Analysing soap opera trailers

ANALYSING SOAP OPERA TRAILERS

I n t h i s t r a i l e r t h e c h a r a c t e r s p e r s o n a l i t i e s h a v e a l re a d y b e e n e s t a b l i s h e d a n d t h e a u d i e n c e h a s a l re a d y b e e n a b l e t o e s t a b l i s h a c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e c h a r a c te r s .

T h e t r a i l e r d o e sn ’ t f o c u s h e a v i l y o n o n e m a i n i s s u e / p l o t a n d i n s t e a d h a s a l o t o f mu l t i - s t r a n d n a r r a t i v e s . I n t h e t r a i l e r w e c a n s e e a s t o r y l i n e t h a t i s g o i n g t o b e c o m i n g u p i n t h e n ex t f e w w e e k s f o r a t l e a s t e v e r y c h a r a c t e r i n t h e s h o w.

At t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e t r a i l e r w e c a n s e e t h e H o l l yo a ks t i t l e w i th t h e s l o g a n o f w h a t t h e t r a i l e r i s a l l a b o u t w h i c h i s ‘ s i x w e e k s o f s u mm e r ’ . T h i s n e e d e d t o b e a ma i n f o c u s a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e t r a i l e r so t h a t t h e a u d i e n c e a re a b l e to a n t i c i p a te t h e s i x w e e k s t h a t a re g o i n g t o c o m e . A s w e l l a s th i s t h e t r a i l e r u s e s n o n - d i a g e t i c s o u n d b y u s i n g b a c k g ro u n d m u s i c t o a d d a s u mm e r y f e e l t o t h e t r a i l e r. T h i s s u p p o r t s t h e m a i n t h e m e o f t h e t r a i l e r w h i c h i s a l l a b o u t s u mm e r.

O n e ke y m o m e n t w a s r i g h t a t th e b e g i n n i n g w h e n a s o u n d b r i d g e w a s u se d , t h i s w a s u s e d w h e n t h e c h a r a c t e r s a ys “ W h y d o I g e t t h e f e e l i n g y o u ' re u s i n g me t o g e t E s t h e r ’ s b a b y ” . W h i l e t h e a u d i e n c e h e a r s w h a t t h i s c h a r a c te r i s sa y i n g w e s e e a v i s u a l w h i c h s h o w s t w o c l i p s i n w h i c h b o t h o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s w h o a re i n t h e fi r s t s h o t a re p i c t u re d d o i n g s o m e t h i n g w h i c h re v o l v e s t o t h a t p a r t o f t h e s to r y l i n e . T h i s p l o t i s o n l y h i g h l i g h t e d f o r 2 - 3 s e c o n d s w h i c h g i v e s t h e a u d i e n c e t h e o p i n i o n t h a t t h i s s to r y l i n e w i l l n o t b e a ma j o r s t o r y l i n e t h a t w i l l c o me u p i n t h e s u mm e r.

T h e t r a i l e r a l s o f e a t u re s a p l o t i n w h i c h a y o u n g te e n a g e g i r l i s h a v i n g a re l a t i o n s h i p w i t h a n o l d e r m a n w h o i s s e e i n g t h e g i r l s f a t h e r. T h e s c e n e s ta r t s w i t h t h e o l d e r m a n t e l l i n g t h e y o u n g e r g i r l t h a t h e l o ve s h e r i n w h i c h t h i s i s a l s o a so u n d b r i d g e w i t h a c l i p o f t h e o l d e r ma n k i s s i n g t h e y o u n g e r g i r l s m u m. T h i s s h o w s t o t h e a u d i e n c e t h a t t h e re i s g o i n g t o b e a s t ro n g f o c u s o n t h e j e a l o u sy o f a y o u n g g i r l o ve r t h e f a c t t h a t h e r m u m c a n h a v e th e g u y t h a t s h e l i ke s . T h i s i s a ke y t h e me t h a t I w o u l d l i ke t o p o r t r a y a s I f e e l t h a t t h e t a rg e t a u d i e n c e t h a t I w o u l d l i ke to ta rg e t t o w o u l d l i ke t h e d r a m a t i c s c e n e s t h a t w o u l d c o m e w i t h t h e s t o r y l i n e . A l th o u g h t h e a u d i e n c e m a y n o t b e a b l e t o re l a t e e n t i re l y t o t h e s p e c i fi c s c e n a r i o o f th e c h a r a c t e r t h e y w i l l m o s t l i ke l y b e a b l e t o re l a t e t h a t s c e n a r i o t o s o m e t h i n g th a t t h e y h a ve ex p e r i e n c e d .

A s a w h o l e t h e t r a i l e r u t i l i s e s t h e u s e o f a s o u n d b r i d g e . A so u n d b r i d g e i s u s e d w i t h d i a l o g u e t o h e l p n a r r a t e w h a t i s g o i n g o n i n t h e s c e n e . I n a n o t h e r ex a m p l e w e s e e a n o t h e r g i r l g e t i n t o t h e b e d o f o n e o f t h e b o y s a s sh e s a y s h i s n a me w e s e e a n o t h e r s c e n e i n w h i c h a n o t h e r g i r l i s t a l k i n g a b o u t h o w s h e i s h a v i n g p ro b l e ms w i t h t h a t b o y. T h e u se o f th e s e t w o s c e n e s b e i n g p l a y e d b a c k t o b a c k a l l o w s th e a u d i e n c e to u n d e r s ta n d w h a t i s g o i n g o n a n d w h o c o u l d p o s s i b l y b e t h e m a i n c a u s e o f t h e s e p ro b l e ms .

HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF SUMMER

The show Ho l lyoaks i s a i red on E4. The show is shown on E4 on weekn ights at 7pm. Th is i s the pr ime t ime for soap operas to be shown dur ing the week . The show i s a lso shown on channel 4 at 6 :30pm th is i s the repeats o f last n ights ep isode.

The main target audience for Ho l lyoaks is a imed at people aged between 16-24.The show l i kes to have a heavy focus on students and thei r l i ves which makes me be l ieve that the how wants to target s tudents f rom a l l d ifferent backgrounds which is why they use such d iverse s tory l ines in hope to connect wi th a la rge audience. The show main ly a im to target females main ly th is i s because the stereotype that surrounds soaps is that women are more l i ke ly then men to watch a soap opera . The audience would l ike ly be f rom the soc io -economic group ing o f c1, c2 and D. Th is i s because the vast major i ty o f the characters are e i ther s tudents wh ich i s why they would be in group D, or the other characters re la te to groups c1, and c2 as some characters run the i r own bus iness and some characters contract /employed to work in that spec ific p lace o f work .

The t ra i ler uses many technica l aspects Inc lud ing the fo l lowing: Edi t ing: The pace o f the t ra i ler i s fast we see a lo t o f ac t ion happen in a short amount o f

t ime. Th is i s predominant ly used to show the d ifferent mul t i - s t rand narrat ives that are going to take p lace in the ep isodes to come. Th is i s Ho l lyoaks foreshadowing to the audience o f what i s to come in a few weeks t ime. Th is i s an effect ive technique to ent ice the audience as the audience w i l l be look ing out to see i f they can work out what wi l l happen to the i r favour i te character s in the weeks to come. The scenes that we see are very short , the who le idea o f th is i s so that the audience are kept guess ing ‘what happens next? ’ th is i s a way for the show to have return ing v iewers as they want to be ab le to ho ld up an aud ience.

Sound: At the beginn ing o f the t ra i ler we hear d iaget ic sound in the use o f background music . The music used i s very happy and adds to the idea that summer i s mean to be a good and happy t ime. However we see that in the c l ips the characters are not happy and are defiant ly not hav ing a good t ime. The t ra i ler uses a lo t o f sound br idges in order to hurry the narrat ives a long. Th is a lso a l lows the show to be ab le to show mul t ip le c l ips when p lay ing on ly one p iece o f d ia logue, th i s i s essent ia l to be used in a t ra i ler so that the show is ab le to show the mul t i - s t rand narrat ives as proposed by Lev i s t rauss .

Camerawork: The t ra i ler never uses an estab l i sh ing shot which I found qu i te odd. For return ing v iewers not us ing an estab l ish ing shot i s fine because they are fami l ia r w i th the locat ion and p laces that act ion may take p lace. However th i s i s not appeal ing to newer v iewers as they don’ t get a sense o f locat ion and aren ' t ab le to s tart to re la te to the characters or the locat ions in the show. The t ra i ler uses very min imal camera angles but has a hefty focus on mid shots , and two shots . Those are the two main camera angles used throughout the t ra i ler. The t ra i ler a lso features other camera angles such as a low angle to show a character as weak and a h igh angle to show a character as s t rong and one long shot i s shown throughout the who le t ra i ler.


The way that the trai ler entices the audience in and makes them want to watch the show is by briefly showing small cl ips of the major plot l ines that are yet to come in the soap. This is an effective technique as the audience wil l want to know more and as long as the audience are questioning and wanting to know what is going to happen next then they wil l be able to keep a repeat audience.

In conclusion I feel that this trailer fol lows the conventions of a soap opera as we can clearly see the mult i-strand narratives that are going to go on throughout the show. This is a key aspect of the trailer because it shows that there are a lot of characters that are in the show. The main idea of this show is to create veris imilitude (realism) as most soap operas are devised as an escapism from real l i fe they need to show stories which the audience can relate to. Hollyoaks does this by using issues that their target audience may face, because they have a niche target audience they are able to focus heavily on getting the message that they want to across.


In th i s t ra i l e r i t i s a promot iona l t ra i le r for the end o f a majo r p lot i n Eastenders H is tory. The charac ter 's that are seen in the t ra i l e r a re a l l the suspected k i l l e rs o f Lucy Bea le .

The t ra i le r focuses on one narrat ive and doesn’ t use mul t i - s t rand narrat i ves . However i n th i s t ra i le rs case I fee l that th i s works because i t a l lows the audience to focus on one s tory /p lot and that p lot exc lus ive ly. In order to bu i ld ant i c ipat ion and make the i r audience want to watch that ep isode in par t i cu lar the t ra i le r needed to h igh l ight that p lot and not t ry to over shadow that p lot .

One in te res t ing th ing w i th the t ra i le r i s that the ed i t ing i sn ' t fast paced the ed i t ing i s s l ow which adds emphas is on the who done i t . Each character has the i r own scene in the t ra i le r in which they are seen go ing about the i r everyday l i fe when someth ing ‘ spooky’ happens to them. Th is ‘ spook’ i s supposed to be Lucy Bea le haunt ing the characte rs . One example i s when we see Abi i n the shop look ing at the bot t les when one of the bot t le l ids fly 's off . The fac t that Ab i has a scene to herse l f and the Bea le ’s share a scene i s a co inc idence . I fee l that the t ra i le r wanted to po in t the audience in to the wrong d i rec t ion and make them unaware and jo t ab le to work out who the k i l l e r ac tua l ly i s .

The t ra i le r doesn ' t s tar t w i th the Eas tenders t i t le / logo wh ich I was qu i te int r igued to see as for some audience members who don ’ t watch the show re l ig ious ly they a re go ing to be unaware o f what i s go ing on and what show th i s i s . However an e lement that I l i ked and thought was ve ry we l l c ra fted in to the t ra i l e r was the hashtag and date o f the reve lat ion o f the k i l l e r. These wore both typed into the scene and one was in the le ft hand bot tom corner and the o ther i n the r i ght . Th is a l so he lps the show be ab le to engage wi th the i r aud ience as the i r aud ience members may take to the l i kes o f Twi t te r and tweet w i th that hashtag, th i s then a l lows the show to see what the i r aud ience are th ink ing o f the s tory l i ne .

The t ra i le r doesn ’t have any d ia logue throughout the t ra i l e r. The on ly d ia logue that i s used i s a vo ice over which i s p layed r ight at the las t scene when a l l o f the members o f the s t ree t come out and we see a B i rdseye v iew o f the s t ree t . The vo iceover says “There ’s nowhere to h ide , Eas tenders a K i l l e r exposed coming soon on BBC One .” Theuse o f th i s vo iceover adds ant i c ipat ion because the aud ience fina l l y know that they are go ing to ge t c losure over what ac tua l l y happened.

EASTENDERS – A KILLER EXPOSED TRAILER

The show Eastenders i s a i red on BBC One at 7 :30pm on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and at a la ter t ime o f 8pm on a Fr iday.

The main target aud ience for Eas tenders i s f rom the age o f 13-60. The show has a very wide target audience and a ims to appea l to a mass audience where as compared to Ho l lyoaks they target a more n iche aud ience. Eastenders has a mass target audience because they a im to have at least one character a t every d ifferent age range. For example they have teenagers in the l i kes o f C indy and L iam, the show has ch i ld ren such as Tiffany, the show has o lder people for example Dot . The show a lso features some less pr iv i leged characters who would be f rom the lower soc io -economic groupings such as the unemployed (E) and people f rom the D group. As wel l as th i s the show features some characters such as Ian Bea le and mick Carter who own the i r own bus inesses and so the show may a lso appea l to the C1 and C2 group ings . Most o f Eastenders audiences are o lder people who en joy watch ing a soap opera to re lax and use i t as an escape.

The t ra i ler uses many technica l aspects inc lud ing: Edi t ing: One th ing that I d id not ice when I watched the t ra i ler was that the t ra i ler has a lo t more

longer shots / takes which s lows down the pace o f the t ra i ler. However as Eastenders want to add emphas is and make the audience quest ion who k i l l ed Lucy th is has been used to effect . The t ra i ler uses very low key l ight ing to add emphas is on the darkness assoc iate w i th murder , There are a few focuses on certa in lamps and l ights that would be on when i t i s n ight . As wel l as th i s an obv ious th ing i s that the t ra i ler i s shot a t n ight I know th is because i t i s very dark and I can see the st reet l ights on .

Sound: The t ra i ler uses background mus ic which i s d iaget ic as an over lay throughout the t ra i ler. Th is

i s too add a sense of mystery , the fact that we cant hear any sound f rom the characters wor ld a lso makes the aud ience aware aga in that they are watch ing someone’s l i fe . I l i ked the way that none o f the characters had any d ia logue because i t added emphas is onto the characters fac ia l express ions and how they reacted to when they were being haunted . The t ra i ler a lso uses a vo iceover at the end o f the t ra i ler to s tate when the ep isode w i l l be a i red and what the main idea or concept o f the v ideo is go ing to be.

Camerawork: The camerawork throughout the t ra i ler i s very s teady wi th most o f the shots a lmost be ing

l i ke photos be ing taken. For the first two characters we see they both have a c lose up o f the i r face but e i ther o f them are ta lk ing both of them are look ing at whatever had just happened to them In th is case the st i l l image shots worked because i t was a lmost l ike be ing quest ioned by the Po l ice when they take your p ic ture . I fe l t th i s he lped to implement the fact that one o f these peop le i s a cr imina l . At the beg inn ing o f the t ra i ler we see an estab l i sh ing shot o f the s t reet which makes the audience aware that th is t ra i ler i s fo r Eastenders the use o f the B i rdseye shot adds fami l ia r i ty to the scene.


The way that the trailer entices the audience is through the main plot of who kil led Lucy Beale. This is the focal point of the trailer and we would expect for this to be the main point of interest in the trailer. The trailer uses unconvential means such as not having any of the characters speak to add emphasis on their facial expressions in order to heighten the suspense on who is the killer. The trailer uses well known characters and characters that the audience will know and love as a way to connect with the audience and make them want to come back and see what happens to their favorite character.

In conclusion I feel that this trailer contradicts some of the conventions that I have seen in previous trailers as it chooses not to give an insight into many narratives that wil l be appearing and focuses on the one main plot. This is unconventional of a soap opera trailer however it manages to keep the audience engaged by using well know characters in the trailer and adding emphasis onto the fact that a viewers favorite character may be a murder.


Analysing soap opera trailers

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