Initially, I noticed that I couldn't find many soap opera posters about - it seems a feature more standard practice for films than for soaps, but Hollyoaks had made a couple of really interesting, punchy ones.
Being an unconventional soap, Hollyoaks uses this to their advantage and plays on this in the (above) poster. The tagline "Rub some Hollyoaks on it" alongside the image used, seems as if they are mocking other soaps through their contrasting representations of everyday life, although both remain verisimilitude to the situations portrayed, only one -being a bar scene- more sophisticated than the other communal area (a pub).
This is a very blunt tagline, guaranteed to ensure that pre-existing audiences will tune in to see the episodes, but also a new audience, who maybe didn't like the soap before, intrigued to find out how it will change purely out of curiosity.
On both these posters, the channel and time the soap opera is aired is clearly visible, however the layouts are completely different. We must ensure the channel and viewing time is visible when creating our own poster in order to remain following conventions and most importantly, achieve high viewing figures.
Looking at a soap opera magazine, at first glance I am struck by the colour. Every magazine cover is full of colour; hardly a white space to be found. Obviously this is to capture the buyer's eye, just like it did mine. Everything about the soap opera magazine is designed to capture attention: bold, outlined text in easily legible fonts (often captitalised), punchy titling and well-illustrated with enticing, colour screenshots and images. They will always have stories on the cover from more than one soap opera, to target a wide audience and achieve large sales. Somewhere on them is a price of the magazine, which is generally easy to spot (and fairly cheap to compete with other magazines) so the buyer can easily compare it with other soap magazines.
The main purpose of any trailer is to entice the viewer to watch the full media, and this is no different with a soap opera trailer. It will be aimed at the target audience of the soap, which is generally a broad range; from teenagers to the elderly, and so has to cleverly capture the interest of these people. In order to do this, it will usually tease at the plot line and characters involved, without giving away any major facts or outcomes. It is common for soap trailers to end on a cliffhanger, which helps to draw the audience in as they want to discover what happens.
Conventions of soap opera trailers differ from those found in full soap opera episodes. We will need to consider the following conventions in order to create our own realistic soap opera trailer:
Sound
A vast difference is how sound is used in the two. Within soap operas (apart from Hollyoaks), there is never any non-diegetic sound as the soap is made to be as realistic a verisimilitude representation of everyday life as possible. In a soap opera trailer however, there is use of non-diegetic sound and is rarely much diegetic sound involved. However, this does depend on the audience the trailer is targeting. For new audiences, to give them an insight into the storylines and characters, the trailer may consist of a combination of clips from a soap episode itself, where there would obviously be diegetic sound involved. Other soap opera trailers consist completely of new scenes filmed especially for the trailer. These don't often have diegetic dialogue and have a song overlaying the action. These trailers are for pre-existent viewers, who already know about the characters and plots, to capture their attention using the Uses and Gratifications theory; they are interested and want to watch the episode to find out more.
Titling
Unlike soap opera episodes, the titles in soap trailers come at the end. These can be in a visual or narrated format, or both. The name of the soap, the channel it is shown on and when it is shown is always included to ensure it is clear to the audience where they can see the soap, as you can see below:
To entice and entrail a younger audience, as you can see from this last image, the use of the social networking site, Twitter's, hashtag has been incorporated into the title screen. This is an effective way of reaching out to the youth of today's society; where most people have access to social networking sites at all times through their handheld electrical appliances such as mobile phones and iPods.
Camera Angles
Lots of the time in soap opera trailers, more close-up shots and mid shots are used, than in the soap opera episode, as a way to introduce the audience to the characters. These shots help to convey the emotion within the characters faces and how they interact with the other characters so the audience can create assumptions, assess and determine the characters' personalities and relationships. In effect, this gives them a taster of what the whole episode is to be like - so the more interesting and captivating it is, the better. These closer shots are used more so in the trailers than in the full episodes; where the action is followed with long shots.
Narrative
Similarly to soap opera episodes, the trailers are usually edited continuously in order for easy viewing - if the trailer was too confusing, the audience may not want to watch the whole episode, although there does need to be a level of excitement and mystery to add the interest needed in order to claim this new audience. More often than not, Propps' hero/villain/helper theory is seen in soap opera trailers to increase interest and to give the audience a sense of knowing and an insight into who the characters are.
Over many half an hour soap opera episodes, Todorov's theory of equilibrium is used where the state of equilibrium is disrupted and recognised before being, usually, overcome once again to reveal equilibrium. However, this happens over a long period of time throughout various episodes. In a soap opera trailer everything happens a lot more fast-paced. Usually, the state of equilibrium is shown as well as the disruption of the equilibrium, which builds to a dramatic climax at the end of the trailer. This cliffhanger cleverly encourages the viewer to watch the full episode.
It is important, in order for any program to access high viewing figures, to consider when it will be shown on television. This will sometimes be dependent on the target audience, however because soap operas have a large target audience, this doesn't restrict when it can be shown. Therefore, the best time to have a soap opera trailer aired on television is at peak viewing times, such as recently, in between The X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who and Merlin - Saturday night television. By airing the trailer at these times the maximum possible people will see the trailer which will, ideally, generate a large figure of people tuning in to watch the soap after the trailer for it captured their attention.
Mainly though, I have noticed soap opera trailers on television around and after 7 o'clock. I have even noticed soap trailers around the times of pre-existing soap operas on television, such as Coronation Street and Eastenders, which is very advantageous as these soaps already have a large fanbase and by positioning a trailer close to these programs, you would be targeting that soap-loving niche audience who would hopefully watch the new soap also.
low angle shows characters are looking down on grave
mid shots to show action
low angle on man with gun to show power/dominance
close ups on faces to introduce characters
tilt from face to photo shows where audience should be looking and girl's reaction to image and her feelings towards the people in it
slow motion builds up suspense and highlights key moments
montage at end introduces characters and storylines.
Narrative -
continuous editing with cut aways to other storylines.
Sound -
dramatic music which builds up
gunshot noise on flick of cigarette connotes man has shot someone (have to watch full episode to find out).
Mise-en-scene -
chipped nail varnish and burning of photo of friends suggests girl's breakdown of a friendship
close up of woman's left hand and wedding ring followed by long shot of the woman with man's left hand in shot without ring connotes he has taken it off and is committing adultery.
Titling -
key words intertwined into action suggest storylines
professional-looking title screen at end.
Camera angles -
mid shot also shows setting
close ups introduce characters
long shot shows action
slow motion highlights costume
pan showing action and introduces new character
low angle shot showing large house and character's legs suggests walking into his home
various shots showing different settings
handheld shot showing boys running generates a frantic feel and makes the trailer seem more fast-paced and exciting.
Narrative -
Continuous editing which tells a story (linked storylines)
Shows various storylines - good to hook audience (gives them an idea of storylines) and introduces characters.
Sound -
Catchy soundtrack that fits with action
Conventional of soap trailers and has no diegetic sound.
Mise-en-scene -
Children wearing hoodies has connotations of the stereotype of a 'chav' - signifying they will be troublesome characters. The fact they are running from something also connotes this and them running in front of the car signifies their ignorance
Man wearing all black connotes there will be dark happenings in the soap opera such as death.
Titling -
Titles throughout trailer fitted with music and transitions looked smooth and professional. Clever use of the word 'new' throughout trailer as soap's name is 'New Street'
BBC logo overlaid on trailer throughout gives professional outcome and is conventional to that of real BBC soap trailers
Professional-looking title screen at end of trailer (music continued over it and fonts look very similar to that used on real trailers/programmes on BBC). Voiceover also adds to the trailer's professional outcome (conventional of BBC trailers).
Camera angles -
Breaks 180 degree rule which makes some shots difficult for the audience to understand (when they are talking about loan, around 0:17)
Close up shots show characters expressions
Mid shots show action
Pans to show other characters.
Narrative -
Lots of cuts to put clips together to make sense (looks unprofessional), need to film continuously for professional outcome
The way it's edited doesn't always make sense to the viewer e.g order of clips shown and angle of shots needs to be changed (the 'Confrontations' scene and the loan scene in particular)
Doesn't flow.
Sound -
Unconvincing voiceover
Unconventional speech within soap trailer.
Mise-en-scene -
Lack of realistic-looking settings, costume and characters (not believable)
Haven't particularly considered mise (e.g the boss man is wearing casual clothes but does he work in an office? Suit and tie. Or is he a builder? Work clothes/overalls.)
Titling -
Unprofessional-looking title screen at end (need to use real logo).
As a group we made a mind map of ideas for our soap opera. We decided upon a rural setting for our soap as we think this will be practically more accessible for us as a group. I would like our trailer to be very punchy and attention-grabbing that will make the viewer think about what is happening in it. From experience, I think these are the best trailers as they are more memorable because of the work you have to put in to understand it. These trailers can also be quite challenging to pull off as a success as the viewer can switch off if the story is too complicated so we need to hook them from the very start. It will need to be action-packed, fast-paced and exciting.
Soaps use trailers, like other media texts, to capture the audience's attention. By having an interesting, captivating trailer you are increasing your chance of gaining new viewers who may not have already been interested in the soap. These exciting trailers are shown during prime time TV to attract the greatest new audience.
After watching different soap trailers, I found that personally I was captivated by Hollyoak's advertising. Their trailer's seem very obscure at first glance, but the content and storylines within the soap itself are cleverly reflected by the music, props and lighting and intertwined with connoting factors in each of these conventions to create a very eerie, atmospheric production.
There is extensive and clever use of mise-en-scene within this trailer which helps to connote the storylines in the soap without giving too much information away. As soap characters are the refelctions of people's everyday lives, the animal masks connote that they are free-willed and, potenitially, dangerous. This suggests that the writer doesn't want the viewer to see the characters as his puppets, but individuals with emotions and feelings.
The rain on only one girl, instead of all girls, suggests she is an outsider in the group and the writer wants the audience to pity her. Oppositely it could connote that maybe she has an antagonistic nature and the rain is a sort of punishment; where, if interpreted this way, the viewer would feel anger towards her.
Lighting in the trailer also connotes the rollercoaster nature of the soap and mirrors the personalities and moods of the characters shown in that part of the trailer with the specific lighting. The changing of the lighting throughout the trailer suggests different moods and diversities of stroylines within the soap. The bright sunlight connotes happiness, sunset - love and peace, with nighttime having more sinister connotations. Meanwhile the rain connotes sadness. These emotions would all be expected to be apparent in any soap and it's characters.
The worried faces paired with the chaos happening on the screen behind the characters connotes the chaos between the characters and the breakdown of their relationship. This upset happens within any characters' relationship and can end in lesser or greater damage.
Soap operas have ongoing storylines. This idea is represented through the releasing of hundreds of chinese lanterns - suggesting the hundreds of different storylines between many characters. The lanterns will float up into the Earth's atmosphere where they will be parallel with space; an area that is neverending, similarly to soaps.
Mid shots in the trailer help to show the characters' clothing and costume which has various connotations to the audience so the importance to convey this is great and essential. Long shots ensure the action and interaction between characters can be clearly seen which is vital for establishing the relationships between the characters. In order for the characters' emotions to show, close ups have been used. It also gives new viewers a chance to see the characters up close and get a feel for who they are.
Like many soap opera trailers there is no diegetic speech within the trailer. This ensures none of the storyline is given away and that even new viewers are entertained and can understand it and, in the future, may become committed long-term viewers. The non-diegetic eerie song with a strong drumbeat overlaying the trailer has sinister connatations of heading to war, which brings with it all the relations to war; like chaos, hurt, sadness which cleverly suggests these factors and more are all touched upon within the soap opera's storylines.
The trailer is very obscure and doesn't follow an obvious narrative which suggests the soap follows a variety of different characters and their lives. More confusion is created for the audience when there is a juxtaposition of sad faces matched with extremely joyous ones around a merry-go-round (something that is fun and should bring happiness to people) which, again, connotes various stroylines within the soap that could have elements of conflict, joy, happiness, sadness and more in them.
A youthful target audience is suggested through the use of hashtagged words "#savageparty" at the end of the trailer. This is aimed for those inhabiting the social networking site; Twitter, of whom are generally teenagers and young adults. It is a very clever way of connecting with this niche audience. Importantly, no titles are shown within the running time of the trailer itself, but at the end on a blank screen. This ensures the details of the viewing times are easily understood by the audience as they are not being distracted by any action playing in the background.
It is important that the characters and their expressions are clearly shown within soaps. This also seems to be the case within the trailers, with mid shots and close-ups being used to identify characters. Some over-the-shoulder shots have been used to shows the characters' interacting and their expressions toward one another which gives the audience a brief idea of their personalities. The slow-motion used helps ensure the audience can clearly see the characters' expressions.
The soap opera has a continuous narrative to ensure it is understandable and doesn't confuse the viewer too much. If it did, the viewer may not want to watch the soap episodes; which is the opposite to what a soap trailer is supposed to do; entice a new or existing audience.
A juxtaposition of white clothing - which connotes innocence (for example, the girl at the beginning looks like a white angel) - is matched with the fire and use of red and black which all symbolise the devil and hell, connoting information about the characters, their personalities and the different plots that will take place in the soap; be them happy or sad.
The use of sound in this trailer is interesting. Like many soap opera trailers there is no diegetic speech involved however the objects and fire in the trailer still make their diegetic noise. This exaggerates the disastrous actions happening within the trailer connoting the liklihood of disasters within the soap itself. Throughout the trailer there is the sound of a ticking clock which suggests that time is running out and that there is little time as it builds up to an occurance that is likely to happen soon and is not likely to be good.
Again, similarly to other soap opera trailers, there are no titles within the trailer itself but they are at the very end on a blank screen, as being important information, this needs to be clearly visble to the audience to know when they will be able to watch the soap opera.
This trailer is very different as it uses an actors' life as the basis for the trailer. Ricky Whittle, who plays the character of Calvin Valentine in Hollyoaks, competed on the programme 'Strictly Come Dancing'. There is a narrative overlay of the phrase, "Strictly not for the fainthearted" which is suggesting this link between the actors' real life and the soap. Usually, soaps will avoid an audience having preconceptions of a character because based on the actor who plays them and will purposefully seek out new talents. Whereas, with a famous, more experienced actor, although this may generate a larger audience for the soap because of the big name involved with it, previous roles may be brought forward and seen in their acting by the audience meaning the verisimiltude representation of life, which soaps try to achieve, is dented. This said, I personally find the link very clever as a way to promote a soap opera as well as the way the characters interact with each other to show the relationships or feuds between them.
The mid-shots highlight these interactions; highlighting the facial expressions and body language towards each other. There are lots of cuts and camera shots and angles which connotes a hectic atmosphere. Amidst the chaos, the character of Ricky's ends up getting betrayed by his dance partner, after getting abused by the other characters, for another man. This has huge connotations of various storylines including heartbreak (the blood thrown over Calvin on the left-side of his body, near where his heart would be, helps connote this) and revenge. The trailer could also connote storylines of deteriorating mental health issues because of the confusion the camera shots generate and Calvin's expression at the blood on his hands, or even darker ones of murder or even being set up for a murder he didn't commit as the red drink spilt could connote blood spilt. There is a music overlay the whole way through which the characters are dancing to. The song contains the lyrics, "Dance 'til you're dead", which also suggest these dark, murderous undertones of the trailer.
The 3 judges create the number '999' which is a distress number called to capture police attention suggesting a criminal offence has been committed. The judges holding up '9's could be judging the characters on the cover up of their crime. They could also be judging '9's could be the characters on the cover up of their crime.
In order to understand the layout and structure of soap operas, I analysed an episode of Hollyoaks, while my group members analysed different soap episodes. We were then able to compare the episodes and see if any of the soaps had anything in common; from settings to number of scenes and character types. We found they did have lots of similarities; the characters' in particular were mostly very stereotypical as were they locations used. However, this is because the main feature of soaps is for them to be verisimilitude to that of every day life, so the audience can relate to them, explaining the repetition of similar settings in different soaps such as bars, pubs, houses, parks and schools, as well as issues touched on.
Knowledge of Soaps
Following my initial mind map of soap knowledge, it indicated the areas I needed to improve upon and research in greater detail. As you can see from this mind map, I researched more soap operas as I hadn't previously watched many soaps beforehand apart from Hollyoaks, and information on channels, timings, how characters are portrayed, where they're set and whether or not they follow stereotypes etc. This will help me, when constructing my own soap opera, to make it professional-looking, to know what time I should be showing the soap and on what channel to what characters are in it and how they should be portrayed.
This is my mind map, where I wrote everything I know about soap operas; before researching them. It made me begin to think about soap operas in general, from basic factors like what time they are shown on telly to the types of storylines and characters portrayed, and enables me to see the areas I need to research in more depth.
Being an unconventional soap, Hollyoaks uses this to their advantage and plays on this in the (above) poster. The tagline "Rub some Hollyoaks on it" alongside the image used, seems as if they are mocking other soaps through their contrasting representations of everyday life, although both remain verisimilitude to the situations portrayed, only one -being a bar scene- more sophisticated than the other communal area (a pub). 
