Design process: challenges faced when creating a new soap, choices made in the design process and why

Challenges

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.