The other night, I was sitting at home watching a re-run of Saturday Night Live. Live TV is always fascinating to watch because there are so many different types of performance occurring simultaneously. The actors/ musical guests/ performers are performing to a live audience as well as a nationwide audience.
There are significantly fewer camera angles used and cuts within sketches - most likely because too many cameramen would be distracting and the performers would not always know where to perform to. Because the comedy and satire is based on current events and popular culture, the performers are aware that their jokes are being performed to a specific and "aware" audience - unlike sitcoms that do not acknowledge the audience members. It made me wonder what it would be like to be a live audience member of the show. There are so many costume changes and internal set changes that the tv-watching audience does not see. The action is framed differently for a studio-viewer than for a television viewer. Even though the content that both audiences are the same, each viewer gets a different perspective of the action. In some ways it would be like watching a live broadcast of a play. There is a different energy in the live space that is neither visible nor palpable when the action is viewed through a screen.
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