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Having watched Hollyoaks later this week I've noticed that it is filmed in a different style to regular Hollyoaks.

Some colours seem washed out but others seem very vibrant, I was just wondering what they do to achieve this effect.


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Hollyoaks Later

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2 Answers 2

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The difference may be accounted for by the camera setup. Hollyoaks is filmed with a single camera, and Hollyoaks Later is filmed with multiple cameras. From Wikipedia, with a multiple camera set-up,

...multiple shots are obtained in a single take without having to start and stop the action. This is more efficient for programs that are to be shown a short time after being shot as it reduces the time spent film editing or video editing the footage...Drawbacks include a less optimized lighting which needs to provide a compromise for all camera angles and less flexibility in putting the necessary equipment on scene, such as microphone booms and lighting rigs.

According to this an interview with actor Neil Newbon (Walker), the single camera gives Hollyoak its dramatic feel:

Hollyoaks is still the only soap that shoots with only one camera, we don’t use multiple camera shots across one another, and we shoot like a drama and because of that we are unique, it has more of a dramatic angle.

With single camera, every time the camera has to be moved, the lighting people have time to set the lights just the way they want them.

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That's great thank you. Your answer does seem to suggest that the filming on Hollyoaks is better than Hollyoaks Later however Hollyloaks later seems to have a better quality. Is this just down to lighting and style, perhaps as Hollyoaks later is more dark and gritty? –  Jacob Tomlinson Sep 25 '12 at 8:38

It's really just a case of different use of colour timing/correction - that's all, just an artistic decision that's implemented during editing by the tweaks they set when rendering the output files.

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