Initial Notes on Magazine Cover and Design Ideas

Soap opera magazine covers use a variety of images, texts and colours in order to attract their audiences. Hyperbolic language and short, snappy main cover lines grab the reader's attention and encourage them to buy the magazine. They also include selling lines to compete with other magazines and advertise themselves as having the best value. In order to create the best designs for our magazine cover, I have looked over my research and the conventions of magazines before creating a plan:
Magazine Plan



This magazine cover plan was created using Microsoft Publisher. It shows all the necessary elements needed on a magazine listings cover, where they should be and I will use this as a basis for my designs. Specifically, I have paid particular attention to the left third of the cover as this is what will be seen by potential consumers when the magazines are stacked. Out of the two designs that I produce, I will choose the best one to take to my group for ideas so that we can collectively come up with a unique design.

Magazine Design 1

This is my first basic design using Microsoft Publisher. Unfortunately, the tools are limited and therefore I was unable to cut images and we will need to use a programme more technical than Publisher in order to create a more effective and professional magazine cover.


Positives about this first design include: a variety of images, large main cover line, another smaller cover line and bright colours. 


Negatives about the design: it's too simplistic, appears bare, needs a bit more text, the images are blurry, the main cover line is not in the left third and the overall look is unprofessional.


To improve this first, basic design, I will need to use a more technical programme and include more images and text in order to fill the spaces, making the cover more exciting and appealing for the consumer. Furthermore, the colour scheme could be improved in order to make it more attractive and eye-grabbing. 
Magazine Design 2

This is my second design which I have created using Comic Life. Though generally used for producing comic strips, I used this programme as it enabled me to choose large fonts and colourful texts, as well as letting me overlap images easier. 


Positive aspects of the second design: there is less free space, the main cover line is included in the left third, more images have been used, the colour scheme is more varied and a little more text has been used.


Negative points of the design: it still looks unprofessional, there is still a lack of text, the barcode is missing, the layout of the design is messy.


To improve this second design, I would need to rethink carefully my design layout and try to make it more professional, as well as using a more technical programme in order to crop images. A barcode is needed and more cover lines should be placed around the other images on the cover in order to explain them.


Though my designs have been unsuccessful in producing a final, professional design, I will feedback to my group of the troubles I faced so that we create the best magazine cover. 

Initial Notes on Poster and Design Ideas

Unlike magazines, posters use predominantly images rather than text to advertise and so I have ensured that  text would be minimal on my poster designs. Information on the poster designs includes the soap opera name, tagline, time and day it can be watched with the channel logo.  

To help layout my designs, this is the basic plan I have created for our poster:

Poster Plan

I have chosen to use a border around the main image to make the poster look modern and stylish, reaching our young target audience as seen in the following design:

Contrasting the classic picture frame with a modern image in the middle connotes that this is an older styled soap opera with modern characters and story lines. It also connotes the character of Rachel and how she will be changing the lives of the traditional families in Mill Lane, as well as showing the other relationships between the characters and introducing the new soap to the audience. The classic font to show the title and day/time is modern but also classic reaching our target audiences and in white so that it will be easily visible against the background image. The logo is in the corner and is clearly visible, informing the audience well.


For my second design, I decided to take a more simple and modern approach by using a plain background allowing the text and images to stand out. I have also included a tagline which is important in grabbing the audience's attention:

By pulling the focus onto Rachel Manning's character, with the slogan it connotes that she is causing trouble encouraging the audience to watch and find out more. It also demonstrates her character and allows the relationships between the other characters and Rachel to be shown through how they are looking. again, I have used the whole cast as Mill Lane will be a new soap opera and so this will introduce all the characters to the audience. I have placed the channel logo smaller and at the bottom of the poster in order for the main tag line and soap opera name to grab the audience's attention first. The green surrounding 'MILL LANE' connotes farmland and jealousy, which are important elements in our soap opera. I have also chosen the same, classic font in capital letters to grab the audience's attention and create a modern look for the poster, capturing a younger target audience. 

I have created both designs using Microsoft Word which isn't a very effective programme to use for professional poster design. I will suggest to my group that we find alternative methods of producing a poster so that the final product we produce is finished to a high standard. 

Soap Opera Logo Designs

After researching into existing logos for soap operas, I have created 3 designs, the best one I will take to my group as input for creating our final logo design. 

This first design was inspired by both the Emmerdale and EastEnders logos as they both use a background image to support their soap opera name. Since our soap opera is set in a rural location, I found an image of a field to connote this to our audience, helping them recognise our soap. The text itself I have chosen to resemble that of a street sign, but reversed the colours in order for the name to stand out more. This, combined with the capital letters and bold font, creates a striking effect for the audience and juxtaposes the calm background image - similarly to how our story lines contrast the settings in our soap opera. 

My second design also resembles that of a street sign, but I have incorporated green into the design to connote the rural setting of our soap opera. Though this logo does not have a background image to help it stand out, it can easily be applied to any shot in a trailer at any size since it's simple and has bold, white text. I also chose the colour green as it was not used in any of the existing logos I had researched, making it unique and, possibly, iconic. 

The final design that I've created is a lot plainer than my previous designs but can also easily be adjusted to fit any shot. By altering the outline of the logo to a chalky effect and using an old fashioned font, this logo connotes a typical, old-fashioned setting. However, it could also allude to an old-fashioned soap and this is not what we are looking for. In order to reach our varied target audience, we need a logo that appeals to various age groups and I believe that a more colourful logo would help us reach our target audience. 

The design I have chosen to take to my group is number two, as it is the most unique and connotes the rural setting of our soap opera. It's also looks professional and can easily be cropped into various frames in our piece.

Research into Soap Opera Logos

For the final titles in our trailer, our group decided that we should have an iconic logo for our soap opera so that the audience could immediately recognise it. Predominately, logos will appear at the end of the opening titles and end of the final credits in episodes, but only at then end of trailers and so this is where ours will be placed. To make sure the audience remembers our soap opera, we need to create an eye-catching logo. In order to create the best design for our logo, I have looked at existing logos and evaluated them in a comparison table so that I can create my own, unique designs and feed them back to the group.

When creating my own designs for our soap opera, 'Mill Lane', I will use the logos of Coronation Street and Hollyoaks in particular as inspiration, since Coronation Street has a wide target audience but incorporates the sign as their logo, as well as Hollyoaks which uses colour to attract younger audiences.  

Research into Channel Logos

As with our soap opera logos, we also need to create our own channel logo. Since we agreed that our channel will be called 'DECS', I need to create a short but professional logo so that the audience can easily recognise our production company. By looking at various other existing channels, I will be able to see what ours should consist of and what I need to create a unique and creative logo. 

After evaluating these logos, I will use the logo for ITV and MTV as my main inspiration. This is because ITV broadcasts Emmerdale, a similar soap opera in terms of settings and target audience, and because MTV is more modern, aimed at teenagers or young adults which is close to our target audience. It is important that our channel logo connotes to the audience that our channel caters for a range of audiences and I think a combination of these two logos will help me produce the best ideas.

Channel Logo Designs

These are the three designs I have created our channel, one of which I will take to the rest of our group in order to help create our final channel design. 

This is my first design for our production company. Unintentionally, this logo does resemble that of the BBC but the green around the letter D adds a unique twist. Since our group was formerly 'Green Productions', I have incorporated this colour to keep with our theme. The green also connotes wealth and can suggest to the audience that we are a professional, wealthy and well-known channel creating verisimilitude for the audience and to make our production more believable. The background of this logo, however, could be problematic when trying to place it various frames - our last shot with the titles will be black and we would need a white background on the logo. This could make it look less professional for our trailer.

My second design also incorporates the green from our previous group and the previous design to connote wealth, but the font I have used for 'DECS' also makes it look like the logo is for a record company, rather than a production company. It's for this reason I will not use this logo as we do not wish to confuse our audience. Though the diamond creates a background for the channel name to stand out, as with the background in my first design, it would be difficult to add the logo to random frames since it would need a white background taking away the professional quality seen with other channel logos.

This is my final design for our channel logo. This time, I have removed the green and used a greyscale colour scheme so that the logo can easily be applied to any frame in our trailer. The bubble writing within the smaller rectangle connotes youth and creativity, showing that our channel broadcasts shows for all the family - including our soap opera. This is also demonstrated with the outline of the logo as it fades similarly to a pencil line connoting our channel's ability to adapt to the market and produce new, creative shows. Unfortunately, this may be more appealing to a younger target audience and not to the older generations which could prevent some viewers watching our channel. However, this is similar to our aim for our soap opera - we wanted to modernise what is considered to be an old-fashioned, rural soap opera.

I have chosen my final design to be presented to the group as it connotes our young approach to soap operas and also has an easy colour scheme which can be applied to any frame.

Soap Opera Magazine Name Ideas

As a group we were struggling to create a name for our soap opera magazine and so I created this mind map with some stimulus and research in order to try and find a suitable name. To expand my ideas, I also used a thesaurus to find words of the same or a similar meaning. The names highlighted are my favourites which I will forward to the group as suggestions.

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SoapSecrets: Short with few syllables, uses alliteration creating a 'hushed' sound when read (onomatopoeia), catchy, connotations of secrets and hidden information - easy to remember.
SoapBuzz: Short with only two monosyllabic words, catchy, connotations of excitement, also memorable.
SoapMonthly: Short with few syllables, denotes frequentation of release (too long), memorable.
SoapSponger: Short with few syllables, connotations of lots of information, humourous, alliteration makes it catchy and memorable.
SoapConfessions: Not necessarily short, connotations of secrets and gossip, memorable but with 4 syllables.
BritishSoaps: Short, unique idea due to inverted use of 'Soap', denotes British television, not very exciting, memorable.

Soap Opera Name Ideas

One of the final things to think about was a name for our soap opera. I brainstromed soap opera names that already exist and the reasaons behind it, including what they connote and which area they represent. This is my mind map showing different ideas for our own soap opera:

From this brainstorm I have decided on 'Broomfield Mill', 'Mill Lane' and 'Mill County', since the road name we have chosen to film is 'Mill Lane', as potential names and will suggest these ideas to my group.

Deciding our Target Audience

 In order to decide our target audience, I have looked at existing media products and our own soap opera brief. As a group, we concluded that for our soap opera, and with most soap operas today, our target audience will be both males and females, aged 13 onwards, of demographic groups B, C1, C2, D and E as these are the members of the public most likely to be able to identify with the characters and their experiences. This excludes bankers, lawyers doctors and those born into upper class status (demographic group A) as these are generally a small percentage of the population. The ethnicity of our audience would be predominantly British, but would also include european, asian and eastern european minorities as with the verisimilitude of our soap reflecting a diverse, British society. Our audience will also include homosexuals as we have a homosexual character in our soap opera. This audience will be able to identify with the characters the easiest, and therefore should be able to enjoy our soap opera the most (identification, uses and gratifications theory).


In order to create the highest ratings possible, our soap opera should appeal to the larger demographic groups, such as group E, as there is a higher percentage of students, pensioners and, currently, unemployed people to view our soap. They are also more likely to have the time to watch soap operas rather than doctors or someone of a similar profession due to their busy lifestyle and long working hours. 

Soap Opera Posters Research and Analysis

Since soap opera posters are scarce and difficult to find, I have analysed one poster for Hollyoaks and another for The Only Way is Essex as it follows an open narrative, similar to a soap opera, and uses the same linear editing styles, camera angles and settings like many other soap operas today. Both posters also have a similar, young target audience of demographic groups B to E. 

From evaluating and comparing these 2 posters, I have concluded that for a successful and professional poster, we will need to include the following conventions:

- Bright colours to grab the audience's attention

- Use large images and minimal text to inform the audience quickly

- Use colours that connote the target audience and themes (e.g. pinks for relationships and blue for youth).

- Include the channel, the time and day the soap opera is broadcasted, as well as a tagline, to inform the audience quickly and keep the poster to the point

- Only use an iconic logo for the channel/broadcasting company

Not all of the conventions are included on the 'The Only Way is Essex' poster as it is not a real soap opera and is more of a reality/documentary style show, broadcasted weekly and not daily. However, it is important that we use all the conventions I have listed so that we produce the most professional and informative poster for our soap opera.

Research of Soap Opera Trailers on TV

To produce higher ratings, inform the audience of the soap opera and advertise specific episodes, broadcasters selectively choose a specific time slot on certain channels to air their trailer so that it will reach their target audience. To do this, the programme that the commercial is broadcasted during should reflect the same demographic groupings as the soap opera being advertised. This will also inform me what is included in a typical soap opera trailer according to which time it's broadcasted (before or after the watershed), such as atmosphere, themes and language.

Here are the times of some soap opera trailers I noted including which channel they were broadcasted, as well as which shows between, which day and what time:


Saturday, 8pm - EastEnders trailer.
After Dr. Who (BB1)

The demographic groups of the target audiences of both EastEnders and Dr. Who are the same, including groups B, C1, C2, D and E. The timing of the trailer is also the time that the soap opera is normally broadcasted and so this slot is ideal for reaching the target audience. As it was before the watershed, the was no strong language or disturbing scenes, also following the nature of EastEnder's episodes.


Saturday, 10pm - EastEnders trailer.
After the 10 o'clock news (BB1)
Unlike the previous trailer, this EastEnder's trailer was broadcasted after the watershed and therefore was a bit more sinister and adverftised a more serious plot. The news before this trailer also uses more sensitive themes and is aimed at demographic groups A and below, ensuring that the trailer will reach it's target audience without exposing young children to the mature themes being advertised.



Saturday, 10.45pm - Hollyoaks trailer.
During 'the Inbetweeners Countdown' (E4)
In particular, this Hollyoaks trailer was for a special series called 'Hollyoaks Later' containing more adult themes, nudity and strong language. Therefore, it was broadcasted after the watershed and between episodes of The Inbetweeners, a mature show for teenagers and adults or demographic groups B and below. This makes it a suitable time for a Hollyoaks Later trailer as it would reach their target audience.

Wednesday, 3pm - Emmerdale trailer.
Before Midsummer Murders (ITV1)
The final trailer I noted was a trailer for Emmerdale before Midsummer Murders which has a similar target audience, mostly however the older generation and elderly or demographic groups B to E. However, the afternoon broadcasting before the watershed limits the audience reached as most people work or are in education during the day, specifically those in demographic groups B to D. It also implies that there is no strong language, distressing or disturbing themes features int he trailer. If we were to broadcast our soap opera trailer at this this, it most likely would not reach our target audience.


This information has helped me understand what content is suitable for a trailer broadcasted before and after the watershed - for example the themes and level of nudity or severity of language. Since our soap opera will be aimed at both sexes, demographic groups B to E and is a new soap opera, it will fit best with the timing of EastEnder's trailers as they both share the same target audience. If we decided to create an edgier trailer with more controversial topics, we would broadcast if after the watershed to avoid younger audiences from viewing certain content.

Initial Ideas on Our Own Soap Opera

I have created a mind-map which brain storms my first ideas for our new soap opera. I've considered the different elements of the existing, British soap operas and have also decided on a target audience. I shall present my ideas to my group and together we can produce our own, unique soap opera. 

Soap Opera Magazine Covers Research and Analysis

Initial Analysis
Another part of our task is to promote our soap opera by featuring it in a magazine. In order to gain a better understanding of what we will be creating, I have looked at this cover of 'TV Choice' and evaluated it, looking at what conventions and techniques have been used in order to grab the reader's attention and encourage them to buy the magazine.
Magazine Cover1

In-Depth Analysis
Looking closer at another magazine, I have identified the key elements and conventions of a magazine listings magazine cover and noted what is needed to create the most realistic cover.
Magazine Analysis

By analysing these magazine covers, I have made notes on the common conventions that we need to use for our own listings magazine cover:


- Use a large, main image to go with the main cover line (1/4 of the cover)
- Lots of images of different characters with other cover lines
- Cheap price and include extra features so that audience feels like they are getting more for their money.
- Bright colours to connote the themes of our soap opera (e.g. pink to highlight text and connote love and yellow to connote happiness or alarm).
- Bold, bubbly fonts to grab the audience's attention
- Leave no gaps or space and fill the cover
- Use the left 1/3 of the page to include important information and key selling points
- Keep magazine name catchy, short and relevant to soap operas


By including these conventions, we should be able to create the most effective and professional magazine cover for our soap opera that correctly informs the audience whilst advertising story lines.

Soap Opera Trailer Analysis: Past Students

To help get more of an idea about what the final product will look like, I have evaluated two soap opera trailers from previous years at school. As with the professional trailers, I have evaluated each student trailer on their narrative, camera angles, sound, mise-en-scene, titles and the editing style:


Soap Opera Trailer 1 - Valley Hill






Soap Opera Trailer 2 - The Walthams

Generic Conventions of Soap Opera Trailers

From evaluating the previous 4 trailers, I have concluded patterns that appear throughout them all which indicate and signify that they were, in fact, advertising a soap opera. These generic conventions include:

The Narrative: An open and fractured narrative it used, sometimes with forking paths to show different perspectives of a situation or event. In Todorov's Theory, a disturbance is always recognised but there is not always equilibrium before this. Usually, only a victim or villain is recognised from Propp's Theory in a soap opera trailer. 

Titles: The channel is sometimes displayed at the bottom of the frame throughout the trailer but the final titles include the channel, time and day that the soap opera is broadcasted. If titles appear during the trailer, there are few. The text is also in a simple font and neutral colour.

Mise-en-Scene: The locations are predominantly interior, except for special events or episodes where more exterior locations may be used. Locations include homes (interior and exterior), pubs and cafes. Costumes vary depending on the character and plot, darker specifically with those characters involved in the disturbance, and props used by characters are minimal and used to set the atmosphere or highlight the disturbance. A non-diegetic soundtrack is used throughout the trailer and a non-diegetic voice-over summaries at the end of the trailer. If the soap opera has a jingle, this will also be used as a sound bridge at the end of the trailer. Lighting is lower in the shots where the disturbance is recognised and higher where it is not, except for when juxtaposition is used. 

Camera Angles: Camera angles vary between close ups, mid-shots and two-shots. Over-the shoulder shots are also used during diegetic conversations. High and low angles are not necessarily used in order to keep the audience feeling engaged in the scenes but may be used significantly to signify inferiority and superiority of certain characters. 

Editing Style: Shot durations are short, generally lasting between 1 and 5 seconds maximum so not much is given away. Transitions of razor cuts, dissolves and fade-to-blacks are used throughout following the typical trailer style.


Sound: A non-diegetic soundtrack is used throughout the trailer with a non-diegetic voice over at the end of the trailer stating the name of the soap, time and channel it can be viewed.  Diegetic conversation is often used to encode and communicate to the audience the story lines of the trailer, rather than a non-diegetic voice over. 

When we come to storyboard and create our own soap opera trailer, I will ensure that all of these elements are incorporated into our piece so that we produce the most realistic and effective trailer. 

Soap Opera Trailer Analysis

In order to gain a better understanding of what conventions are included in a soap opera trailer and the editing style we will need to use, I have evaluated 4 trailers of current soap operas and placed the information in a table so that's easy to read and draw comparisons between each trailer.


EastEnders (Christmas Special, 2008)

Coronation Street (50th Anniversary, 2011)

Emmerdale (The Crash, 2010)

Hollyoaks (Newt's Breakdown, 2009)

Comparing the 4 Trailers:


Narrative: All the trailers include an open, fractured narrative allowing the audience to guess what the plot is and keep them active (Uses and Gratifications Theory). The suspense and intriguing tone that's created engages the audience and encourages them to find out what the trailer is about and, therefore, watch the soap opera. Forking paths, in Coronation Street particularly, gives the audiences different perspectives, more characters and more story lines which is more engaging and leaves the audience asking what happens to all the characters. When we come to produce our own soap opera, I will ensure that our trailer demonstrates an open, fractured narrative, potentially with forking paths. Like Coronation Street, basing the narratives around one particular, dramatic event can create an effective trailer (or soap opera episode) and leave the audience asking what happens to all the characters. This curiosity would lead to higher ratings for that soap opera or, at the very least, the episode being advertised.

Characters pulling crackers at the
Queen Vic in EastEnders

Mise-en-Scene: The locations of the trailers vary slightly and include more exterior than interior locations, such as pubs and family homes. This is probably due to the episodes being specials, in which an event normally happens outside the conventional settings and puts the characters in a more exciting situation for the audience. However, the EastEnders trailer uses nearly all interior shots and is more fitting with soap opera episodes. If we decide to advertise our soap opera with a special episode, we should try and use more exterior locations but be aware that not all dramatic events occur outside the conventional settings.

The costumes of these characters
from Coronation Street are dark to
connote distress but the brighter
colours may also connote innocence

The main characters who are directly involved with the dramatic events wear dark costumes in the trailers to connote death, misery or dark times ahead for them. It isolates the characters and also helps set the serious tone of the trailer. Any lighter coloured costumes connote innocence or ignorance from the situation. For example, in EastEnders, the character who finds the birth certificate is wearing grey, neither showing them to be victim or a villain leaving it to interpretation to the audience (the reception theory) and also interesting them as to finding out whether he is the father of the baby or not. These trends with dark and light colours not only appear in soap operas but all media texts. When we come to produce our own trailers, I will ensure that any villainous characters or mysterious characters are wearing darker costumes to connote their involvement with the event and that victims or bystanders are wearing lighter colours to connote their innocence.

Newt from Hollyoaks with low key,
natural lighting creating dramatic
 darkness and a sense of loneliness

The lighting varies in each trailer depending on the atmosphere being set. The juxtaposition of high key, artificial lighting in EastEnders creates contrast between the happiness of Christmas and enhances the shocking reveal of the baby's father. In Coronation Street, the low key, natural lighting coming from the fire of the tram wreck highlights the crash and creates a tense atmosphere. This lack of lighting creates a lot of darkness and shadows, connoting death, signifies a horror-like moment and further reinstates the gloomy atmosphere. Emmerdale also uses low key lighting from the moon on the character running to create shadows and make the audience question who it is, why he is running and build suspense in the trailer. This juxtaposes the high key, artificial lighting in the pub, creating contrasts between the two scenes and encouraging the audience to watch the episode to find out why things went from one extreme to the other. Finally, Hollyoaks uses the lighting in the trailer to emphasise the loneliness of Newt's character and interest the audience to see how he copes with his illness. The dark shadows and scenes create a tense atmosphere and this builds suspense. In our own soap opera trailer, I will consider our story lines carefully to decide which form of lighting will be the most suitable to build suspense, engage the audience and encourage them to watch the soap opera.

Characters in EastEnders wearing
Santa hats to set the atmosphere

There appear to be few props in the trailers of these soap operas that the characters handle as most appear in the background as objects for the settings. The few props that are used directly by the characters are mainly for the equilibrium scenes of the trailers, such as the beers in the pub scene of Emmerdale and the crackers and santa hats in EastEnders. However, the car and train in Emmerdale, the birth certificate in EastEnders and the tram crash and bridge in Coronation Street are all central props denoting the disruption of each piece (the disruption of Hollyoaks is the illness and voices which are therefore represented through Newt's character). The specifically chosen props help set the mood and atmosphere of each trailer and also highlight and signify what the problem is in the episode being advertised. In our soap opera trailer, I will pay close attention to which props we use in order to set the right tone for our trailer, as well as any props that will clearly display the disruption without giving away the story line.

A mid-shot from Hollyoaks
showing this character's emotions
and body language

Camera Angles: The shots used in the trailers are shots from the soap opera episode itself and are therefore mainly close ups, mid-shots, two-shots and over-the-shoulder shots. These are used in soap operas so that the audience feels involved in the scenes and so emotions and body language are easily presented to the audience, involving them more. The feel of the 'observer' is created in the trailer which engages the audience and encourages them to watch the episode. In our own soap operas, we will use predominantly close up and mid-shots in order to mimic the soap opera style and engage the audience.


Sound: All 4 of the trailers include a non-diegetic soundtrack which plays throughout the trailer in order to set the tone and atmosphere. EastEnders uses an eerie version of a well-known Christmas song to signify the Christmas season as well as juxtapose and connote that there is a sinister element to the Christmas special. It also includes the famous EastEnders jingle at the end of the trailer to signify to the audience which soap opera it is and a non-diegetic voice over to highlight the disturbance in the episode and make the audience what to know what happens next. The soundtrack of Coronation Street's trailer is dramatic and movie-like in order to emphasise the drama of the situation and pull on the audiences emotions. It's classical and of slow pace, building in tempo until the end of the trailer to create suspense. Emmerdale's soundtrack is in a similar classical style to Coronation Street and also begins with a slow tempo and increases in speed towards the end to build suspense. It heightens the mystery felt from the car crash and the running character, engaging the audience. Finally, the soundtrack in Hollyoaks is more modern and in the heavy metal genre, contrasting the previous trailers but also targeting a younger audience. It reflects the character's state of mind in the trailer, sets a distressing tone and builds suspense for the audience. Also, similarly to EastEnders and Emmerdale, a voice over at the end of the trailer helps to sum up the trailer and explain the time at which the audience can view the episode. In our trailer, depending on the story lines and circumstances of the characters, we will choose a suitable soundtrack to set the right atmosphere and I will also consider the use of juxtaposition to set a potential eerie tone to the trailer and interest the audience further.

Friends laughing in the pub
in Emmerdale

The diegetic sound in each trailer also helps to explain the dilemmas that the characters face and set the tone for the trailers. EastEnders uses the diegetic conversation and laughter in order to set a happy, Christmas atmosphere and also to enhance the juxtaposition between the season and the disturbance. In Coronation Street, diegetic conversation helps to distinguish each of the character's problems. Diegetic screams and shouting also helps to heighten the tense and panicked atmosphere. Emmerdale uses diegetic conversation and laughing in order to set a happy tone in the pub, introduce the characters as friends and also juxtapose the next shots of a car crash and a train. Lastly, the diegetic conversations exchanged between the characters in the Hollyoaks trailer helps to explain the psychological problem of Newt and establish relationships between the characters. This engages the audience and encourages them to find out what happens to the characters in the episode as they reach the climax of their disturbance. In our soap opera, I will ensure that we use diegetic sound wisely in order to set the right atmosphere for our trailer and to highlight the disturbance in the episode as seen in these 4 trailers.

The final titles at the end of the
EastEnders trailer

Titles: At the end of the Emmerdale, EastEnders and Hollyoaks trailer, there is a shot of the logo of the channel broadcasting the soap opera, including the time and which day the audience can view the episode. Channel 4 also includes a website so that the audience can watch the episode online and find out more details about other programmes. All this information is made clear to the audience so that they know when the episode advertised is being broadcasted. Furthermore, they details are read aloud by a non-diegetic voice over to reinforce the details. As well as the final information, the trailers for Hollyoaks and Emmerdale use titles throughout the trailer in order to help communicate the dilemma to the audience and interest them more. They use fonts appropriate to the mood of the trailer but they appear twice in each trailer, at irregular timings but close together due to the diegetic conversation informing the audience of what's happening in the episode. If we choose to have titles in our soap opera, we will include them only 2 or 3 times in order to keep with the generic conventions of a soap opera trailer. We will also include the titles at the end informing the audience of the channel, time and day that the episode is broadcasted.


The three titles that appear in the Emmerdale trailer:

Other comments: The editing style of each trailer is similar, using shots of a longer duration at the start before quickening to 2 or 3 second shots. Razor cuts are predominantly used, with fade-to-blacks and fading between shots which are generic editing techniques seen in all trailers. There are no special effects used and text is in a simple font. If the episode is an hour long special, this is stated through titles as seen in the trailer for Emmerdale. I will ensure that in our soap opera trailer, we will use these editing techniques and emulate the same simplicity as seen with these trailers.


By comparing these trailers and evaluating them, I have managed to identify the main conventions of soap opera trailers which I will ensure we use them when creating our own.