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.
