By Jordan, Alex, Morgan and Mollie

*Soap Opera

*Introduction

*We are going to be discussing all the features that make a soap

*Then tell you about our own soap ‘Folks’.

Genre It is important that everything in the media industry has a genre, because if it didn’t it would not have a target audience and then it wouldn’t sell. This is no exception to Soap Operas for example Hollyoaks is for a younger audience because the characters in it are younger and it is on earlier in the day compared to most Soaps. However, soaps like Doctors are on earlier in the day and therefore are aimed at older people because young adults and people are at school.

There are three different types of genre for Soap Operas they are:Glamorous- everything in the soap is more expensive. The people are upper class.Light Entertainment- a soap you can laugh at and relate too.Social Realist- realistic and more sensibly than light entertainment soaps.

GenreEastenders is a light entertainment soap opera, with storylines that can be challenging but occasionally funny.

Dallas is much more glamorous because it is in America, with sports cars and designer clothing.

Doctors is more of a social realist, it isn’t as dramatic as some of the other well known soaps.

RepresentationWithin Soap Operas it is important to have stereotypical characters. They are used to help

the audience identify characters and lets them get a better understanding of the storyline.

Some stereotypical characters appear in most Soap Operas, a few examples of these are:

* Thug – A violent person. Gangster like character. (Phil Mitchell)

* Nosy neighbour – Likes to know everyone else’s business. (Blanche Hunt)

* Womaniser – Seduces women. Has short meaningless relationships with them. (Carl King)

* Jack the lad – Someone who feeds on attention. Acts like a big man. (Max Branning)

* Young Ruffian – Causes trouble. Bully. Craves attention. (Ben Mitchell)

These stereotypes commonly apply to characters such as, Phil Mitchell, Blanche Hunt, Carl King, Max Branning and Ben Mitchell.

Narrative

Soap Operas contain different storylines. For example Emmerdale had a plane crash that viewers complained about because it was broadcast close to the fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie Disaster.

Dallas had a on-going storyline, “Who shot J.R.?” It was eventually resolved months later to have been Kristen Shepard, Sue Ellen's scheming sister.

Narratives are an important part of Soap operas as they are what causes the audience to continue watching the program. Usually at the end of each episode there is a mini-cliffhanger that makes the audience watch the next episode to see it resolved or view the rest of the series to see the event resolved.

Most storylines that are used for soaps are things that you would find in real life. For example they include murders, adultery and people with drinking problems.

Emmerdale Plane crash

Who shot J.R.?

Narrative

Coronation Street had a storyline that went on for a week that featured a tram crash. It effected the characters because they still mention it in discussions today. It effected the die-hard fans of Corrie because they believed it really happened.

Audiences of soaps like Eastenders sometimes come from deprived areas and like to get involved in the storylines. The new series of Dallas has numerous

storylines. The selling of South fork ranch, and Bobby’s battle with cancer. The audience can instantly connect with the characters because of the storylines and how they are portrayed. An example of a storyline is the battle between the brothers John Ross Ewing and Christopher Ewing. This storyline brings lots of tension and the audience can relate to it because they might have a bad relationship with their family.

*Mise-en-Scene

*Mise-en-Scene is a French term used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production.

*Mise-en-Scene is split into 5 features which are devised to send signals to the audience about how we are supposed to feel about a certain point.

*These features are:

*Settings and Location

*Facial Expression and Body Language

*Position of Characters and Objects in a Frame

*Lighting and Colour

*Props and Costumes and Hair and Make-Up

*Settings and Location*An important part in film making either built from scratch or one

that already exists can manipulate an audience builds expectations then takes a different turn. Some examples are:

*Coronation Street = Manchester, cobbled street, Rovers Pub

*Eastenders = London, Queen Vic, Street Market

*Emmerdale = Countryside, farms, The Woolpack Pub

*Typical soap opera settings = pubs, car garages, homes, corner shops

*Facial Expression and Body Language

*Clear indication of feelings smiling/happy (may be different in scary movies). How a character feels towards another character/body language. States, reflects relationship.

You can clearly see how these characters are feeling in these scenes due to their facial expressions.

*Camera Angles*Low Shot = A way of making the

subject appear more powerful.

*High Shot = A way of making the subject appear more vulnerable.

*Close Up = A way of capturing emotion

or establishing connection.

*Lighting and Colour

*To highlight characters/objects/mysterious/dark/disturbed/shading/confused/colour- Red=passionate/fiery – Green=calm. Hidden Emotions

*Low Key Lighting – backlights light and dark areas – used a lot horror films – isolations – dark lonely places,

*High Key Lighting – Happy, Sunny – Rom Coms

*Props, Costume, Hair and Make-Up

*The costume, hair and make up play a huge part in showing off a character in any soap. If they are wearing a suit then you instantly think that this person is sophisticated and have a good job, whereas if they were wearing a hoodie, track suit and trainers, you instantly know that this person is a typical chav.

*You can easily see what time period any soap is in depending on what they are wearing. If it was Downton Abbey then they would all be wearing older period costumes whereas if they were in Eastenders then they would be wearing the chav clothes described above.

Audience For a Soap opera to be popular it needs

an audience and because many main stream soaps have been running for so long they have not only a huge audience but fans as well. Some people get so involved in the storylines they write hate mail to the actors or actresses playing the character.

For example in Eastenders there was an abusive husband. He would walk along the street and get dirty looks as well as hate mail.

In Coronation Street when Deidre was in prison there was a campaign from fans to get her out.

Emmerdale had 9.2 million viewers on it’s 40th anniversary live episode.

Eastenders had 16.2 million viewers on it’s 25th anniversary live episode.

Coronation Street had 14.9 million viewers on it’s 50th anniversary live episode.

Audience

Folks

Our Soap

*Genre*We decided our soap opera should be

glamorous. Like the new Dallas it will have big houses, nice cars and pretty people.

Main Characters.

Mum – Allison Smith – Karen GillanHusband – Seth Smith Jensen AcklesLittle Girl – Hope Smith Maggie Elizabeth JonesBoyfriend – Nathan Green - Bradley James

Additional Characters:

Farmer Joe – Peter DavisonAnn (Farmer Wife) – Janet FieldingMary (Daughter) – Sarah Sutton

*Storyline for our Soap Opera*Mum Alison and a five year old daughter

Hope escape after abuse from husband Seth. Alison and Hope move to a new street away from Seth.

*They start a new family and after a few months Seth finds them. At this point Alison has a new boyfriend called Nathan who is very protective.

* Seth kidnaps them. Eventually they are found and Seth is locked up.

*Additional Storylines * Farmer Joe has a skeleton in his closet. It turns out he

murdered an intruder on his farm and buried him. The Intruder turns out to be Seth’s granddad.

* Seth’s parents have a lot of money and manage to get him out of prison after he had kidnapped his family. He hires a hit man to kill farmer Joe and his family.

* Nathan finds something incriminating on Seth and it is big enough to put him away for a long time. Everyone from the show turns up at court and gives evidence to put Seth away. He is given life imprisonment however by this point the damage has been done.

* Farmer Joe and his family get put into protective custody and taken to a safe house. The hitman has rigged an explosion to occur when they shut the door. The house blows

up killing the family.

Location

We decided to set our soap opera in Folkestone Kent. We decided to set it here because it is very pretty and it kind of is the place you would go to get away and start a new life.

As you can see from the pictures it is a seaside town and boats are always there. It would be busy so it would not be hard to blend in.