Hollyoaks Trailer

Mise-en-scene

• The dark clothes worn by the characters is the signifier and signified is connotes goths, darkness and death.
• The setting of the old, dark factory connotes to the audience spooky goings on.
• There is natural light used throughout the trailor which shows the dark shadows that cover the lurking characters faces.
• Newt is dressed a red t-shirt which connotes danger and fear.

Emmerdale Trailer

Mise-en-scene

• Police officers used within the trailor to show authoruty and to denote to the audience that something is wrong.
• All the characters are wearing dark clothing and this connotes death and mourning.
• The use of the signifier flowers can then be signified to death and graves, and this suggests to the audience that someone has died.

Sound

• Voice over used expalins the times that the soap will be showing and what days that it is on.
• The digetic dialogue provides the audience with a knowledge of the events taking place in the trailor.
• "a gift from the grace" this denotes to the audience that someone is dead and someone has recieved a gift from them and this has clearly caused great distress.
• The tag line used at the end of the trailer is "what goes around comes around" and this leaves the audience in suspense into what is going to happen next.

Camera Angles

• There are many close ups used within the trailer and they are mainly on significant objects and this provides the audience with a greater understanding of what is occuring.
• Over the shoulder shots are used within the trailer to show the conversations between the characters.
• Mids shots are also used, they are the most common shot used in soaps as they show the characters and the actions they are doing.

Editing

• There are many jump cuts used in the trailer, these are used to show the change in action and character.
• Fades to black are also used which could connote that the events are going to lead to a dark and destructive ending.
• Tracking shots are used to follow the action.

Narrative

• The narrative of the trailer tells the story to the audience of the unfolding events.
• One characters recieves a present from a dead person and this is told to the audience by the narrative voice over and it provides the audience with a greater incite into what is occuring.

Titling

• ITV1 animated logo at start and end of trailer to show the audience what channel the soap is aired on.
• Titles of the soap and the sponsor are shown at the end which explains to the audience exactly what they have been watching.
• Times of the soaps showing are also displayed at the end of the soap trailor.

Coronation Street Trailer

Mise-en-scene

• Characters faces in shadows and darkness which connotes evil and hidden lies.
• Police officers shown, their uniforms signify their authority over the other characters.
• The man dressed in a hoodie, the hoodie is the signifier and signified it is seen as bad and suggets a criminal or hooligan.
• The whole trailer is set in natural lighting which makes the actions seem more real.

Sound

• Most of the sound in the trailer is digetic and is the dialogue spoken by the characters.
• There is also a non-digetic fuzzy drone in the background which makes the audience wonder what is going on.
• The beating music throughout the piece could connote the fast paced heart beats of the worried characters.
• There is also a voice over at the end of the clip which details the times it is showing.

Camera Angles

• The most common shot used is a mid shot, as this shows the characters and the actions they are doing.
• There are also close ups and reactions used to show the expressions of the characters and this shows the audience what emotions they are feeling.
• A tracking shot of the villian also turns into a long shot to show the full figure of the man.

Editing

• ITV1 animated logo appears at the begininng of the clip and the end and displays to the audience the channel that the soap airs on.
• At the end of the clip the Coronation street logo appears to make everyone aware of what they are watching. The sponser of the soap also appears on screen at this point.
• There is a lot of jump cuts used throughout the trailer to suggest that the different actions are happening at the same time.

Narrative

• The police talking dennotes to the audience that something bad has happend, and it could get much worse if they don't warn people.
• A character then reveals that Tony has escaped from prison and he is out for revenge.
• There is then a clip of Tony with several hostages and he says "ladies I am going to kill you" and this dennotes to the audience exactly what he intends to do.

Titling

• The titling at the end of the clip is the Coronation street logo which provides the audience with a knowledge of the programme, if they did not already know what they was watching.

Soap Opera Trailer Target Audience

Soap Opera Trailer Showings

The Purpose of a Trailer

Soap opera trailers are a very important part of advertising, as they provide the audience with a glimpse of future events in the soap and this makes the audience want to watch on to see how the storylines unfold. Trailers can also bring in new audiences to the soap as it provides them with an incite into the the soap that they may not have had before. The trailers used for soap operas are normally short and most commonly they only reveal one big storyline, such as the return of an old character, or about a murder. Soaps use trailers as another method of advertising new and interesting storylines that could attract a larger audience then normal.

Eastenders Trailer

Mise-en-scene

• Low/natural lighting used which shows the time that the trailor was filmed.
• The characters are seen in the shadows which makes them all seem sinister.
• The christmas decorations used display to the audience what time of year the events our taking place.
• Janine wearing a red dress that connotes that she is evil, passion horror and death.
• Archie next to the queen vic busk, which is the weapon used to kill him

Sound

• Christmas music again denoting what time of year the trailor is occuring in.
• The music is non diegetic and it adds to the scary feel of the trailor.
• The pace of the music has been slowed down and this makes it seem very spooky and it really sets the scene for the murder that is going to take place.
• The dialogue has an echoing re-verb which suggests that they are the characters thoughts rather then things they have actually said.

Editing

• Animated BBC logo all throughout the clip to show what channel the programme is shown on.
• Text and voice over at the end of the trailor to show the times the programme is on.
• There are a lot of cutaway shots used to indicate the actions are happening at the same time.

Camera Angles

• Establishing shot of the Queen Vic, sets the scene and lets the audience know what they are watching.
• There are tracking shots used within the piece to reveal the characters from the shadows.
• Reaction shots are also used to show the haunted expressions of the characters.

Hollyoaks Trailer

Mise-en-scene

• Synergy and the tie-in of the actor calvin being on strictly come dancing and then the trailor being called strictly not for the fainted hearted, and both obviously involving dancing and being scored.
• He is dancing in the trailor and he is covered in blood, when he is shot he is dancing in the soap.
• Calvin is wearing a white shirt that portrays innocence, then blood is thrown over his shirt which connotes death.
• All the characters involved in th trailor are dressed in smart wedding clothes which is denoting to the audience when calvin is going to be killed.
• All the female character are wearing dark crimson lipstick that represents passion and death.

Sound

• Non digetic music relates to the action "dance until your dead"
• Voice over tag line informs the audience of when the soap is on so that they can watch it.
• The song is very up beat and appeals to a young audience, this is true also for the soap in general.
• The chose of song works very well with the trailor and it makes it faster paced.

Editing

• Sponsored by extra, logo shown at start and end of trailor.
• Channel 4 logo is shown at the end of the trailor when the tag line is being said.
• The trailor is only 20 seconds long and it gets the message across, the shortness of the trailor means that the target audience of teenagers do not need a long attention span to take in the information given to them.
• Match on action is used to show the action taking place.

Camera Angles

• Most common shot used is a mid-shot as this shows what is going on.
• There is also several close ups to show that characters reactions.
• the establishing shot is a long shot, which shows all the characters dancing and informs the audience of what is going on.

Soap Operas- Codes and Conventions

Update- Intial Research on the topic

Me and my group have been creating a short film to show our understanding of the common conventions of soap operas. Our film is called animal antics and it involves a range of our pets talking about British soap operas and even them acting out some famous scenes from the soaps, this is done by some clever editing by me and my group members. However due to difficulties we have been having with the schools editing software, we have edited and finished the short film three times, only for it to be deleted by the programme before we was able to upload it to you tube. Therefore we will have to edit the film again and hopefully it will be able to be uploaded at some point tomorrow.

History of Soap Operas

The name 'Soap opera' is a phrase first founded in the 1930s in the USA. It was originally 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, and the name is now used all over the world to describe the Programmes.

The first soap was actually aired on BBC Radio 4 and it was called the Archers, but it is Coronation Street that is the longest running TV soap in the world and it still has great success today. However it was programmes such as Dallas in America that lead to the production of more British soaps such as EastEnders and it was in the 1980’s that soaps became increasingly popular. This was then followed by the success of Australian soaps such as Neighbours and Home and Away, these tended to be aimed at a younger audience through the use of characters and storyline and this again less Britain to follow suit with the production of Hollyoaks which has a teenage target audience and it has had massive success due to this.

There are many conventions that all soaps follow, most British soaps will all feature most of these conventions:

· It is a serialised drama, and it usually runs most days of the week and all year round, it will also be shown in the peak dinner time slot of around 7-7:30.
· Soaps deal with continuous narratives that deal with ‘Kitchen sink drama’.
· Most commonly it will have a well-known theme tune, which has not changed much over the years.
· The casts for soap operas are normally larger than that of dramas, but it is limited to how many characters are used in each episode so that the storylines can be shown more in depth.
· The storylines are often interlinked between the characters and they are usually open-ended so that they can be carried on throughout episodes.
· They are often set in small and central areas e.g. a street which connects all of the characters.
· Special episodes are aired for real life special event such as Christmas’ specials.
· British soaps are all about realism and they tend to deal with working class characters very much in contrast to the American soaps.
· Soap episodes often begin with a hook in which one of the narratives from a previous episode is continued.
· There will be many storylines going on within each episode all involving different characters and the action will switch between them until they are resolved.

Comparison of Soap Operas

My group members and I each analysed a different soap opera, I chose to analyse EastEnders as this is the British soap that I am most familiar with. The rest of my group members analysed Coranation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, therefore getting the four most popular British soaps covered between us. We have now comprised a list of what conventions all four of the soaps share.

We found that all the soaps have similar storylines even if they are shown in different ways, for example the soaps main issues all involve, violence, adultry, mental disorders, serious illness and sexuality. These can all be related to present storylines in all four of the soaps that we analysed and it is the use of storyline like those above that give each soap a sense of realism that the audience can relate to.

The settings of the soaps are also similar, they are all set in a small villiage or street and they invovle a small community of characters that are all inter-linked. Within the setting of the soap there is also similar locations where the main scenes are set, most commonly the local pub as it is a place where all the characters can come together. For example in EastEnders this would be the Queen Vic.

Another common convention that we found between the soaps was the type of characters, all the soaps have a jack the lad character, a family of lower social standing, the medling old lady, the business man, the rebelous teenagers etc. it was clear to see from how we had each analysed the seperate soaps that these characters are portrayed in each soap but in slightly different ways.

Analysis of a Soap Opera- EastEnders

Analysis of Soap Opera Episode- Eastenders

Soap Operas- The Specifics

This is a mind map that I created about the specifics of soap operas, it includes:

• Ideas on the target audiences for soap operas


• Typical characters found in soap operas


• Typical settings for for soap operas


• Places found in soap operas


• It also includes examples from soap operas at the moment.

Soap Operas

This is a mind map that I created about the basic knowledge and information that I already knew about soap operas. The mind map includes information about the names of soap operas, characters names and the basic storylines.