Page "Soap opera" Paragraph 45

* The visual quality of a soap opera is usually lower than prime time US television drama series due to the lower budgets and quicker production times.

This is also because soap operas are recorded on videotape using a multicamera setup, unlike primetime productions which are usually shot on film and frequently using the single camera shooting style.

Because of the lower resolution of video images, and also because of the emotional situations portrayed in soap operas, daytime serials make heavy use of closeup shots.

Programs in the United States did not make the full conversion to high definition broadcasting until September 2011, when The Bold and the Beautiful became the last soap to convert to the format, except for One Life to Live, which remained in standard definition, albeit in a 16x9 aspect ratio, until the end of its run on ABC in January 2012.