It would seem to me that we don't get to see enough of the celebs training, it's very parallel with BBUK and the live feed issue. We only get to see really on ITT 3 or 4 minutes into half an hour or an hour. Wonder if the rest of you see things from the same page as me? I think these comical VTS are a waste of production.

No.

There is more then enough to training on ITT with the warm up and on line, it would end up giving us the full dance and spoil Saturdsy.

This subject has been covered in many threads here before.

There are many threads on the VTs and IMHO, we didn't need another one.

Hit alert and request for this thread to be merged with the others please. 😀

So now you are requesting your own threads are closed.

Saves others the trouble I suppose.

I don't think that there can be enough VT's to be honest, I enjoy them all.

8 threads on the front page- I'd go along with the idea of consolidation.
Another FM used to spam the board with threads till his threads got merged or locked. Then he tried a more edgy slavic alter ego, which didn't really fly with the forum or the moderators, because it had lost the fake innocence which had encouraged a few of the naive and gullible to defend him.

I'd be up for 24 hour training live feed to be honest a la Fame Academy.

I don't think they should give away much of the details of the dance which is due that week.

An alternative is to put together clips from previous weeks training, so we see how they interacted in previous weeks. A lot of what people want to see is the interactions and the hard work, and that can be from previous weeks.

eg.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0110gvs

I agree that there are already loads of threads discussing this issue but I'll add in my tuppenceworth anyway.

It's not the length of the VTs that's the problem - they don't need to be extended.

The problem is the ridiculous co-called comedy skits that the powers that be inflict upon us. Making a Paella is going to teach you how to dance a Paso Doble? Seriously?

In the earlier days of Strictly, the VTs were about the week's training. Occasionally - and it really was only occasionally - there was a side trip to a salsa club or a ballet class or an acting coach if the pro felt it would be of genuine benefit to the celeb. But over time, the powers that be decided that having some kind of excursion was the purpose of the VTs and forgot all about the training - which is what the VTs should be about.

(Of course, that was back in the days when the pros were actually allowed to choose their own music and make their own decisions regarding training and dance content; nowadays they're more like puppets whose strings the producers are pulling, which is a waste of the pros' talents and expertise.)

These ridiculous skits are a waste of time that the pro and the celeb could put to better use in spending the time actually training. I'm sure that when there's a celeb whose other commitments impact upon the amount of time they have available to train, they would prefer to be actually training than wasting time filming that nonsense. Kellie said that she had a very heavy week on Eastenders, for example, which is a frequent problem with soapstars who do Strictly, and they're not the only ones whose day job can impact upon their training time.

Wot you say. I would prefer to see a bit of training (not too much, or it would indeed ruin the eventual dance) together with a bit from a professional dancer explaining what the challenges are and what to look for in this particular dance. And an interview with the celebrity saying (honestly) how they are finding it. These ludicrous VTs are just...silly really.

Thats a fabulous idea Lisa, I would be up for that too.

I agree. However there does have to be a VT. Its to do with the production of a live show. Time needs to be built in to do scene shifts and allow floor managers to set up for the next bit. So accepting that VTs are a necessity I would rather have training footage. It need not give away the performance. They could focus on the learning of a step or a technique. The reaction of the celeb to their first introductions to the style etc. If this was done cleverly it could tick the education box in the BBC remit as well as the entertain box.

BTW I don't see any similarity between Big Brother and SCD other than each have an element of public vote albeit of very different types.

I agree with everyone - I'd much rather see the training footage and stresses and strains of learning something. For example, I'd have rather seen Anthony discuss with a doctor what he could and couldn't do with his arm and have some honesty about the extent of his injuries than see him pretend to take Oti boxing.

But my perception, I don't think I really back it up in any way, is that they changed them because they were constantly being accused of bias, of giving one person a VT that had nice things like their children visiting the training, and someone else shown crying or shouting at their partner. There were some quite controversial training footage films, particularly with James and Brendan. They might have got fed up of having them analysed like that and decided to go for treating everyone equally idiotically. Or I think other people have suggested that they just can't pay for filming teams to be with everyone as much as they used to, so they only have tiny bits of not necessarily very interesting training, and that sounds really possible as well.

Whatever the reason, it's a shame because I think when you saw how hard it was you had more respect for all of them.

I agree with all of this. i.e VTs are needed as filler. They needn't reveal the dance choreography. They can be educational, without being worthy.

PS: Whilst there has been quite a lot of thread creation on obscure and sometimes irrelevant subjects, I don't have a problem with this actual thread.

But Kellie - and Helen - this week both had VT's that featured the actual training rather than anything more time wasty - so maybe there is starting to be an allowance made?

It's not the length of VTs that bother me. It's the atrocious, scripted "comedy" elements that annoy me. There's no need for them. It's not as if we think that they are spontaneous, we're well aware of the fact that it's scripted.

It must take an afternoon out of training for them to film them as well. Utterly pointless and frustrating.

I think in that case it was due to their workloads. Which I think is totally acceptable if they've had little time for training.

The length of the VT is more important for me, a short one does not satisfy me in quite the same way.