I have been watching DooL a lot lately and GH sometimes, but I was led to wondering something.

Are soaps filmed daily, or will they give the cast several days worth of script to film, since many times on shows, they'll stay in the same day for a week or two worth of episodes. Would each day, they just film the scenes for the days episode, or go ahead and film each vignette for the entire week, give or take?

I think they tape daily. Not entirely sure. I know they have ALOT of dialogue to memorize in a short period of time(sometimes 100+ pages in a day)

They tape in on different days, not necessarily in a row.

this won't answer your questions but it's neat.
the NBC tour was great.
we got to the soap part. the guide told us all kinds of nifty things. like showing us a huge place that held every single prop ever on the show. said each room was photographed in many directions and each prop met the camera shots. each prop was numbered and catalogued so that everytime a set was put in place, each prop would be easily accessed and found to be put in it's place.
they have a taylor on board to make all the clothes, which are stored.
the sets are replaced on the same stages. while outside the NBC studio, you could tell it was set up to be the place in rome at the time (back in '97 i think when bo was looking to find the drugged out billy). that same set was redecorated so we would not recognize it as salem place in it's regular guise.
i did see the girl that played jennifer then, she walked by our group and said hello to us. and i saw peter reckell as i peered into the studio.
that was the best part of the tour for me.
but the episodes are filmed about 3 weeks ahead of the tv broadcast.

It should be noted that soaps are, and always have been, taped, not filmed. Not many shows are taped anymore, which is why soaps look so different. Back in the 70s, most of Norman Lear's shows were done up like the daytime soaps, so they all had the same look to them.

i realize that to people in the technology know, the difference to 'taped' and 'filmed' is a difference. but to the majority of us, the use of either word is not incorrect because we do not know the difference.
i don't think that you are trying to correct me here but i am not sure. but either way, can you explain the difference to where it actually makes some sense? i've heard it before and i see no understanding in what i was told.

i realize that to people in the technology know, the difference to 'taped' and 'filmed' is a difference. but to the majority of us, the use of either word is not incorrect because we do not know the difference.
i don't think that you are trying to correct me here but i am not sure. but either way, can you explain the difference to where it actually makes some sense? i've heard it before and i see no understanding in what i was told.
It's simple. Filmed shows are shot on film. Taped shows are shot on tape.

you know, that's a smart ass response to a legitimate question. i can see now that you are just being as ass to correct me.
why not take your sorry attitude off your shoulders and be decent when people ask a question or make a statement. otherwise, if you can't do that you should keep your mouth shut. people come here for entertainment, not be treated like a 2 year old.
like i said, to those that don't now the difference, they don't know any better. if you're so smart, you could treat people well and share what you know to educate people.
is that too human for you?

ok, taped, filmed... whatever. That's not the question (and therefore the answer wasn't given). How are they shot? (okay, that's a nice term that goes for either film or video)

For example, the on-going DooL storyline set in the hospital after Zach's murder with Bo, Hope and Chelsea has been playing out over the past three or so weeks. Usually about 7-10 minutes of new episode footage a day (minus commercials and considering there's usually 3 or 4 other stories to share screentime with). Do they just go and tape those day by day or will they give the actors a weeks worth of what's coming up and then go ahead and knock several days of that storyline out in one day of taping and then edit everything around when it comes time to air?

you know, that's a smart ass response to a legitimate question. i can see now that you are just being as ass to correct me.
why not take your sorry attitude off your shoulders and be decent when people ask a question or make a statement. otherwise, if you can't do that you should keep your mouth shut. people come here for entertainment, not be treated like a 2 year old.
like i said, to those that don't now the difference, they don't know any better. if you're so smart, you could treat people well and share what you know to educate people.
is that too human for you?
And you could tell my tone and attitude from what? The size and font of my words? I was trying to be informative and if you choose to believe otherwise, you shouldn't.

ok, taped, filmed... whatever. That's not the question (and therefore the answer wasn't given). How are they shot? (okay, that's a nice term that goes for either film or video)

For example, the on-going DooL storyline set in the hospital after Zach's murder with Bo, Hope and Chelsea has been playing out over the past three or so weeks. Usually about 7-10 minutes of new episode footage a day (minus commercials and considering there's usually 3 or 4 other stories to share screentime with). Do they just go and tape those day by day or will they give the actors a weeks worth of what's coming up and then go ahead and knock several days of that storyline out in one day of taping and then edit everything around when it comes time to air?
I've always thought that they tape all of the scenes on a particular set at once and then the editing staff puts the episodes in sequence.

my apologies then JT, if you were trying to be informative. the words you chose just sounded like i said.

I've always thought that they tape all of the scenes on a particular set at once and then the editing staff puts the episodes in sequence.

yea, that does make sense... I was wondering why because one day, Kyle Brandt has one look and then the next time you see him, he's got a different haircut and more/less facial hair, and it made me wondering if they ended up taping a lot of it at once. Just look at how Bryan Dattillo's hair seemed to grow two inches almost overnight and suddenly his goatee was back. :lol:

I do kinda hate myself for not giving Days a chance when Jensen Ackles was there :)

I know they tape about 3-4 weeks in advance too, so that's why one minute to the next their hair can look different and whatnot :)

I remember watching Days when Jensen was on their, he's a great actor :)

I've always thought that they tape all of the scenes on a particular set at once and then the editing staff puts the episodes in sequence.

That must be hell for the actors on Passions considering that one set scene can last for weeks. :crazy:

That must be hell for the actors on Passions considering that one set scene can last for weeks. :crazy:

yea, but record a months worth of episodes over a few days and then get the rest of the month off ;) Sounds like a pretty nice tradeoff.

Same for Days, I mean one day on that show lasts a month :eek:

Ok here is the real scoop...

Soap operas tape daily. every single day of the week. monday through friday. They record episodes in order; but they record the scenes out of order. They will film heavy dramatic scenes first, early in the day and lighter scenes later in the day.


Soap episodes usually tape about 4-6 weeks before airdate, giving editors enough time edit together the different scenes. As a television major at school i've learned enough to know that they likely tape a whole episode on the same week, not necissairly the same day. They want to make sure that all the scenes for an episode are contained sequenced tapes, meaning they don't want to shoot scenes for episode A on monday and then on Tuesday shoot episode D, because then the editors would never be able to figure out where to look for the scenes (yes, the tapes would be logged and such) but in order to aviod confusion and missing tapes they likely tape entire episodes in sequential order. Meaning on monday and tuesday they would likely tape 1 episode and than on Wed and Thursday they'd likely tape another.

i can tell you that the ABC and NBC soaps are indeed taped, not filmed. My guess based on the look of the shows is that Guiding Light and Y&R may be filmed. however ATWT and B&B may be taped. that however i cannot be 100% sure on.

Usually an actor only has to memorize the scenes in which they appear in. Most actor memorize only their lines, however some actors have been known to memorize their lines as well as the lines their scenemates. this helps them because they then remember to say their line immeditely after their scenemate says their lines.

They also tend to group scenes based on who appears in them. If a certain two actors appear in only the first and last scenes of the show they will film those scenes together. However scenes are also shot based on difficulty. the more difficult scenes are shot first and the simpiler scenes are shot last.

on a soap set an actors call time can range anywhere from a tyipcal 9-5 workday to later nightime hours.

The crew however tends to work into the wee hours of the night. breaking down and putting up sets. rotating props and such.

One thing important to soaps is that they usually they have like two or three main sets that they permnantely keep up and film on. and then they have other temporary sets that are taken down after a scene is shot.

A set being shot on is called the "hot" set.

Soap Operas store a lot of props and stuff and will take them out when needed.

Oftentimes if they need to reshoot a scene or they need to shoot another scene that is supposed to take place later in a day or something they will keep a set up and call it the "hot set" so that nothing on it is touched. This is because they need to make sure that the continuity of the show is correct. For example if someone is holding a ciggarette in their left hand they want to make sure that in the next scene it is not in their right hand.