Soap Trailer Analysis

This trailer is from the ITV soap, Emmerdale.
Narrative wise, this soap trailer builds to a climax and has a cliffhanger. It follows Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium by including stages one to three in this trailer alone.
Sound
In terms of sound, there is an ongoing non diegetic soundtrack running throughout the trailer. This slow paced song has the pace and the lyrics to match the visual side of the trailer. The eerie track has a low pitched drum beat throughout, this could symbolise the beat of a heart, and adds greatly to the trailers tension.
Mise
The Mise in this clip is quite minimal. The first thing you notice, and what is obvious and prominent throughout is the use of low key lighting, this is because it is set outside during night time. They have probably set it at this time to emphasize the isolation of the main male and to build fear for the audience, as they start to question why he is walking the streets alone at that time. Throughout the trailer we are shown a hand full of characters, all of which are wearing very dark coloured clothing, mostly black, this has connotations of death, grief and mystery, adding to the intensity of the clip.
To allow the audience to know what they are watching a trailer for, 4 seconds in, we are shown the sign to the Woolpack pub, this name is iconic to the soap Emmerdale, so from then on in the trailer, the audience know they are watching something associated with this soap.
Camera Angles and Editing
In terms of camera angles, i believe this trailer is centred around the use of close up shots of different characters faces. These are used to mainly show the reaction each character has to the main male character, and also to show his reaction back to them. Amongst these shots, there are a couple of shot reverse shots used. These close ups, and the shot reverse shot editing technique, allows the audience to acknowledge the emotions of the characters, helping us relate to them, thus making us feel more involved in the soap.
The trailer opens with a crane shot, establishing to the audience that this male character is alone at night with just himself and his shadow. The trailer ends with the same shot, but this time with an extra chilling shadow, telling the audience that the male is no longer walking the streets alone, ending the trailer on a cliffhanger and hopefully making a viewer want to watch the soap.
Titles
The trailer contains the average titles of soap trailers at it's end. It has the slogan of the soap trailer 'Judgement day is coming' written, but not spoken. We are also shown the ITV and Emmerdale logo and told of the channel and soap and when it is on.

Soap opera whole episode analysis

  

This is a brief overview of an episode of the BBC 1 soap EastEnders and the ITV soap Coronation Street.  
To enhance my knowledge of soap operas, I decided to watch episodes a popular soap operas, and analyse aspects that you wouldn't normally focus on while watching a soap.
These are two individual episodes of the soaps, meaning they do not represent each soap as a whole, but from these, you can see where they overlap, and where they are different.
I've learnt that within soap operas, setting of scenes is something that overlaps among most soaps, for instance the centre of the community in many soaps is the Pub. Eastenders has The Queen Vic, Coronation Street has the Rovers Return and Emmerdale has The Woolpack. These pubs and their names are iconic and representational symbols of their soaps. Soaps also usually have a local shop, a club/bar and a cafe. To make soap operas verisimilitude, many scenes are shot in the houses of the characters, the kitchen and living area is widely used. By doing this they are directly reaching out to their audience to relate themselves to the characters within the soap, showing that the characters are ordinary people like themselves. By seeing this similar pattern in the use of setting throughout soaps, tell me that by using these typical locations we can create a successful soap.
Just from looking that this research above, you can tell that a popular story line is that of arguing couples, families and failed relationships, 'Soap operas make families seem important not by presenting an ideal family, but by presenting a family in constant turmoil.' Media Studies, a reader, Paul Marris & Sue Thornham, Edinburgh 1999. Exciting and griping story lines are what makes soap operas so popular.
Something that is different between the two is the way the Eastenders seems to have similar story lines running at once, whereas Coronation Street has many contrasting story lines within one episode. Both soaps are very successful, showing that by presenting story lines in either of these ways works. Eastenders probably shows stories in this way so the audience can build more of an opinion on certain characters by comparing them with other characters in similar situations, the downside to this could be that, if you are not a fan of a type of story line, then one episode could become repetitive. Coronations Streets idea would keep an episode fresh by displaying completely different stories back to back, the downside to this could be that the audience might feel distanced from the story as they've not had long enough to relate before the story switches once again.
I found doing this task a very helpful exercise, as I started to find out how much work must go into creating one half hour episode. Seeing how many scene changes and setting changes there were, will help us when we create our own soap opera as we know we must really consider location, setting and mise if we are to achieve a realistic soap.

EastEnders Independant Research

EastEnders is a British soap opera which was first aired in the year 1985, It runs four half hour episodes every week on BBC 1. It's one of the UK highest rating programs, often appearing near the top of the week's BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) ratings.
For personal experience I would say that EastEnders, in terms of target audience, would have an audience in between those who watch Hollyoaks and Coronation Street. Meaning Hollyoaks aims towards a younger audience, while Coronation Street attracts more mature views. I think Eastenders would have a wide age range of 16-60, but I think it is more targeted at those in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

People who watch EastEnders would mainly be in demographic groups C2, D and E. I think this because that way, they would be able to relate themselves to the characters, as they are depicted in theses groupings.
While watching an episode, I noticed that they represented people of many different ages and races. This makes their soap verisimilitude, as it reflects real London community life.
Within the soap, male and female characters are equally displayed. Many male characters are wearing clothing that matches their job role, for instance suits and overalls, this reflects the working society of today, and gives the audience a taster of the different variety of jobs in the capital City.

In terms of sexuality, EastEnders depicts the lives of heterosexual and homosexual people. In the past EastEnders has sparked controversy by portraying a storyline about a Muslim homosexual male, that was not accepted by his family. By doing this it made the soap more realistic as this could potentially be a position that somebody is in, and EastEnders helped raise awareness about this.
Making society aware of situations that people don't usually discuss, is a key feature of soaps, and is what makes them different to other TV shows.

Hollyoaks Independant Research

Hollyoaks is a British Soap opera which has been running since 1995. It is broadcast on Channel 4, and runs throughout the working week, episodes are shown at 6:30pm.

I would say the target audience for this soap would be those of a similar age to most of the characters included within the soap, being students and young adults. I believe this because I think people watching it would want to relate their lives to those of the characters on screen. Since the millennium, it has had a substantial fan base and is now seen as ‘a vibrant, modern, young person’s soap’.    

In terms of the representation of age, from this episode, I only saw people which looked to be younger than thirty; this reflects their target age range. This is also what makes this soap different to other big soaps, in the fact that it may be verisimilitude to a student’s life at university, but not realistic to life on a normal, everyday and non-university community.   

In terms of gender, I would say both genders were given equal amounts of screen time. Within the episode there was a scene where a male character was crying, this goes against the typical ‘strong male’ stereotype but it also could show that this modern soap is breaking away from stereotypes  displaying to the audience what they believe to be the modern man. All the woman I saw were quite feminine, lots were wear clothing with colour connotation to their gender, such as the colour pink.

Sexuality wise, there was a female wearing a red dress which showed her femininity to the audience, you could say that the male gaze theory was also used at this point making the soap appealing to mainly a male audience. Sexuality is shown in the opening credits where upon both the male and female characters are posing and are depicted in quite a sexual way with the men dressed smartly, the woman wearing dresses. Sexuality is shown through relationships, from this episode i can see the show supports both hetrosexual and homosexual couples.

Class is shown in the respect that the soap is mainly based in a university campus meaning the characters are student putting them in demographic grouping D. 

By doing this research into an existing soap opera, it will help me when i come to create my own soap for this project. It has allowed me to really think and consider the audience that i intend my soap to be for. I've learnt that the chosen target audiences age and gender has therefore got to be reflected within the soap such as by characters and setting. By doing this it will add appeal to the soap.

Coronation Street Independent Research

Coronation Street is a British soap opera which was first broadcast on Granada Television in the year 1960. In September 2010, Coronation Street became the World longest running television soap opera. It being a soap opera, it follows the convention of having an open narrative, which now means the soap has had over 8000 episodes, and is still on going.

The soap is aired on various days of the working weeks, and usually shows two half hour episodes on each of the evenings it is on.
I would say the target audience of this soap would be much larger than that of Channel 4 Hollyoaks, and even BBC, Eastenders. I would say that this soap is much more of a family soap, and would attract people from 14 on wards. I think this soap would particularly be popular with more mature people, that would prefer to watch a soap like this one because it's quality and good repuataion is guaranteed by how long it has been running and how successful it has been.
While viewing an episode of Coronation Street, I noticed that they represented almost every age range, this adds to the verisimilitude aims of all soaps, as in this case, they are trying to depict an ordinary street, and who would live on that street.

In terms of gender I would say that both genders are represented equally in this soap, and have to same amount of dramatic story lines and screen time. Coronation street depicts life in a more realistic and "down to earth" way. When I watched Hollyoaks I saw that nearly all the females were in dresses and looking very feminine, whereas Coronation Street showed more of a variety of people and their dress sense, once again relating to real life scenarios in a more realistic way.
Sexuality is shown throughout the episode of Coronation Street I watched, as it shows us into the loves of many hetrosexual couples. Although the soap has been running for a very long time, it also has shown how it has moved with the times by having homosexual male and female characters.
'Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth community combined with light-hearted humour and strong characters' - Wikipedia
In terms of class, Coronation Street has become famous because of its representation of common working class citizens, and the character involved tend to be in demographic grouping D and E.

The Purpose of a Trailer

The purpose of a soap trailer is to advertise, get people to watch it, engage viewers with the characters and to give a sneak preview. These promotion trailers tend to be shown in the in between shows that attract audiences from the same demographic grouping as the soap in question. They are usually shown in the evening  during prime time hours, around 7pm to 10pm. This is because their target audience of young people and adults from demographic grouping B, C1, C2, D and E would be watching the television at this time, and therefore hopefully the trailer would catch their attention.
I have learnt that there are two types of soap opera trailers. The first of which being a trailer that aims to attract new audiences to watch the soap and the second being a trailer for currant viewers to keep watching and build hype of a prominent episode. Either way, the main purpose of a soap trailer, is to make people interested and want to watch your soap.
Both the examples are from the BBC soap, Eastenders.
This first trailer is an example of one that was made to draw new audiences to the soap, and to of course keep currant viewers interested:


This trailer is an example of one made for currant viewers to inform them of the arrival of new characters to the show, or in this specific case, show the return of old characters from the soaps past. So as well as keeping frequent fans, this trailer could attract past fans that watched and enjoyed  the soap when these characters were last in it:

Target Audience Profile

Hollyoaks audience profile in less than 200 words

Hollyoaks is a British soap opera which is aired at 6:30pmm on Channel Four during the working week.

From watching a recent episode, I have come to the conclusion that the target audience for the soap would be teenagers to young adults. I think this because all of the characters I was introduced to during the episode were, by the looks of things, all of this age group, and I believe those who would watch this would want to sympathise with these characters of their own age. Even the opening theme tune is upbeat and fast passed, therefore straight away reflecting the lifestyle of a student or someone of this age. As I think this Soap is aimed at students and young people, this tells us that Hollyoaks is probably mostly aimed at those in demographic group D. Although all the characters I saw were northern, I still believe that Hollyoaks has not got a target audience that is rationality based, and I think it is aimed at people from across the country.

History of Soap Operas

Soap Operas began on the radio in America. In the 1920's and 30's radio was just starting and stations started to spring up across America. The main audience of the radio at this time were housewife's, due to the fact that few married woman would go our and work. This meant that companies selling household products saw the opportunity to advertise on the radio. These companies needed radio stations to produce the kind of programmes that would attract a large audience of the type of women who would buy their products. They came up with the idea of drama serials that centred on the home and various domestic situations, thinking these would be ideal to show off their products. These serials were very romantic, melodramatic and were immediately successful by entertaining stay at home woman. Somebody then came up with a name to describe these shows, and they were named 'Soap Operas' due to the fact they were sponsored by 'soap' companies and ‘opera’ because, like operas, they were very dramatic. The soap and radio companies realised quickly that this type of programme was both popular and very cheap to produce.  The most popular network soap-operas were ‘Ma Perkins’ and ‘One Man’s Family’.

In America after the war, radio soaps became less popular as people began to turn to the new invention, television. Once the TV became very popular, companies started to realise that it would be better to advertise on screen rather than via the radio. By the mid 1950's radio soaps were all but dead. As radio soaps were very popular, it was soon decided to transfer then to television. The same soap companies were sponsoring the programmes and the same script writers for the radio soaps were used. They were broadcast five times a week and in midday, so sticking to the successful routine the radio soaps had. They were still broadcast midday for the stay at home female audiences, as they were not yet deemed to have enough action for evening prime time TV.

Elements from films and other dramas were added to soaps, and soon they were shown in the evening, with the aim to appeal a larger audience numbers, including the hope of gaining males fans. Instead of just being set in a domestic setting, soaps started to branch out and use outside locations for more action and excitement. The first prime time TV soap opera was 'Peyton Place' in the USA it was based upon a novel of the same name, it ran from 1964-69.

Despite the huge success for soaps in America, Britain did not take to them at all. The BBC was a public service and ran off the licence fee, meaning no advertising for outside companies, also the channel was run by a man called John Reith, who felt the TV should provide programme about culture. Britain did not get a radio soap opera until the end of the Second World War. It was called ‘The Robinsons’. ‘Mrs Dale’s Diary’ followed in 1948 and then ‘The Archers’, which started in 1950 and is still going strong today – the longest running soap ever. The BBC produced it's first TV soap 'The Grove Family', but soon ITV was introduced in 1955 and started creating bigger and better soaps. ITV made it's very successful, long running soap, 'Coronation Street' in 1960, which still runs today. The BBC was never very successful with its soap operas, until 1985 when they produced 'Eastenders' which also still runs today.

These days soap operas are very popular around the world.
In the UK alone we have many popular TV soaps including 'Coronation Street', 'Eastenders', 'Hollyoaks' and 'Emmerdale'.
As of February 2012, the longest running soap opera in the world is the British soap, 'Coronation Street' with over 50 years of being on TV.

Information from these websites:
The Museum of Broadcast communication
wikipedia
Yahoo! Voices 

Specific knowledge of Soaps

Specific Knowledge on Soaps

Above is a mind map made before any research into soaps began. It shows all the specific knowledge I had of soaps (families, setting, etc) I originally had before we started the project. As you can see, I was only very familiar with EastEnders and partly familiar with Coronation Street, therefore showing that at the start of the project my broad knowledge as soaps as a whole were not great.

Knowledge of Soaps

Knowledge of Soaps

This mind map is something I created before we began this project, this means it was the basic knowledge of soap operas I had before we started any research.
Doing this task was a good starting point, as it really allowed me to think into what I already knew about soaps operas, I found out that I had more knowledge than I originally thought. It was also a good step into what was to come, as it got me thinking into soaps and their characteristics.