Sometimes I stumble across soap operas when channel surfing. I can instantly tell that a show is a soap opera just by the “look” of it. I’m fairly sure that it’s the lighting that’s different than say the evening news, or even a sitcom. But I can’t put my finger on exactly what is different. Greater use of soft boxes, maybe? Or maybe soap operas are shot on a different stock?
It’s because soap operas are shot on video, not film.
IIRC, the difference has to do with depth of field. In a soap opera everything in the field of view tends to be in sharp focus while on other shows things in the background tend to be somewhat out of focus. At one time this was because soap operas were shot on video while other shows were shot on film but I’m not sure if this is still true. It could be that the depth of field thing is just the “look” that is associated with soap operas and so they have just stuck with it.
Yep! A really cool example is the old HBO show “The Larry Sanders Show”.
They would shoot the ‘on air’ portions of the show on video and the rest of the show on film.
Previous thread on the subject.
Lighting is actually much more complicated than it looks: lights must be angled and focused, often with a specific mix of colored lens covers, made to balance with other lights so you can’t see “hot spots” or the distinct edges of any one light against the backdrop.
Soap operas are shot with multiple cameras simultaneously, which requires a lot of light; essentially, there has to be enough light for each camera in any direction. To save money, there is only one lightning scheme for any given set, or maybe two (a daytime and nighttime setup, for instance).
Movies, and filmed television shows have a bigger budget and can afford to light certain shots in specific ways. Instead of multiple cameras, they might set up a single camera in one location and do multiple takes from that angle. With a larger budget it is possible to light more realistically, with reflected light bounced off of walls or reflective cloth; or with light coming through a filter of silk. These take more time to set up, therefore more cost to the production.
I usually tell by the bad acting