Blackberries on Y&R!!

[rhythmchyc]

For the longest time, they wouldn't let go of those 2004 Motorolas, which some cast-members still have for some godforsaken reason (Nick, Victor, Lauren, Adam). But, FINALLY, Michael Baldwin, the high-powered attorney in Genoa City has a Blackberry!!!! Wooo Hoo!! Welcome to the technological age.

Does anyone know if Y&R was bound to some Motorola or AT&T/T-Mobile contract with their phones? Because for years everyone, young and old, had exactly the same model. Now, there's some variety. I think Lily has some sort of sidekick (or maybe it was Colleen). Nikki and Michael have Blackberries (I think Jill has one too). And, thankfully, they've given Amber a sparkly case on the old 2004 Motorola. At least they're trying to match her personality and profession with her phone, her accessory. They didn't even bother with the other characters, really.

I've noticed on OLTL everyone had different phones for years. What is up with that? Did OLTL have an advertising contract that allowed the variety? Are these phones just left overs from somewhere? Are the Blackberries the actor's own personal phones?

I don't know why I'm so interested in this but it had been bugging me for years and I couldn't help but notice the positive changes over the past few months.

[Manny]

Days is horrible when it comes to this. I believe they only have one cell phone that they all use. Well, I don't know if that's still the case, but the last time I watched, it was.. lol

[DavidEvanSmith]

I look at all that stuff too.

I don't see why the actors WOULDN'T use their own personal phones, though. Especially when you see the working phone light up and say "Victor Newman Calling...". I wouldn't think prop phones would have service contracts, SIM cards, etc. I doubt the soap has a room full of 30 phones programmed with fake numbers, etc. I would think an actor would change their on-set friend's name in their phone to Victor Newman and they'd have them call them for the scene.

[rhythmchyc]

It seems as if the close ups for everyone's phones on the soaps (take OLTL's close up of Brody's phone when Gigi called from 1968 and when he lied to Shane about calling Gigi last week), has been recent. I mean, as of last year. They weren't paying as close attention before hand. Still, there are those actors who seem to be using the prop phone. I really don't get how Jack would use the Blackberry when he was at the bar with Adam (When Sharon called the first time) then use the prop phone when she called the second time when he handed it off the Ashley. Sure, he could have two phones but why switch it up in that case?

[boldfan01]

What if the actor gets a real call from someone in the middle of a scene where they're supposed to be getting a call from a character? With the tight schedules on taping, I don't think they can afford to have something that subject to chance disrupt taping. They would also have to remove phone vendor names and even cell carrier names because of product placement. Unless they pay for the phone outright, I don't know if they can ask an actor to do something like that.

[rhythmchyc]

I don't see why the soaps won't sign a contract with cell phone companies, if they haven't already. They definitely use this product more than a lot of other shows on the air (excepting Gossip Girl of course).

This is what they do with their laptops too, I've noticed. On Y&R, they only use Dells (you can tell that they tape over the Dell to avoid product placement but that's where the Dell logos are) but I think I've seen HPs on OLTL. Anyway, in that case, they're able to mask the manufacturer. It's a lot harder for cell phones, though, unless you're Amber or Carrie on "Sex and the City" and sheathe it in the most gaudy material.

And I'm supposing for the closeups, they use prop phones so that people don't call. For regular calls, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to use their regular phones since it could be off.

[Antoyne]

My biggest peeve is that it appears no one has caller ID..

[rhythmchyc]

OMG, WTF Is up with that LOL??

OLTL has caller ID, though. But Y&R is so behind with that. Jesus. These people are multimillionaires and I have a better phone than they do.

[boldfan01]

They might already have this, and that might explain why they have basically the same model for everyone. Cell phones are a bit different in laptops in that you buy laptops from the manufacturer or one of their licensed dealers. But cell phones are for a large part purchased from the service providers, not from the manufacturers. I don't see Y&R or any soap having a large amount of usage on those phones, so the service providers would not make a lot of money off them, and the product placement alone is probably not a big incentive. So you might have a soap go to the manufacturers and buy X dozen prop phones that can take prepaid SIM cards, and it might be cheaper to buy mostly one model than multiples with that kind of deal. The SIM cards let the phones be live as needed (like for closeups) and then be dead for the rest of the time.

In a scene like that, the closeups might be done in post-production, in which case you would need the actor to have their phone available after hours to make sure it matches up. That would probably be time they have to pay the actors, even if they are just there to provide the phone. Using show owned phones all the time means the closeups can be done by anybody without having the actor available. If they don't do closeups, they could probably use the actors' phones, but even then there's some issues if the actor decides he's getting a new phone today. With the serial nature of soaps where sometimes 2-3 episodes might span a single day, the actors would have to make sure they have the same phone throughout all the tape dates.

I agree with you that there should be some more variety, since the amount of extra money spent either on different models or phones that can change their faces to be accessorized probably isn't that much but for TPTB pinching every penny they can. But having the actors using their own phones could lead to discontinuity in extreme cases, and possibly extra expense if they want closeups with caller ID, so I can see why Y&R. or any soap for that matter, might not want to go that route.

[UKBoi]

The BlackBerry I've seen on Y&R is the 8700 and is used/has been used by Nikki (when they thought Nick was dead in the plane crash, I remember because I had that phone at the time), and Jack, Chloe, Jill...Renee on OLTL also had that phone when Asa was found dead.

I also noticed today that Claudia on GH has an iPhone.

[Rhiannon]

I noticed on Y&R when Nikki was in Mexico looking for Victor she didn't BlackBerry, she had some silver phone that looked really cheap. I remember wondering where her other phone was, but then she started using her BlackBerry once she got back to Genoa City........