Initial notes on Soap Opera Poster

I did the same as what I did with the Soap Opera magazines with Soap Opera posters, I studied them and commented on what stands out and attracted my eye. By studying what is genericaly found on Soap Opera posters will help me when it comes to designing my own.

I studied a poster and talked about what I saw;

Unlike the magazine the poster is not trying to cram alot of stories onto it, it has foccused more on just the one large eye catching central picture. Also unlike the magazine there is not much use of writing on the poster only the title of the Soap to allow the public to know what it is and also the advertisment of the channel that the Soap is on. The colours used however were still bright to attract attention.

From assesing what I saw when looking at Soap Opera Posters it was clear was conventions I needed to use when creating my own;

Large colourful eye catching picture in middle of poster
Lack of writing used
Name of Soap
Channel Soap is on
Needs to be colourful
Not too crammed

So when briefly thinking about what to do for my groups Soap Opera poster I think we need a large picture in the centre of possibly the main character with the title of the Soap at the top and the channel that it is going to be on.

Initial notes on Soap Opera Magazine

I looked at the front cover of a soap opera magazine such as the one below;

I studied the front cover to see what stood out about it.

The first thing that stuck out when looking at a soap opera magazine is the main storyline, this was written in big colourful letters to really attract people towards the magazine, another reason this stood out was because of the language that was used in this story, the words used were dramatic and lured me in to read the story. The title of the magazine also had this effect it was written in big letters and its very coulourful attracting people towards the magazine.
The price of the magazine was also written in large letter attracting people too it because of the low price (35p). The whole magazine front cover was covered in colourful pictures and headlines there was no empty space on the front of the cover. I realized that there was a bar code usually in the corner of every magazine. I also realized that there was a date written on the front page.

From first looking at the front of the magazine I realized that they all included;

Large Title of Magazine
Large main story
Lots of stories around the outside
Alot of use of punctuation (!?)
The price
The date
Barcode
Not a single bit of blank space

So from looking at the front cover I now have a good idea on what is needed on the front cover of the soap opera magazine that my group will create. It will need to include a largely written main story to attract the audience to the magazine. The name/title of the magazine will need to be bold and colourful to ensure it is seen. There will not only be one story on the front, it will include many different storylines and pictures. There will need to be the date on the front page along with a barcode.

Past students soap opera trailers

I decided to look and analyse a past student's soap opera trailer to see what I think works and what I think does not. I will analyse it the same as I did for the other soap opera trailer analysis into the catergories;
Mise en scene
Connontation
Sound
Camera angles
Narrative
Titles

Below is an embedded video of a year 13 from Chelmer Valley High School's soap opera trailer.

Avenue Springs



As a whole I feel this trailer is quite effective, it quite clearly shows the narratives with the different storylines through the clothing worn with the black hoodies and the body bag in the car this adds a suspisious eerie atmosphere to the trailer showing connotations of death. The narrative is shown to be murder by the suspicious way the two characters i assume are the antagonsits throwing the body bag from the back of their car. Another narrative may be use of drugs or depression as there is a mid shot of pills and water on a table.
The low key lighting works well in this piece to set the eerie mysterious atmosphere however the room used represents youth with the alarm clock and I do not believe this is what they were going for? Also the use of the blue car goes against the connotations of death use of a black or maybe een red car would have signified the murder that had occured however I understand that this could have been difficult to obtain.
The camera angles worked well in this, the mid shots gave us a clear view of the eerie suspicious characters and the use of the long shot sets the scene and shows the location, that there in a forrest, well.
The titles fit well with the conventions of soap opera they are used to a minimum they are at the end to advertise the soap to the audience letting them know when the episode is on and what channel. Also the use of the titles with the questions such as 'what if' add yet another eerie suspicious atmosphere to the piece.

Soap opera trailer analysis

As my group will be creating a soap opera trailer I decided to look deeper into what soap opera trailers include so that I know what to include in my groups. I analysed three different successful soap opera trailers about what they include so that I can follow these generic conventions when making our groups trailer to ensure it is successful.
I decided to analyse three different soap opera's for the trailers to see whether it is all of them that follow similar conventions.

I analysed the trailers into the following titles;

Mise en Scene
Connotations
Sound
Camera Angles
Narrative
Titles

Soap opera trailer 1) Eastenders 16th December 2009





In this trailer the setting is quickly set through the use of the long shot of the Queen Vic pub, this is showing where something will happen. Through the clothes that one of the characters is wearing at the beginning (a Christmas jumper) stereotypically shows that it is Christmas time. There are connotations of death through the use of some of the characters wearing black clothes and the suspicious movements they are making. The sound used also creates the connotation of death or of something going wrong as its the joyful stereotypical Christmas tune however it has been slowed down almost as if it is broken this connotes that something is not going to go as planned. Also through the use of sound the narrative is being told, they are all talking about their motives to kill a certain character so the clear narrative in this trailer is that a character within the soap is going to be killed but it will be a mystery who did it as a lot of them have motives for it.
The camera angles used at the beginning with the close up of the girl crying show that there is sadness, that although it is Christmas there is a state of depression within some of the characters.
There was not alot of use of titles throughout this trailer there was only the advertisement of BBC ONE to show which channel the programme would be showing on and also at the end was the information on what time and what day it would be shown, this is to inform the audience so that they can watch it.

Soap opera trailer 2) Coronation Street 28th February 2009



The narrative for this trailer is clear from the start that it is a wedding this is shown through the use of the hairband at the beginning with the woman in the wedding dress, the decorating of the cake and the card received.
The look on the characters face when putting up the banner with 'congratulations' written on it shows a sign on disbelief and the lack of belief he has for the couple this is the same with the female protagonist who crosses her fingers this shows that she is almost saying 'hopefully its alright' this shows connotations that something is going to go wrong. This is also shown through how everything being prepared is all perfect such as the table and the cake and the dress it signifies that something will go wrong. The girl opens a whole bottle of champagne alone and begins to drink it this could signify that she will be drunk on her wedding day causing something to go wrong. Another connotation of something going wrong is that the stereotypical wedding car is white and the car used in the trailer is black this con notates that something bad will happen as everything else was perfect but there is a black car used.
The sound used in the trailer easily sets the narrative of the wedding as its a happy wedding day stereotypical love song. The sound at the end, the non diegetic sound of a male talking says 'Friday 13th perfect day for wedding' this con notates that something is defiantly going to go wrong as Friday the 13th is supposedly seen as an unlucky day.
The camera angles used show the narrative and setting well there are mid shots of the bride and groom getting ready showing that its a wedding and there are mid shots of the local pub and street to show the setting and location of the soap.
Once again there are not many titles used in the soap only the use of ITV 1 in the bottom corner to show the audience what channel the soap will be on and the use of the date of the episode at the end to inform the viewers of when the episode will be shown.

Soap opera trailer 3)Hollyoaks 26th October 2010



Once again within this trailer the narrative is quite clear that there will be a fire and because of the constant use of fire through out the trailer (everything being touched) signifies that it will be a big fire that will cause alot of damage. The girl in the white dress at the beginning is in white, this signifies innocence but when she scratches the wall it turns to fire this contradicts the connotations of the white dress because maybe she Is not so innocent? Throughout the trailer there are characters wearing red clothing and black clothing this signifies danger and that something is going to go wrong.
The sound throughout the trailer shows that the fire is going to be large as you can constantly hear roars of the flames.
The camera angles used in the trailer are mainly close ups of the damage that is being done for example the glass smashing, the scratches in the wall and the flowers being burnt, this signifies that by focusing all the attention on the damage being done that the fire is going to cause alot of damage.
Once again in this trailer the titles are only used to inform the audience to what channel the episode will be on and what date.

Soap opera trailer timings

I watched TV during half term and noted down all of the times I saw a soap opera trailer and noted what time it was on and what soap it was for.

Saturday after Doctor Who BBC1 8pm - Trailer for Eastenders

Saturday after News BBC1 10pm - Trailer for Eastenders

Saturday in between Inbetweeners E4 10.45pm - Trailer for Hollyoaks

This shows that after doctor who they were trying to attract a younger target audience and it shows that after the news they were once again trying to attract a different audience this shows that the soap advertised is aimed at not just one Target audience.
Also a reason for the advert to be on after Doctor Who is that it is a very popular programme so a lot of people will watch it and therefore if the advert is on just shortly after alot of people will see it.
This is the same with the trailer for Hollyoaks, they have put it in between a popular E4 programme to make sure a large amount of people see it.
Now that I have a little more understanding of when soap opera trailers are on the tele vision I can start to think about when my soap opera trailer would be on to make sure it attracts not only a lot of attention and is seen by many viewers but I need to consider making sure that I attract the correct Target audience for my soap.

The purpose of the trailer

My group will be creating a soap opera trailer so I wanted to research into the purpose of having a trailer so that when my group create ours we know what kinds of things it should include to make sure it is doing its purpose.
The purpose of a trailer is to mainly attract the audience to watch a certain show, it needs to attract them enough so that they will choose to watch it. Another purpose of a trailer is to allow the audience to know what time and channel and maybe even information or plot points about the show. A trailer is basically advertisment for the show to 'lure' viewers in to watch it so for this reason a trailer will usually include something exciting, something that will make viewers watch the trailer and want to watch the show because of what they saw in the trailer.
So above is the main purpose of a trailer, so when creating my trailer I need to think about what will be included in it and what time it will be shown to try and catch my target audience's eye and let them know about the upcoming soap and try to get them to view it.

Lesson Work To Revise

Uses and Gratifications - People go to see the film to get something from it.

Entertainment - As a form of escape from everyday life.

Personal relationships/social interaction - When people relate to characters.

Personal Identity - People relate and compare their lifes to characters.

Information - To find out facts for example watching a documentary.

Stuart Hall (1973) - Director puts codel meaning in it and audience get different meaning

Preffered of dominant reading - interpret text closely as its intended

Negotiated readings - negotiate beliefs eg 'Avatar' (2009) people believe there is a place called Pandora but not that there is blue people.

Oppositional/resistant - Do not agree with what they see ('as if')

Main Stream films - Preffered/Dominant readings

Remember this quote!!

'The audience have the greatest power, its the audience who tell you what they like'

(Tony Angellotti 'Dugdale 2006 p52')