(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.