Final Cast

I completed a post on who was our final cast. As we have made so many changes to our characters/actors, it was ideal to leave the post until we had completed our filming. You can see this here on the group blog.

I also completed a blog on everything we did to get hold of actors and get them to our filming location. This is here on the group blog.

Filming: Day Four 26/11/10

Time: 10:15
Actors: Jasmine Lee, Lewis Spaul, Hannah Cullen, Jo Peplow-Revell, Lewis Montague, James Hancock, James Garrod, Tim Bousfield
Locations: Brickbarns, St Annes Castle pub - Great Leighs

Today was our last day for filming. As we lost footage from one of our cameras for the St Annes Castle shot, I went off to re-film this section. This worked in our favour as our actors for our 'lads' were in different costumes, so this was okay as was still going to follow continuity. We split up to make sure we had enough time to collect and film all the footage we needed as we had approximately an hour to film. I helped to direct the last scene alongside everyone else. I also took lots of photographs for our poster and magazine.

Filming: Day Three 22/11/10

Time: 1:45
Actors: Lewis Montague, Tim Bousfield, James Hancock, James Garrod, Jasmine Lee, Stephanie Hadlow, Matthew Bigg and Hannah Cullen
Location: St Annes Pub, Great Leighs and Brickbarns Road.

This afternoon, myself and Jo Peplow-Revell had to arrange new actors to fit our males. We have lost Lewis Spaul due to illness and Tom Le Gresly for other reasons. The boys that we used were excellent and we were pleased with the result, as this was how we wanted the men to look as it follows Verisimilitude as they were in everyday wear and as we left the cameras running, we caught them acting realistically. We shot this scene simultaneously with the shot including Helen so they would run together well when edited. This worked really well and we were extremely pleased with how effective and realistic it looked.

The shot with the boys was to see them talking and when catching sight of Helen would turn, cheer and whistle at her. This was included to show the reaction males have to her, which relates again to the male gaze theory as she is seen as an attractive female. The shot with Helen was a close up on her red heels walking. The shot tracked backwards and panned up her body to her face to then pan round to be a point of view shot looking at the men at the pub. We were aware of getting permission for filming outside of the pub. The Landlord said it was okay as long as we credit the pub, which we will make sure we do.

The next shot we filmed was the villagers stopping their conversation to look at Helen walking past. This shot included myself and Jade Saunders. The camera angle is an over the shoulder shot looking towards Helen and we are watching her walk past in awe. The following shot we did was Jade Saunders, playing a different character therefore we changed her clothes, getting out of the car and again, watching Helen walk past. The car we used was a green Micra which I discuss in our props list. The green car was connoting the jealousy the villager is feeling towards Helen.

A problem we encountered today was that our males for the pub scene were eventually unwilling to wait until we could get our final actor, Tamer Saleh, so we have had to arrange another day this week in which we can film our final scene and get the pictures for our poster and magazine finished.

Filming: Day Two 19/11/10

Time: 9:00 - 10:00
Actors: Lewis Spaul, Tim Bousfield, Tom Le Gresly
Location: St Annes Pub, Great Leighs

Today, we planned to shoot our scene where the men are outside the pub. They spot Helen walking along the opposite side of the road and whistle at her to get her attention, showing the audience they find her attractive, therefore we are adhering to the male gaze theory. Unfortunately, the weather in Great Leighs this morning was extremely heavy fog, so we decided that we would postpone to another day. We decided this because the fog was too thick for the cameras to be sufficient. Also, the different weather circumstances would go against our continuity.

Filming: Day One 18/11/10

Time started: 3:50 (after school)
Actors: Jasmine Lee, Hannah Cullen, Tamer Saleh, Jo Peplow-Revell
Location: Great Leighs

Today we shot our scenes for the reveal of Helen's children and also we attempted the reveal of Deano looking at Danielle and then seeing she is pregnant. We were aware that as it is now Winter, it gets dark very quickly after school. We set up two cameras so we could film two different angles and it also gives us more to choose from when editing. Also, taking several shots of the same scene will enable us to decide the one we think is best when editing and putting our footage together. My input within this was included in directing and deciding on the position of the cameras.

A main problem we have encountered today is that we will be unable to use Jennifer Pike as she has other engagements so we decided to use Jo instead. We agreed this due to her looks being similar to the original idea we had for Danielle. Jo supports the same brown hair and slim figure we imagine from Danielle so it was fitting.

Letters to actors + Film Schedule

We sat down together and looked over the timetables I had put together so we could arrange our cast together, therefore knowing who we could use and when we couldn't.

I put together letters for our cast so everyone we had cast was aware of what they were required to do. This was because we have often received feedback about organisation being crucial and I was told that these were helpful.

These are on the group blog here.

Discussions

Planning of our soap trailer has needed to be thorough so we have met as a group to discuss:

• Days, times and exact places of filming


• Costumes for our actors


• Transport


• Equipment

Many original details have changed considerably. As we had arranged a filming day Friday morning, this had to be cancelled due to fog. This meant that our weather circumstances would be too different in these shots so wouldn't be good continuity.

Our final cast has changed considerably due to unforeseen circumstances. We lost Thomas Le Gresley as he had other engagements and also Lewis Spaul due to illness. As we have added to our final cast, there will be a post on the group blog outlining our cast.

Analysis of the Virgin Airlines advert

We took inspiration for our soap from the Virgin Atlantic '"25 years, Still Red Hot" advert from the television.





The main focus of this analysis is from 21 seconds.

There is a mid-shot of a man dressed in a suit and talking on his mobile phone. It is set in 1984, which we see as the advert starts, and the props and costume are from this era and this is verisimilitude as it is kept closely to the 1984 year. The man's suit is smart, connoting he is rich. He is also carrying a briefcase connoting he is a professional and of importance. The pink tie he is wearing connotes lust for the woman he then sees through the crowd, and in shock drops the phone on the floor which is a close-up as it breaks.

It then cuts to a close up tracking shot of a woman's red heels walking. We immediately assume she is a women as she is wearing high heels and this follows the male gaze theory as we also see her legs. The use of the cut here to keep the advert flowing and to create a sense of excitement in the viewer to see more.

The other characters in the advert also stop what they are doing and look up at the women walking. Everyone is focuses on the central character and this builds tension for the audience. The advert always cuts back to the heels and tracks them, adding tension and also reiterating the point the females are the centre of attention.

The colours of the clothes the characters in the advert are wearing are all grey. This denotes the dullness of the airport therefore connotes how boring it is and how there is no life. The colour red which the crew are wearing is red. With red mainly connoting lust in the advert, it also brings warmth to the cold, dull grey clothes and atmosphere.

The lighting within the advert is all natural lighting and when we see a wide shot of the crew, there is a spotlight on them highlighting their importance and beauty. We see this most clearly in a high angled shot which shows everyone crowding around the females.

The music is non-diegetic and is upbeat and lively when the females enter the advert and we as an audience are aware of their presence.

Magazine Cover

There is also a plan for our magazine cover which you will find here. My input in this was discussing with the group what would look good where and where abouts we would place these on the cover. Furthermore, what other story lines we would include on the front was also discussed. Here is our hand drawn cover which we were planning ideas around and I also contributed to this.

Poster Plan

I was responsible for creating the bases for our poster, which you will find here. We discussed as a group what we picture on our poster and where.

The first poster is generalised more towards the family moving in to the street and this is much broader in reaction and includes all aspects of a soap. We would be able to see the different characters in the background, but Helen would be forefront which relates to the male gaze theory.

In the other poster, it uses much more of the male gaze theory as we would sexualise Helen and she would be more appealing to males and we would want her in a dress and with devil horns. This would also relate to the 'Hell' aspect of our slogan.

Auditions

Here is our audition video.

My contribution to this task was creating a poster to advertise our auditions. We also were responsible for the filming and directing of our auditions and we also discussed who we think may be fitting for the role. I also helped with the editing of the video and also had an equal contribution to the voice-over analysis we used.

Costume, Location and Lighting

This is the costume section.
This is the Location Scouting section.
This is the lighting section.

My contribution to these sections was offering advice if needed.

Final Props

As we were only filming a trailer, we found that we didn't use any significant props. A trailer is often kept minimal, with the set and characters established. The most important prop we used was the car:

We wanted it green to connote the envy the female getting out of the car feels towards Helen. We decided to not use the props we were intending to use because of the complexity of getting the specific objects we required and also with problems with our casting, we didn't have enough members to play lots of different people.

When looking at trailers, the set is very minimalistic. For example, the trailer for the return of Eastender's Kat and Alfie is minimalist and doesn't include many props and relies heavily on the set.

All we can see of the set is the pub, which is the focus of Eastenders and features in a lot of trailers.

Props List

Props

Here is our props list as it currently stands. This has helped us to plan what we shall use and what style we are going to get them in and how they will be used in conjunction with our actors. I put this list together on my own with inputs from members of my group if I required it. Whilst we are preparing to commence filming, I will put together another list with the pictures of the actual props we are using and how they relate to the ones we first thought of.

Second Analysis of a Poster and Magazine Cover

Betty Poster


Soap Life

Animatic Storyboard

This our animatic storyboard. We did this to explain each individual shot and the rationale behind each one. This will help us to clearly see what we want within our soap opera trailer, what works and what doesn't and this will then aid us to adjust or change anything we may need to. My contribution to this task was taking and being in the pictures we took, helping putting the pictures in order, helping write the scripts and helping talk over our pictures.

Narrative Idea

This is a narrative idea:




We decided to use this format to make it entertaining and different to a simple filming. My contribution to this was equal to Jade and Jo in my group with finding pictures suitable for our setting, setting up our set, moving the characters around into the right positions and then editing to make it flow together to make stop motion.
The aspects that work well within this short film is the camera angles at the start with Helen. It pans up her body which is reflective of the male gaze theory. As we want to appeal to males, which aren't typically the gender who are continually watching soap operas, bringing Helen in as an object of desire will draw the male audience in. Concerning the female audience, we have typical soap story lines which generate thousands of views each year, such as teenage pregnancy, adultery and the long standing family of whom everyone is familiar. In our final trailer, Helen will be wearing red heels which connote lust and feminism and the sound being extra diegetic to make it more prominent against the other sounds within the piece.
The other characters are revealed slowly, so for example they will be doing every day activities such as walking the dog which is shown here. We aim to interest our audience into these characters if they haven't already seen the soap before and our trailer would expand into the episodes which we imagine to feature for a few weeks around the new family.
We have already decided to not use any speech within our trailer as we agree it will be more effective for the audience to be passive therefore taking in the new information, although there shall not be too much at once and this is the reason we decided against dialogue, as to not bring our audience out of this desired state. This is reflective of the hypodermic needle theory which describes the audience are just passive to the action.

Poster and Soap Magazine Cover Analysis

Soap Cover



Neighbours

Photgraphic Storyboard

Me, Jade and Jo went with a digital camera to take example shots of how we picture our shots to look like in our trailer. My contribution to this was taking some of the pictures and directing the postitions of the other two to make it look how we wanted it too.

This is our photographic storyboard.

Draft Script

This is our draft script which we will work from when we start to plan our trailer, and ultimately the filming. We agreed it would be more affective if we used less speech as we felt it would be more affective. The sole speech we will use will be at the end and will be the voice over of the channel and time showings.

This is our draft script:

Extra diegetic "clicking" of high heels
(tracking, extreme close up)
Extra diegetic of wheels on a suitcase
(wide shot)

Extra diegetic "whistle"

Extra diegetic of stamping of children's feet

Extra diegetic "slap" from Stephanie

Extra diegetic intake of breath

V.O
"Do the Halls create hell in Helen Howe? 8PM on Alan!"

Initial Ideas

These are our initial ideas to what we will include within our trailer. We all contributed ideas to these and developed each others ideas to achieve stronger and more powerful ideas we can include. Here is our diagram of ideas.

Target Audience

Myself and Lucy Clark wrote out our target audience using the theories, such as the Hyperdermic needle theory, within media and how the general public is categorised. The aim of this was to fill in the gaps as to who we are going to aim our soap at and why. You can see this here on our group blog.

Soap Opera Brief

Our new Soap Opera is based around a residential street in a village in Essex, following the lives of new family in town, The Hall's. Little do they know that by moving in, they'll be drawn right into the center of the local scandals, and with teenagers Deano and Courtney around, these are only going to escalate!

Our initial cast of characters comply with the stereotypical Essex characteristics; the father of sixteen year old Danielle's baby is still unknown, and the subject of much gossip in the local pub St Annes, whereas cheeky chappy Aaron is hiding a big secret from everyone...

Family is the main focus in everyday life, and inevitably therefore is the root of most issues. Family loyalty is key, with Helen regularly reminding her brood that "We're all we've got!" Being a single mother, her children are sometimes a little on the wild side, but tend to mean well. Our soap is to be shown three times a week in order to give away just enough but to keep the audience always wanting just that bit more.

With such a wide range of feisty characters, can peace be kept or will all hell break loose?

Initial Ideas

We sat down as a group and discussed and made mind maps of what makes up a soap opera. We took influence from soaps such as Hollyoaks and Eastenders because of their type of characters within their soaps. We are aiming to include characters such as; a "jack the lad", a pregnant teenager, a family, homosexuals and young couples, to name a select few. We brainstormed some ideas to create our episodes that will lead us directly to our trailer. We decided that due to the villages we live in, it would fit to set it within a village, which is where most soaps are based as this is where people are closest.

Viewing Figures of Soap Operas

Here are the figures for BBC1 for the week ending 12th September 2010. Eastenders has the most viewing rates at 10,087 viewers for the week. This shows us the popularity of the programme, also the fact it is most popular on a Friday evening. This follows the demographic audiences that target those who will be at home in the evening.

These are the figures for ITV1 for the week ending 12th September 2010. In comparison to BBC1, Coronation Street is lower in viewing figures, with the highest viewing figure reaching 9,075. If we are to compare the Friday night showing with the Eastenders Friday night showing, the figures are significantly less at only 8,044. Emmerdales viewing figures are at the lowest here at 7,597. This shows us that their audience isn't as wide as Eastenders for example.

These are the figures for Channel 4. Here we can see that Hollyoaks isn't on here at all. So this shows us either that it wasn't as popular during this week or that it isn't as popular at all. From this we can gather that Hollyoaks is more of a niche programme but the figures for when it is a major storyline, or Christmas, goes up tremendously.



This is the Christmas figures for 2009 for BBC1. We can see that the figures for EastEnders is much more than any other time. From this could look at the story lines which generate the most viewing figures. We can replicate a version of these story lines to make ours popular and create thousands of viewing figures.

Using demographic groups and theories to compare soap trailers.

This trailer is from Emmerdale.



The demographic group B is more likely to relate to Emmerdale. B is aimed towards middle management, teachers and anybody from a creative background.

Emmerdale follows story lines that you don't see in Hollyoaks. An example of a storyline that would feature in Hollyoaks may be a one night stand between two females, or a complex storyline involving several characters about 'who is the father?!'. Emmerdale takes more of a sophisticated approach to "a soap". It involves all the dramas of soap life, but follows much older characters with in-depth story lines about the characters, rather than a group of them. For example, in 2008 a featured storyline about cot death. (For a full list of major Emmerdale story lines click here.) When using LifeMatrix, which is one of the latest approaches to audience targeting, the category most fitting to Emmerdale would be 'Settled Elders'. They would be older, sedentary lifestyles and the story lines would be of more effect to them, compared to a teenager who is more interested in complex storyline with a wide range of characters so that they can identify with one, as stated in the Uses and Gratifications theory.

This trailer is for Hollyoaks.




From this trailer it is clear who the soap is aimed at. The first audience that you would consider for Hollyoaks is teenagers and young adults. The demographic groups that can apply here would be from C2 to E. These groups range from Junior managers, to skilled, semi-skilled and non-skilled workers and the unemployed, but most importantly students. All of these people possibly would be able to relate to any story lines through identification with the characters, stated by the Uses and Gratifications theory. When using LifeMatrix the demographic categories which relate to Hollyoaks would be; Struggling Singles and Tribe Wired. These describe people with a low economic status, similar to some characters and free-spirited and creative young people. Students are also included within this. In comparison to Emmerdale, Hollyoaks gives off a more young, eccentric vibe through their eccentric story lines, although through the use of the Hypodermic Needle Theory it injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience about certain types of people and this is reflected in those who identify with the characters. Hollyoaks also follows closely the entertainment factor of the Uses and Gratification theory. The audience watch Hollyoaks purely for the entertainment, as it doesn't intend to give morals or life lessons as part of it's long running show, it contains story lines that are humourous and give the audience always something to discuss.

This is a trailer from Eastenders.



Eastenders aims to cover the entire demographic audience, but the main focus when looking at LifeMatrix would be Home Soldiers, Priority Parents, Dynamic Duos and also Settled Elders. Eastenders is the most mainstream soap opera and is featured on BBC 1 which caters for all audiences. It aims at the status groups of around C1 - E mainly, as these are all the income status who would be at home when aired, also there would be the identification of the Uses and Gratifications theory due to the large cast and the entertainment also from the model applies. The Integration and Social Interaction factor within the Uses and Gratification theory applies considerably to Eastenders. The soap shows us how to empathise with the characters within the soap who follow verisimilitude closely and we believe that Eastenders actually exists, therefore believing the characters are real, making identification a lot easier.

History Of A Soap Opera

'Soap opera' is a phrase first used in the 1930s, USA. It was used to describe radio series that were sponsored by the manufacturers of soap powder; hence 'soap'. The 'opera' part came from the fact that they were about dilemmas and other dramatic or melodramatic situations. They were directed towards married housewives as during this time they would have been at home, doing housework, and not in a profession. They were entertaining and fun to listen too and were very popular. An example we as a modern day audience might think of the 'Daz' adverts which show family drama's and the solution is always the product, with the tag line being "Dazwhite - The soap you can believe in."
Here is a 'Dazwhite' advert. (Scroll down and press play in the centre to watch!)

As radio series grew, in 1950s, they made their way onto TV. They soon realised that it was cheap and easy to produce. The first ones were called "Ma Perkins" and "One Man's Family". After the War though, figures dropped as soon after, the television was invented. The NBC and CBS were initially radio and became television producers when television became more and more popular. Soaps were then shown 5 times a week.

At first, producers were worried as the initial cost of setting up the television was expensive but then found that soaps were cheap to run, with their target audience still females and shown during the daytime. The first TV soap to show in the evening, filled with action and aimed at males was called 'Peyton Place'.

England didn't take to soaps as well as America. The leader of the BBC, John Reith, said he felt that TV should be 'cultural' to broaden education and he thought soaps were not considered as culture. The first soap to be aired after WWII was called 'The Robinson's' followed by 'Mrs Dale's Diary' in 1948 and then 'The Archers' in 1950 (click here to listen to the 4/11/2010 show, starts at the time 1:18) and this is still going strong today and is the longest running soap. The BBC's first British soap was called 'The Grove Family' but in 1955 ITV soon caught up with them. The BBC wasn't successful in soaps until 'Eastenders' in 1985 and then 'Elderado' which ran from 1992 to 1993 and then was cancelled. British soaps were more "homely" rather than the American "glossy" style of soaps. Nowadays, American soaps revolve much more around New York City and glamour whereas British soaps revolve around family lives and the trials and tribulations that follow.

Many other regional independent British companies also make their own soaps. For example:

• Emmerdale - Yorkshire TV
• Take The High Road - SC4
• Families - Granada
  
  Reference.

Biggest Soap Opera Events

There are often major events within soaps that everyone tunes in to watch. These are events of significant magnitude which will turn the soap upside-down. On Christmas Day 1986, 30.15 million viewers tuned in to watch Den Watts serve Angie, his wife, with the divorce papers. This was the largest rated soap episode in the history of British soaps.

More recently in October 2010, 9.79m (38%) viewers tuned in to watch Harry's revenge on Vanessa in Eastenders at 8'0Clock. BBC Three's 10pm repeat added 829k (4%). Furthermore, the death of iconic character Jack Duckworth, from Coronation Street, be re-united with his dead wife Vera, saw 11.6 million viewers.

Week beginning November 2010, Eastenders was 3rd position in highest figures with 10.4 million viewers. This shows me that Eastenders is a popular soap, so to make sure our soap would get high ratings, we should follow the story lines and keep them similar as we can see these are popular.

Analysis 3

Ugly Betty

Sound
The sound in the trailer is the song "Ugly Duckling" by Danny Kane. It is non-diegetic music from the song and the lyrics are diegetic from within the different scenes shown. The diegetic lyrics, which are said as dialogue in the shots, are overwritten the non-diegetic lyrics therefore they are extra diegetic as they are exaggerated over the background track. The dialogue mirrors the lyrics in places, for example as the song says "fuzzy and brown" the characters are saying fuzzy and brown within the shot but nothing to do with the song personally, making it humorous. Also in the shots, they often have mise-en-scene and setting to mirror what is being said. For example, where "bird" is said and sung, there is a shot of a bird. Furthermore, extra diegetic sounds within the clip, such as a slap, make up the song.

Mise-en-scene
The clothes and general setting is bright and colourful, which mirrors the main characters, Betty, personality.

Editing
There are cuts of different shots which singularly make up the different storylines within the series. Where normally a trailer would focus on one storyline, this trailer focuses on the entire series of storylines but similarly to others, isn't clear.

Soap Opera Analysis 2

Coronation Street

The clip begins with police officers addressing a woman who is smartly dressed and is coming out of an office connoting she is a successful business women. They are dressed in police uniform which denotes they are authoritative and are there to help the female, and the news they are about to give her is serious as there are shadows over their faces. The connotes Tony Gordon is blocking out the light which is seen as freedom. It then jump cuts to a scene where we are informed "Tony Gordon has escaped" which implies to the viewer this isn't a positive thing and with the police included shows the audience his escape is serious. Between each shot, we move to a shot where the camera is panning up a body that is wearing all black. Black connotes darkness and fear which is reflecting what is being said in the dialogue. We see on the fourth shot of the body, we see the character is wearing a "hoody" which connotes danger and a hooligan nature, adding to the already building tension and worry.

The extra diegetic music builds up, and with a constant beat it hints at a heartbeat, showing the audience there is fear in these characters. We see them all in a series of mid-shots so we can clearly see their expressions. When the character in black finally turns round to face the camera we see he has a bleeding lip, highlighting he has been in a fight which automatically wouldn't make him appear a friendly character. There is then a voice over; "out of prison, out for revenge" and then the dialogue from Tony saying "I am going to kill you" followed by shots of 3 women. The ambiguity of which female he is going to kill is what is the result of the trailer, and therefore the episode.

Throughout the trailer, the ITV1 logo is displayed in the bottom left corner so we as an audience know what channel the programme will be aired on during the advert.

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire Results

These are the results from the questionnaire below converted into a bar chart. These results show us the majority watches Eastenders and Coronation Street, but this could be due to the fact they are long running soaps, both been screening for over ten years. This is backed up by the question that gives us the result many people watch soaps because of a routine they have followed for many years.

When comparing my results to actual viewing figures of Eastenders and Coronation Street, I can see that the results I found compare directly to the ones for the nation. These are here.

Soap Opera Target Audience Questionnaire

1) Gender?
a) Male
b) Female
2) Age?
a) 10+
b) 15-17
c) 18-21
d) 21-30
e) 30-34
f) 35-40
g) 40-50
h) 50+
3) Favourite soap?
a) Eastenders
b) Coronation Street
c) Emmerdale
d) Doctors
e) Hollyoaks
f) Neighbours
4) Do soap trailers encourage you to watch a new soap?
a) Yes
b) No
Why? ......................................................................................................................................................
5) What attracts you to a soap opera?
a) Always watched it so is routine
b) The storylines
c) Characters
6) As soap operas tend to use everyday issues and ones that affect society currently, do you feel you can relate the characters more?
a) Yes
b) No
7) Who do you watch soaps with?
a) Family\Children
b) On your own
c) Partner
8) Why do you watch a soap opera?
a) Part of your routine
b) Identification with the characters
c) Topical issues that you are interested in
d) To talk about it with others

I produced this questionnaire to find out the target audience for certain soaps and who would be influenced by a soap trailer, if they were to see one at all.

Conventions Found In Soap Trailers

Conventions you find in soap opera trailers are not what you expect to see in a full length episode.

In soap opera trailers, you get information fast and quick using conventions such as jump cuts and fades, which are mainly always black in colour. Furthermore, they are always focused on one character or one event, whereas in a full episode it includes a large cast of all story lines, ages and gender. One thing they both have is cliffhangers. Whereas the aim of a soap opera trailer is just one overall cliffhanger and a closure of the trailer, episodes always end in a cliffhanger and the narrative just continues. A soap opera is introducing a full storyline whereas the episode is normally the storyline or the build up to the storyline which may be running for a number of months, or perhaps years.

A soap trailer's main object is to encourage you to watch the full episode. It gives you a small amount of information quickly therefore causing the viewer to think about what is happening and not be passive and just take all the jumbled information. A full episode makes use of 'real time' where a trailer is mostly clips from different periods of time, such as the current Eastenders one featuring Peggy Mitchell and the "slap" from over the years. This makes use of different people and different periods of time and therefore, not in real time.


"Last Orders For Peggy" - BBC1, September 2010. This trailer is showing us immediately the character it is about, and for those who are familiar with the soap, and the return of her son Grant.




Soap opera trailers always use close ups to see the facial expressions of the characters. This builds a picture of the ongoing emotion in the storyline.
Ugly Betty (2010)

Last Years Soap Opera Trailers

This is the trailer from the previous media studies year and the trailer is for 'St Andrew's Road'.

This trailer takes you immediately into the storyline which makes you interested from the start. The non-diegetic music is effective as it builds tension as the trailer goes on, making you want to know more about what is happening or going to happen, which is clearly the main aim of a trailer. Also the fact that the non-diegetic music is continuous and doesn't change to something different is a positive as it is keeping it consistent but it reflects the emotions in the trailer with the tempo. For example the start it starts slow without a beat and then builds up with a beat as more action is involved. As the non-diegetic music is continuous is makes you consider if the story lines are linked or not and perhaps is they were separate it may have been effective to change the music for each one, but equally, it keeps the viewer in suspense. Furthermore, not too much detail is given away and the different shots of arson and what appears to be an overdose, keep the story ambiguous and this follows Barthe's 'Ball of Wool' theory in which the story is unraveled.

The shots used are points of view shots which make the audience feel included. This therefore makes the audience want to watch the soap as they already feel included and involved in the story lines. The mid-shot of the couple on the sofa shows their relationship as their body language is relaxed, also there is a mid shot of the two females at the start. The connection is made that this style of camera angle links together to show relationships.

Regarding Mise-En-Scene, the colour purple in the living room connotes romance and love and with the black curtain and table it connotes dark and hidden secrets and this is shown clearly when the male pushes the female away after he has read her phone. The setting of the wood was realistic and the bottles denotes there was a party within these woods.

I think the set for the living room could've been better and as as a viewer I wasn't convinced it was realistic. On the other hand, all the other settings and props were realistic, such as the car and the phone as they are everyday items and this follows verisimilitude as these are every day items. I think the simplicity of the title didn't work as well as ones that have been spoken or have had more depth into them, this is just a point that just draws the viewers in. I think also it would have been effective to have some speech within the trailer, just to make the viewers feel more involved with what was going on as they could remember a voice.

Their trailer is keeping in with the idea of homosexuality that is featured in majority of soaps we see nowadays, for example Syed and Christian in Eastenders (2010) and Sophie and Sian in Coronation Street (2010). They also use drug abuse, Phil Mitchell in Eastenders (2010) and relationship problems, which is mainly every soap available.

Overall, I think this trailer is excellent and follows the soap conventions of complex story lines and characters. The things I will consider and take from this trailer is the lack of speech. I think any form of speech is effective in soap trailers so I will aim to include some within our trailer. I also think we will keep ours relatively simple, with the trailer following one storyline which will be clear. In my opinion, the trailer should include enough detail as to not confuse the audience, but with enough detail they feel inclined and tempted to watch the soap itself.

Analysis of Eastenders Trailer

Christmas 2009, Eastenders.

The music in the trailer is mainly non and extra diegetic. The non diegetic music consists of a slower version of the Christmas song of "we wish you a merry Christmas". It gives an eerie feel which links to the problem the characters are facing, Archie. The dialogue is an echoing re-verb suggesting they are the voices of the characters that appear in the trailer as their lips don't move, giving the audience a further insight to what is going to happen.

The first camera angle used is a tracking establishing shot of the Queen Victoria Pub. This shows the audience that this is where the issue is. Every new shots is faded into the next using a black fade. We then see an over the shoulder close up of Stacey's worried expression and this close up of the same expression is mirrored on the other characters faces when they are revealed with a panning or tracking shot. The fact they are coming out from the shadows wearing the same or similar expressions, imply they are all in the same position or related somehow.

The Christmas decoration around the Queen Victoria pub showing the viewer what time of year it is and this is also backed up by the Christmas song. There is natural lighting which alludes to night-time which has connotations of despair and fright, foreshadowing the events that follow.

The BBC1 logo remains in the middle at the bottom of the screen so you know which channel it is on, but also the voice over at the end of the trailer with the title page of BBC1 tells you the time and when, "Christmas Day".

Soap Opera Trailer Target Audiences

According to SPC Top Programmes, Coronation Street can pull in an audience of almost a third of the UK population, with EastEnders watched by more than a quarter of us at times.

Throughout the course of the day on the channel of a soap, the trailer will show during the adverts targeting different audiences. During day time TV it will target the elder generation who watch daytime TV and during the evening, it will target the families who are sitting down after a day at work or school and this will encourage them to watch this soap another night. For the ones that see the trailer in the day, this will persuade them to watch the soap in the evening, when it shows.

Soap Opera Trailer Showings

Soap opera scheduled times - taken from 'Radio Times'

Purpose of Soap Trailers

The purpose of a soap trailer is to intice the audience to watch the soap. Also, they introduce the storyline to the audience it is being shown too. Furthermore, they don't give away the plot, but just introduces the plot slightly.

It captures the audiences attention to a storyline perhaps if someone hasn't watched the soap for a period of time and this creates a whole new excitement in an audience. Also, to attract new audiences to a new soap or to an ongoing soap, and there are trailers for both. For example, ITV 3 often has trailers to advertise a new drama, but also BBC 1 have trailers to just advertise storylines which will capture the nation. For example the 'who killed Archie' storyline.

Soap Opera Research

We decided to make a video showing all we knew about soap operas. We included some of the conventions you're likely to find in a soap, such as homosexuality. The reason we decided to do it in the format of a soap opera in places is to get the feel of how we would film our real thing and also to make it entertaining as well as informative.

Soap Opera Analysis of Eastenders

33033515 Analysis of Soap Opera Episode Handout


This are my notes on an episode of Eastenders I watched. It gave me an insight into what will be included within soaps and how this will help me in my future studies into soap operas. These will be helpful when looking at how many characters to include, I would like to follow Vladamir Propp's theory of the seven different characters that we see in majority of programmes, film or anything that follows a storyline.

Mind Map

Click here.