Why Does Television "Look" Different Than Movies?

[SDon1969]

Why Do Most Television Programs "Look" Different Than Movies? I'm not talking about definition or picture quality, I mean it just looks different overall. Take a soap opera for example. Take the same actors, script and sets and have a studio film a scene - I bet it'd have a totally different look & feel about it. It's almost an intangible quality that I can barely explain. Is it just different film stock? Different kinds of cameras? Different film speed? Different techniques? All of the above?

[DetroitSportsFan]

The difference between video and film is noticeable.

[Chevypower]

It's a totally different art. Film is often given a softer look, it uses 24 frames per second, instead of 30 (25 in PAL countries). TV producers (especially in studios) would use a wider angle lens, and the lens would be on the wider setting. The studio is lit for all angles. Film producers have the subject lit specifically for the shot they want, more time consuming. It's more carefully thought out, they would have the camera more on a telephoto shot, with softer focus on the background, and shorter depth of field over all. Film producers would often be using filters over the lens. It's not a quality thing, it's a different art.

[jw]

goes back to the grain subject. Some producers add grain so it doesnt look like its a stage act, more life like.
Lighting, camera type.

Perfect exapmle is.....Watch a Tyler Perry play and then watch the movies he has....big difference and I bet they use the same type camera

[Roland1919]

Just watch The Shield, its filmed in 35mm and shot documentary style...translation is beautiful, looks and feels like your there...(Not meant for Blu-Ray, would be pointless)....

[JasonR]

Does the Blu version of 300 look like the one on MaxHD? I thought the one on MaxHD looked great, and I didn't notice any grain. However, people are always complaining of how this looks on Blu....

[broganreynik]

A lot of it has to do with lighting I think. Of course whenever I watch A Few Good Men on VHS it reminds me of a TV Movie or a TV show because of the pan and scan crap.

[EricJ]

If you mean, why are there more tight closeups in television rather than movies, giving it a less "epic" and more claustrophobic feeling, it's because the screen is smaller, and they have less image to work with.

Anything else can be explained off to lower budgets and less experienced writers.

[wallendo]

A soap opera has one day to produce 45 minutes of programming (90 minutes in two days). A weekly series might have a week or two to produce that. The same 90 minutes of programming might take 3-6 MONTHS for a Hollywood movie.

As a result, TV programming is much more "point and shoot" than a Hollywood movie. TV programming is probably much more "life like" (a very subjective term), while movies are more "artistic" - scenes are more carefully lit, shadows planned, soft focus, manipulating the color temperature, saturation, contrast et al. for artistic effect

[Septimus Prime]

I'm pretty sure a lot of it has to do with the frame rate. I mean, both will look "smooth," but not so much in the same way, if you know what I mean.

[Xerious]

frame rate... that's all you need to know.

[Chevypower]

Originally Posted by Xerious

frame rate... that's all you need to know.

and lighting. And filters. And soft telephoto. And all the other reasons....