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.