Are audience cutaway shots usually fake?

senseless said:

I'm pretty sure most infomercials are phony. The reactions always seem too big or ill timed. But, I wonder if standup comedy specials are real laugh reactions or not.

Do pros just shoot a lot of audience shots and then cut them in as needed? Or is an effort made to use realtime shots?

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handsome pete said:

I'm sure some editors will just throw in some audience b-roll for coverage if they don't have anything else. But I imagine most larger scale live performances are shot and edited multi-camera. So the reactions you're seeing are likely authentic.

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ChrisA said:

Yes authentic and shot live but. Many times they have large lighted signs near the stage just off camera that they can turn on and off that way "applause" or "laugh" or whatever. Yes sometime they queue the live audience. It's common on game shows and cooking shows and like that.

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