn't there in the first series, as seen here in the first ever nominations.

It also wasn't located right next to the lounge until BB5 - originally it was further down by the bedrooms, so away from the main living area. TBH I thought Australia was the same for BB1 and BB2 anyway. BBUK just had sound proof doors until BB8, some of which proved to be more soundproofed than others.
 
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Into week 3 of BB2, its not AS BAD as I anticipated. Week 1 is dreadful, it starts to pick up closer to the eviction. Katrina is annoying me. Only person I am semi interested in is either Jessica or Nathan.
It's been almost 20 years seen I saw any of it, but Jessica is the only one I remember fondly.
Particularly one bit that made me laugh out loud where she and Keiran (or Nathan?) were miming with each other's arms, about a toilet

Brodie Young didn't make much of an impact (apart from being generically 'cute'), but he still pops up every day on morning tv advertorials for Chemist Warehouse.
 
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