S40 Taping Report: August 11, 2022
Aug 11, 2022 23:40:28 GMT -5
woffan4ever, Prizes, and 10 more like this
Post by woffan9821 on Aug 11, 2022 23:40:28 GMT -5
I believe that the rest of the mods want me to put everything in spoilers, so I'll just say that this week is planned to be the second week, September 19-23, and America's Game, October 25.
I guess if there are any other questions, feel free to ask them below. Otherwise, my arms and hands are sore from clapping, so I'll see you around.
The theme was California Coast. The set had some quaint cottages behind the contestants (and still no video wall), the Golden Gate Bridge jetting across the center video wall, and a ship to the left of the wheel. Jim did confirm that the "blooming onion" was still around, but they weren't using it this week.
No gameplay changes aside from $40k bonus round minimum. Although Pat did film a couple lines for a promo holding a wedge that just said XL, statements like "a guaranteed $40,000" make me think he's just talking about the new minimum. The music also remains unchanged from last season.
However, we knew there were going to be changes made from the pictures taken during several Sony Pictures tours, and there were quite a few cosmetic changes:
We knew that the puzzleboard is one continuous screen. There's quite a bit more.
-It turns out it's not actually touchscreen; Vanna told us that lasers kept track of what letters she "touched" and mentioned she doesn't even have to touch the letters, and cue cards mentioned LIDAR. My guess is lasers span in front of the screen, and whenever Vanna's hand passes that field and is in close enough proximity, the letter changes from blue to revealed.
-The font of the letters changed. My guess in studio was Futura, but I don't think it is on further glance It heavily reminds me of the font used for the contestant totals during Big Money Week last season.
-Because the board is now one giant screen, the show can now do cooler things with it. The show has a couple of fades to go into something else, like every letter turning like trillions to show a graphic of that show's theme, or the entire board pivoting out to show the winning contestant's total. Speaking of...
-The board fades to show the Bonus Round contestant's final score, win or lose. They did a test run of the graphics; if someone wins, the value of their prize puzzleboard first, then the contestant's final total.
-For some odd reason, in the bonus round, the letters always revealed from right to left for both RSTLNE and the contestant's choices. Vanna always started on the left, so watching that happen six times was kind of jarring.
-Otherwise, the border around the puzzleboard is still there, the tiles still try to emulate the old monitors with the dividing lines, and the unused tiles are still green with the WOF logo. It seemed a little brighter to me, but that could just be the difference of being in person vs. watching on TV.
Moving onto the intro:
-It starts out similar to the S39 "revolver barrel" logo. Then, the intro cuts to a shot looking straight down the barrel zooming out, before wiping to the O in "OF" of the title. Pictures of that logo are online, so I won't bother describing that.
-Jim is no longer is on camera when he introduces Pat and Vanna. At our shows, it just was the basic pan from the contestants to Pat and Vanna walking out.
-The screen around the wheel is still the extended screen showing an animated graphic before the scoreboard. The contestants are still spread out, but they no longer worry about the White Thing (RIP Wheel Condom 2020-2022).
Gameplay:
-The graphics also got an overhaul. Here are some really crappy images I made off of memory:
Regular category strip (it is no longer a 3D prism angled, just a straight-on rectangle):
Crossword category strip (the crossword square CLUE is gone)
The mid-game score graphic (the text fits nicely in two lines; I just didn't feel like sizing it to get it right)
The bonus round selection now has three category strips, but only the top category has the top folder tab and likewise for the bottom. This graphic is also shown on the puzzleboard.
Bonus Round Graphic:
The font is the same across all these and is similar to the puzzleboard font.
-When a contestant has the Wild Card, a Wild Card graphic is put to the left of their score. This does not apply to any other piece of cardboard.
-The letter bubbles also got a similar rehaul: it's a blue glassy circle with a nonbolded letter.
-The Bankrupt and Lose a Turn graphics are different. Lose a Turn now uses the same font, pops in, and wipes out. Bankrupt has a metallic Impact-like don’t that wipes in and out.
-The No More Vowels graphic is the same font. It is a solid yellow text, following a semicircle, that fades in from the center to the edges.
-The Prize Puzzle now has a scoreboard graphic matching the Mystery graphic from last season.
-The font for the prize values, BR prizes, and victor's totals changed to a similar font that I can best describe as a mixture of Impact and that new font.
-I don't think the font changed for the scoreboard on the contestants? I thought it was wider at first, but then I realized that the camera might catch the curved monitor differently.
-Pat only walks to the contestants after the Speed-Up round. He does stand close to the contestant in the Bonus Round and in the postgame interview.
-The contestants still do the Final Spin.
Miscellany:
-The Tuesday's Toss-Ups weren't sponsored by T-Mobile. Perhaps that promotion has ended?
-There was something glitchy going on with the scorekeeping. One time, the show somehow added a contestant's speed up winnings twice, and I don't think they ever retaped it or acknowledged it. Another time, the scoreboard refused to add a contestant's Round 2 score, so that took a long stopdown. Even later, the scoreboard just stopped functioning midround, so they had to turn the contestants around mid-puzzle and wait.
-During one Speed-Up, they played the No More Consonant boops when there was one consonant remaining. That puzzle was thrown out and replaced with a new one.
-Several promos were taped in-between shows, including a bumper to watch California Coast week for NBC 7 San Diego, that aforementioned promo with the XL wedge, and Mark L. Walberg taped a few promos for Wheel of Fortune Live. He claimed he was one of the hosts.
-They might tape other prerecorded segments about the contestants? One contestant was asked to look emotional because a teacher was going to say great things about them or something. My memories are fuzzy on that, but I thought it was a cute idea.
-I'd say the audience was more than half full in the first taping session, before a teen baseball team or something had to leave after the first game. After that and during the second taping, the audience was... 35% full, if I'm being generous? I don't recall any camera shots of the audience, but the second taping had us shout WHEEL OF FORTUNE for a WOF Live promo.
-There is an alternate logo with the blue XL letters in front of the words WHEEL OF FORTUNE 40TH ANNIVERSARY. I only saw this in the slates and the one promo with the wedge. Otherwise, the only part of the set that mentioned Season 40 was the Bonus Round envelopes. Those say WHEEL OF FORTUNE 40TH ANNIVERSARY on top, or something similar.
No gameplay changes aside from $40k bonus round minimum. Although Pat did film a couple lines for a promo holding a wedge that just said XL, statements like "a guaranteed $40,000" make me think he's just talking about the new minimum. The music also remains unchanged from last season.
However, we knew there were going to be changes made from the pictures taken during several Sony Pictures tours, and there were quite a few cosmetic changes:
We knew that the puzzleboard is one continuous screen. There's quite a bit more.
-It turns out it's not actually touchscreen; Vanna told us that lasers kept track of what letters she "touched" and mentioned she doesn't even have to touch the letters, and cue cards mentioned LIDAR. My guess is lasers span in front of the screen, and whenever Vanna's hand passes that field and is in close enough proximity, the letter changes from blue to revealed.
-The font of the letters changed. My guess in studio was Futura, but I don't think it is on further glance It heavily reminds me of the font used for the contestant totals during Big Money Week last season.
-Because the board is now one giant screen, the show can now do cooler things with it. The show has a couple of fades to go into something else, like every letter turning like trillions to show a graphic of that show's theme, or the entire board pivoting out to show the winning contestant's total. Speaking of...
-The board fades to show the Bonus Round contestant's final score, win or lose. They did a test run of the graphics; if someone wins, the value of their prize puzzleboard first, then the contestant's final total.
-For some odd reason, in the bonus round, the letters always revealed from right to left for both RSTLNE and the contestant's choices. Vanna always started on the left, so watching that happen six times was kind of jarring.
-Otherwise, the border around the puzzleboard is still there, the tiles still try to emulate the old monitors with the dividing lines, and the unused tiles are still green with the WOF logo. It seemed a little brighter to me, but that could just be the difference of being in person vs. watching on TV.
Moving onto the intro:
-It starts out similar to the S39 "revolver barrel" logo. Then, the intro cuts to a shot looking straight down the barrel zooming out, before wiping to the O in "OF" of the title. Pictures of that logo are online, so I won't bother describing that.
-Jim is no longer is on camera when he introduces Pat and Vanna. At our shows, it just was the basic pan from the contestants to Pat and Vanna walking out.
-The screen around the wheel is still the extended screen showing an animated graphic before the scoreboard. The contestants are still spread out, but they no longer worry about the White Thing (RIP Wheel Condom 2020-2022).
Gameplay:
-The graphics also got an overhaul. Here are some really crappy images I made off of memory:
Regular category strip (it is no longer a 3D prism angled, just a straight-on rectangle):
Crossword category strip (the crossword square CLUE is gone)
The mid-game score graphic (the text fits nicely in two lines; I just didn't feel like sizing it to get it right)
The bonus round selection now has three category strips, but only the top category has the top folder tab and likewise for the bottom. This graphic is also shown on the puzzleboard.
Bonus Round Graphic:
The font is the same across all these and is similar to the puzzleboard font.
-When a contestant has the Wild Card, a Wild Card graphic is put to the left of their score. This does not apply to any other piece of cardboard.
-The letter bubbles also got a similar rehaul: it's a blue glassy circle with a nonbolded letter.
-The Bankrupt and Lose a Turn graphics are different. Lose a Turn now uses the same font, pops in, and wipes out. Bankrupt has a metallic Impact-like don’t that wipes in and out.
-The No More Vowels graphic is the same font. It is a solid yellow text, following a semicircle, that fades in from the center to the edges.
-The Prize Puzzle now has a scoreboard graphic matching the Mystery graphic from last season.
-The font for the prize values, BR prizes, and victor's totals changed to a similar font that I can best describe as a mixture of Impact and that new font.
-I don't think the font changed for the scoreboard on the contestants? I thought it was wider at first, but then I realized that the camera might catch the curved monitor differently.
-Pat only walks to the contestants after the Speed-Up round. He does stand close to the contestant in the Bonus Round and in the postgame interview.
-The contestants still do the Final Spin.
Miscellany:
-The Tuesday's Toss-Ups weren't sponsored by T-Mobile. Perhaps that promotion has ended?
-There was something glitchy going on with the scorekeeping. One time, the show somehow added a contestant's speed up winnings twice, and I don't think they ever retaped it or acknowledged it. Another time, the scoreboard refused to add a contestant's Round 2 score, so that took a long stopdown. Even later, the scoreboard just stopped functioning midround, so they had to turn the contestants around mid-puzzle and wait.
-During one Speed-Up, they played the No More Consonant boops when there was one consonant remaining. That puzzle was thrown out and replaced with a new one.
-Several promos were taped in-between shows, including a bumper to watch California Coast week for NBC 7 San Diego, that aforementioned promo with the XL wedge, and Mark L. Walberg taped a few promos for Wheel of Fortune Live. He claimed he was one of the hosts.
-They might tape other prerecorded segments about the contestants? One contestant was asked to look emotional because a teacher was going to say great things about them or something. My memories are fuzzy on that, but I thought it was a cute idea.
-I'd say the audience was more than half full in the first taping session, before a teen baseball team or something had to leave after the first game. After that and during the second taping, the audience was... 35% full, if I'm being generous? I don't recall any camera shots of the audience, but the second taping had us shout WHEEL OF FORTUNE for a WOF Live promo.
-There is an alternate logo with the blue XL letters in front of the words WHEEL OF FORTUNE 40TH ANNIVERSARY. I only saw this in the slates and the one promo with the wedge. Otherwise, the only part of the set that mentioned Season 40 was the Bonus Round envelopes. Those say WHEEL OF FORTUNE 40TH ANNIVERSARY on top, or something similar.
I guess if there are any other questions, feel free to ask them below. Otherwise, my arms and hands are sore from clapping, so I'll see you around.
