Initial Soap Opera Ideas

As a group we came together and discussed our first initial ideas of what we would like to make our new soap about. We have presented this in a mind map and have included such things as possible characters and themes.

Initial ideas on Prezi

Soap Opera Brief

We are creating a trailer for a new soap opera and also a poster and listings magazine that would be used to promote our new soap.

The initial idea for our soap is to be a glamorous, high class soap as we feel this is a gap in the soap opera market. We got inspiration for this idea from programmes such as Hollyoaks, The Hills and Footballers Wives. These programmes have all inspired us in different ways, Hollyoaks as they are young, The Hills because of their lifestyle and relationships and Footballers Wives because of the money and classy characters but they still include dramatic story lines that can be included in a soap.

In the first few episodes we would like to introduce the characters and their lives, show the area and significant locations. We would also include story lines such as a hint of an affair, family troubles and a drug scandal. We want to show the audience that it isn't always happy in paradise and that money can't buy you happiness.

The purpose of the soap opera trailer is firstly to promote our new soap and entice possible audiences. We want to show the viewers what they are likely to expect to see in the soap and give a brief insight into the characters. The purpose of the soap opera poster is to promote our soap and inform people about it. It will help us to show our soap to the biggest and widest  possible market as not everyone may see it. The purpose of the listing magazine cover is to advertise our new soap. It will show the target audience what else they can expect to see on the market and that a new and exciting soap is coming onto their TV screens. We will be able to show further story lines and show the look of the look of the soap. All these products will link together to advertise the show they will also follow the same sort of format including fonts and include the main characters and slogans.

We would like our advertisement to make the audience intrigued about what might happen in this soap and what they may expect to see. In the trailer we would like to use a small cliffhanger to make them want to query what is going to happen. We want to give enough information to the audience about the new soap but also, leave them questioning and wanting to find out more.

All three products will use a variety of different technologies. The trailer will use a video camera to film and then it will be edited on a Mac computer using a special film programme. The poster will use a camera, be edited on a computer and a high gloss printer to produce the product. Finally the magazine will use a camera for the photographed images and an editing programme to pull it all together.

Location Moodboard

Here is a mood board about the different types of locations that we may want to include in our soap opera. We have included such places as houses, clubs, restaurants, gardens, boutiques and household rooms. We have gone for the glamorous feel to our soap so we have chosen images to represent this. We have been looking at larger houses to represent the wealth and the glamorous interiors to go with it. In many soaps they include a pub as a main place to socialise however, as we want to add a bit of glamour into our soap we would like to include a nice and elegant bar. Also, we would like to include lavish gardens with pools, Jacuzzis, padded sun loungers to really give a sophisticated look. Other locations such as boutiques and clubs we would also like to include as other places to set dramatic scenes.

Glamor Moodboard

For our soap opera trailer our group have discussed different ideas for what we could make our soap like and the kind of soap it would be and whether it would be like any other existing soaps. We wanted to create something glamorous as we thought that there is a gap in the market for a glamorous weekday soap that also shows the lives of these people and the drama involved.We will have to think about everything including locations, props, costumes etc when it comes to making it glamorous. We want to include things that are going to make these characters seem like people who are of a high status and make the area they live in to be a high class environment.  We want to put across that even though these people are perfect on the outside their lives are not all as they seem.


Mood Board

Character Moodboard

Here I have done 2 character mood boards, the first one shows the sort of characters we want to include in our soap opera, these include:
Sugar Daddy, Young Glamorous Couple, Bad Boy, Druggies, Businessman, Airhead, Comedy Child, Homosexual boys and girls and a dreamboat boy.
The second one shows celebrities that represent the characters we want to use in our soap.

Character moodboard


Celeb Character Moodboad

Conventions Found In Trailers Compared To Full Episodes

Soap Opera Trailers
Snippets of different shots.
Variety of different shots -  mid shot, two shot, close up etc...
Cliffhanger
One main character
Few characters of Props Theory
Showed any time
One main storyline
Low key lighting 
Ends with information about the soap (where to watch it, time etc..)
Logo shown throughout or makes an appearance
Music Juxtaposes trailer (EastEnders christmas one etc..)
First or Second of Todorovs Equilibrium theory




Logo shown throughout trailer




One Main Character

Snippets of Different Shots

Ends With Information About The Soap



 Full Soap Opera Episode
Starts with signature music 
All steps of Todorovs Equilibrium theory sometimes used over 1-3 days
All scenes flow into each other
One or two main characters used
Played at a certain time on a certain day - scheduled.
On going - doesn't have an ending
One main storyline with lots of minor ones going on at same time.
Same length of time usually 30 minutes or an hour.



Starts With Signiture Music

Same length of time usually 30 minutes or an hour

Played at a certain time on a certain day - scheduled

On going - doesn't have an ending There is a big difference between a full soap opera episode and a soap opera trailer, mostly being because their is a time limit. If a trailer was to be the same length as a full episode most of the conventions would be the same apart from a trailer having snippets and always ending on a cliffhanger. A trailers uses its conventions to entice its audience into watching the soap regularly but the full episode is ongoing everyday and drags the story lines of the trailer out over a period of time.

Soap Opera Trailers

When comparing our results from the individual soap opera trailer task we realised that for most of the findings they were quite similar. A lot of the trailers were shown either during the adverts of that soap or either before or after. The time the trailers were shown usually depended on the contents of that trailer. But most of the ones we watched were audience friendly and could have been shown at any time of the day.

Soap Trailers

After comparing results and creating a chart we realised which soaps appeared at what time the most and the most popular times for a trailer to be advertised. The most common time was around 7pm-7:30. We believe this to be because these are the times most of the soaps are on or are on its advert break. Advertising a trailer at a similar time to when the soap itself on creates interest to the audiences and gives them a chance to see what plots are developing. We found that more trailers were shown during the evening rather than early in the morning. Sometimes this could come down to the contents of the trailer and whether they are audience friendly to show at a certain time. We want our trailer to be audience friendly so it can be shown all throughout the day to give it more of a chance to be seen by a wider variety of audiences that would not perhaps usually watch the soap.