Days: May 2021 Discussion Thread

[SFK]

I concur.

I am so tired of her and seeing her be rewarded for her schemes. I am also fed up with the way this show plays fast and loose with the obligatory presence of security cameras in today’s world.

[Liberty City]

 

I don't see Eileen Davidson returning to the wreck Ron Carlivati has written of this character.

 

 

She wouldn't.

[AlexElizabeth]

I'm having a hard time keeping up with the show lately. I don't have much interest in turning on the show after I get home every night. I finally binged the past week today. Kristen gets away again

Please register in order to view this content

Please tell me she's gone. And now we have psycho Jan running around with hostages, and I'm sure Ben will be the hero.

 

Xander/Nicole was unnecessary, and I don't care one bit about Ava/Rafe. Then there's Gabi and Jake who are "madly in love." This show needs an interesting couple.

 

Thank god for Sami because the show would be completely boring without her. I don't always like Sami but she at least makes things interesting.

[Liberty City]

 

I've been struggling to tune in. Not a lot is grabbing my interest. Plus, the inconsistency of post-production, which has plagued this soap since 2015, is quite annoying, as well.

[FrenchBug82]

 

As someone who doesn't understand the technical terms very well sometimes, what do you mean by that?

[Liberty City]

 

The post-production look of the show; every single time Ken Corday brought on a new executive producer, the quality began to suffer. It's better now than it was... but it is still a poor-looking soap. The cameras they use on the DOOL App would be better-looking than what we have now.

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

February 2012 was their best-looking production-wise, but even 2014 and 2015 look relatively fine.

[FrenchBug82]

Got it. February 2012 and February 2015 look natural. April 2020 sort of too.
All the others look like they have some kind of colored filter on (pinkish 2013-2014 and greenish post-2016). Why do they do that?

[Liberty City]

 

I'm pretty sure by fall of 2015 they completely swapped to new cameras, as Melissa Reeves stated they went to 4K-type cameras, yet, I don't think anyone in post-production has handled the transition well. I've seen it in other productions where new cameras were brought in, and post-production suffered, until lighting was fixed, etc. These are my simple colour-fixes via Photoshop using what Days of Our Lives put out:

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

Current sets look better than others, especially at certain angles. This was February 2021, in the same general position as all but the April 2020 image I posted:

 

[Gray Bunny]

 

The show looked absolutely awful in 2016. That, coinciding with their dark turn in storyline-telling (think Hope kiliing Stefano, Ciara being raped, and all those weird stand-alone episodes focusing on one character like Rafe or Aiden), marked a wretched era for the show. 

[DynamiteKiddo]

While the Griffith era WAS terrible, I actually thought the show never looked better during late 2015/early 2016.  The lighting was way too dark, but I loved how they used the studio as sets and there was a depth to the sets that was lacking when the show was hella bright in earlier years.  And we got Hope's house back, Kayla got a house, and you could tell there was way more $$ being put into the show.  Then it abruptly stopped around summer 2016.  Since like 2018, I've noticed that production has really tried to work with the budget to give us refreshed sets . . . sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  My favorite set update in recent years is the Horton home--it felt sacrelig' to lose the green walls, but I love the blue, the new wood floors, and some of the new art (like the stacked botanicals to the right of the fireplace).

[Liberty City]

 

One day the lights were just turned off; I'm also pretty sure they changed cameras, yet never changed post-production models. Even now it looks piss poor.

 

 

Again, every single time they changed EP lineups, it all changes. And while the new sets around 2015 were nice, they all looked cheap AF! Even now the sets look cheap and recycled. The new DiMera set is nice, but, in comparison to the new sets General Hospital gives us, it pales in comparison.

[koos]

The darker, the better, IMO. It looked bright and harsh in 2012. Does anyone remember when it was pee-colored?

[MichaelGL]

I don't think any of those can compare to how good the show looked in 2007 during Ed Scott's era, last time we had moving cameras and interesting camera angles/in depth stunts.  Though I was impressed with how much effort was put in when Kate and Sami tried to dispose of Nick's body in the river (the last time they put effort into a outdoor set), I believe that was under Gary Tomlin in 2013.  

[soapfave06]

I thought I was watching a whole new show during that stunt...I still remember being so impressed. I can't believe that was almost 8 years ago now. 

[Antoyne]

The Ed Scott era, the show looked fantastic!