6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park

2011 "They have only 6 days..."
7.7| 0h42m| NR| en
Details

Viewers will get a look at Parker and Stone's thought process as they approach a new episode and the 24/7 grind they subject themselves to each time the show is in production. The documentary also includes in-depth interviews with Parker and Stone about their working partnership and reflections on highlights from their careers.

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Comedy Central

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Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Sameeha Pugh It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
Andrew Pelechaty There's a rule of thumb that the longer an animated show lasts, the likelier the quality and humour will decline."The Simpsons" is a pale shadow of its glory days and "Family Guy" has lost a lot of its spark.There is an exception: South Park.While the right wingers aren't outraged by it anymore, it remains the most topical animated comedy on the air."6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park" shows us why. Covering the making of the season 15 premiere "HUMANCENTiPAD", it shows the intense process of one episode, from original writers meetings to 11th hour delivery of the finished tape to Comedy Central.This documentary shows us WHY South Park is still relevant and funny after almost 20 years: Matt Stone and Trey Parker are involved in every step of creating the show, melding it into what we see on TV every week. Coming off the successful Book of Mormon stage show, Parker and Stone are understandably struggling for motivation. A few writers room sessions (including SNL's Bill Hader) has the boys kicking around ideas, doing the character's voices and laughing like five- year- olds at poo jokes. The episode idea is full of the topical humour South Park are famous for: it's a parody of the often-unread Apple iTunes Terms and Conditions (Trey got the idea after having to update iTunes for the gazillionth time) and "The Human Centipede" horror film. Meanwhile, Executive Producer Anne Garefino has to clear the idea with the censors.After the idea is hatched, the hard-working animators bring the show to life, while Matt and Trey record dialogue. While most animated shows farm the grunt work out to Korea, the South Park animators have to juggle multiple tasks to get the episode done.As they days tick by, the laughs disappear and the stress kicks in: while Trey does last-minute work on the script, bemoaning that a lengthy script means massive cuts (and admitting to hating the 'lonely' writing process), they attend the Tony Awards for "Book of Mormon" and do interviews for said show. The crew are on board too, sleeping in the office and pulling long days to finish the episode. The relief at finishing is obvious.We do get some reminiscing from Parker and Stone: how they rose from poor animators to cultural icons through "The Spirit of Christmas", how their temperaments and skills complement each other and the infamous night they wore dresses to the Oscars while on acid. This is why South Park is still vibrant: Stone and Parker are more than just colleagues, they're friends. It's why they put themselves through the unimaginable stress of a six-day turnaround. It works, as Parker says the deadline stops them from becoming too pedantic.Another important point: Parker and Stone don't give two shits about reputations. When Bill Hader explains SNL's political tightrope when parodying celebrities ('we might want them to host one day'), Parker and Stone have no restrictions, allowing them the brutally parody any celebrity they want without fear of reprisal.If you're a fan of South Park, or animated shows in general, "6 Days to Air" is well worth watching.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) And that episode is the first of season 15. I have not yet seen that one, but at some point I certainly will. I think I have watched roughly 150 episodes of the show so far. The episode that these 40 minutes here are about is a spoof of "The Human Centipede", a horror film I quite enjoyed, so one reason more to watch it besides being a great "South Park" fan in general. But this documentary is not only about this episode. It also features scenes from older episodes that were particularly memorable and edgy and also some background stuff on Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the "South Park" creators, such as when they were at the Oscars or their very early short film works before "South Park" started. There's some generic stuff here like comments how the crew is the best they could think of or some pseudo drama about one of the makers being unhappy with the episode every time shortly before it gets aired, but all in all it's a good documentary by Arthur Bradford and nice to see it achieved an Emmy nomination. Certainly worth a watch for fans of the series. Recommended.
gavin6942 This documentary is pretty much exactly what it says: a look inside the studio and how a small group of dedicated people are able to bring a cartoon to your home each week with only days to go from scratch to screen.My biggest disappointment is the length of this thing. Clearly it was designed to fit within an hour of television, but I would think they could have put more for those who did not watch the original run (I saw it on Netflix, for example). There was not much discussion of the movies these guys made, and how films like "Cannibal the Musical" fit into the story of Parker and Stone.That aside, I think it was a good peak at how these guys work, and it is interesting to see Bill Hader in on the fun, too. I knew some episodes were made last minute, but I was not aware that the show consistently worked that way. It is an amazing feat.
Michael_Elliott 6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park (2011) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Fun documentary with the title referring to how long it takes the South Park group to come up with their ideas, write the dialogue, do the animation and get the finish product on the air. I think it goes without saying but this is mainly going to appeal to South Park fans, although I'm someone who hasn't watched the shows in ages yet it still kept me entertained and reminded me what a funny show it actually is. I really enjoyed seeing all of the behind the scenes stuff that's gone over as it really lets you in to see how tough the job actually is. Some of the best stuff happens in the writer's room where they discuss how for every one great idea they have a hundred bad ones. We see how they come up with the ideas, work them out and how they ultimately decide on whether or not to use them. From here we see the vocal work that has to be done and then of course there's the animation. The episode the guys are working on here is the one where Cartman keeps saying his mother is "screwing" him. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are both interviewed throughout the process and we also get a brief history of how the show started and their trip to the Oscars.