shadowkat | (no subject)

1. Conversations...

Me: Apparently the soap opera won't be on August 29th and August 30th.
Mother: Oh.
Me: Don't you want to know why?
Mother: Okay, why?
Me: They didn't film enough episodes because last year the President kept preempting them all the time, so they thought, oh, we can get away with filming less episodes. But alas. He didn't preempt them enough this year...so now they are behind and need to catch up.
Mother: LOL!
Me: I know. Apparently they film three episodes in a day...which, actually, explains a lot.

To put this in perspective folks. A daytime soap opera has about 100 pages of dialogue and runs for about 45 minutes in length each day. Prime time shows take at least 5 days to shoot an episode, sometimes two weeks. Buffy would shoot an episode in 7 days, known as the weekend killer. Putting in 22 hour days. A soap opera puts in no longer than 12-14 hour days and shoots three episodes each day.

So prime time - one episode per week, with 14-22 hour days.

daytime soap - three episodes a day, with 12-14 hour days.

In other words, a soap opera actor has to memorize up to 60 pages of script a day, have the blocking down, and only gets maybe one or four takes tops. While a prime time actor memorizes up to 60 pages of script a week, and gets twenty takes per shot.

Sort of difference between being in boot camp and having an officer desk job.

Television actors refer to soaps as boot camp.

Explains why the acting, writing, and everything often seems thrown together. They do it so frigging fast.

2. I had something else to say but I can't remember what it was.

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I remember hearing that about soap operas some time back as an explanation for why actors coming out of it are often extremely competent given their short prep time and need to nail things on camera quickly because they don't have time for a lot of reshoots. Of course, we have few soap operas for many to train in these days which might explain why so many British actors are getting work.

Also funny how their pay is generally not great even though they work harder than most anyone else on TV.

I recently learned how much they are paid. They are paid anywhere from $300-$436 an episode (which can be about 20 hours worth of work). Some get a $1,000 per episode. Some are paid hourly, say $300-$400, but only clock five hours a week if that.

Prime time? They are paid up to a million an episode. David Boreanze was making roughly $2 million an episode for Bones. And the lead of Grey's Anatomy is paid a little over $2 Million. Meanwhile the writers are paid even more. And for what? 13-22 episodes a year?

Soap writers do over 200 episodes a year and make a lot less. It's a crazy-ass industry.

Also most of the actors on soaps are trained theater vets - or used to be. They do a lot a theater. Both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Nathan Fillion came from soaps and could nail lines and marks fast.

There's only four soap operas now. Used to be four-five on each channel, so close to 20. But it's dwindled, too much competition for viewership.

Wow, that's a lot lower than I realized, especially given the cost of living where they shoot. And it sounds like one would be way better off being paid hourly than per episode. And it would be hell to be a writer on such a show having to crank out that many script pages in that short a time not to mention juggling all those characters.

And it sounds like one would be way better off being paid hourly than per episode.

Yep. A lot of them do gigs on other shows. On actor has a recurring role on Suites and the Showtime series Donovan (?). A lot do movies -- small roles.
Or theater (which pays horribly in LA). NY Soap Actors fare better actually, although I don't think there are any soaps left that film in NYC.

The contract states that if they work overtime, it's hourly (time and a half). So if they work four days, and more than say 8 hours, then paid hourly not per episode. (It was a confusing contract, gave me a headache.)

And it would be hell to be a writer on such a show having to crank out that many script pages in that short a time not to mention juggling all those characters.

Not to mention how horribly writers on these shows are treated by crazy fans. They are blamed for everything that does not work. If the show goes down in ratings? The writers get booted. If the fans don't like a storyline? The writers get torn apart on social media. They are rarely praised. Fans praise the actors but not the writers.

I would not want to be a soap opera writer. (Actually, I wouldn't want to be a television or screenwriter -- that's a horrible business to work in.)