What is a Soap Opera ?

Soap Operas

A Soap Opera is known as ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction which is presented in serial format on television. According to Albert Moran soap operas, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode”. An individual episode of a soap will generally switch between different story treads that may interconnect and affect one another however they may also run entirely independently.

Soap Operas are built up by many different elements, when producing a soap opera it is important to consider all elements which can be represented in the form of a check list. These elements include :

• Dialogue of characters - everyday characters
  

• Reflecting daily life e.g. Christmas , Easter, summer exams and results.

• Cliff hangers - A cliff hanger ends in suspense in order to interest the viewer in the next installment.

• Narrative - A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events.

• Target Audience - The intended group for which my soap will be targeted at. For example Females aged over 18.

• Representation - The way in which issues are expressed. This includes stereotype, arch-type, gender , ethnicity and sexuality

• Realism/ Real time - Many Soap Operas ensure their narrative has a sense of realism so the audience can relate to it. Soaps run in real time which also expresses realism.
  

• Script - The script will hold the lines in which every character must say in order for the narrative to progress.
  

• Short scenes - Short scenes are used in many soaps to entice the viewer by leaving the narrative unexplained.
  

• Series - A series is mainly known for being a weekly program with the same cast and format and a continuing storyline.
  

• Serial - A serial is known as a program that never ends and is on all year round with a continuing storyline.

• Parallel story lines - Parallel story lines include interconnecting narratives.
  

• Contradiction - Many soap operas can contradict themselves throughout story lines. For example the death of dirty Den in Eastenders who came back from the dead to rejoin the cast.
  

• Peak viewing times - When aiming to produce a new soap it is important to understand peak viewing times, this could be to ensure you do not play your soap at the same time as a competitor.
  

• Gossip - Gossip allows the audience to easy pick up on current story lines, may it be through gossip within the soap or other medias.
  

• Other media - such as newspapers, magazines and internet spoilers
  

• Regional identity - accents, sometimes it can be aware to a viewer where a certain character is from by the accent in their voice.

• Social class - Social class is known as grouping people based on common economic and other characteristics determined by society and reflecting a social hierarchy. When producing a new soap opera the producer will have to decide which social class they will market to.
  

• Resinate - This is a long term viewer, somebody who has watched the same soap for years.
  

• Social indicators /cultural
  

Narrative

A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of
fictional or non-fictional events. Narrative is described through tension and the resolution of that tension by reaching a satisfactory ending. Open ended narratives are used in soap operas which show no closure at the end of an episode, the only real moments of closure are death or departure. Cliff-hangers are used in soap operas to gain audience attention and create an exciting moment of suspense or mystery at the close of an episode. Eastenders may have up to 6 different story lines progressing in each episode.

Representation of characters

Representation of characters are important in Soap Operas because they reflect the different conventions and aspects of the Soap Operas. Characters are used to show realism and by having realistic characters in Soap Operas it makes the soap more realistic for the audience. They can relate or have similar views with the character.



The pictures represent the older characters in Eastenders for example Dot and Jim Braning. These characters will be relatable to the older generation who watch this soap. They have different morals and views to the other younger characters.


Realism

Soap Operas must have a sense of realism so they can relate to the audience. Audiences can be enticed by the soap operas because of the taboo issues shown on TV. Neighbours an Australian Soap Opera for example use realism through the young adult characters and they deal with love triangles, family feuds. Neighbours is more glamourised to Eastenders. Eastenders show more Teenage pregnancies, alcoholics, affairs, prostitution etc. If a person from Australia was to view Eastenders they would think it is more gritty.

Realist issues in Eastenders:





Stacey Slater who suffers from bipolar, and the viewers get to see how she deals with the disorders. Her storyline about bipolar proved to be very interested and informative for the audience. Many viewers can sympathise with Stacey as well as she is also a single mother.





Phil Mitchell is shown to be an alcoholic and we see the affects of him being addicted to alcohol. Audiences were intrigued to see if he could get himself clean and how his problem affected his family.

By showing issues like these on British TV it shows the realism of society and how these things are happening and could happen. This is why it is different soap operas from different countries.

Audience

Measuring an audience is very important when producing a new product and it is useful for all media institutions. Research of audiences is vital and is done thought all the stages of production in order to receive the best possible outcome. It is important to ensure that audiences feel connected to a particular media text and that they can relate to it.

When producing a drama of any kind it is important that producers are aware of the target audience which is the group in which the program is aimed at. For example if producing a teen drama it is important to aim to attract teenagers between the ages of 13-18.

Many different soap operas have different target audiences for example whilst Eastenders aims to attract people of all ages Hollyoaks only aims to appeal to teenagers which can limit the success of the serial.

Attracting audiences can be done by the use many different conventions such as Editing, Sound/Dialogue, Mise-en-scene and Camera work. For example using large amounts of dialogue to explain the narrative will be useful.

I will now watch Eastenders's title sequence. I feel it would be useful for me to anaylse this title sequence to see what common conventions are used and what they can represent. This anaylsis will aid me when producing my soap opera as I may find it useful to use some of these conventions in my soap trailer.