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