The Real Reason Soap Operas Look So Different - Cheddar Explains

soap-operas just look different let's compare the soap opera The Young and the Restless to Grey's Anatomy do you see it something about them looks so almost unnatural so what exactly is it soap operas have been around for a very long time since 1949 to be exact with the first ever TV daytime soap opera broadcasting live on NBC the fantastical storylines spearheaded a genre to pop culture fame in the 80s over the decades soap operas have inspired many popular TV shows up today but the non soap operas that they inspired don't look like soap operas look around the internet and you'll find a lot of different theories for this and all of these may contribute to the soap opera look some even say that soap opera producers smear petroleum jelly on the lens okay no this isn't done today but it actually happened early soap operas cinematographers did this to give scenes a soft glowing and dreamy look another potential theory they're lighting you see soap operas have historically been low-budget so instead of lighting each individual scene for each take producers light the entire set this allows actors to freely move around without needing to pause for the lights to be reset for new shot this allows for fewer takes quicker productions and less money as a result scenes tend to look pretty unnaturally lit soap operas are staged as a standard theatrical proscenium set up as if you were watching a traditional Broadway play with three camera shooting into the proscenium so that the viewer sees it just as they would if they were watching a stage play this technique allows the director to shoot an entire scene from a long shot next the same scene would be filmed using medium shots and then finally the close-up shots the editor would then go in and put together the array of distinctive scenes allowing the audience to theoretically become a part of the action rather than a witness to it you're watching the acting you're thinking about whether or not we're hitting the moments hitting the the points into the scene that we need to propel the story forward that we need to make sure that the conflict is in place it's a lot to absorb in a day while lighting and even petroleum jelly did have an impact the unnatural soap opera look can be attributed mainly to yet another cost-cutting measure in the 1960s soap operas were first broadcasted live and would go through a kinescope this process essentially recorded a television program on motion picture film through a lens focus on the video monitor this was done to avoid using costly film and when videotape was widely introduced in the 1960s soap operas decided to use that traditionally soap opera was always shot on videotape which is why it looks the way it does as opposed to you know film stock which gives you a completely different look right more film stock fewer pictures per second videos much faster so you get a picture that looks a little more like what the naked eye sees if the naked eye didn't have any filters whatsoever so that's why it looks what I think you're referring to as realistic so while other forms of media particularly cinema were shot on film soap operas shows the less expensive route videotape was the main choice of soap operas until 2011 when the bold and the beautiful became the last so to convert to digital but even today you'll notice they still look a little off that's because most soap operas are still using the same video tape frame rate which is higher than the more common 24 frames per second but what are frame rates think of an image now let's look at that image at a certain speed to give the appearance of motion frame rate is the speed at which those images are shown and it's usually expressed as frames per second each image represents a frame so if the video is captured and played back at 24 frames per second that means each second of video shows 24 distinct still images and frame rates can impact the style and viewing experience so why do soap operas choose a higher frames per second well that's what we and the networks expect my god I would love to shoot the whole show both the shells at 24 frames per second but that's not economically feasible because it would give you more of a look you would be more compatible with the primetime show like a Grey's Anatomy or SWAT or an NCIS but we don't really have those adjustments in the camera that we use because we don't have the time for today you may have noticed that the soap opera look has made its way to home TV in fact it has a named soap opera effect the scientific name for this effect is motion interpolation this is often the default setting on modern TVs it creates additional frames between the existing one frames in order to produce a smoother image of the action taken place on-screen but many find this look unsettling in fact many actors and directors hate it including Tom Cruise the unfortunate side effect is that it makes most movies look like they were shot on high-speed video rather than film if you own a modern high-definition television there's a good chance you're not watching movies the way the filmmakers intended and the ability to do so isn't that simple for you to access on behalf of everyone who works so hard to bring you the very best motion picture experience thank you very much luckily for those who hate it motion interpolation can be turned off on most televisions but even if you turn it off you'll still see this effect in our beloved four remaining soap operas the bolts in the beautiful days of our lives General Hospital and the young and the restless' if you made it this far thanks for watching if you liked this video make sure to check out our channel and subscribe

Channel: Cheddar

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Keywords: Cheddar, soap opera, soap opera effect, soap operas, soap opera effect fix, soap opera (tv genre), soap opera drama, soap, height difference, the days of our lives, young and the restless, cheddar explains, cheddar explores, explainer, frame rate, television, movies, bold and beautiful, tv show, frame smoothing, motion interpolation, frame sampling

Id: NyN7RsRWNrw

Length: 6min 51sec (411 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2020