TV look vs. movie look?

Azmyth

Azmyth

Veteran
I was watching the disney channel today (I have no idea why, thats what it was on.. I was cleaning) and the Wizards of Waverly place movie was on. There is also a tv show version.

I noticed that the movie version, looks a whole lot different than the TV version.. why is that?
 
First, budget. Second, they want to sell the movie experience as higher end and more interesting than the TV version so that people will go out of their way more to watch it. So it's a marketing choice. Third, time. Setting up lights and color correcting to make something look more film-like isn't necessarily harder than doing it broad and even if you know what you're doing, but it definitely takes longer, and shows need to crank out a series fast.

Lastly, you don't need to make excuses for having it on. Especially when you have apparently seen the movie.
 
I love watching those Disney movies because I have a feeling like there will be a time in my life where I just happen to DP a bunch of made-for-tv Disney movies, and by watching them now I know basically what they're looking for. God forbid I get hired for High School Music 3 or 4 or 5 or whatever number they're on and I try to light it like Citizen Kane.
 
I’ve been watching the Disney channel every day for the last nine years (I have small children..he he). The difference with that movie vs the show I would say is budget. They used film for that movie and lit everything differently. The show basically takes place on a stage-like set where the movie took place at various locations etc.
 
Ian-T said:
I’ve been watching the Disney channel every day for the last nine years (I have small children..he he). The difference with that movie vs the show I would say is budget. They used film for that movie and lit everything differently. The show basically takes place on a stage-like set where the movie took place at various locations etc.
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It is not necessarily 'budget'(*). If they are doing a multicamera setup, the lighting has to be flatter on all the actors that may be framed by the several cameras. Then when a switch is made from one camera to the other, there is less of a 'lighting' jolt.
(*Budget may figure in the sense of wanting to get a scene shot without several setups for 'single camera' style movie shooting... but these days, movies are frequently shot with multicamera setups...)

In addition, most 'tv' people seem to be hanging on to how NTSC didn't do so well with high contrast lighting... or how the final product is to be broadcast via TV...

While the US has switched to digital distribution for TV, the rest of the world hasn't caught up, and so by maintaining the older 'tv' rules, the material is 'broadcast ready'.

Movies on TV were always a compromise, whether it was for the 24 fps, or the contrast ratios that film could hold.
 
The biggest difference comes from the lighting. TV shows tend to use much flatter lighting, whereas movies use more dramatic lighting. This is due to both budget and time constraints (TV is on a much tighter schedule and flat lighting/multiple camera setup is much faster and easier)
 
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