By being familiar with the conventions of soap opera magazine front covers, i will be much more informed when i come to create my own, as i will know what to place onto it to make it realistic to existing media products.
Below are some points i will be considering when analysing existing magazine covers:
Font The main font that is used for most of this cover, is bold, clear to read, and simple yet very effective. Soap opera magazines tend to only use one or two basic fonts on their cover. By using simple, clear fonts, it means words don't tend to have any obvious connotations. I think this is good as if they were to use lots of different fonts on the cover to match different stories, it would start to get confusing and look unprofessional. This means it is also left to the readers own interpretation as to what they think about the soap news. Font sizes differ on magazine covers, but match the size of the picture they are annotating. I think the size of the soap magazine title and the annotation to the main picture, is appropriate as it stands out within the cover, yet it doesn't over shadow anything else.
Colours The colours on this front cover make it striking and would be what makes it stand on when on sale against other magazines, using strikings colours, in particular red and yellow is a common convention of soap opera magazine covers. The colours tend to be very bright and bold, and there is hardly any white left on the page. The boldest colour on this cover is the red used for the title of the magazine, this colour is not used for any other writing on the page, showing to us the importance of the title, many magazines use the colour red for their titles. Lots of colours have been used for the writing on the cover, but i notice they have highlighted key words by having them a different colour to the words around them. This is a good idea as it allows the audience to see the key point of each picture without reading the whole annotation. Pictures
The pictures are all of popular soap characters. The smaller pictures seem to reveal a bit about that characters currant story line, mainly by their facial expressions, they seem to be screen shots from the soaps themselves. In contrast the main story which takes up most the page with its picture, doesn't tend to reveal as much, meaning from a distance you are interested as to what is happening with those characters. This picture seems to be one taken specifically for the magazine. Words For soap opera magazines, the annotations for each picture have to be short and to the point as it is only meant to be a taster of whats inside, but on the other hand they also have to make someone want to buy that magazine; therefore they use words that are exciting, dramatic and would make you want to read the full story inside. Something else that is very common on magazine covers, is the over use of punctuation, such as exclamation marks and question marks. The use of exclamation marks, can add the excitement factor needed to make you want to buy the magazine. By adding question marks, you are directly asking your audience a question, and they know to find out the answer they should read the magazine, so these can be very effective.
The First Third In many cases, in smaller shops, while on display, magazines are layered on each other, only revealing the first third of each magazine. This means there has to be a substantial amount of information displayed on this area. It tends to be the busiest part of the front cover. You can see what magazine it is, as you can see part of the title, and you can usually see the price, bar code, issue number and date. You can also see part of the picture of the main story in the issue, giving the audience a taster of what's inside.
For the soaps Coronation Street and Eastenders I have seen many trailers advertising them shown after the time of 6pm. I would think the reason behind this, it the fact that most people would be home from work, many of which, would be watching TV to relax. In effect, soap trailers are aimed at everybody, as they want whoever to be viewing the channel to stop for a moment and see the trailer.
On BBC1 for instance, Eastenders trailers can be seen after the 10pm news, the reason for this would be the fact that the 10 o'clock news has very large viewing figures, meaning they would almost be forced into seeing the trailer directly after, catching many peoples attention. By putting it at this time, there would be a wide variety of people seeing the trailer, and people who watch the news can potentially be from any demographic group, from A to E. Therefore the soap trailer is being aim at a wider audience than the soap itself.
Eastenders trailers have also been seen after the show Doctor Who, yet again this popular show gains a very large audience, meaning many would see the trailer afterwards. Doctor Who is also an example of a TV drama, soap operas are a variation on TV dramas, the fact that the trailer has been shown after this show, could be suggesting to the audience that they may also enjoy watching the soap. Those who watch Doctor Who would most probably be from the same demographic groupings as whose who enjoy soap operas, therefore they are aiming directly at their desired audience.
The channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, had a trailer that was shown quite late after a spin off programme of the show Inbetweeners. Hollyoaks is different to other soaps in the respect that it has a very specific target audience of teens and young adults. This target audience is what is has in common with the comedy show, Inbetweeners, meaning putting the trailer after this programme would hopefully attract the desired audience of young people and students, demographic grouping E.
I have also witnessed a trailer for the ITV soap Emmerdale, this was shown at 9:30pm in an ad break between the shows X Factor and Downton Abbey. The X Factors is one of the most popular family shows on TV, the X Factors dousen't have a specific target age range, although i would think it is aimed at those in domographic groups C-E. In contrast the period drama, Downton Abbey, i would say is aimed at a more sophisticated audience, of those over 20 and in demographic groupings B, C and even maybe A. By placing a soap opera trailer and the end of one show and before the start of another, means it is quite likely you could have two audience types tuned into the channel, meaning a broad range of people will see the trailer.
Demographic Groups
When creating a new soap and deciding on a target audience, producers of the soap would consider their audiences in groups based on age, gender, income, race and location.
This is how audience members are grouped based on income:
A - Top management, bankers, doctors etc.
B - Middle management, etc.
C1 - office supervisors, nurses, etc.
C2 - skilled workers, etc.
D - semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers, etc.
E - unemployed, students, pensioners, etc.
Cross-Cultural consumer characteristics
Brought in by the marketing and communications company, 'Young and Rubicam', it aims to categorise everyone into four groups.
Mainstreamers - 40% of us are mainstreamers, they are the mainstream in society. They stick to the same big established brands and like value for money.
Aspirers - They seek to always improve themselves, they aspire for status and wear expensive brands. They spend a lot of money which is something they may not always have.
Succeeders - Those who have status and control in society, and have a lot of money, these are the same people as in demographic group A.Reformers - These peoples lives revolve around self - fulfillment, they actively consume environmentally and seek for friendly products.
Audience theory's
Audiences theory's are based around how the audience will respond to what they are viewing.
Hypodermic needle theory - When you watch a TV show or film, and for the time you watch it, you
metaphorically switch your brain off. Everything you see, you accept, and don't question a thing.
Uses and gratification theory - This is when you watch something, wanting to be involved. You could link yourself to characters based on personal relationships and social interaction.
Personal identity - This is when you compare your life to the characters on screen. You may adjust or conform you sense of identity. This can also be when you go to watch a show, seeking information, self education and wanting to learn a bit about what is going on in the world.
Reception Theory - This is when your mind works actively as an audience member, the producer places codes in the text, and the audience de-code them themselves.
These two soap opera trailers have been made by students from different colleges to my own.
By analysing other students projects, I hope to increase my knowledge into what works, looks good within a trailer and what doesn't, therefore, hopefully helping myself when I come to create my own.
After viewing many student soap opera trailers on YouTube, I decided to concentrate on these two because they are so different from each other, meaning I could learn about the variety of trailers we could make. When you watch them, you realise that they both share very similar traits, yet go about displaying them in their own individual ways. You notice that both trailers use subtitles throughout to introduce separate story lines that would appear in the actual soap, and the themes that go with these stories.
Trailer 1 uses no diegetic dialogue or non-diegetic voice overs in the entire trailer, instead it uses a non-diegetic soundtrack throughout. In contrast, trailer 2 has diegetic and non-diegtic speech throughout, but has no soundtrack.
I like the idea of presenting a soap opera trailer using lots of headings, as I think it really allows you to display numerous story lines in an effective way.
Trailer 1
Sound
This trailer uses one steady soundtrack throughout, overall I think it really suits the entire trailer. As soon as the trailer begins, I believe the soundtrack could catch your attention and draw you into watching it, I think it would also maintain your attention throughout. I think what is so effective about it, is how it changes very slightly to suit the currant visual side of the trailer, but you don't even notice this change until its actually happens.
The music track starts out gloomy and sinister, but then builds up to an upbeat, lively tune. Throughout the trailer the only piece of diegetic sound, is a gunshot. This being the only noise apart from the music, it makes this point powerful and striking and it is something that the audience would remember from watching the trailer.
They have gone against usual conventions of soap opera trailers by having no voice over at the end to say the trailers name and where and when its on. I think they made the correct decision by not doing this, as if they did, it could have brought a viewer "back down to earth" too quickly, and they could forget about the rest of the dramatic trailer that they've just seen.
As well as opening the trailer well, I think the sound track itself also finishes the whole trailer effectively by the way it nicely fade out. Mise
Mise seems to be well considered within this trailer. Costumes, for instance helps set the tone of certain parts, in the opening clip. The two boys are wearing black smart clothing. By using costumes of this colour, it conveys a negative mood as black can be linked with death and is the colour symbol for grief. They have also used props to help describe a characters personality. There is a close up of a man smoking a cigarette, this would add to the hard man, villain type they are trying to convey for that character, as smoking is generally considered a bad thing in society. In that particular clip the cigarette really helped build the scene. The main focus is the gun, the person on the floor and the gunshot, but I believe the gunshot would not be as effective without the cigarette being thrown. This had shown me that even small props can add greatly to a short clip. The use of a real fire at the end shows the dedication to props and their settings they had while making their trailer. Using props such as the fire really adds to the overall professional feel of this trailer. Camera Angles
There are a large variety of shots used throughout this trailer. The establishing shot as the trailer opens is effective as it allows the audience a small amount of time to think about what is to come in the trailer, it also sets the tone for this fist clip.
There are many well thought over shots used in the trailer, including close ups to highlight significant parts. There are many shots such as tilts, low angle and high angle. The camera has been held very steady throughout, there is no shaky shots, this adds to the good finish of the trailer. Editing and Titles
Editing throughout the trailer is of a really high standard. It all flows well, all the clips fit perfectly together and the 180 degree rule hasn't been broken.
I really like the way some specific parts are in slow motion, and some parts have been sped up, small touches like these all add to the effectiveness of the trailer.
Following conventions of soap opera trailers, the information for the trailer, this being, the soap name, and where and when it is on, is displayed via text and the end of the trailer.
Trailer 2
Sound
I found the way that they didn't use a non-diegetic soundtrack really interesting, as i had not seen a trailer without one before.
They have a lot of dialogue throughout, which probably could be easily missed if there was a soundtrack above it, yet I still feel that having a soundtrack would only enhance the trailer as a whole.
The trailer feels as if its slow paced, but really most of it uses fast paced editing, I think if you were to add a soundtrack it would pick up the pace. By not using sounds, they have made their trailer individual and original.
This trailer is based around the diegetic dialogue between the characters, by doing this they have gone against conventions of soap opera trailers, which usually include no dialogue. I believe this works in the trailer as they introduce a title, and then display each title using the dialogue in the following scene. Without the titles though, they would have been as risk of their trailer looking more like an actual soap episode, rather than an advert for the show.
Something I think they could have improved on is the speech clarity throughout the trailer, the voice over for the titles is quite muffled, and I think the actors speak too fast at points. Background noises, such as other people speaking and wind, also takes away from the dialogue. Mise
Something I think they really considered in their trailer was the use of props in each individual section. They seem to have a dominant prop for each heading, which suits the theme, Money for the 'Money trouble' title, a rucksack for the 'Confrontations' parts and a mobile phone for the 'Angry bosses' section.
I think they could have considered costume more though, as for instance, the boys that appear in the first and final section are wearing the same clothing for both, but it seems to me that these two scene would be from two separate days, although I could be wrong. They could also have made their character types more convincing via costumes, for example making the boss wear a suit. Camera Angles
They use a good amount of camera angles throughout the trailer, these include mid shots, 2 and 3 shots, and many good pans. Some of these shots seem well thought over, such as a high angle shot on the boy during the 'Money trouble' section, showing his vulnerability at that time. Something that I noticed was their effective framing of characters within shots. Editing and Titles
An editing technique they have used a couple of times in the trailer, is the shot reverse shot. This is effective as it allows the audience to see the initial reactions of characters during conversations. The overall editing of the trailer is quite confusing at times, as at one point you can see there are two separate clips that they have tried to make look as if they are one clip, but it doesn't quite work.
There is also one point where there is a good establishing pan. This pan continues past some characters, then the following shot is of those characters. This makes the combination of the shots seem very strange. If they cut the pan down during editing, it would be much more effective. I think the trailer could benefit from a few transitions, maybe between the heading and the following scene, just to allow the trailer to run more smoothly.
Following conventions of soap opera trailers, all the important information about the soap is shown at the end. I also like the effective reveal of the soaps name at the end of the trailer.
The soap opera trailer below was made two years ago by Media Studies students in the two years above me.
This trailer is effective as it is easy to tell right away that it is advertising a soap rather than a period drama for example. I think the subject of a wedding was a good choice, as many soap trailers on the television are centred around weddings. As they have managed to portray it in a good way, it has made their trailer seem more realistic.
I think there is a really good amount and variety of camera angles used, although at times, the camera seems unstable and shaky. I believe the mise in the trailer is well thought over and creates a sense of verisimilitude within the trailer. The setting and costumes in particular are effective as they reflect real life. Lighting at times could be better as some clips, such as those in the wedding scene, are filmed in low key lighting, whereas it should be the opposite.
I think they have done really well with following regular conventions of soap trailers. The main titles are at the end and they have followed Todorov's narrative theory, as it starts with equilibrium and escalates from there onward. They have placed small revealing titles within the trailer which are not that common in actual soap trailers, yet i think it is necessary in this trailer. It also ends with a large cliffhanger, making the audience want to know what happens next, thus attracting them to watch the soap.
The diegetic and non-diegetic sounds used throughout are effective as some build tension, and others are reflective of what we are viewing. My personal opinion would be to also put a non-diegetic soundtrack throughout to help set the tone in addition to allowing the trailer to flow more, but it stills works without one.
I think an improvement i would give would be to make the editing more fast paced and to cut down some clips, as i think it could be made a lot shorter, with the same good effect and outcome.
Overall i do think the trailer would make people want to watch their soap, but i think there is an issue in the respect that it seems they are almost giving too much away, at times, i feel as if i'm watching the soap itself, and not the trailer.
This trailer is from the BBC One soap, Eastenders.
The trailer is about a controversial up coming wedding in the soaps story line. In terms of narrative, it follows Todorov's theory of equilibrium by including stages 1 and 2 within the trailer.
Sound The non diegetic music used throughout is a slow paced, strange and creepy soundtrack. I would say it resembles that of a child's music box. Nursery rhymes and other child like music, when used in certain situations, such as this trailer, can be effective at indicating a psychotic character, creating an eerie setting, and overall building fear for the audience. All of which i believe is achieved in this trailer.
Camera Angles and Editing There is an over the shoulder shot of the female protagonist looking at herself in the mirror. This is when the male antagonist is introduced, as we can see him in the background via the mirror. Mirrors are used to add fright in horror movies and TV shows as they show the viewer things that they would not ordinarily have seen. The antagonist is then fully introduced by a quick close up on his face, where upon it is hard to tell his emotion, allowing the audience to ask questions as to what is to come next.
There is a high angle shot used on the female, displaying her vulnerability to the viewers. We are shown extreme close ups of the males hands and eyes, which shows us that he is controlling his wife to be. There are many shot reverse shots between the two characters, with each one, you can see the female becoming more worried, and the male progressing with pride and satisfaction with what he is doing.
Mise The trailer opens to a contrasting scene of mainly low key lighting as there doesn't seem to be a background, just darkness. In contrast, within the darkness there is a female in her white wedding dress, getting herself ready at a white dressing table. The wedding dress indicates a marriage, which has connotations to happiness and joy. A high key white path then appears in the darkness, which would usually suggest something good if you were to follow the path, but instead, ironically the path guides the female to the antagonist. The positive looking pathway could also be what the female character is thinking herself, as she does not yet realise that the male is a villain, an example of dramatic irony. Throughout the trailer you can see robot arms taking items away from the female and replacing them with items chosen by the male. This has connotations to the male stripping the female from her individuality and personal opinion. The robot arms are controlled by the male antagonist, this could relate to the fact that he is trying to make the female into his robot, relating to the overall theme of the trailer of Peggy being controlled.
Titles In terms of titling, the channel name is shown right at the start, the rest of the titles are at the end. The trailer slogan is spoken at the end 'He's got Peggy under control, but for how much longer?', also spoken is the name of the soap, the date it is to be aired on, and the channel. Displayed on screen at the end of the trailer is the date it is being shown, the channel, BBC One, and the soap name and the specific topic of that episode 'Eastenders: The Wedding'.
This soap trailer is from the BBC One soap, Eastenders.
In this trailer which reintroduces a character from the soaps past, Todorov's theory of equilibrium is followed and stages one to three are displayed. Narrative wise, the trailer builds to a peak at the end. Camera Angles and Editing Many camera angles are used throughout. Many are long and mid shots of well known characters in the soap, establishing to the audience which soap is being advertised and the characters this metaphorical 'storm' will effect. In addition to these, close ups of the characters faces are also prominent in the trailer. These are to show the shocked and scared reaction they have as they look up at the main character of the trailer, who is still unknown to the audience, adding to the suspense. There is also a high angle shot used on a strong female character in the soap, showing that now even she is vulnerable. At the end of the trailer, the character at the centre of the storm is introduced, we first see her at an extreme long shot, so we still cannot see who she is, once again building the tension The camera then goes to a mid shot of the female, then zooms into a close up, revealing her to the audience. Sound The trailer uses a non diegetic soundtrack and diegetic sound effects, all of which, link to the trailers storm theme. Diegetic sounds include wind and rain. These match the visual side of the trailer, as we can watch the storm and to add emphasis, we can also hear it. There is a fast paced rock like soundtrack throughout, this matches the fast paced editing which relates to the idea of chaos being caused. Mise There is a fair amount of Mise in the clip, lots of which have connotations to the storm theme. Right at the start you notice the sign of the Queen Vic pub which is iconic to the soap, allowing us to know right away what show is being advertised. Low key lighting is used throughout, displaying the dark sky and bad weather to the viewers. In the clip you can see there is a lot of mess and debris on the ground which has large connotations to the storm theme of the trailer. We are also shown all the recognizable locations within the soap, such as the pub, the shop and the chippy telling us that nowhere is safe. The main female character is dressed in a wedding dress, this allows the audience to question why she is wearing this, and it hints at possible story lines, hopefully attracting the audience to watch the soap. Titles In terms of titles, the BBC One logo is shown throughout, reminding us of the host channel. The slogan of the trailer 'There's one heck of a storm coming' is spoken but not written probably to added affect. The soap name, Eastenders and when it is on 'coming soon' is displayed at the end.
