Research and planning: Reasearch of the BBC1 logo

From watching soap opera trailers for Eastenders, which is aired on the BBC1, I noticed that the BBC1 logo is often used in the bottom right or left hand corner throughout the trailer, and then an intertitle is used at the end with the BBC1 logo displayed again along with information as to what time and date the soap will air. As I intend for my soap opera to be aired on the BBC1, I wanted to follow on with the trend of advertising the BBC's 'brand', and thought that it would be useful to use thier logo in my own trailer. As well as making my trailer look more professional, it will also be very clear to the audience what channel my soap opera will be aired on, and so this will hopefully generate a larger audience.

I then looked at possible BBC1 logos to use in the bottom corner of my trailer:

I liked this one because it is the most recent one that BBC1 use. It is bright and colourful which means that it will be eye-catching for my audience. It also displays the channel's name very clearly and so that audience will know what channel to watch my soap on.

This one is very similar to the previous one, but I prefer it because it is clearer because it contains less of the red background, which makes the white text more obvious. This is better because my audience are more likely to be able to read it clearly, and therefore know for definite what channel my soap opera is on.

I also found this one. However, I chose not to use it because it is the logo for the BBC in general, not just BBC1. This means that it applies to all of the BBC channels, websites and radio shows. I thought that if I used this logo, it would not be clear to my audience what channel to watch my soap opera on.

Next, I looked at what I could use for my intertitle that would display the start date, time, title and website for my soap opera, Eaton. I immediately found this one:

I know that this was roughly what I wanted to use, however I thought that the 'BBC One' was too large, meaning that my audience's attention would be focused on that, rather than the information about my soap opera.

I eventually chose this one. It is similar to the previous one, however the 'BBC One' is much smaller which means that I have a lot more space to add in the start date, time, title and website. This means that my audience will be able to see clearly all of the information because it will be evenly spead out, and thus easy to read.

Production Schedule

Here is a copy of the production schedule that myself and my group devised. We did this so that we all knew where we were going to be up to, how much time we had left, where we needed to be and when, what to remember and just to be generally as organised as possible. I also gave a copy to each of my actors so that they were organised as well and didn't let us down.

Date/Time	Place	People	Equipment	Props	Notes
8th December 4:00pm-6:00pm	Eaton Socon: Alley/garages located around Eaton Socon Eynesbury	Emerson White, and Rhys Irons. Camera Operator, Director, sound technician  Paige Isaacs, Amyrose Prout and Rhys Irons. Steven Isaacs	Digital video camera, boom mike, tripod and still camera.	Icing sugar inside a clear bag to represent drugs. Kettle, Cup	All the characters need to wear appropriate costumes, eg. Stereotypical characters. (Emerson and Rhys dark clothing, hooded jackets.
9th December 12:30pm- 11:30pm	Grandparent’s home in Eaton Socon	Maureen Isaacs, Roy Isaacs . Camera Operator, Director, sound technician  Paige Isaacs, Amyrose Prout and Rhys Irons.	Digital video camera, boom mike, tripod and still camera.	Kitchen, Kettle, making a cup of tea, pain killers (to represent a sedative)
15th December 3:30pm-5:30pm	Eaton Socon: Queen’s Garden Park Eaton Oak Pub- Eaton Socon	Actors- Christy Isaacs, Maureen Isaacs, Roy Isaacs, Rob Isaacs, Steve Isaacs Camera Operator, Director, sound technician  Paige Isaacs, Amyrose Prout, Rhys Irons and Ellie Fennor	Digital video camera, boom mike, tripod and still camera.	Glass bottle (to look like alcohol), dust pan and brush to sweep up broken glass. Glass bottles		Teenage girls tracksuit bottoms or jeans, ugg boots, trainers, hoodies and jumpers. Torches will be needed to create suitable lighting if it gets too dark. In the pub the actors must wear stereotypical clothing.

Script for soap opera trailer

Here is a copy of the script my group and I devised for our short soap opera trailer. This is just a rough draft, and may change slightly if we decide something else works better when it comes to the actual production. We decided not to have any dialogue as we thought that because it is a new soap opera, the audience would not know of any storylines and so we thought the focus should be on the footage and the music. However, we have included a small amount of dialogue if we should change our minds.

Affair scene-

Paige’s dad’s house-

Mid shot of a woman saying goodbye to her husband, see him in the back ground walking off and then she shuts the door.

Close up of her locking the door.

Long shot of women walking into the kitchen

Close up of her making tea

Long shot of a man knocking at the door

Mid shot of the woman looking up and turning her head

Long/mid shot of women walking and opening the door, then the man and women hug and kiss.

Drug scene-

Eaton Socon- Alley by Balfour

Mid shot of the first teenager standing in an alley, looking around suspiciously

Long shot of the second teenager walking

Mid shot of them meeting

Close up of the exchange of drugs and money

Poisoning scene- Paige’s Grandparents house

Close up of elderly women making a cup of tea, and adding some pills to it.

Long shot of women walking out of the kitchen

Mid shot of an elderly man sitting at a table when the women bring in the cup of tea

Mid shot of the elderly man drinking the tea

Underage drinking and peer pressure scene- Balfour park

Close up, shot reverse shot of three teenage girls standing
Emma- ‘go on have some’

Long shot of Emma pushing the bottle of alcohol into Meg- Megs facial expressions = scared

Close up of the bottle of alcohol falling to the ground

Close up/mid shot of the bottle rolling across the ground

Planning and research: Storyboards for my soap trailer

Once I had decided on things such as characters and settings, I set about creating a storyboard. This was so that I could get a more detailed idea of what I was definitely going to include in my trailer, and in what order. It also allowed me to decide what types of camera shots and angles that I wanted to use, what music and dialogue I wanted to include and where, and how long each frame should last.

This is the first page of the storyboard. It shows the group of characters sitting in the pub, just sitting down and having a good time. I thought of this idea because the location of a pub is a conventional setting of most soap operas. (For example, 'The Queen Vic in 'Eastenders') This is because it is a normal setting that normal people would go to, and it allows other characters to meet eachother and storylines develop. The storyboard then moves onto the 'peer pressure' storyline, which is set in a park. I wanted to include some dialogue in this storyline so I've written that the bully says 'Oi! Have some!' when trying to get the vitcim to drink the alcohol. I've also decided to have a music track playing throughout the trailer because this is a common convention of soap opera trailers.

This is storyboard 2, which carries on from storyboard 1 with the low-angle shot of the alcohol bottle hitting the floor. The next 4 frames are from the 'affairs' storyline. I have used an over the shoulder shot, a mid shot, a close up and a tracking shot to show the storyline. The over the shoulder shot is so that the audience can see what the female character sees, and so that they can see the male's face clearly. The close up shows the female locking the door, which is important because she is ensuring that her husband can't get back in. The mid shot is of the female so that you can see her character clearly, and then I want a tracking shot to follow her down the coridoor away from the front door, to greet her lover at the back door. I have included the dialogue 'Bye!' which is what the female says to her husband. Again, I want to have music playing throughout this sequence.

This is the 3rd part of my storyboard. The first two frames continue on from storyboard 2 and show a midshot of the 'other man' coming through the back door, and then a slight zoom of the other man and the female embracing. It then cuts to the 'poisoning' storyline. I have used a close up to show the elderly lady putting tablets into a cup of tea. The close up will emphasise this and make it clear to the audience. I then use a long shot of the elderly lady walking towards the camera carrying the cup of tea to her husband. This will cause suspense because the shot lasts 4 seconds, and the audience will wonder what she's going to do with the poisoned tea. It then cuts to a mid shot of an elderly man sitting at a table, and on the right hand side the elderly female comes in and places the tea in front of him. The use of a midshot is clear enough for the audience to see what is happening, and also allows me to have both the male and the female in the shot at the same time. There will be no dialogue in this sequence, simply because the elderly lady is secretly poisoning her husband, and so I think that by having no dialogue it will make it more obvious that she is doing wrong and her husband doesn't know about it. However, there will be music played throughout.

This is the fourth part of the storyboard. This is just the last shot of the poisoning storyline. It is a midshot of the elderly male drinking the poisoned tea. The use of the midshot allows the audience to see clearly what he is doing, but the shot only lasts 3 seconds so the suspense will make the audience want to watch the soap to find out what happens. Like the rest of the storyline, there will be no dialogue but there will be music played throughout, because this is a common convention of soap opera trailers.   

Planning and Research: Photographs of setting and characters

Throughout our planning and filming process, we took lots of photographs. Before we started filming, we had to consider the settings and location of our soap opera, so that we could include them within our trailers. Once we had planned out our individual storylines that we wanted to include, we began to look at settings. We needed to use a normal family home for the 'affair' storyline, and we wanted to include as much realism as possible so we decided to use my dad and step-mum's house. The house is a normal family home, and it is not unusual in any way, and it is of normal size and decor so we decided to use the kitchen, hallway and back door entrance.

 This is the backdoor entrance where 'the other man' enters

 This is the conservatory entrance where the woman enters to greet 'the other man'

 This is the kitchen where the woman makes a cup of tea for herself and 'the other man'

This is the front door entrance where the woman says goodbye to her husband

The next setting we decided on was a secluded outside area for the 'drug dealing' storyline. We drove around several areas of St Neots looking for alleyways and other secluded areas that would be appropriate. We needed to bare in mind that because it was winter time, it was dark by half past 4 and so we needed an alleyway with a light to give us extra lighting in case it started to get dark during filming. Unfortunately, we could not find an alleyway that had a light in so we resorted in taking it in turns to wear a light on each of our heads. This was not the most practical of ideas, but it was quite funny and the light was fairly bright and so it gave us much needed extra lighting. We asked the two male actors to wear dark clothing, and tops with hoods on, as they are stereotypical clothing items for drug dealers as they can use the hood to hide thier faces.

This is the alley, it is just a stereotypical, obscure, long alleyway in between two houses

 This is one of the 'drug dealers' in the alley

 We made both of the 'drug dealer' characters stand in various places in the alleyway, to see where looked the most appropraite. We were looking for a place that was hidden, and so we opted for a corner.

This is another one of the 'drug dealer' characters, this time with the head light shining on him, so we could test out how brigh the light was.

The next setting we needed to decide on was for the 'poisoning' storyline, where an elderly woman is tired of looking after her elderly husband, and decides to eventually kill him. Again, we wanted to be as realistic as possible, so we used my grandparent's bungalow. We even managed to persuade my grandparent to act, which was an added bonus, because again this added to the realism.

This is the dining room, where the elderly male is sat reading the newspaper

This is one angle of the kitchen. After consideration, we decided to shoot the elderly woman from the other end of the kitchen, because there was more light and space.

The kettle is normally placed in quite a small and dark area in the kitchen, so we temporarily moved it to the worktop to ensure that there was enough light and space.



These are the actors (my grandparents!) we decided to use them as actors because they are the same age as the characters, and really look the part.

The next setting is a public park, which we used for the 'peer pressure storyline'. We wanted to use somewhere spacious, and a realistic place that teenagers would go, and we all agreed that a park was the best setting. 

 This is a photograph I took of the park we wanted to film the 'peer pressure' storyline in. We chose this park because it is large which gave us lots of space to work in, and also lots of different opporunities to experiement with camera shots and angles. We also decided to use it because it is not used very often and this allowed us to be more flexable with our filming schedule.

This is a photograph I took of the park which was more specific. We decided to film near to the slide for several reasons. One main reason is that it was the area that had the most space so that we could try lots of new things out. Another reason is that the floor was of a rubber material, which meant that we could drop the alchohol bottle without it smashing. However, we took along with us a dustpan and brush and a carrier bag just in case the bottle did smash!

Research of soap opera settings, lighting and mise-en-scene conventions

Although I am only creating a short trailer for my soap opera, I feel that it is important to look at conventional settings, lighting and mise-en-scene of other popular soaps.  I looked at Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks because I believe that these are by far the most popular soap operas in Britain. I watched two episodes of each soap opera, and took notes accordingly. I then looked for any similarities or differences that were relevant.

• The lighting is usually naturalistic, which emphasises the realism of soap operas. Out of all the episodes that I looked at, there were no usages of special effects according to the lighting. If it is day time, the lighting is bright and clear and even when it is night-time, the lighting may be darker but it is still easy to see the settings and characters.
• The settings consisted of realistic places that would appeal to the target audience. For example, the family home was a main setting in all of the soaps that I watched, particularly focusing on the more social rooms of the home such as the kitchen, dining room table or living room. This is so that the characters can socialise and therefore drive the plots forward by interacting.

Other popular settings throughout the soap operas that I watched included pubs, clubs and cafes. Again, these are all places that the audience would be familiar with, and are realistic settings. They also give the characters opportunitys to meet one another, therefore creating endless possibilities for storylines.

• I noticed that the soap operas all paid a lot of attention to the mise-en-scene. Every decision about costume, interior and exterior design, props and the layout of the shots had a purpose or meaning and even sometimes represented a particular character. For example, in the cafe in Emmerdale, there was a chalk board with the prices written on, real food and drinks and a cash register. In the pub in Hollyoaks there was fridges with drinks in, promotional posters and beer taps. In the Slaters' home in Eastenders there was a washing machine, bowls and cutlery, washing up liquid and a dish cloth. All of this attention to detail emphasises the realism of the settings, to make the soap operas more realistic and thus enjoyable for the audience. All of the pubs and cafes, corner shops or laundrettes in the soap operas had signs to show what they were, open/close signs andd things such as advertisements in the window. Again, this contributes to the realism of the entire soap opera, as they imitate real life settings. the characters all wore simple clothing that often represented their characters. For example, Kat Slater is a character from Eastenders who is promiscuous and often causing trouble. Therefore she was dressed in black leather high heels and a leopard print coat, with red lipstick, which all connote sexuality and promiscuity.

From looking at all of these conventions, I will try to imitate some of the ideas in my own soap opera trailer.

Research of soap opera characters, storylines and audiences

Now that I have a general idea of what I want to incorporate in my soap opera trailer, I have decided to do some research on soap opera characters, storylines and audiences so that I have a clearer view of soap opera conventions. This is what I found out:

• The characters are all realistic and 'normal', meaning that there is a variety of characters and they are easy for the audience to relate to - this is reflected mainly in their appearance, for example in Emmerdale, there are a range of character ages, from children to elderly people, in Hollyoaks there is a range of ethnicities amongst the characters and in Eastenders the characters all have varied social backgrounds

• They tend to have set roles within a certain storyline, however their roles can change when another storyline develops. For example, in one storyline, Eastenders' Phil Mitchell could play the 'villain' character, but in the next storyline he could play the 'hero' role

• The characters are all involved in storylines that deal with social issues. This could be anything from drugs, death, divorce, crime or murder. This is because soap operas deal with issues that may relate to the audience without being offensive. This also relates to the 'voyeurism' theory that audiences like to look and observe other people's lives, and soap operas allow them to do this

• Soap operas are often seen as a 'female genre', due to the large female audience that tend to watch soap operas. However, viewing figures show that male audiences are equally likely to watch and enjoy soap operas. To me, this information seems to suggest that soap operas appeal to a mass audience. Taylor (2000) suggested that, according to his psychology theory, women use gossip to relive stress. Women relieve stress by actively seeking social support from others. This could relate to watching soaps, as females watch the character's lives and all the drama associated and therefore could gossip about the characters.
• Soap operas have an open narrative, which has a casual reading without the sense of an ending. Soap operas proceed as though they could go on forever.
• Time in soap operas typically correspond to real world time. For example, there are often Christmas episodes of Eastenders on Christmas day, even though they would have been filmed weeks previously. Soap operas also often make reference to real life events, which contribute to the realism.
• Each episode tries to address both experienced and new viewers. This is because soap operas tend to end on a cliff hanger, and the multi-stranded storylines often run over several episodes.
• Apart from Hollyoaks, soap operas tend not to use non-diegetic sound. This again contributes to the realism of the soap opera. Hollyoaks often uses non-diegetic music, but this could be because it is relatively new and aimed at a younger audience who may enjoy the music more.

Research of Soap Opera Trailers

To be able to create our own soap opera trailer, we needed to be aware of the typical conventions that soaps use in their trailers. To begin, we thought of the most popular soap operas in Britain over the last 5 years. This was so that we could learn how they used thier trailers to appeal to a contemporary audience. The soap operas we came up with were Eastenders (aired on BBC1), Coronation Street (aired on ITV1), Emmerdale (aired on ITV1) and Hollyoaks (aired on Channel 4). We found that Eastenders and Coronation street are watched by a large audience; generally between the ages of 12 and 72. We found out that Emmerdale was watched particularly by an older audience, of around 40+, although a few 16-18 year olds had viewed it before. Hollyoaks seemed to particularly appeal to a younger audience, from 12-22. We thought that the ages of the audiences were due to the appeal of the content of the show. For example, Eastenders and Coronation Street featured a range of characters of all ages and ethnicities. Therefore, they appeal to a wider audience as they are all able to relate to some of the characters in one way or another. Emmerdale also featured a range of different characters, we noticed that there the older characters were predominant. Thus, Emmerdale appealed in particular to an older audience. Finally, Hollyoaks features especially on students, and young families. One of the main focuses of the soap opera features around a university, which would obviously appeal to a younger audience.
Once we had established the general target audiences and themes of each soap opera, we began to look at the trailers they used to appeal to thier audiences. Here is what we found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBdxfaIIkD8
This is the first ever trailer used for the launch of Eastenders. Although it appears that the video has been cut slightly short, the trailer is very simple. It gives no specific information away, and is very vague. The main focus is the setting, which is obviously London because of the red bus and busy roads. The other feature which is predominant is the title, which is shown several times, in big, bold text. There are no characters featured, therefore it is hard to guess what the program will be about. The trailer was aired in 1985, and so we all thought that given the technology available at the time, it had a range of camera shots and clever use of editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AL6KnTIDps
We then looked at the first trailer used for the launch of Hollyoaks. This was aired ten years after the Eastenders one, in 1995. We all initially thought that the trailer was very different, and perhaps not what we believed was a conventional soap opera trailer. After viewing it several times however, we noticed that the characters, genre and themes were especially clear. However, we thought that the realism was especially affected because the studio was the main setting. The lights, boom mikes, tripods and cameras were all featured at some points, which made it more than obvious that it was a television program. We all agreed that perhaps the trailer would have been more effective if it were as realistic as possible, as audiences tend to enjoy soap operas because they are realistic and easy to relate to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbUoYGRbIyg
Next, I began to look at more recent trailers. This is one that I found that is a trailer to advertise new characters in Eastenders, the Mitchell sisters. I especially liked this trailer because it was interesting and the music was well-known and catchy. I liked the fact that there is no dialogue, and yet there doesn't need to be, as the music is so effective. The trailer showed the majority of Eastenders' well-known characters, and is set in the most recognisable setting: The Queen Vic. There are even occurances of slow-motion, which I would not have associated with a soap opera trailer, but due to the context of this one, I think it works really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4orhsy4yjHY&feature=fvst
This is the longest trailer I looked at. What I particularly liked about this trailer is that even though it is centred around the wedding, which is obviously an important and highly anticipated storyline within Coronation Street, it features a lot of other characters. There is a huge range of camera shots used, and I particularly liked the birds eye view shot of the bride. I also think that the trailer worked well without dialogue, as the range of characters and shots of the wedding related items, such as the table settings and the cake. Even though Coronation Street is very well-known, and this is a trailer to advertise a particular storyline, I think that I could use some of these conventions in my trailer to advertise the beginning of a new soap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrtQCCT8kpk
This was an interesting trailer to look at because it seemed to go against a lot of the common conventions of other soap opera trailers I have looked at. The main one is that this trailer only features two characters. This could be because Eastenders is a very well known soap, and has a huge audience who would know the storyline and be familiar with the characters. I am assuming from this trailer that Peggy and Archie's wedding is such an important storyline that it is the main focus of Eastenders at the moment. The next thing unusual thing that I noticed was that it had a fantasy feel to it, with the robots changing Peggy into a doll. This goes against the common convention of realism, as this wouldn't happen in real life, but I think it is metaphorical for Archie's control over Peggy. The trailer was still entertaining to watch, and worked a lot better without dialogue, and just the voiceover at the end. The music worked very well with it as it was simple and quite quiet so the focus was on what was happening rather than the music. Although this trailer is very unusual, I think it still worked very well in advertising Eastenders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z7w08Hdbfc
This is a trailer for Emmerdale on ITV1. The trailer is fairly short, at 31 seconds, but I think that it is just the right time because it gives out information on the storyline, but at the same time it doesn't give too much away. This technique allows audiences to become interested, and then want to watch the soap to find out more. I also noticed that there is a range of characters, although they all seem to be involved in the one storyline. However, this is probably because this trailer is advertising only one storyline, and only includes the relevant characters. I also noticed that there were several close-ups used to emphasise important objects or actions

From looking at these trailers, I have learnt several conventions that I will try to use in my trailer such as a range of camera shots, relevant music, voiceovers and a range of different characters.