So, it's just gone midnight on Friday night......in around 12 hours we'll be filming two episodes of TopGunge, and then 24 hours later, we'll be filming two more.....I thought it would be quite interesting to give you some behind-the-scenes info and maybe, as shooting progresses, some top secret preview pics!

First off, studio prep......since Top Gunge is the largest show we make, the outer walls of our studio make up the set, so preparation consists of basically moving everything else out of the way, cleaning (a lot of cleaning!) of the floor, chairs, props and the like and rearranging the lighting rig.

Next up we have to organise the girls, games and gunge.....Lisa organises the girls and then between the three of us (Lisa, Leon and little old me), we think through the games and the gunge/mess. Since this weekend will include the halloween and christmas specials, we thought we'd bring back the messy food games we played last year! This was all done around ten days ago, and from this planning we make lists....things to buy, things to prepare, things to get ready.....

For example, the halloween special has the trick-or-treat-door-knocking round, as well as loads of decor around the studio, so we built and placed this on Thursday, ready to film it as the first episode on Saturday, before pulling it all down mid-afternoon to reveal the normal Top Gunge set for the second shoot.....

If this all goes to plan the Halloween Episode will have i) the Door Knocking trick-or-treat game, ii) messy Apple Bobbing, iii) the Gunge Bowl, iv) the Gunge Booth and finally v) the nice/nasty food game....apparently there is a list of which girls are playing what game and in what costume.....but I've not seen it yet! Lisa is very good at organising all those details! Instead I spent Friday rigging gunge dispensers into the ceiling, checking the walls were in place, and then building and starting to mix the gunge for the bowl with Leon and Megan....it takes around 1700 litres to fill, so we mix around 2/3rds the day before, and the rest before we start shooting....as well as the 800 or so litres of other-coloured gunge for the other games......

And yet there is still more planning....whilst the camcorders are all on charge, the questions are ready and the props for both Saturday episodes are safely stored in the van, attention already turns to sunday's episodes, which will be the Christmas special and a good-old 'normal' episode, albeit with a new game or two to keep it exciting! I'm hoping to update this blog tomorrow night too with some sneaky pics from Saturdays shoots.....depends how quickly we can clean and reset the studio between days! I'll leave you with a reminder of some pics from the TopGunge Halloween special from 2010...here's hoping tomorrow's episode is twice as good and twice as messy!

Big Dave