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.
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