Doctor Who campfire trailer
Encyclopedia
The Doctor Who campfire trailer is a forty-second television trailer which promoted the fourth series
of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who
. Filmed on one day in a studio, it stars David Tennant
and Catherine Tate
as the fourth series lead actors: the Tenth Doctor
and his companion Donna Noble
. The trailer was produced alongside three thematically similar but separate teaser trailer
s. The teaser trailers premiered in cinemas and on BBC One
on 22 March 2008, and the full trailer premiered on BBC Online on 29 March 2008.
, portrayed by comedienne Catherine Tate
, sitting over a camp fire, talking about "creatures of metal, fire, and blood" threatening the universe as shots of the Dalek
s, Sontaran
s, and the Ood
come into view. She talks about a man called the Doctor (David Tennant
), who is portrayed in fleeting glimpses until his name is mentioned, who constantly saves the universe from these threats. Donna ends her narration by saying the Doctor will be back to save them and she will be ready to join him. The trailer ends with the Doctor and Donna simultaneously saying "and just like that, we'll be gone."
The ten-second teaser trailers simply contain "crowd multiplication" computer-generated shots of the aforementioned aliens.
In a brief to the formerly BBC
-owned Red Bee Media
, the trailer was intended to re-introduce Donna and emphasise that her relationship to the Doctor was purely platonic, and that the new series would be "bigger and better" than previously. As trailers for series four were also aired in cinemas, creative head Matt Scarff and director Richard Senior decided to take parallels to the positively reviewed cinema advertisement to "Voyage of the Damned
", consisting of iconic shots of the antagonists in the series and a serious tone.
Donna's leading role in "The Runaway Bride
" allowed the production team to focus on her status of an everyday person to explain her perception of the Doctor: a magical stranger who always appeared at the time of need. Senior based Donna's perception of the Doctor on the perception of the criminal mastermind Keyser Söze
in the film The Usual Suspects
:
The script Senior developed with Doctor Who executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
specified the use of a camp fire; Senior felt it would be the most adequate image for Donna "telling the legend of the Doctor". The setting would allow the three antagonists eventually used—the Daleks, the Ood, and the Sontarans—to appear to come out of the flames to create a sense of hyperrealism, while building suspense in the trailer by showing the Doctor in fleeting glimpses before his full appearance. Inspiration came from the use of scene transitions in the James Bond
film series.
in Upper Boat
, Rhondda Cynon Taff
, Wales
, (51.575763°N 3.3°W) double-banked with location filming for "The Stolen Earth
"; the filming for the fourth series trailers were scheduled so that it would not interfere with Tennant and Tate's filming for the series finale. The trailer was filmed entirely on greenscreen, with the separate characters scheduled to record after each other: Tennant recorded from 11am to 1pm; Tate recorded from 1pm to 3pm; and the antagonists were filmed from 3pm until 9pm. The material was recorded in high-definition
resolution so that the special effects would have a greater resolution; the trailer itself was transmitted in standard-definition
. Editing for the trailer took place over two weeks, before being completed on the day before its transmission.
, Juno
, Rambo
and There Will Be Blood
, in early 2008 Odeon
, Cineworld
and Empire
cinemas. The theatrical release of trailers for the fourth series was part of a test agreement between the BBC and Carlton Screen Advertising
for promotion of BBC content in cinemas.
Doctor Who (series 4)
The fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 25 December 2007 with the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes aired, starting with "Partners in Crime" on 5 April 2008 and ending with "Journey's End"...
of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. Filmed on one day in a studio, it stars David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
and Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...
as the fourth series lead actors: the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
and his companion Donna Noble
Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
. The trailer was produced alongside three thematically similar but separate teaser trailer
Teaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
s. The teaser trailers premiered in cinemas and on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 22 March 2008, and the full trailer premiered on BBC Online on 29 March 2008.
Summary
The forty-second trailer features Donna NobleDonna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
, portrayed by comedienne Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...
, sitting over a camp fire, talking about "creatures of metal, fire, and blood" threatening the universe as shots of the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s, Sontaran
Sontaran
The Sontarans are a fictional extraterrestrial race of humanoids from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and also seen in spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. They were created by writer Robert Holmes.-Culture:...
s, and the Ood
Ood
The Ood are a fictional alien species with telepathic abilities from the long running science fiction series Doctor Who. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future ....
come into view. She talks about a man called the Doctor (David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
), who is portrayed in fleeting glimpses until his name is mentioned, who constantly saves the universe from these threats. Donna ends her narration by saying the Doctor will be back to save them and she will be ready to join him. The trailer ends with the Doctor and Donna simultaneously saying "and just like that, we'll be gone."
The ten-second teaser trailers simply contain "crowd multiplication" computer-generated shots of the aforementioned aliens.
Conception
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
-owned Red Bee Media
Red Bee Media
Red Bee Media Limited is a media management company.Headquartered in west London, United Kingdom at the Broadcast Centre, with international offices in Scotland, Australia, France, Germany and Spain, Red Bee Media has 1500 employees worldwide including homeworkers and revenues of £153m in...
, the trailer was intended to re-introduce Donna and emphasise that her relationship to the Doctor was purely platonic, and that the new series would be "bigger and better" than previously. As trailers for series four were also aired in cinemas, creative head Matt Scarff and director Richard Senior decided to take parallels to the positively reviewed cinema advertisement to "Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...
", consisting of iconic shots of the antagonists in the series and a serious tone.
Donna's leading role in "The Runaway Bride
The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
" allowed the production team to focus on her status of an everyday person to explain her perception of the Doctor: a magical stranger who always appeared at the time of need. Senior based Donna's perception of the Doctor on the perception of the criminal mastermind Keyser Söze
Keyser Söze
Keyser Söze is a fictional character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. According to Roger "Verbal" Kint, Söze is a crimelord whose ruthlessness and influence have acquired a legendary, even mythical, status among police and criminals...
in the film The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey and Pete Postlethwaite....
:
The script Senior developed with Doctor Who executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner is a Welsh television producer. Her most prominent work has been serving as executive producer on the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and its spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
specified the use of a camp fire; Senior felt it would be the most adequate image for Donna "telling the legend of the Doctor". The setting would allow the three antagonists eventually used—the Daleks, the Ood, and the Sontarans—to appear to come out of the flames to create a sense of hyperrealism, while building suspense in the trailer by showing the Doctor in fleeting glimpses before his full appearance. Inspiration came from the use of scene transitions in the James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
film series.
Filming and production
Filming took place entirely on 12 March 2008 at the Upper Boat StudiosUpper Boat Studios
Upper Boat Studios is a television studio complex operated by BBC Wales and based in Upper Boat, a village on the outskirts of Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales. The studios were officially opened on 27 July 2006 by Welsh Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies, for the purpose of producing Doctor...
in Upper Boat
Upper Boat
Upper Boat is a village on the southernmost outskirts of the town of Pontypridd, within the electoral ward of Hawthorn, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, and comprises part of the Treforest Industrial Estate. Historically it fell within the parish of Eglwysilan, Mid Glamorgan...
, Rhondda Cynon Taff
Rhondda Cynon Taff
Rhondda Cynon Taf, or RCT, is a county borough in the South Wales Valleys of Wales. It consists of 3 valleys: the Rhondda Valley, Cynon Valley and Taff-Ely Valley...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, (51.575763°N 3.3°W) double-banked with location filming for "The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
"; the filming for the fourth series trailers were scheduled so that it would not interfere with Tennant and Tate's filming for the series finale. The trailer was filmed entirely on greenscreen, with the separate characters scheduled to record after each other: Tennant recorded from 11am to 1pm; Tate recorded from 1pm to 3pm; and the antagonists were filmed from 3pm until 9pm. The material was recorded in high-definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
resolution so that the special effects would have a greater resolution; the trailer itself was transmitted in standard-definition
Standard-definition television
Sorete-definition television is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either enhanced-definition television or high-definition television . The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same resolution as...
. Editing for the trailer took place over two weeks, before being completed on the day before its transmission.
Theatrical release
The trailer was part of an advertising campaign which saw trailers released in front of the films CloverfieldCloverfield
Cloverfield is a 2008 American disaster-monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams and written by Drew Goddard.The film follows six young New Yorkers attending a going-away party on the night that a gigantic monster attacks the city...
, Juno
Juno (film)
Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....
, Rambo
Rambo (film)
Rambo is a 2008 German/American Action film starring Sylvester Stallone returning and reprising his famous role as legendary Cold War/Vietnam veteran John Rambo. Stallone also co-wrote and directed the film. It is the fourth and most recent installment in the Rambo franchise, twenty years since...
and There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood is a 2007 drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!. It tells the story of a silver miner-turned-oilman on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California's oil boom of the late 19th and...
, in early 2008 Odeon
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas is a British chain of cinemas, one of the largest in Europe. It is owned by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group whose ultimate parent is Terra Firma Capital Partners.-History:Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch...
, Cineworld
Cineworld
Cineworld Group plc is a cinema chain operating in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Jersey. The chain consists of 78 cinemas; 76 of which are located in the UK and one each in Ireland and Jersey. It is the second-largest cinema operator in the UK with 801 screens, and the owner of...
and Empire
Empire Cinemas
Empire Cinemas Limited is a multiplex cinema chain in the UK. There are 17 Empire Cinemas with 141 screens in total, including the flagship Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London which hosts various film premières and first-runs.-Ownership & Management:...
cinemas. The theatrical release of trailers for the fourth series was part of a test agreement between the BBC and Carlton Screen Advertising
Carlton Screen Advertising
Carlton Screen Advertising is the main cinema advertising company in Ireland. The company is owned by Dermot Hanrahan.-History:Carlton Screen Advertising was established in 1996 when Carlton Communications purchased the cinema advertising company Cinema Media , then owned by a venture capital...
for promotion of BBC content in cinemas.