Playback


 * You may be looking for the Doctor Who'' story of the same name.

Playback is the process of playing pre-recorded music, other sound, or sometimes video while a scene is being recorded.

Sometimes, as was often the case in the 1963 version of Doctor Who, the piece being played back is retained in the final assembly of the scene. Playback was, for instance, often used Doctor Who directors in lieu of editing to insert model shots and sequences pre-recorded by vacationing actors into the virtually "as live" recordings done during the Hartnell and Troughton eras. Playback was occasionally used in later eras of the 1963 version of the programme to insert footage onto on-set video-screens. CSO effects were also sometimes done through playback, though most often chroma-key was composited from two scenes being recorded simultaneously.

In the BBC Wales era of the programme, however, "playback" more often refers to the introduction of pre-recorded material that will not be preserved in the final edit of the scene. For instance, director Toby Haynes played back a musical cue from Raiders of the Lost Ark while recording a scene from The Pandorica Opens, in order to better guide his actors' movements. This music was then removed from the soundtrack of Pandorica, leaving his actors invisibly paced to a certain tempo. (CON: "Alien Abduction")