Body Language coaching question

[Otm Shank]

So the rules are to "act out a series of words and phrases using body language" and not let's play charades.

It looks like the producers didn't want much of the stock charades gestures like the number of words, syllables, tugging the ear for "sounds like." About the only standard gestures were man, woman, and star. Other than no sounds and no props -- which they allowed a tiny bit of latitude on -- do we have any insight on how they were coaching the contestants and celebrities?

And one follow-up since we are talking about the show ... were there any backstage glimpses of the contraption that displayed the words? It seemed unnecessarily noisy for what it's purpose was (unless maybe that was seen as intentional to give an audio cue), especially since they very easily could have used the chyron. I guess since the pilot they used the chyron for the puzzle board, they opted to make the word display mechanical, and stayed with that. But once they went to series, everything was mechanical, even the clock and the bonus round money appeared to be keying a physical display.

[byrd62]

So the rules are to "act out a series of words and phrases using body language" and not let's play charades.

It looks like the producers didn't want much of the stock charades gestures like the number of words, syllables, tugging the ear for "sounds like." About the only standard gestures were man, woman, and star. Other than no sounds and no props -- which they allowed a tiny bit of latitude on -- do we have any insight on how they were coaching the contestants and celebrities?

And one follow-up since we are talking about the show ... were there any backstage glimpses of the contraption that displayed the words? It seemed unnecessarily noisy for what it's purpose was (unless maybe that was seen as intentional to give an audio cue), especially since they very easily could have used the chyron. I guess since the pilot they used the chyron for the puzzle board, they opted to make the word display mechanical, and stayed with that. But once they went to series, everything was mechanical, even the clock and the bonus round money appeared to be keying a physical display.

I noticed an occasional shot of a cutout on the guesser's podium which hid a monitor that showed the answers to be acted out.  If you'll recall, this contraption also featured an asterisk light that lit up to signal "last answer" if all the others in the set had been guessed.

Some of the early episodes also included a shot from behind the contestant of a projection screen which showed the mechanical title-card puzzle.

[whewfan]

Showoffs didn't have those charades traits either. What I liked about Showoffs was the two person team aspect... if the first actor was struggling to get the person to guess the word, he could tag the other to take over.

[TLEberle]

Pantomime Quiz (or even Acting Crazy) would devote more time to a single prompt. Body Language requires a team to successfully convey either five or ten prompts in a minute, and there really isn't time to go to "sounds like" or first/second syllable in a way that you can if you have "You're as dumb as a screen door on a battleship."

[TheLastResort]

I believe the words were printed on art cards, cut into strips, and stacked on an easel or stand with the words arranged from bottom to top. All but the bottom word were concealed, and a camera was focused on that word. When the word was guessed, it was yanked out quickly and the words above it slid down one row.  If a word was passed, it was yanked out and put back on top of the stack in case it came back up. Probably similar to flight strip boards used by air traffic controllers.

As for the noise, possibly the art card word strips were affixed to wooden blocks of some sort to make them easier to stack. A stack of 10 of those dropping down would be pretty noisy.

[Neumms]

The answers were usually one word not a title, so that wouldn’t come into play, but it’s kind of odd nobody did “sounds like” especially on tough words.

[Mr. Matté]

The answers were usually one word not a title, so that wouldn’t come into play, but it’s kind of odd nobody did “sounds like” especially on tough words.

Wonder if it's just because unlike the Pyramid front game, you can pass hard words and could come back to them. Plenty of times the actor will just see a tough word and pass right away.