This is a more detail spider diagram to show what I have already learnt about soap operas. It includes all sorts and goes into specific detail about popular soap operas.
I then went on to make a soap opera based purely on Eastenders to document and show what else I had learnt about, including conventions.
Looking into Eastenders I have found that it includes story lines and characters that support the idea of verisimilitude. By creating story lines that could happen in the viewers life and including all sorts of characters ranging from common characters like Phil Mitchell to the token characters like Heather Trott. I will think about this when we are creating our own soap opera as we will have to think about creating a piece that includes verisimilitude.
As we are going to make a trailer for a soap opera I decided to take the time to do some research on the history of soap operas, I wanted to extend my knowledge for different statistics of a soap and knew Most Popular, least watched and how long they run for would be helpful to my final production.
Definition of a Soap Opera taken from www.thefreedictionary.com
'' soap opera
n.
1. A drama, typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio, characterized by stock characters and situations, sentimentality, and melodrama.
2. A series of experiences characterized by dramatic displays of emotion ''
Starting with a soap from 1931 named Clara, Lu and Em that advertised household washing soap. The soap was light heart and was based on the three girls daily life. The soap always ended on a cliffhanger, very much like the soaps of today. This is where the name soap opera comes from, the first soap advertisement sponsored by 'Proctor' and 'Gamble's were played on the radio, they included these short stories with cliffhangers and this enticed to listeners to tune in again the next day.
The longest running soap opera as of now is Coronation street which started in sixties, there were a few other soap operas released at the time but they did not succeed like Coronation street has.
The next most established soap opera was 'Emmerdale Farm' which began in 1971. During the 70s and 80s a wide range of soaps were released including newer soaps for teens. E.g Brookside and Crossroads.
The most recent and most successful soap opera would be Doctors which started in 2000 and is still running. I have also found two newer soap operas that aren't played at conventional times, instead played much later and often on a different connecting channel. For example E17 and Hollyoaks Later the spin off of Eastenders and Hollyoaks.
I wanted to look further into what has been and what is popular now. I found that Eastenders has a lot more viewing figures than most soaps but found that the most iconic is Coronation Street, this is most likely because its been around for longer and appeals to a wider range of people. I found that the least watched is Doctors as it is played at a strange time of the day and not many people are able to watch it, this shows its not very popular. It also has no reruns or omnibus programs which supports the fact it is the least watched.
60s
70s
80s
90s
2000
I looked into which characters were most popular in soap operas. To do this I simply picked four different soaps and researched into who was the longest running character. I found most of my results on the Home Page of each soap.
Eastenders (Soap started in 1985)
Ian Beale
Dot Branning, dot left for a few years therfore has spent less time on the soap
Coronation Street (Soap started in 1960)
Ken Barlow
Emmerdale (Soap started in 1972)
Seth Armstrong- no longer in the soap as the actor died in 2005
As we started looking at what sort of soap opera we could make in our group, I decided to look at it myself. I made a simple mind map to show some of my ideas and how they could contribute to the group.
Together we touched on a soap opera about fire fighters and possibly police men and women. This would entail episodes similar to The bill, which would be based around the service jobs, but the main idea of the soap would be about their lives. By only including few shots of the service stations, it would show the viewers what the soap is based on but the story lines would entice them. This was interesting to me and I later went on to send a letter to the fire station as we immediately scrapped that idea due to location. I wanted to see if it was possible as I thought the idea was interesting.
This is a research spider diagram to show what I already knew about soap operas. I started by looking at different sections and what conventions are included in them. Some things i was unsure about but i will learn about these throughout the project.
As we would be making our own Soap Opera Poster I looked into posters that were already out to collect inspiration. There were very few posters on actual soaps. Therefore I decided to analysis similar products. Like Sitcom posters, mostly posters with open narratives as they are similar to soap operas.
First Poster
Neighbours
This poster is mostly Visual as its fully of one single picture, even the verbal part is masked behind a picture of a sign post. The intended audiance would be the previous audiance that Neighbours was aimed at. The common things and signified that are to grab attention are the humorous images as well as the familiar characters.
Second Poster
The Inbetweeners
This poster is made up of purely photographic images and information. It is totally visual as there is no information on the poster apart from the times channels and television show name. The intended audiance is young teens- similar to the characters in the poster.
Third Poster
The Middle
The third poster shows humor as its attention grabbing feature. The word 'Comedy' is used and the comical cow on the side proves this will be a funny show. This poster is verbal and visual as there is a tag line included but the main focus is the image included.
To help me when creating our own group magazine I took the time to analysis some existing magazine covers. To do this I highlighted the significant pieces and named the common things.
First Magazine
Second Magazine
Third Magazine
Throughout all of these magazine covers I have found a few things are predominate in all of them. For instance the colours are all extremely bright and eye catching. Blues reds and yellows are often used. This may be because they are all primary colours and therefore are the most basic colours. The bold colours connote the moods in the magazine, as the viewer knows what is going to happen before it happens this would make them excited and happy.
To inpire me on our Soap opera I decided to look at previsous trailers that students from our school had created. This would help me as I will be able to see what worked well and what didnt work so well. I will be kind but critical when looking at these trailers as it will be good to look at what went wrong and why it was so wrong.
Valley Hill Soap
These are my comments on Mise-en-Scene; Starts with setting of green trees, connoting envy and jealousy Allley way setting signifing scandal and deep dirty A kitchen, a sterotypical womans area
The costumes of the characters sign a lot of things. Black suits and jakcets connotiong lies and death White shirts and tops connoting being pure simple and innocent A red jumper, possibly showing the woman in full of anger and deccet
The contrast of white on black for the titles is a main factor for me, although its not very skilled and this most likely would not be used in a new soap trailer, the contrast really signifies the two different sides. How one may be pure and innocent but is surrounded by a bad black lying side.
These are my notes on sound;The trailer starts with silence and no bacjground music. The scene then carries on to include diegetic sounds. In the background of the whole piece there are always every day sounds playing, like birds and wind sounds. This show verisimiltude within the soap. The most important sounds are the gun shots at the end, they are played over all of the other sounds, this is most likely the foley effect as the sounds are extremly prominant and bold. These are my notes on narrative;There is a lot of narrative in this piece, there are several different conversations throughout the piece. Some about love and some about hate. This shows there is always contraversey within the soap. From looking at other soap opera trailers i have learnt there should always be a voice over included at the end, although this piece has included the correct information at the end, it is not right as there should be a voice over to capture the audiance in another way.
These are my notes on camera angles;
There is a wide range of camera angles used in this piece:
Over the shoulder
Close up
Mid shot
Long shot
Two shot
Point of View
All of these shots are conventional shots used in a soap opera. There is only one missing and that is an establishing shot, this would help as it would enable the audiance to know where they were.
Court Road Soap
These are my notes on Mise-en-Scene;Throughtout this piece i found the lighting was very low key. I do not know if this was on purpose but it makes no sense to be so low as it makes the whole piece look unfinished and shows no contrasts between scene. For instant the wedding scene should be a lot brighter. I will think about this when we are creating our film as it is a common convention used in soap operas.
I also found the scene set inside the church didnt resemble a church well enough, it was very bare and looked just like a pub. For our piece i dont want to set our goals to high and when creating a storyboard we will think about where we can actually film.
In most soap opera trailers there is more than one story line, this piece however only contains one single story line. Allthough it does sow the character relations well its more of a film trailer or a trailer for an episode.
The cosutmes used in this piece are very simple they dont signify much and they literally look like the actors own clothes. they are very basic and no colour theory is used. These are my notes on sound; The heart beat at the begining is quiet odd at first but as the piece goes on it is played again. I still find it slightly odd as ialthough its an intense piece it seems pointless. The piece is mostly silent but it would have been enhanced by using some sort of intense tune. The piece is more like a film trailer without the music. Although there is a voice over at the end the girl whispers it and although it gives an eerie feel it is pointless. These are my notes on narrative;There is also a lot of narrative in this piece, which is fitting to the piece as it lets the audiance know about the characters we are watching. The narrative tells the sotry as well. I like this piece as at the end of the trailer they have included a really good voice over. It clearly says the information the audiance need and is supported by images and text. These are my notes on camera angles;
There are less shots and angles included in this piece. Although an esabhlishing shot is used and its really helpful as it lets the audiance know they are in a church. There are also some closer shots, to the mans hands etc. This makes the piece more intense. There are long shots, mid shots and close ups used throughtout this piece.
In order to establish when best to air our trailer I had to watch a range of channels and identify when soap trailers were aired. This was hard to find as there aren't that many trailers on about soap operas because all of the soaps on television at the moment are well set up and have been for a long time. Obviously, it was very hard to find adverts for new soaps but there were a few trailers for soaps with special story lines in already established soap operas.
The one trailer I found was for Hollyoaks. It was played late at night between a documentary on Skateboarding. This was timed well as I'm sure a lot of young teens would be watching this documentary and the target audiance of Hollyoaks is teenagers.
I tried to find more advertisements and trailers but it was extremly hard to find as there werent many shown.
These are a few basic ones I have found
Saturday 27th of August after Doctor Who an Eastenders advert was shwon at 8pm.
The same day the same Eastenders advert was played after the BBC News at 10pm.
On channel E4 on the break of the Inbetweeners Countdown a Hollyoaks advert was played at 10.45pm.
Thursday the 1st of Septemeber on BBC One after Watchdog an Eastenders advert was played at 9pm.
When we decide what type of soap opera we are going to make I will look further into adverts and what time they are played.
For instance childrens toy adverts are played early in the morning and often closer to Christmas. They have clearly looked at there target audience.
It is clear that there is a strategy used when airing soaps, generally, a trailer is played at a time when the target audience is watching. Therefore it is imperative that we chose a suitable time for our soap trailer to be aired
Another factor that affects times of adverts is the watershed. The watershed is any time before 9pm. The point of the watershed is so that nothing on television is offensive to younger children. This means they can watch TV without parents and guardians worrying about what they are seeing or hearing. We will have to take this into account when creating our final soap opera trailer as if it is rude or offensive we will have to play it after 9pm, however if it is not we can play it at any time.
To start research on soap operas I thought it would be best to start with creating notes on actual soaps. I've taken notes on what type of characters there are in each soap, the different settings included in the episode and some of the story lines that are portrayed.
I watched an episode of Eastenders and looked at Characters, Settings and the story lines that are included in them. I made brief notes and this is what I found.
Characters featured in Eastenders
Angry Mother
'Angry Bitch'
Upper Class Family
Two Homosexual Lovers
Funny one
Grovelling Man
Manly Man
Young Boy
Advising woman
Chavy Teenager
Settings featured in Eastenders
Housing - at least four different houses
Bed and Breakfast
Cafe
Street
Indian Restaurant
Pub- Queen vic
Church
Hall
Story Lines featured in Eastenders
Marriage- a secret marriage has already happen for the Bride and Groom
Culture- Hindu wedding
Split of marriage families
New guy. Famous actor David Essex
Alcoholism
Drug takers- getting stuck in a bad place
Jealousy
Being afraid of losing a lover
I watched an episode of Home and Away and looked at Characters, Settings and the story lines that are included in them. I made brief notes and this is what I found.
Characters Fetured in Home and Away
Children
Alf - a classic character
Young teenagers - forward girl and a boy that has been reccently dumped
Date rape victim
Doctor
Police Woman
Bad Boy
Trustful Guy
Two teenagers in love
House of adults
River Boys- gang of young lads
Alfs Daughter
Settings featured in Home and Away
Street
Cafe
Hospital
Home- Kitchen and living room
Beach
Juice Bar
Police Station
Bar
Three more Separate houses
Story Lines featured Home and Away
Party, teens waking up
Date rape drug used
Alf is back from holiday
Girl that wants a date- flirt and mysterious
River boys in trouble
Rape- police trouble
Loss of a baby
I watched an episode of Emnmerdale and looked at Characters, Settings and the story lines that are included in them. I made brief notes and this is what I found.
