The Cube - Behind The Scenes

On Saturday I got the chance to see the recording of the game show 'The Cube'. It was very interesting to see exactly how it was filmed and how much it differed from what we see as an episode on TV due to a lot of the effects being added on afterwards.

During the gaps between filming where the crew re-positioned the camera or set up the games Phillip Schofield was telling the audience why they do specific things. Like when they leave a 6 second gap between telling the cube to start the game and when the game starts, this is done so the crew can get enough shots of the player/the game so they have enough footage to edit. He also explained all the equipment and how they work which I found very interesting.

Unfortunately photos were not allowed to be taken on the set but her is a diagram of the set:

The bigger crane was used for aerial shots of the cube and shots moving around the cube. The smaller crane was used for audience shots and different angles of Phillip and the contestants and the other camera was moved around the floor for shots of the contestants inside the cube.

This following .GIF shows how they used the 90 SLRs that they had in a semi-circle. The cameras took photos one after the other at a high sped to create a 3D rotation effect. Similar technology was used during the filming of Got To Dance and the Olympics. 

This one was filmed by the camera on the track. This was a camera moving slowly half way around the semi-circle. The effect of the game was made by lapping a track with no game and a track with the game and then in post-production they made it look like the game is appearing inside the cube.

Here are some of the other effects that are added on in post-production. The last one if of the green floor after the demonstration has finished, this is done as the demos of the games end with a green floor. This makes it easier for the editor to link from the demo to the game play:

.