Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Monday, 12 July 2010
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
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. 
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