Past Student Soap Opera Trailers

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.