This page displays all the preparation I have made for deciding and considering ideas for my own soap opera. Without all this research and planning, the soap opera would be unorganized and very unprepared. All of the current soap operas that I have researched have script writers, costume designers and researchers as well as a huge production team in order for the shows to be as successful as they are.
COSTUMES FOR BROADWAY PARK Summer Howard- played by Katie Finch Fashionable, girly, innocent. Must look upper class. Different to rest of other girls in Broadway Park.
The reasons for these choices are to make the audience judge Summer like the characters of Broadway Park will. The first thing people will notice is looks, they won’t look beyond that at first. But during our trailer, Summer will speak and the audience will see that she is actually a lovely girl as well. Basically she is an all rounder. However, not all the characters will see that which will therefore affect not only the way we judge Summer, but how we judge them aswell. For example, the 3 Langston sisters take a dislike like to her because they are jealous. This makes the audience see the Langston sisters hopefully as not very nice people who are insecure and childish. As Summer takes their bullying on the chin, we then like Summer more. Summer has to be accepted by the audience, as we feel it is important as she is the main character so the audience needs to want to watch her. | I am only planning costume for the actors who will star in the trailer as I need to inform them as soon as possible so they have enough time to prepare and adapt to their style before we start filming. If there is room after filming the trailer, I will plan the other chracters costumes. Also, these characters are the main ones |
Blanche Howard- played by Francesca Ashcroft Must look upper class. Must show a distinct contrast to the appearance of the Langston mother who is working class and who could be referred to being like the older ‘Vicky Pollard’. However, in order to present her promiscuous side she must dress slightly ‘raunchy’ to show the audience straight away that she is flirtatious.
She needs to look like she’s spent all day getting ready to just go down the road to buy some bread The reason for these dressing ideas is because we want Blanche to look like a mess. She is a woman who is in denial about her age and wants to look young, in a way be more like her daughter Summer. Instead of a daughter using her mothers makeup to be ‘grown up’ Blanche tries to squeeze into Summer’s clothing as she is aware how beautiful her daughter is and like a lot of the other population of Broadway Park, she is jealous too. Her makeup should be extreme to cover her aging marks and to show that she is making an effort to please other men. Even though Blanche is deceitful for being with her student Lukas behind her daughters back, we want the audience to find sympathy in their hearts for her as the way she presents her self if clearly hinting she is in a mid life crisis. |
Terrance Howard- played by Harvey Ashmore Must look upper class. He is dressed like a business man but his clothes should look slightly worn or not ironed. Dressed in smart co-ordinated suits, is always seen in suits. His hair is out of control and left to style itself. There needs to be an essence of ‘mad scientist’ appearance.
This is to express the stress in his life as he is suffering from worry about his businesses constantly and is currently under financial difficulty. The reason why the Howard’s moved in the first place was because of the credit crunch therefore Terrance could no longer afford to live in their beautiful area. He needs to look like he is a good looking man underneath but has simply given up with age and worry in contrast with his wife Blanche who tries even harder. It was looks and money that drew the couple together as one. |
David Howard- played by Adam Howard Must look upper class. As he is adopted he must look faintly different but not too much as otherwise it will be too obvious that he is not related. He is unaware that he isn’t a blood relative yet so there needs to be similarities between the family’s appearances in order for the reality of it to be convincing.
The reasons for which we want Summer and David to look quite similar is because these 2 are the closest in the family. Summer and David are best friends and believe they are brother and sister. The way they look similar means they have even more in common therefore no reason to ever doubt his origins. However, this will make it more heartbroken for when the pair discover the truth. Also, a lot of soap operas tend to make things well too obvious. I personally feel that the audience would be as shocked as they were and therefore can understand the consequences. I think the journey of David’s change of style will explore the nature of how people do adapt to their surroundings. David is originally used to wearing trendy, expensive clothes from the high street like his other friends from back home. When he moves to Broadway Park, he realizes if he wants to fit in and make life easy, he’ll have to blend in therefore dressing like the rest. He also does many other things to fit in that he usually would never have done. I want to keep him wearing more expensive but similar clothing to the rest of the guys who live in Broadway Park because it can give reason to the sudden interest of the Langston girls. Not only is he a new kid on the block, but he wears better clothing than his mates. E.g.: Lukas would wear plain jogging bottoms...But David would wear Nike. This demonstrates a point that it’s ok to actually be rich, but you have to use your money in the right way to be accepted. Like, it’s ok for David to have money, as long as he spends it on weed or bling. |
Hugo Howard- played by Hugo comes from a richer family so therefore can afford to dress exactly how he wants. However, he doesn’t really think about how to dress he just wears whatever, though they still are expensive. All he cares about it studying and doing well at school. He never was popular ever in his life so unlike David doesn’t feel he has to change as he doesn’t bother with trying to make friends. He not only makes himself an outcast at school, but also at home and he dresses very noticeably different from the rest of his family who concentrate more on fashion. · Glasses · Jumper and Trousers, not very bold clothing. Brighter than Jessica’s as his aren’t second-hand... but still not too bright to be noticed · Un co-ordinated clothing · Smart shoes · Curtains, or smart hair cut · Baby face · Clean shaven · Big rucksack I think there should be a connection between Hugo Howard and Jessica Langston. These 2 are both from completely different social backgrounds but they have similarities that should be noticed by the audience, they both dress geeky and they both are extremely bright. However they don’t acknowledge each other because they: 1. Fade into the background 2. They both keep themselves to themselves so therefore don’t really pay much attention to the world. We only ever see Hugo when he has lifted his head from a book. He should always have something that represents studying and school e.g. a pack lunch. These 2 appear to the audience as soul mates but are restricted because their 2 families shouldn’t mix and also they never speak! These are the type of couple that the audience are shouting at the screen saying ‘HURRY UP AND GET MARRIED’ |
The Langston Sisters Chloe, Jade and Jessica- played by Amelia, Lizzie and Amelia Flynn Their mother and step father has had to bring them up on a tight budget, as there are so many of them. Therefore their clothes are second hand, hand me downs or something you’d pick up on a market. These girls are working class. Jade and Chloe believe that the only way they will ever get money is finding a rich boyfriend so therefore they dress like they are always out on the pull. Jessica has the same money spent on her clothes, therefore also appears cheap however, she has more self respect and keeps herself covered as she is the preserved sister. Chloe and Jade
Stereotypical Chav Chloe is the one who follows Jade. Chloe is the younger sister and like a lot of sisters, the younger one always follows the older one. They are guided in the path they take, so if Jade wears eye liner, Chloe will as well. Chloe should always wear the least attractive clothing as she is trying to look the same as Jade, but can never quite get there. Jessica
Stereotypical geek The reasons behind the girl’s appearances is to represent their upbringing, their money situation, their personalities and their urban environment. They represent more of Broadway Parks females than Summer would. So while Summer is dressed in fashionable clothes and is found attractive, the majority rules her as an outcast therefore not socially acceptable by a lot. Chloe and Jade force their beauty which raises the attention to why they would be jealous of the very natural Summer. To 2 eldest sisters look quite alike with similar coloured hair as they are more likely to share the same dad than Chloe. The sisters don’t need to look similar as they have all come from different people! The aspect of their appearance that connects all the family members together will be their clothes. |
Lukas Langston-played by As he is from the Langston family, he once again has to appear working class and quite shabby. However he has a nice face and a great personality which makes him shine and appear more attractive. He is the opposite of Summer’s type and is her family’s worst nightmare; however the similarities between Summer and Lukas beyond appearance and finance will eventually be explored.
Lukas needs to wear something that makes him appear bold and daring. He is popular at school as he fits in with everyone because they all share similar backgrounds and financial poverty. The reason for his popularity is because he is cheeky and the class clown. He is a player when it comes to girls and Blanche his teacher can see it. Hence why she is worried about his interest in her daughter. Lukas is always looking like he’s up to mischief and smirking. He is wide eyed, either because he is happy…or stoned. All of him and his mates dress the same, but he is clearly the leader. This can be shown by making his friends dress almost identical to one another and then Lukas wearing something extra like a watch or different coloured laces. Stereotypically the popular kid tends to be the 'sports player'. So Lukas needs to look like he plays a sport therefore he does need an atheletic body and sports gear. |
Jafooli- played by Working class also, but we do not know much about his background life. He is mysterious but he is the one who’s the worst influence out of all the school mates. He is the druggie/drug dealer, he’s the aggressive one. So we need to emphasize his role in his clothing. Unlike Lukas who dresses in a thug type of way because of his sports, Jafooli dresses more ‘gangster’.
The reasons behind Jafooli’s costume designs are to create a dark and dangerous persona for him. Acting is not enough to create warning signals; his clothes should immediately tell the audience…he means trouble. When you walk through a scary area and you see thugs on the sidewalk you get wary. That’s how she should look. However! When he meets Summer and takes a sudden discrete liking to her, he starts to show his face more. He tries to make effort without losing his cool. He wears white to lighten his face, or tries to find out what Summer likes in a man and tries to copy it.
Stereotypical Gangster |
I have prepared a summary of all the possible items that may be needed for my soap opera trailer. Not all these will be used as we only have 4 minutes but either way, these items are useful to note down as it represents the type of characters who handle them.
Props List
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Jafooli David Lukas Oatis |
Cigarettes, bottles of beer, Caps, Hoodys, small pocket knife, small drug bags, rizzler, money notes |
Setting
We are going to base our show in Letchworth which is why we decided to call the show 
Broadway Park after the well known ‘Broadway Hotel’, ‘Broadway Cinema’ and ‘Broadway Park’ that are all in Letchworth. As we want a school, we decided to use the most practical location school which is the Knights Templar School in Baldock. A lot of the filming will be done within the school as many of the characters relate to the school whether they are students, teachers or parents of students. Also, the target audience are young adults and teens therefore they will be familiar with the atmosphere.
Eastenders features younger people in the show but we do not see their school lives. Broadway Park will focus on their lives more and actually show the school. In Eastenders, we never actually witness the children enter a school, the only evidence that they are students are the fact that the characters wear a uniform. Where as Neighbours do show the students lessons and school life, which I find interesting as a member of the younger audience.
The Knights Templar School – Broadway High
Even though there are secondary schools in Letchworth like Fearnhill and Highfield, we would have limited access as we are not students. This makes Knights Templar perfect as we have complete freedom. In the trailer, as it is only 3-4 minutes long, we have decided to feature as much of the school as possible to give the audience a good idea of the age group and atmosphere of the soap and school life.
The main places
The sports hall/field Lucas is an athletic guy and it is his way of escaping his crazy life. He gets himself involved in some strange and dangerous situations so sport is his stress relief.
The library Summer, Jessica, Hugo and some other members of the school who spend their time here as they care about their studies. The audience will be able to recognize who works for their education. The library would be a nice meeting spot for Jessica and Hugo.
The lockers Not only do I personally think the lockers look quite arty straight away symbolize school life. But in the trailer, we have a scene where Lucas and Blanche kiss against the lockers. The lockers will be a reminder that this is a school, Blanche is a teacher, Lucas is a student, and this is wrong!
The corridors A lot of the action will be held in the corridors, this represents how as a student your life does tend to be revolved around school and there’s no escape. I want the corridors to appear claustrophobic to the characters as I feel as a student that I can relate to this. Also, the corridors are long and never ending, similar to the roads that our characters will walk down in the trailer.
Classrooms/lessons we will feature a short scene in a lesson/form time where we will see Summer being bullied. This is then followed by a canteen scene following the same story and then later in the claustrophobic corridor where there’s no where to go for Summer. It is here in the corridor where we see the first meeting of Summer and Lucas, we see the lockers in this scene as well. This will be ironic as this is where Lucas kissed Summer’s mum.
