Eastenders Trailer Analysis

This trailer features two very established members of the Eastenders cast who are returning after a long hiatus, hence the style of trailer which is reliant on the audience to remembering these two characters from previous episodes (Kat and Alfie). The trailer is a parody of the typical spaghetti western stand offs, based on the popularity of both characters which justifies the other characters featured within the trailer to feel intimidated. Therefore audience/viewers know the characters, making it unnecessary to introduce them with some sort of narrative.

The trailer features an initial establishing shot of the square, which confirms where the soap will take place. This eventual follows multiple medium/close shots of characters, focusing on their facial expressions as the diagetic sound is low and the soundtrack is played much higher. The two main characters Kat and Alfie are disguised by using close ups of other body parts other than their face to remain anonymous till the very end where they pan up to show their faces.

The trailer is extremely stylized adopting a spaghetti western style which is significantly apparent from the mise en scene, for example Kat and Alfie are wearing typical period clothing from that particular time period in the 'West'. The sepia tone in the trailer is significantly different from the tone diluted tone in the actual soap. In addition the soundtrack is heavily influenced by western movies, otherwise known as intertext, for example when Alfie emerges from the shadows there is a typical Western hero soundtrack within the background.

However our advanced production cannot use this particular type of trailer style as it is a new soap and the characters featured within our soap opera trailer and new thus requiring the trailer to feature some sort of mini narrative that will allow the audience to understand who the characters are.

Hollyoaks Launch Trailer Analysis

I chose to analyse the Hollyoaks launch trailer as it takes an unconventional way of creating a trailer wheret the actors break character and speak directly to the viewer, this may be considered in our Soap Opera trailer although it would be risky and time consumer to justify that it is a soap as it must follow the conventions of the genre.

The launch trailer for Hollyoaks is extremely unconventional due to the actors breaking character and directly addressing the audience. By doing this it breaks every soap opera convention, although this isn't the actual soap opera, more specifically it is the trailer which is supposed to have a lasting affect on those who view it in order to make them remember it. This will eventually build a fan base (which is vital to the success of a soap), not only will it appeal to those who watched the trailer, fans will gossip amongst their friends which inevitably increases the public awareness of the new soap opera. The comedy within the trailer uses a very noticable sexual innuendo and highlights it within the trailer. For example the male characters says "its only a small part", to which the attractive female responds "so I've heard". This appeals to mature teenage audiences due to the sexuality, not only within the comedy features in the trailer, but the way the entire cast is aesthetically appealing. Therefore launch trailers differ significantly from trailers from Eastenders due to the fact it has an established audience which therefore means the trailer often advertises or promotes a particular narrative of high profile event features within a future episode.

However within our Soap Opera trailer I feel it is necessary to incorporate a narrative into the trailer as the approach taken by Hollyoaks is particularly risky due to the fact in the past there wasn't a very prominent soap that was targeted primarily to a young teenage audience. Therefore within our trailer we must ensure that there is an appealling narrative which is shown very briefly in order to attract viewers to see how it unfolds.

The Street Pitch Table/Treatment/Character Profile Table

This is the initial pitch table the group equally contributed to in order to throw in ideas which we will eventually develop into our advanced creative project:

Possible Title	Content	Target Audience (age, gender, social class etc)	Channel and time of broadcast	Frequency
The Street	A small street in the urban city of London where the characters are mainly of a working class background.	Youth between ages 12-18, girls/boys, working class	Channel 5 at 5:00pm	Monday - Friday
Suburbia	A small suburban upper class road where the characters have dramatic lives.	Young adults (primary audience) to Middle age (secondary audience), working to middle class	Channel 4 at 8:00pm	Monday - Thursday
Concrete Jungle	A group of employees at a business in the city, following everyday lives.	Broad audience, mostly targeted to young adults, girls, working and middle class	Channel 5 at 9:00pm	Monday - Friday

As a group we all mutually agreed that The Street was the best pitch to develop into a treatment, here is the treatment:

The Street is a weekly televised serial soap opera which will air Monday to Friday with an omnibus on the weekend, preferably on a Sunday. The Street will be entirely focused within a small community in South London. The significantly large cast of characters will be of a particular class, more specifically of a lower / working class as it will coincide with the location thus being set within a sub-urban area consisting of sets which include the pub, community centre, estate, park, etc. The characters within the soap opera will be of diverse ethnicities as the area of south London is multicultural. However there will be a particular focus on current stereotypes of youth crime, especially those within the Afro-Caribbean community. The streets will have a broad target audience although it focus on primarily younger audiences, especially young teenager hence the airing time will be scheduled after popular soap operas targeted to a similar audience such as Hollyoaks, therefore the broadcasting time will be at 7:30 to 8pm. The channel it will air on will be E4 as it already has established a young audience thus ensuring The Street will gain momentum due to its being aired after Hollyoaks.

Its 2011, the South London streets are becoming very unstable and volatile. When Michelle left the street two years ago her family went in turmoil and so did the entire Street, bitter fights broke out amongst neighbours and eventually turned the friendly neighbourhood into a broken community. Ben and Hayley are the parents of Michelle have been divorced for six months after the disappearance of their daughter. Ben lost his entire business at the hands of his wife Hayley and is suffering from deep depression, dealing with severe alcohol problems which consume him into episodes of violent rage. Michelle returns to the street in the first episode and begins to wreak havoc, destroying the little that is left of her family. On the other hand the youth living in the council homes on the street have become enticed by crime and gang culture, Dwayne starts dealing narcotics in the alleyways of the street with his friend Cameron. Sally is now 3 months pregnant to Dwayne's child, although unknowingly the baby is actually Cameron's but both are oblivious to this, whilst Sally deals with her 3 year old child she faces a dilemma whether to tell them who's the father.

Character Profile Table:

Character	What do they look like?	What is their personality?	Storyline
Benjamin Michael	Benjamin is tall, blonde, blue eyes, pale skin and a chiselled jaw who wears a suit and tie.	Benjamin is a very calm and caring family man, but has the potential to snap and react violently.	Benjamin is undergoing the stressful divorce between him and his wife due to her missing daughter.
Hayley Thornton	Hayley is a tall, brunette, green eyes, pale skin with freckles who dresses casually.	Hayley is an independent, powerful, aggressive woman, found in the centre of conflicts.	Hayley is the evil ex wife of Benjamin who is desperately looking for her daughter.
Michelle Michael	Michelle is young, petit, brunette with a tan who dresses provocatively.	Michelle is a strong willed girl who desires independence, she is argumentative and miserable.	Michelle is returning to the street after 5 long years.
Sally Cole	Sally is a young girl in her teens who is now 3 months pregnant, with blonde hair and green eyes	Sally is an innocent girl who is very easily manipulated by her peers and shy.	Sally faces the dilemma whether or not to tell Dwayne that she is pregnant with Cameron’s baby.
Dwayne David	Dwayne is a young Afro-Caribbean boy in his late teens, dressed in baggy clothing and wears hats and bandanas	Dwayne keeps himself to himself thus being very independent but has a short temper which leads to him lashing out violently.	Dwayne’s father left when he was nine years old and ever since has been dealing drugs. He assumes Sally is pregnant with his child.
Cameron Roberts	Cameron is a chubby teenager, black scruffy hair and beard with brown eyes.	Cameron is quiet and shy, easily tempted by Dwayne to deal drugs with him.	Cameron has always loved Sally who live next-door and got her pregnant at a party but doesn’t remember.

Soap Opera Community Research

In the soap opera genre, communities are one of the crucial conventions that contribute significantly to the realism. The realism is necessary in order to help viewers relate to the narrative and the characters as certain aspects of both may be very similar to their own lives thus creating certain empathy for particular character or narrative. The community aspect of soap operas keeps the area secluded from the rest of the world within the typically fictional areas, creating another small world which contains everything necessary to be self sufficient. This can potentially make the viewer switch off consciously and become a spectator of the world within the soap opera, possible member of the community hence the reason why soap operas are so habit forming. Therefore in my soap opera The Street I hope to create a similar sense of community within the small trailer similar to that of Coronation Street which will significantly benefit the soap opera and make it more appealing.

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary research involves the collecting data that does not already exist, thus being original data. Primary Research is often done after collecting secondary data. This can be through numerous forms, including questionnaires, direct observation and telephone interviews amongst others. This information may be collected in things like questionnaires and interviews.

Qualitative research:

·         Interviews

·         Focus groups

·         Participant observation

Quantitative research:

·         Controlled laboratory experiments

·         Field work

·         Questionnaires

·         Surveys

·         Ethnographies

There are advantages and disadvantages to primary research:

Advantages:

• Addresses specific research
• Great control
• Efficient spending for information
• Proprietary information

Disadvantages:

• Expensive
• It is longer to collect primary research
• May become out of date.
• People may not reply if emails or letters are used

Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or experiments.

Questionnaire

What is your age?

5-9 [1]                         10-14 [4]                    15-19 [9]                   20-24 [3]                    25-29 [2]     30+ [1]

What is your gender?

Male [6]                   Female [14]

What is your favourite soap opera?

Eastenders [4]                       Coronation Street [2]                           Emmerdale [2]                         Home and Away [6]              Neighbours [4]

What time do you watch soap operas?

3pm-4pm [0]                         4pm-5pm [0]                       5pm-6pm [0]                    6pm-7pm [10]    7pm-8pm [5]                         8pm-9pm [5]

Would you like another soap opera on TV?

Yes [18]                        No [2]

What channel would you prefer a new soap opera to air on?

BBC1 [5]                     BBC2 [1]                     ITV1 [4]                      Channel 4 [4]                               Five [1]                       Other (please specify) [5]

E4 [5]

What issues would you like to see in a new soap opera?

..............................................................................

The feedback gathered from the questionnaire was extremely beneficial as it help me acquire a target audience that want a new soap opera. For example the most prominent age category within our research was the 15 to 19 years of age category, meaning our soap will have significant competition from other soaps such as Hollyoaks (coincidentally the most popular soap amongst the people who filled in the questionnaire) which appeal to a similar audience. Therefore in order to avoid competing with Hollyoaks due to its strong established fan base, the most logical way to solve this problem is schedule our soap opera after Hollyoaks, possibly on the same channel E4 which received joint equal votes with BBC1. However this could be an opportunity to bring a contemporary soap opera aimed towards a younger audience to a very established and widely syndicated channel such as the BBC, although this may become a problem due to Eastenders audiences overlooking our soap due to the overwhelming popularity of Eastenders.  The ratio between men and women is significantly more lenient towards female audience members thus meaning the soap must deal with certain issues such as teenage pregnancy in order to appeal and educate the audience with real life issues which are relatable. Overall this questionairre was very helpful indeed and could potentially determine the outcome of our creative project.

Soap Opera Research PowerPoint

 

Eldorado Analysis

Eldorado was soap in production in the early 90’s where the nation soap opera phenomenon which was Eastenders encouraged its co producer to create a new soap which was short lived. Eldorado aired for one whole year and was then cancelled due to the low rating and poor quality of the soap. The key concepts that consist within most successful soaps are representation and realism, both of which were lacking in Eldorado based on the fact it was set in Spain within an English community. However it wasn’t represented realistically due to the lack of firsthand experience within such an environment thus portraying an unrealistic soap opera. In addition the casting of foreign actors, in particular a German student who had no experience in acting before and carried a heavy German accent was casted for a role. This and other factors such as the lack of the archetypal families which form the basis of a soap opera, for example the Mitchells in Eastenders are one of the central key families within Albert Square.
In my soap opera The Street, family will be a central feature within the narrative and characters branch off from particular family’s trees which can potentially create multiple parallel storylines / narratives which is a convention of the soap opera genre. Therefore from my analysis of Eldorado I have come to the conclusion our soap opera must take into consideration the lack of realism and appropriate representation can possibly ruin the entire soap opera thus focusing heavily on creating families within the world of our project to reflect our society and own personal experiences.

Coronation Street Analysis

I felt it was necessary to analyse another Soap Opera other than Eastenders so I chose Coronation Street, the longest running Soap Opera on British television. Firstly the narrative within the episode is similar to that of Eastenders. Coronation Street adheres to the conventions of a soap, thus having multiple narratives running parralell within one episode. For example the builder is having two seperate relationships with two different women which are known as parallel storylines which run concurrently with eachother. These narratives then branch out into other narratives, possibly creating new ones such as the final scene in the episode where the archetypal fiesty young female (Kylie) steals from the pub, whilst the owner is distracted by the builder. This coincides with soaps being deeply community based and usually having a central meeting point (typically a pub) where all the characters meet. These meeting points are typical in every episode and often the setting for major events, otherwise known as central narratives. This particular episode ended in a cliff hanger which is dramatic thus making the viewer anticipate next episode where the next episode will continue from where they left off. For example there is a continuity between episodes such as the young man going to prison, despite the assault was in a previous episode as a new viewer i easily assimilated in the world of Coronation Street a instantly began to become familiar with the multiple narratives.

The episode begins with a family having breakfast and ends very late at night within the world of the soap, despite this being very basic it helps establish the realism necessary and gives a sense of real time to the narrative. Aspects of realism within this episode include the adolescent behaviour with Kylie which is typical of her age thus allowing younger members of the audience such as the youth to empathise with this behaviour. Everyday situations such as pregnancy is a prominent theme within the media in contemporary society such as teenage pregnancy, thus worried about son, therefore stealing which creates a dramatic ending. Social class representations are accurate such as the individuals or groups within the cafe are primarily working class. Therefore Coronation Street features archetypal characters such as the builder who is of a working class background which is relatable to the majority of viewers as the target audience consists primarily of working class people.

In conclusion i found that both Eastenders and Coronation Street include the majority of soap opera conventions therefore i feel comfortable to proceed further into my advanced production.

Eastenders Title Sequence Analysis

The soap opera genre conventionally over dramatises their characters and storylines whilst capturing a certain extent of realism which is relatable with audience. This allows the audience to empathise and sympathise with the characters and narrative, thus creating contradiction. The main feature of the Eastenders title sequence is the concept of voyeurism, thus looking into the characters lives otherwise known as eavesdropping for our own viewing pleasure. Zooming out could possibly convey the storylines unfolding within the soap opera as if we are looking into their lives spectating them on a daily basis and the spinning could represent the drama spiralling out of control. The beginning credits establish the setting through noticeable landmarks which include: the London Eye, River Thames, Houses of Parliment, Big Ben and the O2 Arena. The extreme long shot shows the entire city therefore relatable to the majority of the audiences due to them being British citizens. The river Thames is edited to stand out significantly more from the depressing greys which makes the soap aesthetically appealing whilst maintaining a gritty look in the urban city of London. The music is very dramatic at the beginning but become calm once the piano begins to play which  coincides with the content of the serial ranging from extremely exaggerated storylines, to very realistic domestic issues such as domestic violence. This immediately grasps the audiences attention and subconsciously engages the viewer; the music could potentially signify the calm before the storm. The title ‘Eastenders’ comes towards the end of the sequence as the music has already established the which Soap Opera is about to begin.

Eastenders Analysis

I decided to analyse an episode of Eastenders in order to apply my knowledge of the Soap Opera genre from my previous research of conventions. Therefore focusing particularly on the multiple narratives which run parallel throughout the episode, there are 36 scenes in total and 5 different narratives within one episode thus having multiple storylines running concurrently. For example Charlie receiving a DUI, Roxy's naming her baby and Kat returning to the square. The return of Kat towards the end of the episode concludes the narrative on a cliff-hanger which is typical of the Soap Opera genre as it creates anticipation for viewers awaiting the outcome, thus watching the next episode. This keeps the audience hooked/addicted thus becoming habit forming for viewers, thus maintaining a strong audience as established Soap Opera's have consistent ratings for a significant amount of years. Also the fact that Kat is a returning character from the past makes the scene much more dramatic as it is conventional for Soap Opera characters to leave and return whenever necessary, even the death of characters cannot prevent them from returning. For example 'Dirty' Den returned to Albert Square after being killed off in Eastenders many years ago. However in Kats case, this creates realism as it creates the illusion that 'The Square' is a living breathing place and that life continues outside or off camera. In addition there is one main narrative within the episode which is focused on significantly more than others e.g. Roxy domestic issues such as renaming the baby, this usually happens in the cafe, pub and the square which are places where the multiple narratives can transition into one another this allows the storyline to branch out and create other storylines as they end on mini cliff-hangers, thus moving to the next scene and return further along allowing the narrative to flow. Therefore giving us a sense of real time as the world continues even if we leave the characters for a brief moment making Eastenders seem like a living, breathing place.

This leads onto the setting; Eastenders is based in a fictional town named Walford. Despite being a fictional location the setting is portrayed very realistically, for example the people populating the town are mainly of a working class background, multicultural society thus featuring ethnic variation and traditional terraced housing which is synonymous with these particular urban areas in East London. For example the characters are what we would refer to as archetypes e.g. the fiesty young female such as Stacy who is a strong willed girl, young thus desiring independence, usually argumentative and miserable. Therefore they are characters that are typical but in a positive way rather than a stereotype. The habit forming nature of Soap Opera's entices the viewer into the world of the soap opera, e.g. Eastenders thus making them zone out and become a member of The Square spectating other characters to which they empathise/sympathise with. Despite 'The Square' being portrayed realistically without anything out of the ordinary happening thus making it seem like a real location, the location is built with sets. The majority of storylines or narratives deal with current issues within the media, such as the significant rise in teenage pregnancy, in addition it highlights everyday occurrences individuals have to deal with such as DUI's (Charlie’s storyline), naming a baby (Roxy's storyline) etc. Although some storylines are exaggerated and sensationalised in order to be entertaining to maintain and attract more viewers, sometimes soap operas have been criticised for going over the top and have been very controversial in recent years such as they 'gay' storyline in Eastenders. Referring back to the habit forming nature of the soap opera, this is benefitted by the contribution of gossip. Gossip allows people who have left the soap opera for quite awhile to immediately ease into the habit forming viewing as it allows you to quickly catch up on the various narratives and characters. The people who are currently immersed into the Soap Opera such as Eastenders gossip about characters as if they were real, thus taking sides and having certain opinions about them.

To conclude I have analysed an episode of Eastenders and found that the conventions of soap operas are featured heavily within this particular soap opera. I have gathered through my analysis of an Eastenders episode that the fictional world of 'Albert Square' is portrayed in an extremely realist way in order to seem as normal as possible. The fictional world begins to become an alternate reality for the viewer based on the notion the characters are real people, hence the popular gossip within magazines. The characters within Eastenders are very diverse in terms of age, gender, class and ethnicity which adds to the realism. Overall Eastenders coincides with the conventions of the soap genre and it is therefore necessary for us to do the same in order to become successful.

Soap Opera Conventions

Prior to pre production it was necessary for us to understand what the soap opera conventions were, thus making our advanced production seem as real as possible.

Soap Operas are a serialised drama that runs every week all year round. They feature continuous storylines (or ‘narratives’) dealing with domestic issues, personal/family relationships. Soaps typically have an established theme and title sequence which change very little over the duration of the production. The casts for soaps are often significantly larger than those for a drama series as there is no limit to the number of character within a Soap Opera. This enables the soap to focus on certain characters in order to help the audience become familiar with them thus making storylines much more detailed. The plots are often open ended and narratives are featured and interlinked in an episode, typically following similar issues such as teenage pregnancy. The narratives run concurrently, otherwise known as parallel storylines thus having multiple narratives within one particular episode. Soaps are often set within a small community in fictional locations such as ‘Albert Square’ in Eastenders. Soaps have special episode events which coincide with the real world such as Christmas episodes. Some special episodes focus on long-departed characters, or current characters who travel to a location outside of their usual surroundings (such as Brookside's 'South', which saw Tracy Corkhill and her boyfriend run away to London). Such episodes are often referred to as 'soap bubbles' as they are often self-contained and have little impact on the on-going stories of the regular show. UK soaps typically feature traditional working class characters and settings such as terraced housing, in contrast to US soaps which are primarily middle class thus featuring more affluent characters. British soaps attempts to be as realistic as possible without becoming stale as they are often very dramatic in order to entice the viewer. Soaps conventionally begin with a ‘hook’ where storylines from the prior episode are continued and often end in cliff hanger which is an unconcluded piece of dialogue or action.

From this research i have developed an understanding for the soap opera genre thus becoming familiar with the conventions. This is necessary as I must implement these conventions within our own production in order to categorize it in the soap opera genre. Therefore in the trailer we must definitely include certain conventions such as: multiple narratives which give the soap opera a sense of community, a cliff hanger at the end of the trailer in order to create anticipation and also ensure the narratives cover domestic themes and personal or family relationships as they relate to the target audience.