CONVENTIONS
This is a list of the general conventions a British soap opera includes:
1.A serialized drama that usually runs weekly and all year round.
2.A constant, continuous storyline/ narrative which deals with domestic themes as well as personal and family relationships.
In our soap opera we will be dealing with money troubles within a family, affairs and school issues like bullying so that we touch on all aspects of soap opera conventions.
3.They generally have a well known theme tune and intro sequence that everyone will recognize. The design will change over the years but usually quite subtley. Aspects of the original will tend to be recognized. 
We will work on an iconic logo for our soap opera so people will be familiar with the soap's symbol. We would also like to have a theme tune. But will most likely not include it in our soap opera trailer as we would like to have music relevant to the target audience and issues shown in the trailer to give it more edge.
4.Soap opera casts tend to be big, though there is a limit to the number of characters available at one time. So therefore the soap focus's on the details with a select few of the characters.
In our soap opera, we have narrowed our main story lines and cast down to around 10 people to put in our trailer. As we are not paying our actors and also have to film around their time as they are all busy with school/social lives etc. In order to make a timetable for filming, we have printed out all of our cast's timetables for school so we can work around them efficiantly and find our when they are free together. We want the audience to see who the show is revolved around and who's life they will be following. Obviously as the show would go on, we would add in characters for example Jafooli's mum, long lost family etc. The audience needs the chance to get to know the original cast before introducing more. As well as the talking characters we will include extras, in our trailer we will have a couple of students to represent the school atmosphere and to create realism.
5.Open ended plots and the story lines are usually featured or interlinked in an episode. The episode will end with a cliffhanger, leaving the audience in suspense. An example could be a character having to make a decision and we don't find out her concolusion till the next day because the show cuts before their announcement.
An Example Scene
Man: "WILL YOU MARRY ME?"
LONG PAUSE
Woman: (Doesn't answer, Woman looks shocked and surprised)
(Camera close up, reaction shot) ..CUT to finishing song.
We will be using this cliffhanger technique in our trailer. We are going to build up interlinking story lines that come together at the end and then we hear a gunshot. But who is it?
6.They are often set around a small, central area such as a square (Eastenders) or a cul-de-sac (Brookside). However, there is always something else connecting the characters.
Our show is set in a small town called Broadway Park. What links the characters together is a character called Summer Howard who seems to be in the middle of everything. This brang us to decision to use a roundabout in Letchworth in our trailer to put Summer. She will speak in this roundabout and then each main character related to her will walk down one of the roads leading to this roundabout. This is to symbolize her situation and how they all live near to each other. Also, it helps build the trailer up to a climax for when they all reach the middle and a gunshot goes off. This idea I feel is strong as every decision for our trailer design has a reason, we are not only introducing our characters, but telling a story at the same time. The characters are also linked because of school. Students will understand the fact that 'everyone knows everyone' because in real life, if you go to school you do seem to know everyone..including their business.
7. Soap operas often have special episodes for events in the real world such as Christmas or New year. Some special episodes focus on long-departed characters, or characters who have been in the show for along time, for example Dot Cotton's hour long episode in Eastenders. This is risky because it may become boring however because she is a popular trademark character, the show was fine. I personally think that people like soaps because if you get bored with one storyline, there will always be others to focus on within a few minutes. Also on special occasions, some episodes follow characters who travel to a location outside of their usual surroundings. Hollyoaks do this a lot, and a lot of the episodes are shown Hollyoaks Later because they are more 'graphic' eg swearing, violence, sex.
8. In contrast to American soaps, British soaps often feature ordinary, working class common characters. American soaps tend to be flashier, richer and characters you cant really relate to in anyway. Below are some characters that appear on US soaps.
I can honestly say..I don't know one person who looks like these.
What I find shocking is that even the older characters are 'hot'. The characters all look like they have been madeup for a photoshoot in every episode. Thats not real at all! Eastenders show characters who have just woken up, looking like they've just woke up.The nearest British soap opera's to US's style are Hollyoaks and Neighbours, but they are no where near as extreme as this. The characters that are good looking, aren't made to be the perfect person, and do not always fit the stereotypical hot blonde. Hollyoaks had a beautiful character but was dressed up as a geek. The elder characters of Eastenders are shown truthfully, and grow old gracefully. They influence their older audience to be proud of aging and to cope with the reality of it.
In our soap we have 2 familys, one upper class and one working class. This is to please and relate to a wider audience. The characters are everyday people who you would meet at school. The target audience will relate to knowing a 'lil miss perfect' girl like Summer. They will recognize the type of character Blanche is, they will know a raunchy quite strange mother. And boys will understand having a crush on a fit older woman like Lucas. As I am a working class, and have a common accent and live on a council estate, I as a producer am more familar with the Langston working class family. However, I do not want to show them in a better light than the Howard's as it would be a biased view. Both families will have issues, and that will send an important message to the audience that money cannot buy you happiness and life faces problems no matter what!
9. As a rule, British soaps are realistic or at least aim to be.
We are trying to make our storylines and background information as real as possible. That is why we are using the real life dilemma of the credit crunch that Britain is suffering from in the show. Our characters will be suffering from it too. Our characters will go to school, and live their everyday lives. Our actors are students from my school, so are the nearest possible thing to the type of characters you can get. Alot of the actors we are using also study theatre studies which is a benefit to the convention of naturalistic acting. They have already been taught the Stanislavski technique of acting.
STANISLAVSKI QUOTES
"When we are on stage, we are in the here and now”
"Bring yourself to the part of taking hold of a role, as if it were your own life. Speak for your character in your own person. When you sense this real kinship to your part, your newly created being will become soul of your soul, flesh of your flesh."
"Put life into the imagined circumstances and actions until you have completely satisfied your sense of truth and until you have awakened a sense of faith in the reality of your own sensations."
10. Three, four or even more story lines will be in progress during any one episode, with the action switching between them. As one narrative is resolved, there will be another one with different characters beginning or being underway. The characters can go from quiet, harmonic periods to chaotic dilemmas. The cliffhanger usually consists of a zoom in reaction shot of one of the characters who for example may of found out some bad news.MUSIC
Other than a theme tune, music is rarely used in British soaps, occasional cliffhangers may have a 'stock' piece of background music that will then merge into the closing theme. The music otherwise would be in the background being played on the radio or on a jukebox. Sometimes well known songs will be played in purpose of dramatic irony. For example, a death would have a depressing relative song. Hollyoaks is probably the main soap that actually has modern music in the background that is non diegetic. However the production team artistically merge it in relatively with the scene usually.
For our trailer we will be playing a non diegetic song over the action. The song we will be modern to draw the student audience in. We have chosen a particular song with lots of gaps to allow speaking room for the actors to be heard. However we will only use relevant speech as we only need to introduce the characters and their actions should be enough, it will also appear more dramatic.
LIGHTING
Lighting varies from soap to soap, but it is generally pretty basic. Special effects wouldn't be used as it is suppose to reflect reality. We do not have glowing halo's and spotlights on us in our lives so why would they?
We will be using daylight and normal lighting for our trailer.
CAMERA WORK
Camera work is simplistic and usually avoids any tricks of any kind. Point of view and high angle shots are rarely used. The camera tends to show the action in a casual observer sort of way. Scenes are usually short to avoid the scene dragging on and the audience getting bored, usually the scenes run for about 2 minutes max until switching. An exception to the rules would be if for example a character was going to depart in a dramatic way, for example a car crash or explosion.
This would be edited as dramatically as possible.
In a soap opera you would usually see these type of shots:
Over the shoulder /Reverse shot reverse 2 SHOT
Close up, head shot Extreme close up
Point of View (Driver's view) Mid shot
Long shot/ Wide shot Low angle
High Angle
CAMERA MOVEMENTS
In the last section, there is a use of zoom in's to create tension buildup and to caputure the expressions of the characters. As it is the end, we see reaction shots and close ups. Other camera movements may include: 1. Pan shot |
