Soap Opera Trailer Audience Questionnaire

We created this questionnaire and handed it to a wide range of audiences so that we could collect their views on exitising soap operas and knowledge of trailers. This would help us as we will then know what we have to include in our trailer so that it informs the audience of what they need. The questionnaire also enables us to learn what we shouldn't include in the trailer.

Emily Wallace, Scott Collins and Charlotte Morrison

Soap Opera Trailer Brief

About Our Soap
After mapping our thoughts and ideas for the theme and content of our soap opera, we decided as a group that we wanted to take something old and out-of-date, and turn it into something new and modern. For this reason, we chose to base our soap in a small, rural village that stretches along a road called 'Mill Lane'.

This idea was inspired by the soap opera Emmerdale, as it started as a small farm-based soap with a very small selection of characters. As it became more popular, it expanded to a village setting and gained more residents and storylines.

The difference between our soap and existing soaps like Emmerdale is that the location of the soap, and the characters and storylines of the soap are conventional opposites. In our case, the location is rural, isolated and very small. But the characters spread over several generations and the storylines are exciting, extreme and shocking. The location is the old fashioned theme, while the characters who live in the location and the dramatic relationships between them introduce a fresh twist to the traditional soap.

The Location and Lifestyle
The name of the soap is called Mill Lane, as it informs the audience of the location of the soap. Mill Lane is divided into 3 main locations: The road 'Mill Lane' itself, 'Broomfield Mill' and 'The Kings Arms' pub.

'Mill Lane' is the residential area of all the characters in the soap. It only consists of housing and some greenery. 'Broomfield Mill' is located at the end of 'Mill Lane' and is sometimes referred to as 'The Mill'. The area is mainly public footpaths, large fields and farm housing. 'The Kings Arms' pub is the hot spot of Mill Lane, and tends to be the only location that residents of 'Mill Lane' gather for social events and celebrations.

Storylines and Characters
The most exciting part of Mill Lane is the characters and how they interact with each other to create storylines. The characters range from a young, essex female to an elderly farm owner. The conflict between characters, due to age, ethnicity, beliefs and interests, means that we can cook up a huge variety of interesting and engaging storylines that will captivate our audience members, no matter who they might be.

A quick and easy way to describe what our soap opera contains is to call it a hybrid between Hollyoaks and Emmerdale.


The Trailer
The trailer for Mill Lane will introduce several storylines. The main storyline will be the introduction of a new resident called Rachel Mannings. We created this storyline as Rachel's appearance on 'Mill Lane' disturbs the predictable, peaceful lifestyle of the existing residents and characters.


The less important storyline involves a series of secrets shared between the characters Jennifer Ward, Charlie Collins and Barry Brooker. The dilemma is centred around Jennifer, as she has had an affair with both men and is now pregnant with a child. The cliff-hanger is not knowing which of the two best friends is the father of Jennifer's baby, and entices the audience to want to find out who the father is and how the characters will react when the news breaks out.

The First Episode
The purpose of our particular trailer is to advertise the storylines and events that take place in the first episode of Mill Lane. The same storylines, involving Rachel Mannings and Jennifer Ward, will take up the majority of the first episode. The rest of the episode will be focused on getting to know the personalities and lifestyles of as many characters in the soap as possible.

Devon Dalton

Initial Soap Ideas

To start our Soap Opera, we wanted to brainstorm some initial ideas. We split up the ideas into Characters, Location, Story Lines, Titles and Target Audience. For instance, we looked at location and listed all of the locations we would use. We have made up this brainstorm so that we could think about actual story lines and come up with characters we will use.

From this we have come up with the idea of making a soap opera based in the countryside (rural) and aimed at all audiences. Similar story lines to Eastenders as they have the same target audience. But set in a totally different area with different types of characters.

After brainstorming we then went on to discuss the story lines and characters further. We came up with ten different characters and a few story lines between them. We have made a mind map to show the relations between characters.

We also came up with a few story lines including a pregnant woman that does know who the father is but has two possibilities. The farmer man or the pub owner who are in fact best friends.
Another storyline is about a young male teen that has two different girls pin-ing after him. One being the new rebel girl from the city and a sweet innocent farmer girl.

The last story line we came up with was for the pub owner and his son. So that we could touch on a different sexuality we decided that the pub owners son could be gay and the pub owner wants him to take over the pub but he really doesn't want to do it, although he doesn't want to disappoint his father.

Emily Wallace

Soap Opera Presentation/Pitch

Target Audience for Our Soap

Initial ideas mind map created by the group.

Before we could consider planning which target audience will watch our soap opera we must first understand target audiences from other soap operas. This is when our target audience questionnaires became extremely useful giving us a broad understanding of the soap opera consumer market.

Firstly, though both genders watch soap operas, women make the larger side on the active audience. This tells us we should aim to attract both genders but concentrate more on a female audience. To get exact figures only four males out of fourteen candidates volunteered to do the questionnaire highlighting that soap operas’ are still connoted to women.

The questionnaire also suggested the most popular soaps are ones set closest to home. This explains why EastEnders is popular around my home area near London. All ages watch soap operas, potentially widening our target audience range.

Further study highlighted that demographic groups B, C1, C2, D & E all watch soap operas. These groupings vary from blue collar workers to educated workers such as teachers; once again leaving a huge potential audience.

Considering all of the above we have created a soap which will target the following…

*All age groups.
*All races.
*Demographic classes B, C1, C2, D & E.
*Both genders.

How to attract both genders?

We aim to have an equal mix of male and female characters within our soap so the audience will not suspect the soap opera is made for a particular gender. Our characters have a wide range of interests, some manly, such as farming and cars/tractors. Some more feminine such as gossip, fashion and scandals/secrets. We also have mix gender interests such as socialising/ events, relationships, contrasted lifestyle and country life.

Contrasted lifestyle may be the most attractive one for the audience. We aim to achieve a rural soap opera that stays true to verisimilitude; which in turn shows a very real, yet very different life style

How to attract all ages?

Research shows the key way to attract all ages is by having a mixed aged cast. This is because some roles only can be played by certain ages. For example, a teenager cannot take up the role of an elderly woman who has a thieving grandson. Only a believable looking character can accomplish this role meaning ages are a major part to all soap storylines.

Each character must have a story plot suited for their age; this in turn will further attract audience members of the same age group.

For teenagers we have a devilish story of lust. A ‘cool’ young man is attracted to both the nice rural girl and the nasty, but more willing urban girl. This love triangle is perfect for younger audiences. This storyline could be called ‘eye candy’ and is full of gossip and secrets, a daily part of teenagers school life.

For adults we have a more serious plot; a confusing pregnancy story, a baby without a father, a mother who has two options; the already partnered husband or the pub landlord. To make matters worse the wife of this husband is the pregnant woman’s best friend. A stereotypical storyline which attracts a huge audience, mainly adults.

To attract the older audience we have characters they can relate to. This is one of the uses of gratifications, people watch for personal relationships/ social interaction. People always prefer a show if they like the character on screen, same way as if a character in a story is brilliant you will feel sad when he or she dies. Elderly people want simpler lives, considering this we have made two older kind characters, the stereotypical vicar and the widowed woman (who many audience members can relate to).

How to attract demographic groupings B, C1, C2, D & E?

To attract these groupings we must ask why each individual group watches soap operas.

Demographic group B, middle class, which makes up 13% of English people, are teachers and other government roles, they most likely watch soaps for a form of realise from the real world.

Demographic group C1, lower middle class, these include other non-manual jobs, make up 22% of English people and most likely watch soaps also for a form of realise.

Demographic groups C2, skilled working class and D, working class, together make up 54% of English people and most likely watch soaps for both enjoying them and escape from a stressful life.

Lastly, demographic group E, which makes up the 8% of English unemployed people and students watch for pure enjoyment of gossip and scandals.

Understanding this we realise people watch soaps for either enjoyment or escape and considering soap operas already do this we can accomplish it by following main soap conventions.

For those who watch purely for entertainment they help prove another uses of gratification theory, we watch television for entertainment.

How to attract all Ethnicities?

Our rural soap stereotypically shouldn’t have many ethnic cultures for rural England is mainly white man dominated. However, we intend to introduce ethnic characters into our piece, though this does not follow true verisimilitude or soap conventions for rural locations.

This introduction to ethnic characters however could have the potential to destroy our soap. People like stereotypical characters, for they feel safe around them, it is rare to see a black farmer and this may not have the desired affect we aim to achieve.

Unless a storylines demands it we will never be racist or offencive to any religions. This will make religious or ethnic groups feel un-threatened by our soap opera and in turn provide a chance for us to attract them.

Using our questionnaires which were created to gather accurate information regarding target audience desires we have established a accurate list of audience expectations. This list includes...

·         Equal ratio of gender.

·         A variety of ages.

·         Conventional locations found in rural soap operas such as a farm and pub.

By including the three above into our soap opera trailer our audience are more likely to watch our soap opera and become part of the potential market.

Scott Collins

Soap Opera Trailer Target Audience

The people that will be watching these adverts would be of a wide range. For some adverts like Hollyoaks, it's aimed at younger people and most teens. We noticed that Channel Four and E4 are aimed at a younger generation, whereas things on BBC 1 target more of a middle-aged audience, such as people who have come home from work and like to unwind in front of the TV.  

A child like cartoon logo to entice the audiance.

Compared to the plain and simple adult logo.

The demographic groups watching our soap opera are likely to be groups C, D and E. We chose these groups as upper class citizens are not likely to watch soaps, as the characters are midde and lower class. This is because the majority of the population are not high in society, and using-middle class characters allows the viewer to engage with the soap and character lifestyles. Although saying this, we want our soap to appeal to a large variety of audience members, and demographic groups A and B could be included as well.

Before making our soap opera, we wanted to know who it would be aimed at. We looked at what who the target audiencemembers of some of the previous trailers were and compared them to who we would target our own at. Different trailers have different target audience. For instance, a Hollyoaks target audience is clearly young teens as the characters are young and attractive and the content would not interest someone who is middle-aged or elderly. Whereas it is the reverse for say Emmerdale, which is a soap opera aimed at a slightly older audience. By looking at these existing soaps, we have decided our target audience would be the majority of the population. Although our soap is rural and tends to lean towards the appealing to elderly viewers, our soap would include more than one generation to expand the range of our target audience. We have included story lines that would grab the attention on younger viewers, therefore concluding that our target audience will be both male and female aged 16 and upwards.

 A common humourous scene in soap Hollyoaks

A serious scene included in Eastenders

Overall, the trailers we have seen were shown in between shows that aimed at a similar target audience. Therefore, our next step is to plan when it would be best to broadcast our trailer in order to ensure we are reaching our target audience. Ideally, we want to play our trailer in between popular programmes, such as existing soaps and well-known dramas and TV shows.

Would the timing and programmes soaps are shown between affect their target audience?

Obviously the timing affects what type of audience member tunes into that soap. One example is Hollyoaks, as teenagers often watch television late at night. In our post on soap trailer times, we found that a Hollyoaks advert was played after the watershed twice in one week. We also found that an Eastenders advert was aired after the news, a time when a lot of people would be watching television.

Emily Wallace

Character Relationships Planning

As part of planning our soap storylines and plots, we thought it would be best to create a mind map and mood board that clearly shows the types of character relationships and storylines our soap opera will contain, and how our specific characters link together. When creating our storyboards and script, we found looking back at this piece of work useful for remembering how our characters interact with one another, and realised how important it is to keep consistency in storylines during the planning stage.

(Click to enlarge)

The majority of characters get along, but the characters linked with arrows have special relationships. The smiley face between two people represents a strong friendship, the love heart shows that there is a relationship or affair between the selected characters, and the angry face with exclamation points means that there is hatred between the linked characters.

The mood board is a very basic presentation that shows our initial ideas on dramatic events, location and character relationships. Our thoughts were focused on setting our soap in a domestic location to follow generic conventions, and having a large variety in relationship types (eg. lovers, enemies, best friends, family, etc.) and dramatic storylines (eg. death, marriage, pregnancy, homosexuality, etc.).

Devon Dalton

Soap Opera Trailer Timings

As a group we went off and found out at least one time a soap opera advert was shown. This is the research we found and we went on to compare the times and found out why they were on at certain times. This will help us determine when out soap would be played and therefore enabling us to know what would be included and acceptable in the trailer. This could change the premise of our soap as if it is showed after the watershed it could include conventions used for teenager aimed shows e.g sexual and drug referances.

To get an idea of what we should and can include in our trailer. By looking at what times soap opera trailers are played, we were able to gain knowledge of the most popular time to play them. These are some of the results we found:

Emmerdale, 4pm, ITV, just before Midsummer Murders

This result shows that the advertisement is played before another show with a similar target audience. It is also at a peak time, 4pm just after everyone has finished school etc. So there is a large 'parent' audience that would be watching television at this time.

Hollyoaks, around 9-10pm, in between a documentary on Skateboarding

We thought this was played at a suitable time as Hollyoaks is aimed at a younger audience as is the documentary on Skateboarding.

We also looked at what day was most popular. We found all three of these adverts were on a saturday, which is a popular day for the public to watch television. As you can see they are also on quite late as this is a day people often go to bed later as they have no work or school Sunday. It is also after all of the 'usual' shows are on (like X factor and Strictly Come Dancing) so the companies know people are watching the television already.

10pm after the news on BBC One, an Eastenders advertisement

10.45pm during The Inbetweeners best bits on E4 an Hollyoaks advert shown

8pm during Doctor Who on BBC One an Eastenders advertisement shown.

Emily Wallace

Conventions Found in Trailers Compared To Full Episodes

Soap Opera Conventions Video

Initial Storyboard

This was our first storyboard. It was used to create a basic understanding of the structure to our trailer. From it we have discussed various issues and parts we liked and have re-begun a second draft storyboard.

Created by Scott Collins

Improved Storyboard

This is our second storyboard. Although it is not as detailed as the other, the story line has changed slightly. We plan to create a final storyboard when we know exactly what we are going to film. This storyboard has been changed as we have changed the actual story. In this storyboard we start on the other characters then end up on the final main girl. Whereas in the first one we start with the main female.
In this story board we have not included fade to blacks as it seemed a waste of time as we would be adding them in the editing process. This saved us time and made it easier to read.

 

Emily Wallace

Final Storyboard

Please click to enlarge images.

This is our final storyboard for our trailer.

Scott Collins and Emily Wallace

Photographic Storyboard

This is the photographic storyboard that we have created based on our original storyboard, from which we have used ideas to produce a more realistic and visual plan for our trailer. The images were not taken of the real cast or in the set locations as they have not been decided at this stage and are irrelevant to the planning of how we will film our soap trailer. Each picture was taken using the camera angle we intend to use at that point.

Creating a photographic storyboard was an important stage of planning as it allows us to visualise how we want our trailer to run, and still allows time for improvement.

Scott Collins and Devon Dalton

Animatic Storyboard

This our animatic storyboard which we have created using iMovie as a template for our final piece. It will enable us to make sure that we film all the footage and give us an idea of how the final product will look. If we are unhappy with any final details, this will be the time to change it so that we don't run into any problems whilst filming.

The soundtrack is different from our photographic storyboard as we wanted to experiment and see which tempo, instruments and style of music would be best for our trailer. It also helped us to look at camera movements and transitions and ensure that we've used the right ones for our trailer.



Charlotte Morrison and Emily Wallace

Soap Opera Posters Research and Analysis

As part of our research into how our poster should look, each member of Armadillo Productions has individually analysed a poster advertising a soap opera or a TV show with an open narrative. We have also looked at a poster created by a past media student for their G324.

Eaton (previous student)

This past AS media group created the soap opera called Eaton. It shows the basic information needed for effective advertisement such as date, time and channel. As well as including the unconventional web address.

There are few positives about this poster. It clearly has a wide range of character ages connoting the show is targeting no particular audience, but instead all audiences. The background is original, taking the characters out of their sets/environment and placing them in this grey, dark world. This works well with the title, the red outline of Eaton making the title bold and eye catching.

However, despite these good features this poster is poorly developed. The colouring of each character makes it obvious each shot was taken in different locations. They should have taken this shot as a group photo then added the background. This would avoid the awful colouring of characters. Also, looking at the bottom of the poster you can see sudden cuts of the characters bodies, showing the characters were poorly cut out of their photos. This suggests the poster was rushed and as a result looks unprofessional.  

Scott Collins

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Hollyoaks

The Hollyoaks poster is mocking other soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street on characters and locations. The picture on the left shows old, fat, grotesque stereotypical British soap opera characters. They look dirty, vile and unhealthy. If you compare this to the Hollyoaks picture you can see the characters are glamorous, attractive and young. They are not stereotypical to soap opera characters and from first glances connote which audience the show targets. The colour comparison from the picture from the left to the one on the right is huge, easily making Hollyoaks seem much more glamorous. Even the dog characters have a huge difference: one is ugly and peeing on a carpet showing little respect and the other is cute, clean and even in fashion wearing doggy clothing.

The characters that stand out are the two women wearing red dresses. The fat, old one looks horrible and even the ‘nice’ red dress can’t connote glamour or beauty. Her laugh is hugely unattractive and is misplaced, for she is in public. The young, blonde woman however looks like something out of a film; she is attractive and looks extremely glamorous. The laugh of this young woman is a polite smile, much more suited for public, this connotes that the woman has some class.

The drastic difference with both locations connotes a lot of information.

Mainly that the old, dungy, stereotypical British pubs are a thing of the past because Hollyoaks, with its photoshopped interior location, will glamorize British Soap operas forever. Everything from the chairs, flooring, tables, wall paper and lights are very modern, sending enigma coded information that this soap is for the young, ‘cool’ average teenager/young adult.

The slogan ‘RUB SOME HOLLYOAKS ON IT’ easily helps connote that Hollyoaks isn’t just good television, but instead it will transform your life.

Many mise en scene factors have been incorporated during the poster's development. Colours for instance are a huge feature. Hollyoaks uses bright red with connotations of love, lust and evil, blue  which connotes youthfulness and silver and gold with connotations of glamour. This compares to the traditional soap opera dirty red with connotations of old, dead glamour, brown connoting boredom and the old and other dark colours connoting negativity in general.

Scott Collins

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The Only Way is Essex

Though not a soap opera, we can still use The Only Way is Essex as an example as it has an open narrative, a continuous and opening editing style and also includes the same themes, such as relationships, seen with soap operas today. The post also includes minimal text and bold images.

Charlotte Morrison

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I have chosen to analyse a poster for Neighbors. Although it is not a brand new soap opera it has moved channel. Therefore this poster not only advertises the soap opera but also the change. This poster also includes very little text and replies on the images to advertise the soap.

Emily Wallace

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I have analysed a poster for a new series called 'Minder'. Although the poster is not advertising a soap opera, this analysis would be relevant as our group is creating a poster display for a brand new show.

The main colour of the poster is white, which has connotations of innocence. This juxtaposes with the bruise under the eye of the man on the left side of the poster, which shows that the show contains violence. The font is printed in black and both men are wearing black suits. This conflicts with the connotations of innocence that white is associated with, as black connotes death. This suggests that the show may be about crime/law.

The character on the left looks bruised and battered and is looking at the second character angrily. This suggests that the two characters know each other and are linked in the show's storyline (eg. partners in crime, good friends, enemies, etc.).

The font used in the poster is associated with the 'PRIVATE' or 'CONFIDENTIAL' words stamped on case files and private documents. This suggests that the show is about mystery and crime. The unusualness of the characters being stuck to some kind of billboard or wall tells the audience that the show includes adventurous and funny situations.

The background colour is quite bright and eye-catching, and attracts viewers to the poster display.

The tagline of the poster is 'Same old London. Brand new MINDER'. This tells the viewer where the programme is set and gives the audience the impression that this show will bring something new to the table by turning 'same old London' into a fresh and exciting setting for a new show.

The amount of writing on the poster is minimal, but all the key information the viewer needs in present. This allows the audience to focus on the visual display and colours as opposed to the writing.

The characters in the poster display are male which shows an inequality in gender representation. This shows that the target audience of this poster is males, as women would not be able to easily engage with the characters.

The characters are wearing suits, which goes hand in hand with the location of the show, as London is recognised as the city of business. The suits also denote professionalism and career success, which is traditionally associated with the men.

Devon Dalton

Soap Opera Magazine Covers Research and Analysis

As part of our research into understanding the conventions used when creating a TV listings magazine cover, each member of our group has analysed a front cover, using media terminology and detailed notes.

Charlotte Morrison

Scott Collins

Emily Wallace

Devon Dalton