question: Why do soap operas have a certain look, different from other TV shows?
comment: Two main reasons. The first is that they use high quality cameras and high frame rates (~60) while the norm in film is about 24. Not everyone likes the difference because while the higher frame rate is technically better it reminds people of the second factor, which is... The scenes are shot with even lighting from all sides. In movies there is a lot of care taken in setting up lighting for every shot. A character might get a main highlight from one angle and then a softer, dimmer fill light to show what would otherwise be in shadow. Also a light would be placed behind them to accentuate the edges of their form. When they change positions the lighting along their path needs to be designed in a similar way and that means the actors need to be careful that they move precisely where and when they are supposed to, and there is a bunch of work and time setting up and breaking down the lighting between scenes. Quickly produced soap operas don't have time or budget for that so they light everything from all angles so they don't need to change things between scenes. The problem is that gives a characteristic look to the end result, something people come to associate with a less polished end product.
passages: BULLET::::- Domestic interiors are often furnished with stained wood wall panels and furniture, and items of brown leather furniture. This is to give a sumptuous and luxurious look suggesting the wealth of the characters. Daytime serials often foreground other sumptuous elements of set decoration; presenting a "mid-shot of characters viewed through a frame of lavish floral displays, glittering crystal decanters or gleaming antique furniture".
   BULLET::::- The traditional three-point lighting set-up routinely used in filmmaking and television production is also used on daytime soap operas, sometimes with accentuated back lighting to lift actors out of the background. This is useful in programs like soap operas, which are shot on videotape in small interior sets. The backlight is frequently more subtle on filmed productions shot on location and in larger sets.
   BULLET::::- Few U.S. daytime soap operas routinely feature location or exterior-shot footage ("Guiding Light" began shooting many of its scenes outdoors in its final two seasons). Often an outdoor locale is recreated in the studio. Australian and UK daily soap operas invariably feature a certain amount of exterior shot footage in every episode. This is usually shot in the same location and often on a purpose-built set, with new exterior locations for particular events.
   Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed, the economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages. You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous.
   Stylistically, these series most closely resemble UK soap operas in that they are nearly always shot on videotape, are mainly recorded in a studio and use a multi-camera setup. The original Australian serials were shot entirely in-studio. During the 1970s occasional filmed inserts were used to incorporate sequences shot outdoors. Outdoor shooting later became commonplace and starting in the late 1970s, it became standard practice for some on-location footage to be featured in each episode of any Australian soap opera, often to capitalise on the attractiveness and exotic nature of these locations for international audiences. Most Australian soap operas focus on a mixed age range of middle-class characters and will regularly feature a range of locations where the various, disparate characters can meet and interact, such as the café, the surf club, the wine bar or the school.
   BULLET::::- The visual quality of a soap opera is usually lower than prime time U.S. television drama series due to the lower budgets and quicker production times. This is also because soap operas are recorded on videotape using a multi-camera setup, unlike primetime productions that are usually shot on film and frequently use the single camera shooting style. Because of the lower resolution of video images, and also because of the emotional situations portrayed in soap operas, daytime serials make heavy use of close-up shots. Programs in the United States did not make the full conversion to high definition broadcasting until September 2011, when "The Bold and the Beautiful" became the last soap to convert to the format; "One Life to Live" was an exception to this, as it continued to be produced and broadcast in standard definition – albeit in the aspect ratio – until the end of its run on ABC in January 2012.
   American daytime soap operas feature stylistic elements that set them apart from other shows:
  
  BULLET::::- A construct unique to U.S. daytime serials is the format where the action will cut between various conversations, returning to each at the precise moment it was left. This is the most significant distinction between U.S. daytime soap operas and other forms of U.S. television drama, which generally allow for narrative time to pass, off-screen, between the scenes depicted. On occasion, a character or characters involved a conversation earlier in that act may appear in a different setting later in the same act.
   Jeffers wrote; ""Soap operas are characterised by realism. They often feature topical social problems... Biddy and Miley’s marriage has come under stress in Glenroe. They also mostly take place in real time, with Christmas, Easter etc being marked. However, many soaps have a few characters who are exaggerated figures of fun, sources of 'comic relief."'"
  
  The article discussed briefly the original characteristics of the soap opera as opposed to film. "Soap operas concentrate mainly on dialogue and characters’ responses to happenings rather than on action."
   UK soap operas are shot on videotape in the studio using a multi-camera setup. In their early years "Coronation Street" and "Emmerdale" used 16 mm film for footage shot on location. Since the 1980s UK soap opera have routinely featured scenes shot outdoors in each episode. This footage is shot on videotape on a purpose-built outdoor set that represents the community that the soap focuses on.
  
  "Hollyoaks" and "Family Affairs" were taped on high-definition video, and used the filmizing process.
   Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode, and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger.
   The show's designer, Ed Stephenson, took inspiration from his time living in Florida to design a "Florida look" for "The Golden Girls" house set. The wooden accents, columns, and doors were painted to mimic Bald cypress wood, popular in South Florida homes, with rattan furniture and tropical-printed upholstery chosen for the furniture.
   Coronation Street sets
  
  The sets of the British ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" have undergone four major and several less significant changes since the first broadcast in December 1960. Originally entirely indoors, in 1968 the original wooden set was moved outside, and shortly afterwards reconstructed in brick. In 1982 the set was entirely rebuilt in a new location. The current set, brought into use in 2013, is based at the ITV Trafford Wharf Studios backlot, MediaCityUK in Trafford.
   As a cost-saving measure, producers tend to hire performers with limited acting experience. The same sets were reused in multiple shows. Producers built 53 shared living-room sets, which were repurposed by changing colors and camera angles to give them a different look. Also, scripts were finished before taping started, so that all scenes on the same set were filmed at the same time, out of episode order. Up to three shows were filmed at once.
   BULLET::::- In U.S. daytime soap operas, scenes often end with a pregnant pause and a close-up on the character. There will be no dialogue for several seconds, while the music builds before cutting to a commercial or a new scene. This kind of segue is referred to in the industry as a "tag."
   A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, "Los Angeles Times" columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas,
   Modern U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera format. The duration and format of storylines and the visual grammar employed by U.S. daytime serials set them apart from soap operas in other countries and from evening soap operas. Stylistically, UK and Australian soap operas, which are usually produced for early evening timeslots, fall somewhere in between U.S. daytime and evening soap operas. Similar to U.S. daytime soap operas, UK and Australian serials are shot on videotape, and the cast and storylines are rotated across the week's episodes so that each cast member will appear in some but not all episodes. UK and Australian soap operas move through storylines at a faster rate than daytime serials, making them closer to U.S. evening soap operas in this regard.
   With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue, Luke and Laura saved the world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a Left-Handed Boy Statue, and helped a Princess find her Aztec Treasure in Mexico. Other soap operas attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location – frequently in exotic locales.
   BULLET::::- In 1972, the sequence was updated to display the hourglass against a brighter, cloud-laden background; the camera subsequently zooms toward the bottom half of the hourglass as the original variant of the program's current mixed-case, serif logo (which replaced the older-style, all-capital title logo used since the show's debut) fades in;
   BULLET::::- "Złotopolscy" (1998–2010)
  
  BULLET::::- "Życie jak poker" (1998–1999)
  
  Section::::Puerto Rico.
  
  BULLET::::- "Alejandra"
  
  BULLET::::- "Coralito"
  
  BULLET::::- "Cristina Bazán"
  
  BULLET::::- "De qué color es el amor"
  
  BULLET::::- "Dueña y Señora"
  
  BULLET::::- "El Idolo"
  
  BULLET::::- "Julieta, Una Historia de Amor"
  
  BULLET::::- "Karina Montaner"
  
  BULLET::::- "La Isla"
  
  BULLET::::- "La Otra"
  
  BULLET::::- "La Sombra de Belinda"
  
  BULLET::::- "La Verdadera Eva"
  
  BULLET::::- "Laura Guzmán, Culpable"
  
  BULLET::::- "Milly"
  
  BULLET::::- "Natalia"
  
  BULLET::::- "Pacto de amor"
  
  BULLET::::- "Preciosa"
  
  BULLET::::- "Rojo Verano"
  
  BULLET::::- "Tanairí"
  
  BULLET::::- "Vida"
  
  BULLET::::- "Yara Prohibida"
  
  BULLET::::- "Yo Sé Que Mentía" (1982)
  
  Section::::Romania.
  
  Section::::Romania.:Media Pro Pictures.
  
  BULLET::::- "Numai iubirea" (2004–2005), ("Only the Love")
   Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials. Such story events often take place off screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown. This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict visually without complex action, multiple takes, and post production editing. When episodes were broadcast live, post production work was impossible. Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets.
  
  Section::::United States.
  
  Section::::United States.:Daytime serials on television.
   In a 1982 post-series analysis in "The Village Voice" published just as the series was first entering syndication, TV critic Tom Carson lauded the ensemble saying that "the cast matches the best TV series rep troupes ever." Carson went on to note that "Soap" "patently started out intended as a lampoon of middle-class values, and ended up instead as a weirdly offbeat celebration of them".
   Section::::Episodes.:Changes.
  
  During its five-year run, "Miami Vice" underwent repeated very noticeable changes in its formula and content. Between seasons one and two, however, these changes were mostly subtle and involved details such as the degree of perfection with which color shades of scene backdrops, props and clothing were matched to each other.
   Section::::United Kingdom.:The 1980s.
   For several decades, most daytime soap operas concentrated on family and marital discord, legal drama and romance. The action rarely left interior settings, and many shows were set in fictional, medium-sized Midwestern towns.
  
  Exterior shots were slowly incorporated into the series "The Edge of Night" and "Dark Shadows". Unlike many earlier serials that were set in fictional towns, "The Best of Everything" and "Ryan's Hope" were set in a real-world location, New York City.
   Section::::Australia.:Australian soaps internationally.
  