Props Research

To get an idea of what sort of props we should include as props for our trailer, I have looked at trailers of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Coronation Street and compared them.

By looking at the various props that appear throughout these trailers, I have discovered the effective use of juxtaposition between them and the non-diegetic soundtracks, as well as the connotations and denotations they can have which could alter the meaning of the trailer. Colour specifically, as with the black petals in the Hollyoaks trailer, can alter the meaning of a prop and the way in which it's handled by the actor allowing an effective use of the enigma code, feeding messages to the audience in order to be deciphered. Since the reception of these messages from the props may be varied, this will help us to build suspense and encourage the audience to watch our soap opera if our props are chosen selectively. Props can also connote aspects of a character's personality, such as with the mirror used by the female in the EastEnders trailer. When it comes to choosing our props, I will make sure that we choose the right ones in order to portray the right message to the audience.

Locations Research

To help me research into possible locations for our soap opera, specifically our trailer, I watched an episode of EastEnders and Coronation Street, as well as looking at my previous research of their locations to find the generic locations as a guide for our trailer.


EastEnders

This is an exterior location of a home in the square, a key location in EastEnders for bringing together the character's relationships, occupations and story lines. At this moment in the episode, the characters are looking over the square, commenting on a story line affecting other characters in the soap opera. In our own soap opera trailer, it could be effective to use one central location in which we could show each character's narrative crossing, in order to create a forking paths - a common trait of soap opera trailers.

These locations are the interiors of homes of some of the characters, specifically the kitchen and living room. As these are family rooms generally used socially in ordinary homes, they repeat throughout the episode in order to create verisimilitude for the audience and a familiar setting when events occur. They could also possibly play a bit part in our trailer, since they appear frequently throughout normal episodes.

This location is the exterior of a police station, connoting serious themes or stroy lines. In regards to our soap opera trailer, if we include any serious story lines or themes we should choose our locations sleectively to connote them to the audience. This includes the enigma code, feeding information to our audience in order to convey a message without telling them the story line and giving too mcuh away.

This cafe, like the living and dining rooms of ordary homes, is a location easily recognisable by those in demographic groups B to E, and can be associated with gossip and socialising. Like the exterior shot of the homes or 'the square', a cafe could be used in our trailer to signify the crossing of narratives, or forking paths.

The shop, also like the cafe, could be seen as a location for socialising and bringing the various characters' stories together, again like a forking paths narrative. 


To compare the episode with the trailer, I have used this table from my previous research.

The similarities between the locations include the interior locations of a home, but not a pub which wasn't featured in the episode at all. However, since these the episodes are from different times, the story lines will have differed, changing the locations they were set. Though it's apparent interior of homes repeat in both trailers and episodes of soap operas, I also know from previous knowledge that it is common to see locations of pubs and cafes. Depending on the story lines we decide, we will choose our locations accordingly, including signifying and conventional ones, so that it's easily recognisable as a soap opera trailer.


Coronation Street

As seen with EastEnders, there were several interior locations of homes in the Coronation Street episode, mainly using the kitchen and dining room. These family rooms also create verisimilitude for the audience and allow them to identify more with the characters, via the Uses and Gratifications Theory. 

These exterior locations of homes on Coronation Street also create verisimilitude and allow the characters who wouldn't normally meet to cross paths and create new story lines. It also acts as a tool in denoting the forking paths narrative in the episode.

Finally, this cafe is again a recognisable location for demographic groups B to E, creating verisimilitude for the audience. In this scene, a disturbance has been caused by one of residents of Coronation Street and so we should consider typically calm locations and juxtaposing them with a disturbance, using Todorov's theory of narrative.


To compare the Coronation Street episode with the trailer, I have used this table from my previous research.

Interestingly, both EastEnders and Coronation Street include interior locations of homes, such as the living room, dining room and kitchen, in the trailer and episode. This would indicate that they are conventional locations for soap operas in general, not just soap opera trailers. The trailers also use exterior shots of the homes and a cafe in the episodes to create a forking paths narrative and link the various characters together suggesting that when we create our own trailer, we should try to incorporate them as much as we can. Things that appear differently in the episodes and trailers include a pub in the episode of EastEnders and a restaurant in the Coronation Street trailer. This was due to the varying story lines being broadcasted at the time and I know from previous research that pubs and cafes in particular are conventional locations for soap operas. When we create our own soap opera trailer, I now have a better understanding of the iconic settings that soaps are set in and what we should try to include in our soap opera trailer so that the audience can decipher our message the way we intend (the reception theory and enigma code). 

Lighting Research

In order to investigate lighting for our soap opera trailer, I have looked at trailers for EastEnders, Emmerdale, Home and Away and Coronation Street promoting different story lines to see the different effects lighting can have on a trailer.

It appears from these trailers that the use of lighting reflects the mood, themes and story lines used in each trailer and so when creating our own, I should be aware of how we use ours and the effect this will have on our audience. For example as in the EastEnders trailer, low-key lighting often creates shadows on characters and this builds suspense for the audience with connotations of mystery, danger or death. I have also taken note of how we can use lighting effectively, potentially integrating it with the use of transitions, as with the Home and Away trailer, in order to make our trailer appear to run more smoothly if we cut between high and low key lighting.

Costumes Research

As research for our costumes for our trailer, I have looked at a trailer for Emmerdale since it's of a similar setting to our soap opera, as well as EastEnders for the character of Rachel Mannings as she is from an urban location.

The females in this Emmerdale trailer wear predominantly black, connoting sinister themes and perhaps preofessional occupations. One female also wears checkered shirts green to denote the farm setting, as well as an apron in one scene connoting her house wife status. She also wears a silver, heart necklace connoting the affair story line being advertised. Another female is wearing a pearl necklace, potentially connoting she is of a higher demographic grouping, possibly B.

In comparison to the females in the Emmerdale trailer, the women in the EastEnders trailer appear to wear brighter colours, such as white, pink, blue, and orange, connoting happier themes and story lines, as well as happier personalities. The costumes include small jakcets, long tops as well as scarves and gillets aand hate which also reflect the urban setting of the soap and suggets that the characters belong to demographic groups C1 and below.

In order to portray that the character of Rachel comes from an area such as Essex, to a place such as Emmerdale, we will need to emmulate the styles seen in EastEnders, such a small jacket and plain top, but use colours , like black, to connot that she is durturbing the peaceful area.

Stock Characters Research

In soap operas specifically, stock characters are the stereotypes that appear in each episode which usually reflect the area they live in. For example, common stock characters are:

- The Pregnant Teen
- The Single Mum
- The Girl Next Door
- Jack the Lad
- The Pub Owner/Business Figure
- The Homosexual Couple
- The Bad Boy
- The Old/Wise Figure
- The Damsel in Distress
- The Golddigger

In order to understand these characters more, I have found an example of each from various soap operas and then an example of each, focussing on Emmerdale in particular as this is the current soap opera with the most similarities to ours in terms of settings, themes and characters. When I have found all the information I shall feed back to my group my findings and help to decide which stereotypes and characters we will be including in our own soap opera.

Soap Opera Trailer Analysis: New vs Existing Soap Operas

Though I have researched and found the conventions of soap opera trailers, there are significant differences between a trailer that has already been broadcasted for several years and a brand new soap opera. To investigate these differences, I will look at the first trailer for EastEnders and a more recent one:


EastEnder's First Trailer (1985)



EastEnders Trailer (2011)



eastenders pp

Soap Opera History

The History of Soap Operas on Prezi

Bibliography:

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A1087193
http://www.slideshare.net/bobusmaximus/3-history-of-soap-operas