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