British Soap Opera Conventions
This will help us when we come to create our own soap opera as we are now aware of the conventions that we will need to use as a guide to make our soap as realistic as possible.
-Amy Bowman
Thursday, 11 October 2012
SOAP OPERA CONVENTIONS
This will help us when we come to create our own soap opera as we are now aware of the conventions that we will need to use as a guide to make our soap as realistic as possible.
-Amy Bowman
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
CONVENTIONAL CHARACTERS
In all soap operas there are characters with similar traits, we will use characters from Eastenders and Hollyoaks as examples.
The elderly, wise person
This character usually female is one that others would go to for help and assistance due to their extensive knowledge of life. These characters tend to have a lot of contacts and are loved by most characters. They also have a lot of family in the soap.
1 An example is the character Dot Cotton from Eastenders. She serves all the above stereotype wise, but is also an undercover gossip, others would go to her for support with problems, but she can't seem to keep them to herself.
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The strong woman
This woman is usually very independent, Strong and feisty. She can be found sticking up for her friends and at the centre of many conflicts. She does have a soft side which she likes to keep hidden and to herself, but this can be exposed by a love interest. She also tends to be involved in many failed relationships, which only make her stronger.
1 An example of a character that follows all the above, would be Roxy Mitchell from Eastenders. Along with these, she is also a very capable single mum, which makes her seem even more independent, she doesn't need any help.
2 Nancy is the strong woman character from Hollyoaks. A prime example of a storyline which highlights her strength is when her best friend Mitzeee had escaped from prison with fellow cellmate, Lauren - a woman who will get her way whatever it takes, even if it means threatening the heavily pregnant Nancy. Nancy agrees to be their getaway driver despite her condition to help her innocent, wrongly imprisoned best friend.
The pregnant teen
This character generates mixed opinions within the soap opera community. They are either pitied or hated which leaves a divide between the characters. In the earlier years of soaps, these characters were rare, but they are becoming more prominent these days, to reflect society and keep verisimilitude. We follow this characters story as we watch them make tough decisions, and we see how the baby changes her life, her family and friends.
1 Two different examples of this character are Lola Pearce and Lucy Beale from Eastenders. Once Lucy got pregnant, her story involved a lot of torment, and it was interesting seeing the character go through and make really tough decisions about her pregnancy. In the end she decided to have an abortion. On the other hand, Lola, who was quite a troubled teen and was brought up in care, decided to have her baby, and we watched as the baby changed her life, and made her a better person.
The matriarch
This character has usually grown with the soap and has been in it for many years. They are iconic with the soap. Like the elderly, wise person, people go to them for advice and help, due to their extensive knowledge and life experiences. They stand out as, although they are usually a fairly old female, they are the head of the family and highly respected within the soap.
1 Good example of this character type would be Pat Butcher and Peggy Mitchell from Eastenders. They were both head of their families, and were at the centre of any family do, they also were at the centre of most conflict. Because they were iconic to the soap, when they left, they had a big dramatic last episode, which others characters don't always get.
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The bad boy
This is a male character that uses his charm to manipulate others to get what he wants. He is often a baddie in disguise. He tends to be linked with dodgy deals and is always making plans on how to get someone back. A lot of the time they are also quite good looking, and break many girls’ hearts.
1 An example would be Michael Moon from Eastenders, his character is one that others find hard to understand. He will stop at nothing to hurt people who have hurt him, including family members. He likes to be in control of any situation, cannot trust anyone, and is very independent.
2 Brendan Brady is the bad boy of Hollyoaks. His Irish accent helps to attract a female audience that will side with him even when they know he has done wrong as they are blinded by his 'Irish' charm. His character is also one that is difficult to understand. On occasions, he is pitied by the audience as, we recently found out, he was mistreated by his father as a child; which justifies - to an extent - the reason behind his behaviour; however the audience knows it is still very wrong.
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The pair usually has lots of problems on their plate but together they battle through them. To the other characters and the outside world, they seem like the perfect couple, but under their front, they tend to have a lot of issues as a couple.
2 An example is Kat and Alfie from Eastenders. They have been, and still are, a very popular couple within the soap as they run the iconic pub and are popular with viewers. They were so popular that they were brought back into the soap after years of departure; this means though, that nobody wants their relationship to end. When they go through tough patches together, it makes good story lines.
1 Another example of a loved-up soap couple is Theresa and Joel from Hollyoaks. Joel is typically pitied by the audience due to being lovable, innocent and abused by his step-father; of whom he killed after being pressured into it by bad boy Brendan. This dark, uncharacteristic storyline is stereotypical of these conventional characters.
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The boss figure
This character is usually male, hard faced, and can be quite scary. They seem to have natural authority and respect from most other characters, and a boss position in the work place, as they tend to own within the soap. He is intimidating and someone that others don't want to get on the wrong side of.
1 Phil Mitchell from Eastenders is a very stereotypical hard man, boss figure character. Although he fits all the above, he does also have a sort side that we see rarely, which shows the audience that he is only human. We have also been shown to his venerability, as there was a time he was hooked on drugs and relied on others to get him out the mess, telling us that is not as strong as he likes to think.
2The boss figure
This character is usually male, hard faced, and can be quite scary. They seem to have natural authority and respect from most other characters, and a boss position in the work place, as they tend to own within the soap. He is intimidating and someone that others don't want to get on the wrong side of.
1 Phil Mitchell from Eastenders is a very stereotypical hard man, boss figure character. Although he fits all the above, he does also have a sort side that we see rarely, which shows the audience that he is only human. We have also been shown to his venerability, as there was a time he was hooked on drugs and relied on others to get him out the mess, telling us that is not as strong as he likes to think.
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The villain
This is the character that viewers love to hate. They have a huge negative effect on the characters in the soap with their evil ways.
1 A prime example would be the character Lucas Johnson from Eastenders, he seemed like an inocent, religious Pastor, but turned out to be a complete soap psycho. During his time on the soap he left his ex-wife to die, murders Denise's ex-husband Owen, drowns his son's dog, and strangles Denise and locks her in a basement while allowing her family to believe she has killed herself, and killing another woman to use as Denise's supposed body. He went crazy!
2 The villain in Hollyoaks is sdlkghadfh. He was the resident mass murderer and, at the moment, is - thankfully for the people of Hollyoaks - safely behind bars.
This is the character that viewers love to hate. They have a huge negative effect on the characters in the soap with their evil ways.
1 A prime example would be the character Lucas Johnson from Eastenders, he seemed like an inocent, religious Pastor, but turned out to be a complete soap psycho. During his time on the soap he left his ex-wife to die, murders Denise's ex-husband Owen, drowns his son's dog, and strangles Denise and locks her in a basement while allowing her family to believe she has killed herself, and killing another woman to use as Denise's supposed body. He went crazy!
2 The villain in Hollyoaks is sdlkghadfh. He was the resident mass murderer and, at the moment, is - thankfully for the people of Hollyoaks - safely behind bars.
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As you can see from our research, more than likely, every soap opera has a character with similar traits to another in an opposing soap. These are known as conventional characters. We will try to include similar characters to these in our own soap opera to keep it realistic to a real soap.
-Amy Bowman & Lauren Tween
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
DRAFT SCRIPT
Marris Morris: walking casually down street
Kirk Hudson & Dan Smith: run up to Marris (looking edgy) and punch him
cut
Marris Morris: laying on floor
cut
Inside of pub, we see various characters having a chat and drink.
cut
After a shot of houses, cut to Beryl Clark reading, looking interested in the book.
cut
Marris Morris: Blinking as he has flashback of important memories
cut
Kirk Hudson and Dan Smith run away with dog on lead, looking worried and frantic.
cut
After shot of pub sign, we see Hetty Clark with cup of tea looking depressed.
cut
Shot of pub, once again we see various characters, enjoying socialising with each other.
cut
Marris Morris: Distraught at his memories
Voice over: It's not always sweet in Cherry Gardens.
Conventionally in soap opera trailers they are no or very little diegetic dialogue, we plan to follow this convention to make our trailer realistic to real media products. The only spoken dialogue will be the non-diegetic overlay of the voice over at the end.
-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman
Kirk Hudson & Dan Smith: run up to Marris (looking edgy) and punch him
cut
Marris Morris: laying on floor
cut
Inside of pub, we see various characters having a chat and drink.
cut
After a shot of houses, cut to Beryl Clark reading, looking interested in the book.
cut
Marris Morris: Blinking as he has flashback of important memories
cut
Kirk Hudson and Dan Smith run away with dog on lead, looking worried and frantic.
cut
After shot of pub sign, we see Hetty Clark with cup of tea looking depressed.
cut
Shot of pub, once again we see various characters, enjoying socialising with each other.
cut
Marris Morris: Distraught at his memories
Voice over: It's not always sweet in Cherry Gardens.
Conventionally in soap opera trailers they are no or very little diegetic dialogue, we plan to follow this convention to make our trailer realistic to real media products. The only spoken dialogue will be the non-diegetic overlay of the voice over at the end.
-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
Soap Opera Questionnaire
We created this questionnaire in order to have a better understanding of what interests a soap opera-watching audience like, for example, what characters and storylines capture their attention and why so we can use this data when creating our own soap trailer in order for it to be successful.
-Lauren Tween
We created this questionnaire in order to have a better understanding of what interests a soap opera-watching audience like, for example, what characters and storylines capture their attention and why so we can use this data when creating our own soap trailer in order for it to be successful.
-Lauren Tween
CONVENTIONS OF SOAP OPERA SETTINGS
setting
The setting of a soap creates the sense of community which the older generation like to feel a part of. it is also referred to as a 'potboiler'.
Locations such as cafe's, nightclubs and pubs in soaps are used so the characters are able to socialize and get involved with each others lifes.
Private locations are important as the domestic setting is crucial.
The supurbs which is the popular location such as australian soaps where it is removed even further from the world of work and securely withing the domestic world.
The country town this is used in UK soaps such as
Emmerdale based in north of England in Yorkshire.
Critics have said that the distintion between 'true soaps' and drama series such as 'Casualty' has started to blue over the years.
In our soap opera settings; we have a pub, so youre able to see into people's business to get viewers drawn into the episode.
A house so viewers are able to see what demographic group the characters are portraying. This is part of the domestic setting.
Also our soap is set withing the villages of Chelmsford. So we are able to portray the close community and connote village life where everyone knows everyones business.
Current soap opera setting
Eastenders primarily centres on the residents of a Albert Square, a Victorian square of terraced houses, neighbouring streets, namely Bridge Street, Turpin Road and George Street, a pub down George street, street market, night club, community centre, charity shop, cafe and various small businesses, in addition to a park and allotments. This connotes there is a range of ages within the area; the night club connotes there are young adults in the soap, the pub connotes there are older, more civilised adults that go more for the social, the market connotes working class and its also links to London where there are a lot of markets hence 'Eastenders' being in east London. This setting would suggest theyre going aiming at an audience of the working class. As all the 'Small business'' arent the sort of jobs that you can sit back and watch the business run its self.
British soaps tend to have a strong regional identity - for example, EastEnders is set in the East of London, while Manchester is the setting for Coronation Street. This is not just to attract viewers from that area, but also to make it more realistic. The area in which the soap is set also has an effect on its plotting and characters; soaps set in rural areas are usually more community-based and have fewer characters than in a larger, urban-set soap.
-Jordan Kenneally
The setting of a soap creates the sense of community which the older generation like to feel a part of. it is also referred to as a 'potboiler'.
Locations such as cafe's, nightclubs and pubs in soaps are used so the characters are able to socialize and get involved with each others lifes.
Private locations are important as the domestic setting is crucial.
The supurbs which is the popular location such as australian soaps where it is removed even further from the world of work and securely withing the domestic world.
The country town this is used in UK soaps such as
Emmerdale based in north of England in Yorkshire.
Critics have said that the distintion between 'true soaps' and drama series such as 'Casualty' has started to blue over the years.
In our soap opera settings; we have a pub, so youre able to see into people's business to get viewers drawn into the episode.
A house so viewers are able to see what demographic group the characters are portraying. This is part of the domestic setting.
Also our soap is set withing the villages of Chelmsford. So we are able to portray the close community and connote village life where everyone knows everyones business.
Current soap opera setting
Eastenders primarily centres on the residents of a Albert Square, a Victorian square of terraced houses, neighbouring streets, namely Bridge Street, Turpin Road and George Street, a pub down George street, street market, night club, community centre, charity shop, cafe and various small businesses, in addition to a park and allotments. This connotes there is a range of ages within the area; the night club connotes there are young adults in the soap, the pub connotes there are older, more civilised adults that go more for the social, the market connotes working class and its also links to London where there are a lot of markets hence 'Eastenders' being in east London. This setting would suggest theyre going aiming at an audience of the working class. As all the 'Small business'' arent the sort of jobs that you can sit back and watch the business run its self.
British soaps tend to have a strong regional identity - for example, EastEnders is set in the East of London, while Manchester is the setting for Coronation Street. This is not just to attract viewers from that area, but also to make it more realistic. The area in which the soap is set also has an effect on its plotting and characters; soaps set in rural areas are usually more community-based and have fewer characters than in a larger, urban-set soap.
-Jordan Kenneally
Monday, 1 October 2012
SOAP OPERA TRAILERS ANALYSIS
Hollyoaks
This soap opera trailer starts of with high key lighting forcing itself through the trees of the forest connoting darkness is yet to come.
Long shot of teenager causing trouble kicking the table over enabling the viewer to see how people react to his immature behaviour.
Girls are wearing white connoting innocence. There is an oxymoron when rain is pouring on only her whilst the others are walking next to her dry. There is also an oxymoron with one of the girls walking next to her wearing white with a black facial mask connoting death giving the impression as if she is the one to blame for the girl having trouble. i.e. her getting wet.
Emmerdale
There is low key lighting whilst the characters faces are lit up well, connoting that their personalities are bigger than the weather.
The man walking up to the camera is coming out of nowhere and is on he’s own connoting he is causing trouble. He’s cloths are dark and he looks as though he wants to be kept to himself which connotes he is the cause of some trouble and mixes situations.The time, date and channel is said at the end of the trailer.
Eastenders
There is low key lighting and high key lighting when trouble is going on connoting trouble is everywhere in Eastenders. You see the woman pleeding 'dont give up now!' more often that not in this trailer, this connotes she is the main one to look out for in this series. Unlike in the previous analysed soap opera trailers, this one has 'BBC ONE' shwon clearly throughout the trailer. Nothing is given away too much other than connotations, for example, when the woman pleeds him not to give up, that could be death, the relationship or anything. The time, date and channel is said at the end of the trailer.
Neighbours
This trailer gives away the least as to what happens. The high key lighting, speech, saying. 'I do love it in ramsays st' connotes everything is perfect in Neighbours. Not everything can stay perfect though. you dont see a lot of people or many possible story lines that would attract the possible viewer to watch it. The channel, time and date is said at the end of the trailer.
Coronation street
Unlike all the other trailers, this trailer gives away the most as to what the characters feel towards the stimulus, being the wedding. Every main character says exactly how they feel towards the wedding and speaking as a person who doesnt watch coronation street, i could tell that there is going to be confrontation about the wedding as he is obviously dodgy.
This trailer is made for dedicated viewers who'll understand the lives of the people with opinions and they'll be able to tell if something is said that is unexpected. For example, someone who disagrees with the wedding going ahead could have been the mans aunty.
Why this research is beneficial for our soap opera trailer.
After analysing successful soap operas and their trailers, ive found out that a lot of information about soap opera trailers, such as, they show a lot of information regarding the amount of characters and problems with connotations but never show the problem other than the main problem which people will want to know and the problem which you aim to attract potential viewers.
Speech is mostly at the end of trailers when they say the time, date and channel. when there is speech in a trailer, the connotation could be anything within the emotion the character is portraying.
In our soap we will have no speech until the end of the trailer and we'll show loads of characters with possible story lines with a main story line to attract potentional viewers.
-Jordan Kenneally
Friday, 28 September 2012
TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE
Defining our Audience
Class - Demographic Grouping
Gender
We would like our soap to be watched and enjoyed by people of both genders, although it is proven that more woman than men are regular viewers of soaps, we would aim to have an almost equal percentage of both. We would want to break the 'soaps are for woman only' stereotype.
Age
We decided that we would have an age range of 16 to 60 years old for our soap opera. We believe we can appeal to an age range that is this wide, by the diversity of story lines we will use, some will appeal to a mature audience, others would be catered for teenagers. Our soap will include a big variety of characters, hop fully every viewer would be able to find a character within the soap they could relate with.
Audience Theory's
In some cases the Hypodermic Needle Theory would be quite prominent for our audience members. This theory would relate to those wanting to escape their own lives for a bit and relax with the TV on, they would not question anything that happens on our soap, and would just accept anything.
Some of our audience may watch our soap for Personal Identity. They would compare themselves to characters within our soap and maybe even adjust and conform their identity to become more like that character. In contrast they would not watch our soap if they wanted to find out what was happening in the news or to gain information on the world. As although a soap opera has to be verisimilitude, it will be entirely fiction, meaning you would probably not learn a lot about current affairs.
The Uses and Gratifications theory would apply to our soap opera as we believe our audience would watch our show for entertainment, to relax and enjoy. We also believe they would want to be involved, and would start to relate and compare themselves and to the characters and their personal relationships and social interactions.
Class - Demographic Grouping
We would hope to have a very wide range of viewers for our soap, therefore we would like people from demographic profiles B to E to watch. Meaning roughly anyone from middle management to the unemployed. Although we believe the main groupings we would be focusing and aiming on, would be that of D and E, as from our research, these are the people most likely to watch soap operas such as Coronation Street and EastEnders in their free time, and we would aim to have a similar audience as these existing popular soaps.
Race
Anybody of any race would watch our soap, it is not aimed at a certain race. Our soap is set in a small to medium sized village, but there will be tokenism used throughout, to show the diversity of the location, and to stop us from being too bias towards one race.
Interests, Attitudes and Beliefs
The cross-cultural consumer characteristics group we will mainly be focusing on is TheMainstream group, which is 40% of the population. These are those people who live in the domestic and everyday. We think they would stick to food brands they know and trust and would not worry too much about designer labels when it comes to clothing.
We believe that our target audience would watch TV to escape their lives, to relax and laugh, therefore other shows we think they would enjoy to watch would be 'You've Been Frammed' and 'The X Factor'. By knowing what other shows are target audience would enjoy, would help us when we come to consider when to show our soap operas trailer.
We think our audience members would get their daily news intake from reading a newspaper similar to 'The Sun', as it is simple to read, entertaining, has lots of pictures and has celebrity gossip.
We would like our soap to be watched and enjoyed by people of both genders, although it is proven that more woman than men are regular viewers of soaps, we would aim to have an almost equal percentage of both. We would want to break the 'soaps are for woman only' stereotype.
Age
We decided that we would have an age range of 16 to 60 years old for our soap opera. We believe we can appeal to an age range that is this wide, by the diversity of story lines we will use, some will appeal to a mature audience, others would be catered for teenagers. Our soap will include a big variety of characters, hop fully every viewer would be able to find a character within the soap they could relate with.
Audience Theory's
In some cases the Hypodermic Needle Theory would be quite prominent for our audience members. This theory would relate to those wanting to escape their own lives for a bit and relax with the TV on, they would not question anything that happens on our soap, and would just accept anything.
Some of our audience may watch our soap for Personal Identity. They would compare themselves to characters within our soap and maybe even adjust and conform their identity to become more like that character. In contrast they would not watch our soap if they wanted to find out what was happening in the news or to gain information on the world. As although a soap opera has to be verisimilitude, it will be entirely fiction, meaning you would probably not learn a lot about current affairs.
The Uses and Gratifications theory would apply to our soap opera as we believe our audience would watch our show for entertainment, to relax and enjoy. We also believe they would want to be involved, and would start to relate and compare themselves and to the characters and their personal relationships and social interactions.
-Amy Bowman
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