Something I Noticed about Telenovelas

    While watching the clips of telenovelas we’ve been shown in class, and while watching the telenovela that I chose, La Reina del Sur, I’ve noticed something. This is also something that I’ve noticed when flipping through the channels mid afternoon on a weekday when I was home sick from school, which as well all know is the primetime for soap operas. What I’ve noticed is that telenovelas and soap operas have a distinct visual style. It’s certainly hard to describe or characterize it without showing you what I mean. I guess the way that I could is by juxtaposing telenovelas and soap operas with more typical dramas from the same time period. 

Below is a link to a clip from La Reina del Sur and a clip from Breaking Bad. Both of which are narco-dramas and both clips are taken from 2011.

https://youtu.be/0ZLR7ypvZv0 La Reina del Sur

https://youtu.be/zAjJYkUnTEs Breaking Bad

Now I’ve only chosen one example from each genre, but many telenovelas share a similar energy and feel in their visual style, and most dramas share that 24 frames per second view from Breaking Bad. What makes telenovelas look different? 

    One difference is lighting. Many sets for telenovelas are uniformly lit to aid in shooting with multiple cameras. They are also mostly filmed in studios where artificial light is cast onto the subjects instead of sunlight like the clip from Breaking Bad where the light from the window is shining on Walt’s left side. 

    Another difference, and more notable than the first, is the cameras. Typical dramas use either digital or film cameras with big lenses and very high resolutions. These shows are also typically structured in a way that allows for more time and care for shot framing and more expensive ways of shooting scenes, like programmable cameras that can move by themselves or cameras on a dolly. Telenovelas usually have three times the amount of episodes as typical dramas and new episodes air everyday so they must film in the most efficient ways possible which means spending less time framing shots and using static camera shots and multiple cameras instead of the variety of expensive, complicated shots seen in a typical drama. The camera’s themselves are also a lot less expensive than cameras used on typical dramas and most telenovelas are filmed on tape. 

   

    Maybe these differences can explain why telenovelas and soap operas look so different from typical dramas. Once again, this is more of a generalization than a statement about every telenovela or soap opera. Newer telenovelas and more notably Turkish dramas are looking more and more similar to typical dramas.