Low angle shot of walking legs, then shot of characters walking from behind characters: keeps characters anonymous until they’re introduced, creates a sense of tension for audience
·Inclusion of many camera angles in opening walking scene: establishes scene for audience, establishes characters as main characters.
·Side camera angle of face (cinematic): challenges conventions of soaps eye level camera angles, gives the audience something new and fresh, establishes main character
·Close up of character then split to scene about that character: establishes characters shows audience how important the character isin the next scene
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Choice of mise en scene in Barry Malone’s scene, pack of cards: shows the audience a deviant side to the character, connotation of gambling, greed.
The sound of Scott hitting the wall twice in the attack scene gives the audience a sense that the attack is worse than it really is, the diegetic sound repeated shocks the audience and establishes to the audience the gritty nature of the soap similar to that of eastenders
The echo applied to the voiceover in the adultery scene over the fade between shots: shows the audience time has passed and through the echo the audience can establish that it is an internal monologue. This isn’t uncommon in soap trailers.
The scenes involving Frieda are shot in darkened areas to emphasize to the audience the struggle and despair of alcoholism
Close up on whisky bottle shows audience that alcohol is the key subject of this scene
·The final shot panning upwards over the pub establishes finally to the audience that the new family is moving into this pub.
This is the soundtrack of the main trailer. It was chosen because it was decided that these characters and the plotlines they would be involved in are initially darker than those you would normally find in a soap opera. Another reason this was chosen was to link in with the cinematic camera angles some music you would expect from a thriller genre of cinematic film. The aspects of the trailer that can be seen as conventions of trailers for films allow this product to fulfil its role as a trailer, following the convention of being exciting and attractive for new audience members. The combination of the camera angles and music allow the audience to see that while this is still a soap opera it is bringing new exciting aspect to it that break conventions of soap opera genre. This blending of film trailer and soap opera genres is seen in other soap opera trailers as written about in my textual analysis, the coronation street 50th anniversary trailer shows exciting fast paced shots that include panning and fades with dramatic music, normally conventions of a film trailer to advertise a soap opera, generate an interest from its audience and ultimately make money for the media companies involved.
One of the main challenges faced when developing a new soap opera is the audiences unfamiliarity with the characters that are involved in the soap, This can be overcome by introducing the characters as stereotypes and then from there developing deeper characters as the soap opera continues and becomes more serial and accepted by the public.
Our group is overcoming the challenge of introducing a new soap by creating characters, the Malones, who are being introduced to the soap with the audience and so their characters can evolve with the soaps audience.
Choices made in design process
One of the first choices the group had to make in the design process was the setting and then the name of the soap. As a group it was decided that a suburban town setting would be the best option for both filming and practicality, as the local area matched the decided location of the soap. The name of the location “Bathwood” was derived from a street name and was decided to be a good name for a suburban town in the east midlands of Great Britain.
Another important choice the group had to make was the list of characters that would be included in the soap; we knew from experience with soaps that many soaps have a family that has a reputation for being a “Hard nut” family. The main characters we drew inspiration from for this family were the Mitchell brothers Phil and Grant from Eastenders. We tried to include the stereotypical tough boss family persona in the family, named the “Malone” family, a reference to Bugsy Malone (1976) Highlighting the family’s gang like, violent behaviour.
Once the outline of the included cast of characters was established it was decided that a good storyline for the introductory storyline to the soap would be the Malone family moving into the area and taking over the pub. This was chosen because we thought that it would be a good way to bring an audience to the soap by introducing the main characters to the soap at the same time as its audience. Also this would establish the public house central meeting point for characters, as a group we decided that this would allow the soap to follow two conventions of the soap opera genre with one idea.
With the name,setting main characters and storylines of the soap designed we needed to delve deeper into each character’s individual storyline for the first episode.
The character Michelle is the mother of the Malone family, she is shown to be having an affair with the character Tommy Bagwell. We know that affairs are a key storyline within soap operas; they have existed since soap operas began as radio serials. This storyline was chosen as it fits the conventions of the soap opera and allows for character development of three of the characters included in the soap.
The character Scott is the son of the character Michelle, Scott is in his early twenties, unbeknownst to Michelle, Scott knows about her affair with Tommy and plans to use the information to his advantage at some point in the future. Tommy Bagwell however knows that Scott knows and makes an effort to make sure that Scott won’t say anything to anyone about the affair
The character Frieda is Michelle’s daughter and Scott’s sister, also in her twenties. Recently Frieda had an abortion; the father of the baby is currently unknown. However the loss of her baby caused Frieda to become severely depressed, through her depression she turned to alcohol and is an alcoholic. This storyline was chosen because it is controversial, it challenges soap opera conventions and it will attract audience members who want to see something new from a soap opera.
The character Barry Malone is Michelle’s husband, and Scott and Frieda’s father. He and his family have moved to the area to “start again” as he puts it. Barry is greedy, arrogant and out to make as much money as he can in any way possible, taking over the pub seems like the perfect plan.Barry was created as a sort of Phil Mitchell recreation, as he is an iconic soap character it was decided that basing a character off of him would give existing soap fans a character to relate to when they begin watching Bathwood. Also the suspense to find out what Barry will do in response to Michelle’s affair will attract viewers.
The character Tommy Bagwell was created as a “nemesis” for Barry and his family, having an affair with his wife and attacking his son. The inspiration for such a rivalry is loosely based on the rivalry shared between the characters ken Barlow and Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street, both rivalries have adultery story lines within them and the audience may pick up on this.
One choice that was made in the design process was to include younger characters that break the conventions of soap operas; for example Scott and Frieda and older characters that stick to conventions of soap, this would both prove exciting for the audience to see old and new ways of thinking, but also it works as a clever metaphor for how times change quickly in modern day Britain.
There are many aspects of the soap opera genre that distinguish it from other genres of television programs. One such important aspect of soap operas particularly soap operas from the United Kingdom is a naturalistic depiction of real life of people from an area where the soap is set. For example Emmerdale (1972 –Present)is a British soap set in west Yorkshire, it shows its naturalistic portrayal of real life in the form of farmers and other vocations that would be associated with the communities in Yorkshire.Foreign soap operas for example the American soap opera “Dark Shadows” (1966 (1966-06-27)–1971) is a soap opera that clearly doesn’t show a naturalistic depiction of real life with its presentation of supernatural characters like werewolves, ghosts etc. This shows that the important aspects of a soap opera can change with both the country and time that the soap is filmed, at present a main aspect of soap operas is the naturalistic depiction of life.
Another aspect that is important to modern day soaps from the United Kingdom is that the soap opera is serial. For example Coronation Street, (1960 (1960-12-09) –Present) over time the show has changed the number of episodes aired in a week from 1969 to 1980 it would be broadcast twice a week. However the modern day broadcast shows the program 5 episodes every week. As the show is serial it adds to the credibility of the soap, as its broadcast more it seems to the audience like they are seeing the day to day activities of the characters on screen and so the audience sees a naturalistic depiction of real life.
One Aspect of the soap opera genre that remains over all soap operas is the inclusion of a central meeting point that the characters can all credibly meet up to drive the story forward. In most British Soap operas for example Eastenders (1985 – present) the central meeting point is the public house, in Eastenders it is the Queen Victoria Public House. In Coronation Street the central meeting point is the Rovers return.In foreign countries for example Australia soaps rarely include a public house, they are more inclined to promote good health by changing public houses to cafes this changing alcohol to coffee. This is seen in Neighbours (1985 – present) the café in Neighbours is called, “Charlie's bar and the coffee shop”. (1960-12-09)
While the main focus of a soap is to depict real life it’s impossible for an audience to fully understand a full cast of fleshed out well rounded characters, one aspect of soap operas that has remained an important thing to introduce characters to the audience is the use of stereotypes and stocktypes within the media text. The Battersby family in Coronation Street for example were presented as a stereotypical working class family; they lived in a council house and often wore dress that would normally be associated with the working class of the British public. A stocktype is a character who is a stereotype based on preconceptions of the area from which they originate. An example of a stocktype can be seen in Emmerdale, the Dingle family are stocktypes of a working class family from west Yorkshire that own a farm, they often wear dress associated with farmers, and they all speak with a heavy Yorkshire accent using words from a Yorkshire dialect.
Arguably the most popular soap opera in Great Britain Coronation Street is set in Weatherfield a fictional town based in the north west of England. It’s the world's longest-running TV soap opera currently in production; it began on 9th December 1960 (1960-12-09) and continues to run into present day. The production company responsible for the show is ITV Studios, as of 14 February 2011 there have been 7,536 episodes of Coronation Street. This is roughly 115 days worth of constant broadcast if all of the episodes were played in sequence. One of the soaps main meeting points for its cast of characters has always been the Rovers Return Inn. A public house is a key convention of British soap operas, most soaps set in Britain have one or more public houses. One of the soaps easily recognisable characters is Ken Barlow (William Roache); this character has been has been involved with Coronation Street and portrayed by the same actor since the soap’s first episode in 1960. Coronation Street had its 50th anniversary episode recently, the celebration was held by broadcasting seven consecutive episodes, along with a special one hour live episode, the episodes were aired from 6–10 December 2010. The episode’s story arc was called “four funerals and a wedding” a play on the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). In the episode a gas explosion destroys the, Nick Tilsley and Leanne Battersby's bar - The Joinery -As a result, the viaduct was destroyed, sending a tram careering onto the street, destroying D&S Alahan's Corner Shop and The Kabin. Two characters, Ashley Peacock and Molly Dobbs, and an unnamed taxi driver were killed as a result of the disaster.
Another popular soap opera in Great Britain is Eastenders; it is a long running soap running from 19 February 1985 to present day. Eastenders is set in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End of London. Unlike Coronation Street Eastenders is primarily on BBC one, a rival television channel of ITV. As of the 15th of February there have been 4162 episodes of Eastenders, this is roughly 63 days of constant broadcasting if all episodes were played in sequence. One of the soaps main meeting points for its cast of characters has always been the “Queen Victoria”, like Coronation street a public house is one of the main meeting points for characters, this follows British soap opera conventions. One of the soaps easily recognisable characters is Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) considering the soap has only been running since 1985 it can be argued that Phil is one of the longest serving characters as he joined the soap in 1990. Eastenders is known for its controversial storylines, which have dealt with difficult themes, such as violence, rape, murder and child abuse. The soap has received positive and negative reviews for such storylines, mainly because the themes the storylines deal with are arguably too strong for a television program that airs before the 10pm watershed.
Existing trailer
This trailer is a clear example of a trailer using cinematic conventions to advertise a soap opera and generate more interest for a soap opera from a potential audience. The trailer uses many camera angles and shot types not normally see in a soap opera but commonly see in films etc. for example there are many establishing shots, and panning shots, editing is also a key feature of this trailer, the fast pace at which each scene changes indicates to the audience that dont necessarily watch the program that they too should watch it. To somone who has never seen a soap opera before the trailer here can make them become excited due to the fast paced flow of camera angles and shots, as they arent expecting the generic two shot often found in a soap opera. Also the music used in this trailer is very sad, it conveys to the audience an added sense of tragedy that the tram crash will cause on coronation street. In order to make the Bathwood trailer as successful as the coronation street trailer I must include reference to more cinematic editing techniques used by editors in professional trailers. at the same time I must also endeavour to follow conventions of soap opera in order to still class Bathwood as a soap, so as a group we must make sure that the trailer still has reference to family life within more exciting cinematic shots of the trailer.
