What is a soap opera?

Soap operas were originally broadcast on radio, but about 60 years ago they started to broadcast on television.  A soap opera also known as a soap is a TV drama which most commonly revolves around a community in a certain area and is always based on real life problems and situations, and usually they portray answers on how to solve these issues the correct way.  A good example of a typical soap opera that conveys real life problems and the solution to these problems is Eastenders.  For example in Eastenders there have been stories about teenage pregnancy which conveys to the audience and mainly the teenage audience the consequences of getting pregnant too early.  There have also been many stories about people having affairs and again the makers of the soap have shown what affairs can lead to.  Typical soaps like Eastenders convey messages to the viewers about real life situations and the solutions to these problems.  Soaps are usually set in a small area such as a street, a square, or a cul-de-sac and the also all have a main meeting point where most of the characters will meet each other and interact and this is where most the action will happen.  Most soap operas are around 30 minutes long per episode and this is a good choice for the length of each episode as this way it is not too short which allows enough action to happen, making the whole episode exciting and also it is not too long which doesn’t make it boring for the viewer.  all soaps end with cliff-hangers which is a good way to end a soap as this way it leaves the audience wanting more so they will tune in the next time it is on, also throughout the whole episode of a soap there are many mini cliff-hangers which keeps the viewers intrigued and will stop them from being bored and changing the channel.  Finally every single soap starts with a theme tune and also ends with the same theme tune, this is done to make the music recognisable so if someone were to be away from their T.V as soon as they heard this theme tune they would instantly relate it to the soap opera and then they will remember it is on and go and watch the programme

Family and community in soap operas

All soap operas are revolved around and made up around the ideas of families and a community.  The community is all the families and characters in the area where the soap opera is set and these families and characters make up the community.  Eastenders is a good example of this and it was built around the idea of clans and families and each and every character and family would have their place in the community.  Usually there will be many families and one or two of these families will be culturally different to the rest and they use these families to show traditional and cultural lifestyles of people from different parts of the world for example, in Eastenders there is one black family and one Asian family and in the black family they use a character called Patrick who has come from Trinidad and Tobago and he represents people from this island in terms of dress style, accent and some characteristics.  The Asian Muslim family in Eastenders is a Pakistani family who are used to represent some of the south Asian countries like India and Pakistan and also Islam.  These culturally different families allow the soap to have unique stories as they can use problems that would occur in for example an Asian Muslim family.  In Eastenders there was a storyline about a young Asian Muslim boy who was gay and his family broke contact with him and disowned him.  All the storylines and problems in soap operas come from the families within the community and they usually have conflict within their own family or with a different family and even once a while someone from outside this community.  New characters are always joining soaps and many characters also leave these soaps, but the characters that join are made a part of the community fairly quickly and sometimes the characters that leave 

Eastenders theme tune

The Eastenders theme tune starts off with drums which get faster and louder at each beat to increase the tension which relates to the drama and cliff-hanger, and then goes into a piano.  The theme tune was specifically made for Eastenders by composer Simon May in 1984, although he was assisted by Leslie Osborne.  The album which included the Eastenders theme tune is called ‘Simon’s way’, which also included the theme to Howard’s way yet another famous piece of music composed by him.  Simon May is a British musician and composer and is famous for composing the famous Eastenders theme tune, he composes music for films and TV programmes and was born in Devizes Wiltshire in England.  Simon May worked for the ATV (Associated TeleVision), and whiles working there he was approached and asked to compose some music for Crossroads, which got number 2 In the UK singles chart in 1974.

The Eastenders theme tunes purpose is simply to introduce Eastenders for example the increasing drum pace reflects on the drama involved in the soap opera and also to create atmosphere.  Another purpose is to make the tune recognisable.  The genre of this piece of music is Classical as it has a nice, slow and calm and melody.  The Classical genre was first introduced in Europe from about the 9^th century until present times.  The instruments used in Classical music are electric guitars, pianos and computer generated sounds which obviously came a bit later on.

The publisher of the Eastenders theme tune is Sony who is a multinational company.

This theme tune was first released on CD in the early 80’s.




I started off by researching what a soap opera actually was and then once i found out what a soap opera was i then needed to find out what the conventions of a typical soap opera are

Conventions of a soap opera

Here is a list of common conventions in most soap operas

Family life – most soaps if not all are family orientated and all these families together build up the whole community of the soap.

Community –soaps tend to revolve around a community of people living amongst each other and usually the problems occur between the families that make up this community.

Central meeting point – In all soaps there is a central meeting point such as a Pub and this central meeting point will be used to make the characters within the soap interact with each other and this is how the stories are developed.

Setting – all soaps are set in a certain area such as a street, a cul-de-sac or a square and this way everyone living in that area will get to know each other which again helps to drive the plot.

Theme tune – all soaps have a theme tune which becomes recognisable, these theme tunes are usually played just before the soap is about to start and just as the soap ends.  The theme tunes help viewers and listeners to recognise a certain piece of music and relate it to the soap.

Realistic – most soaps carry a theme of realism which allows the audience to follow stories and relate it to their own life experiences which keeps the audience enticed and anxious to watch again and again to see what is going to happen next.  Most of the problems that occur in soap operas convey a solution on how to solve these problems the correct way and this is another reason that keeps the viewers watching as they can find help with maybe problems of their own.

Cliff-hanger – there are many ways that soaps keep the audience watching and one of these ways are cliff-hangers.  Cliff-hangers keep the audience excited and left wanting more which will encourage them to tune in the next time the soap is on.  Also these cliff-hangers are at the end of the soap, but there are also many mini cliff-hangers throughout every episode and this keeps the viewer tuned in and keeps them excited and not bored.

Character – in every soap there are certain characters such as, a female matriarch (Peggy Mitchell), a boss or business owner (Phil Mitchell), a poor chav family (Bianca's family), a feisty young woman (Lucy), a group of teenagers and usually a couple of crazy characters.


I researched the conventions of soap operas and these were my findings. i felt the next necessary step was to analyse a whole episode of a soap opera in order to see exactly how these conventions are used

Analysis of episode - Eastenders

 

The prime target audience for Eastenders is around 14 year olds to 50 year olds, although it can be target at a much older audience. In this episode of Eastenders jealousy, love, anger, culture, relationships, revenge, family, trust, and paranoia are being communicated, these themes are being communicated through the camera work, Mise-en-scene, sound and editing. These themes are communicated in this way because it will have an affect on the audience and emphasize on the message, for example if there was a angry character, the camera shot would probably be a close up so that the viewer can see the characters facial expressions and maybe even their body language. This will most probably then be backed up by the mise-en-scene, maybe by showing a knife in the frame, this could then be backed up further by some intense music, the editing could also possibly represent the anger in the scene by maybe some fast cuts. The genre of Eastenders is a social realism drama. The purpose of Eastenders is to reflect on everyday reality in typical London.

Eastenders appeals to middle aged people due to these people being at a peak in their life, which means they will have most probably encountered life's dramas and problems. The social realism is taken again by this age group as they will be more interested in reality rather than a fantasy, also because they may find answers on how to deal with current problems in their life or in the future.

In this episode of Eastenders the theme of jealousy is communicated throughout the episode. We constantly see Zainab getting angered over seeing her husband with another woman although she is with another man. There is a camera shot to portray this, we have a reaction shot of Zainab so that we can see she is jealous to what she has just seen.  Anger is also constantly communicated in this episode and between many different characters, but for example, we see that Phil Mitchell is angry over something, this is conveyed through the mise-en-scene which shows Phil Mitchell's angry facial expressions. Culture is represented through many aspects in this episode. Mise-en-scene shows Zainab with Coconut oil in her hair, which is a cultural thing that Indians and Pakistani people do, also through sound culture is communicated as there is constant talk of going back to their homeland of Pakistan with Zainab, Yusef, Amira and Afia. Also Yusef and Zainab have a conversation about not having a physical relationship until they are married which again reflects on their culture, these are just a few things which point out an cultural message in this episode. Relationships are very present in this episode and there are different types of relationships, such as a business partnership, a husband and wife relationship and a parent and child relationship. Take one of these, like the relationship between Roxy and her daughter, we see Roxy crying as she might lose custody of her daughter, we are shown this through the characters facial expressions, behavior and through camera shots, there is a high angled camera shot of her making look lowly, this conveys that she is feeling low and down. This also ties into the theme of family as Phil reacts to this as she is his cousin so he tries to help her out and comfort her, which shows a sense of family, this is communicated to the audience through mise-en-scene again as we see Phil's facial expressions and emotions as he watches his cousin crying. The theme of relationships and family is portrayed well through the use of many two shots, which portray some sort of connection between the two people in the frame. Paranoia is another theme present in this episode of Eastenders. For example when Phil is receiving threats he becomes paranoid and suspects all the people around him. The camera work used to portray this is very effective, there is some shaky camera movements and some point of view shots from different people looking at Phil, this conveys that he suspects everyone around him.

Overall, in this episode everyday problems are conveyed, but they are more exaggerated and dramatized. The episode portrays meaning and messages through media aspects such as the camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and editing. These four aspects combined are an powerful and effective way of impacting the audience into maybe feeling the same emotions as the characters in the scene or maybe just to sympathize and understand the characters and their situation and even relate to.

I analysed a episode of Eastenders and tried to pick out key scenes where something was being portrayed to the audience and where conventions that i had previously studied were being used. the next step was to analyse a title sequence of a soap opera to give me a deeper knowledge of how conventions should be used in all aspects of the soap

Analysis of title sequence - Eastenders

I am going to analyse a title sequence for a soap. I have chosen to analyse the title sequence for Eastenders. I am going to look at four different areas when analysingthe title sequence, I will cover the use of the different camera shots and angles and what they convey, I will also cover the use of the mise-en-scene and what it is trying to portray to the audience. I will explain how the editing is used and what the purpose of editing in the way they do is. Finally, an important aspect to this title sequence is the sounds, and I will also explain the purpose of the sounds in this title sequence.

The camera work for the Eastenders title sequence is very interesting and unique as it is just one long camera shot. The camera starts above the river Thames as this is the area that the soap is set in, it starts of just above the river and starts to spiral upwards and outwards in an anti clockwise motion, slowly revealing an entire area. The length of the camera shot and the fact that it is only one shot could possibly suggest that whatever goes on in this place is ongoing and never ending, this is backed up by the way the camera spirals out, as this could portray that there is a cycle of ongoing and never ending events. As the camera spirals out further each second reveals more of the area and this tells the viewer where the soap is going to be set. I also believe that the lengthy camera shot allows the viewer to become immersed and it sinks into the viewers head where this soap is set. In the frame at the end of the shot we have a birds eye view over the whole area, this could have used in order to make the viewer feel as if we were spying over all the people and that we know about everyone's lives In the soap.

The mise-en-scene in this soap title sequence reveals where the soap is set and this can’t be mistaken. The viewer can very easily identify that this soap is set in the east end of London, this becomes apparent by the things we see in the frame such as the 02 arena and the river Thames, these are well known landmarks in east London. We also see clouds as the camera moves upwards, these clouds could be a reflection on all the hidden secrets within the soap.

The music starts of with a deep and intense drum sort of noise and then moves into a more calm piano rhythm. Starting of with these deep intense sounds could be representing the intensity of the soap and seriousness of the soap. The more calm music that follows could suggest that things do become calmer throughout this soap.

There is not much editing in this title sequence as there is only one shot, however at the end when the camera stops moving, some writing fades in which says 'Eastenders' and 'BBC' underneath it. The writings forecasts a shadow over part of the setting, this effect could have been used again to convey the idea of secrets and hidden mysteries in the soap or it could even be a reflection on the audience being nosy.

To conclude the title sequence of Eastenders is quite revealing as it tells us where this soap is going to be set by, this is done by the combination of the camera work and the mise-en-scene and it also tells us that there is a lot of drama in this soap this is portrayed by the music. It also tells us that there are secrets within this soap and nothing is ever really calm, this is conveyed through combining all four aspects as the camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and editing all back each other to show what this soap is about, for example the music tells us that things are quite dramatic in this soap and this is backed up by the camera spiralling outwards.

Analysing a title sequence gave me a deeper knowledge of how soaps attract an audience and become recognisable to them and again i noticed how soaps put together a piece of media to communicate to the audience. I deffinately needed to analyse a trailer of a soap as this was what i was going to be creating later on, therefore this was my next step

Analysis of Eastenders trailer

I am going to be analyzing a soap trailer and I have chosen to analyse a trailer from Eastenders about an affair between Stacey and Max who is the father of Stacey's boyfriend Bradley. With camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and editing, these four aspects combined communicate a message to the audience which I will discuss further.

Through the camera work it is conveyed that there is a secret being kept and through the camera work we also see who is in on the secret and who is being kept from the secret. It starts off with a shot of Stacey on her own watching Max walk with his son Bradley, in this shot we see Max sneakily look back at Stacey literally behind his son Bradley's back. This straight away makes the viewer aware that there is a secret being hidden and that the secret is Max and Stacey's and it is being kept from Bradley. The viewer will straight away make assumptions as to what the secret is, the fact that the two characters are away from each other and there is no communication portrays that there is a potential link between the two characters. This makes the first couple of camera shots are quite important to the viewer. There is a sequence of shots showing Stacey on the phone and then Max on the other end of the phone, this then makes it clear that the two know each other and that there is definitely something going on between them. Later on we see many shots of Bradley and Stacey together, then we see one of Max and his wife Tanya who are walking up to Stacey and Bradley, putting these four characters in a sequence and in the frame like that portrays who the conflict is between.

The mise-en-scene also tells a story. There seems to a lot of focus on phones in this trailer and this could possibly represent an affair as it is common for people who are having an affair to discuss things or just talk over a phone as this is less risky than meeting up. The phone also seems to represent the link between Stacey and Max as Stacey is always shown with a phone in every shot apart from the last where it seems they have been ravelled, even when she is sitting with Bradley she has a phone in her hand. When Stacey is talking to Max her clothing is more seductive as compared to when she is with her boyfriend Bradley when she is fully covered. Stacey's clothing also tells us that she is an average girl and is young which points out that she could be the victim in this as she may come across as being naive to some viewers, whereas Max is mostly dresses up in a suit and tie, representing that he is a business man and a family man so maybe he is the wrong one in all this, this also tells us about Max' personality as a family man having an affair is obviously selfish and immature.  Furthermore there is a shot where Bradley confronts Stacey and her facial expressions portray that she is guilty of his accusation.

Sound is probably the most important factor in this trailer in terms of telling a story and conveying a message to the audience. First of all the music is very intense and dramatic, the music makes the audience aware that there is a serious situation at hand and it also conveys to the audience that the outcome of this secret is going to be devastating. All this is backed up by the dialogue which is probably the most important aspect of this trailer as the dialogue clearly states that Max and Stacey are having an affair as we hear them say things like 'I love you'. 'does she know' etc. this conveys that they are worried that there secret is coming out very soon, also Bradley confronts Stacey just as she ends a phone call and he says 'boyfriend', this hints that they are up to something and that Bradley may have a clue as to what is really going on. Finally we see Max' wife Tanya storming towards Bradley and Stacey and Max following behind her, she then says 'I know your dirty, filthy little secret', this makes it definite that Max and Stacey have a hidden secret, but there is a very high chance that Tanya has lifted the veil on their secret. So sound is the most important aspect in this trailer when conveying to the audience a message and a story of what the situation is.

Last of all the editing in this trailer also tells  a story. The quick cuts portray a lot of fast paced action and it intensifies the viewing. Also the order of the shots are important as first we see Stacey, then a shot of Max and Bradley, which suggests a love triangle or an affair, we then see a few cuts between Max and Stacey, which conveys a hidden relationship as when we see Stacey with Bradley the shots are of the two characters together, portraying that they are rightfully together and the scandal is not between them. For the final shot we see Max with his wife Tanya and Stacey with her boyfriend Bradley and then the whole picture is painted and it becomes clear who is with who and who the affair is between.

To sum up, although all four of the areas covered reveal a message and story to the audience in an affective way, it is clear that sound and editing are the main aspects used to convey the story and it is these two aspects which make this trailer powerful and clear and leave an affect on the audience.

Finally i analysed a trailer of a soap, this was the most important part of a soap i had to analyse as this was what i was goig to be producing. i learnt a great amount from analysing a soap trailer and i implemented this as much as i could in my own trailer. After analysing all these aspects of soap operas and researching everything about soaps, i had put an idea together for my own soap for whihc i had to write up a treatment for

My group shared our pitch table with each other and we all picked our best ideas for which i created another pitch table with all of our best ideas together and then which ever one was selected we were going to write a treatment for

Treatment for SilverStreet

This soap opera is called ‘Silver Street’, which is about everyday, real life problems and situations and how these problems should be solved the right way, but at the same time it portrays a reality that not all problems and situations in our everyday life are easily solved or solved at all.  The soap portrays a wide range of people’s life around a rough and underprivileged area.  There are all sorts of people there from different backgrounds, different races and different ages, and we see how life is for all these people and their families and the problems they face almost every day.  This soap will be a reflection on real life to make it seem as realistic as possible.

The soap will open a conventional way by introducing as many different characters as possible by tying the whole community to a big story.  From the very first episode it will be dramatic and enticing.

Throughout the course of the soap we will see many dramatic stories with real life situations, but also exaggerated a bit to add to the excitement.  We will see a community where everyone knows each other, from a local doctor to a local shop keeper and to normal residents living in the area.  We will also get familiar with characters after a while and see some of them leave and many new faces joining. 

The main characters for this soap will be two local boys called David and Jay, the reason they will be pretty main characters within this soap is because they have been living in the area for a long time and their families are well known, they are always travelling around the area and hanging around the area.  Jay and David are both 18 year old youths, who have finished college and are trying to get jobs, but having a difficult time along the way and sometimes doing wrong actions to get by.  Another character will be a drug dealer called Jonathan who is a 23 year old man, but the elder community are not aware of his criminal side.  Another character will be a local 27 year old man called Ryan who distributes catalogues for Avon so he also is quite popular within the community.  The style of the soap will be gritty.

The opening storyline which will be a memorable one will be about the local doctor who seems very kind and caring is actually a killer.

The soap will be targeted at people aged 12 – 40 mainly and possibly even older people.  The soap will be set around Silver Street being a road, and local parks, alleys and some other local locations.

I wrote up a brief treatment for my idea for a new soap opera called SilverStreet, but this was just an idea amongst other ideas and i would have to write another more detailed treatment if my idea was selected by the group

Group treatment for SilverStreet

In order to come up with an idea for a soap opera, the whole of my group created pitch tables with many different ideas on them.  We then as a group looked at these ideas and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of these ideas.  After the discussion we came to a conclusion about which ideas sounded the best, so we took one of the best ideas from each of our pitch tables and we then compared them and chose our best idea.  So we chose ‘Silver Street’.

This soap opera is called ‘Silver Street’, which is about everyday, real life problems and situations and how these problems should be solved the right way, but at the same time it portrays a reality that not all problems and situations in our everyday life are easily solved or solved at all.  The soap portrays a wide range of people’s life around a rough and underprivileged area.  There are all sorts of people there from different backgrounds, different races and different ages, and we see how life is for all these people and their families and the problems they face almost every day.  This soap will be a reflection on real life to make it seem as realistic as possible.

The soap will open a conventional way by introducing as many different characters as possible by tying the whole community to a big story.  From the very first episode it will be dramatic and enticing.

Throughout the course of the soap we will see many dramatic stories with real life situations, but also exaggerated a bit to add to the excitement.  We will see a community where everyone knows each other, from a local doctor to a local shop keeper and to normal residents living in the area.  We will also get familiar with characters after a while and see some of them leave and many new faces joining. 

The main characters for this soap will be two local boys called David and Jay, the reason they will be pretty main characters within this soap is because they have been living in the area for a long time and their families are well known, they are always travelling around the area and hanging around the area.  Jay and David are both 18 year old youths, who have finished college and are trying to get jobs, but having a difficult time along the way and sometimes doing wrong actions to get by.  Another character will be a drug dealer called Jonathan who is a 23 year old man, but the elder community are not aware of his criminal side.  Another character will be a local 27 year old man called Ryan who distributes catalogues for Avon so he also is quite popular within the community.  The style of the soap will be gritty.

The opening storyline which will be a memorable one will be about the local doctor who seems very kind and caring is actually a killer.

The soap will be targeted at people aged 12 – 40 mainly and possibly even older people.  The soap will be set around Silver Street being a road, and local parks, alleys and some other local locations.

As a group we decided to proceed with SilverStreet and choose this as our main idea, therefore i was required to write up another treatment in more depth whihc is why i created this group treatment. The next step in planning and reaserching was to create a storyboard

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our soap opera trailer. We created this storyboard as a part of our planning, as this would help us to save time because we would not have to come up with camera shots when we get to our location and we could go straight into filming. 

I created a storyboard in order to see how we were going to take each shot and what sounds we would have with that shot, this made the whole process more simple for us. The next step was to make a script so that we could follow exactly how this was going to be filmed

Script for trailer

EXT.SLIVER STREET.DAY

(Close up) Street sign fades in and fades out.

 Cut to:

The screen then goes black.

(DIEGETIC)            

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                         Cut to:

(Extreme long shot) Bus coming toward bus stop.                                              

                                                                                                                       

Cut to

(Medium long shot)  Boy steps off the bus and walks toward the shop

                                                                                                                        Cut to           

(Medium long shot) Boy enters the shop and look at the other

boy.

                                                                                                                        Cut to

(Long shot) Boy then exits the shop at walks towards a road.

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                        Cut to

(Extreme long shot) boy then stops to let car pass then car stops to let passenger out of the car

(Tracking shot/Close up) Moving shot of legs then camera stops at street sign.

                                                                                                                       

Fade out

We created a script for our soap trailer and at this point we had our ideas, but it was necessary for us to find out what audiences thought of our idea and what they thought of soap operas in general, so the next step was feedback from the audience

Analysis of questionnaires (including pilot)

I created a gave out a number of questionnaires to a mixed group of people. The group were of different ages, race and gender. I created and gave out the questionnaires in order to help me with creating my soap opera, as this would tell me a lot about what people want in a soap and what they don't want in s soap opera.

I gathered the information from the questionnaires that I handed out and analysed the findings so that I would clearly be able to see what to include and what not to include in my soap opera, although I am also going to consider my own opinion and not base my soap entirely on the feedback received from the group of people that filled out the questionnaires.

All together I handed out 8 questionnaires. Out of these eight people, four were males and four were females and the ages ranged from 14 – 20. I found that most of the people I interviewed only watched one soap which was Eastenders, I believe this was because they are from London so they would prefer watching something that they could reflect on, this has encouraged me to keep my soap in a typical London setting.  The majority of them also preferred the soap to be set in a urban setting as opposed to a rural setting, again I think this is because they live in a urban area so they would be able to relate to the soap more. Furthermore I discovered that  the majority of the people I questioned preferred for soaps to be broadcast from 7.00pm to around 8.00pm, with the exception of one who wanted them to be broadcast at around 10.00pm. This again fits in with my original plan of broadcasting my soap around this time. To add to that all the people questioned wanted each episode to be 30 minutes long. I also learned that most people would want my soap opera to be broadcast 5 times a week. I also asked them if they think a trailer for a new soap should include dialogue or not and the response was mixed, but overall they wanted a limited amount of dialogue. Most people also preferred typical soaps rather than a new styled soap opera.

Overall my findings were helpful as they told me where I was going right and where I was going wrong. For example I already had planned to make each episode 30 minutes long and broadcast a episode every day, furthermore I had also already planned to set my soap in a urban setting, the results from my questionnaires told me that I was doing the right thing, however I did learn something which I was not going to include in the trailer for my soap opera which was dialogue, but now after seeing that all the people wanted dialogue or at least minimal dialogue, I am now considering including at least some dialogue.

In order to recieve audience feedback on our idea for a new soap opera we had to ask them questions. The best way to do this was to design a questionnaire and hand them out to a range of people which we did, however first we created a pilot questionnaire to see if the questionnaire was written well ad if it was practical, then based on the pilot questionnaire we created many more so that we could get alot of feedback. We kept these questions open so that we could get feedback on soaps in general, but we also had to find out what they thought of our soap opera speciffically, so this was the next step

Focus group interview