The Search for the Right Surroundings
Picture the scene, torn apart lovers, once again foiled by some devious diva. They both sit in their respective homes slumped in easy chairs, looking out towards the night sky as the appropriate pop ballad plays. Has anyone ever thought about how those scenes rely on the surroundings and technical choices made behind the scenes? Well, think about the scene a little differently. Think about if instead of sitting in their respective easy chairs, for some reason the guy comes in through the kitchen and stands by the refrigerator? What if for some reason the woman cries while sitting in her car? What if instead of the appropriate pop ballad, some very clunky and heavy dramatic music with way too much percussion plays? Perhaps the scene will still have an effect, but a quite different one.
What is my point? Well, I've been focusing nearly an entire year on the writing, the acting, and producing of our soaps, but there are other things that aid or hinder a soap, and it is those under-appreciated technical jobs. Musical choices, set decorations, costume and hair design, and the like, they are all crucial to a scene's success. It is what has been called in the past, "well produced". In the eighties, what probably made these soaps so engaging was all of these details. As soaps got more opulent, production teams made sure the set and clothes conveyed that. When there was a grand wedding, it was really grand whether it was on location or a soundstage. When there was a love scene, the atmosphere, the music, the clothing, heck, the sheets, were all very important to the scene. Trust me, these things get thought about to an excess, or at least they used to be.
I was watching that TV's Most Famous Weddings special a couple of weeks ago and they showed Luke and Laura's wedding, but they made mention of a small detail I hadn't thought about in a while, Laura's dress was light pink. There was a touch of it in her veil and in her dress because she was a divorcee. Nowadays of course, people don't care if you have three children and two ex-husbands when you wear white, but back then, the show took care to have Laura dress appropriately for the event. But there are other things I noticed. Like that the color of the flowers that surrounded the couple all matched or complimented their outfits very nicely. None of these things were done by chance, they were all carefully chosen. While this is still the case to an extent today, you can tell that less attention is paid these days. Let's review the recent lack of care taken to iron out these details:
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