Chosen Treatment - "Notice Us"

After holding the group discussion it was clear that Tamika Smiths treatment was best suited to teenagers and we all felt we could include our own input into this soap in order to gain the best possible outcome. I felt it would be a good idea for me to try and relate characters who will appear in our soap "Notice Us" with key characters in "Eastenders". The treatment with my own ideas is explained below.

Characters:-

Ruth Smith 42 a mother of one, her first husband and father of her child passed away. She is currently going though a divorce with her 2nd husband. She is very protective over her only son and depends on him regularly. She is also employed as a cashier at the local newsagents.

Whilst watching soap operas, we got the inspiration from Carol Jackson (Eastenders). She is smilar to Ruth as they both would do anything for there children and are very protected of them. Carol's son Billy passed away in his sleep due to his friends who were seen as a bad influence.

Michael Smith 18 is Ruth's son, he is a vulnerable character, tries his best to stay out of trouble. He has a girlfriend Esther who he has been with since a very young age. He doesn't depend on any one. He had lost his father when he was 12, and mum divorced his step dad recently. Michael is killed tragically for no reason, leaving his girlfriend alone.

A character which we as a group feel has similar character traits to Michael would be Billy Jackson (Eastenders). Billy is portrayed as vounrable and trustworthy. He has done his best to better his life and make a new start. He sadly dies in his sleep one night. He has a great relationship with his girlfriend Whitney. In our Soap "Notice Us" we plan to express the relationship between Michael and Esther in a similar way.

Esther Clarke 18 she is currently in university studying Accounting and Economics part-time. She falls pregnant and considers having an abortion. She is deeply in love with her boyfriend Michael. Tragedy hits her life when Michael is tragically killed. She lives with her sister Emily, mother Judy and father Jim.

Esthers current position in "Notice Us" is similar to "Stacey Slater" (Eastenders). Stacey had to make a decision whether she should have an abortion or keep her baby Lilly. Staceys world feel apart when her husband Bradly died, leaving her to bring up the child alone.

Billy Gordon is 20. Currently a leader of a gang in North London . He is unemployed and loves to party with friends and gang mates. He has both parents who care about him dearly but he rebels and disobeys them.

Connor (Eastenders) plays a similar role to Billy Gorden within the soap. For example Connor is the leader of a gang in East London. Billy is also a leader and is looked up to by other members. Connor insists he is going to change, however he always gets stuck in the middle of gang battles. We intend to express the consequences for being in a gang.

Content:-

It contains a bunch of teens terrorizing the city. Gangs are also involved with both girls and boys in them. They will be different issues portrayed such as teenage pregnancy, drugs, family issues and moderate violence.

Location:-

The setting will be in North London . We could shoot some parts of the city such as bus stops, restaurants, pubs, local shops, streets and homes. We would also try to shoot the landmark that makes North London famous so the audience can relate and notice where it is.

Target Audience:-

The target audience for this soap will be mostly aimed at teens 16+, this is because the characters portrayed are mainly teenagers and their issues they go through on a day to day basis. However I feel parents could also find our soap interesting as there is also an adult cast which go through common issues with their children such as dishonestly and misbehaviour along with this they will also gain an insight to the lives of teenagers. I intend to attract male viewers by introducing a lead male character in this soap.

Channel, time of broadcast and frequency:-

The channel that this soap is suitable for is Channel 4 at 8:00pm and will be broadcast three times a week; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I feel with heavy advertising this soap can compete with Eastenders and Coronation Street as this is something fresh and will attract many teenagers. I choose this soap to be on three times a week on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because this will allow it to get maximum exposure. i will end each episode with a mini r large cliffhanger leaving the audience to wait a day for the new episode, this will create some sspense and interest in the soap opera however main cliffhangers will be on Thursdays to Episode 1:-

In the first episode a bunch of gang members witnesses a murder and are traumatize by what they see. They were considering of going into the police and telling them what they have seen. The death of the character changes the lives of many people in the community.

Future Episodes:-

One of the gang members loses their parents in a car crash. Esther is finding her course at university difficult and now has to make a decision if she wants to continue or leave to go work. Esther finds out she is pregnant but is unsure if she should keep the baby of have an abortion.

The next step we need to make is to produce a script and storyboard for our soap "Lopen Road" I feel a group meeting is needed to now, to ensure that all members of the group are aware of the next steps needed.

Treatment "Winchmore Hills" - Target Audience

After coming up with 4 different pitch ideas, as a group we choose to my best pitch idea was "Winchmore Hills", I then made a treatment for this soap. We now have 3 treatments to anyalise before decided on the final treatment.

Content lives of spoilt , teenagers both male and female who some live a life of luxury. I changed the previous idea to only show teenage girls as I felt that would limit the success of this soap in a large way, I will have both male and female characters. Living the life of luxury is not always easy as this soap opera will explain. Terminal illness, Pregnancy, cheating partners, drug abuse and violent behaviour. I feel the target audience for this soap will be young teenagers between the age of 18-25. This soap is not only targeted at females as there are some male characters which further the narrative. It was important to add male characters as this will increase the amount of viewers and attract males to watch the soap.

Characters

Amanda, 19 , life a soul of the party, constant drinking. Fun, loud and outspoken and single. She comes from a high class background and her family are very well respected in their home town. Amanda's mother tries to keep her grounded however she struggles. I feel the audience will find this character interesting and entertaining which will keep them watching the soap.

Tony, 19 , womanizer, takes drugs , has a bad reputation, trouble maker, rude and in a relationship with Juila who is considerably younger than him. Tony comes from a middle class background and lives in a relatively small house. He lives with his mother as his father left him when he was very young. Tony has had a hard upbringing which leads to why he is so unstable. I feel many members of the audience will be interesting to see h0w this character progresses within the soap and if he can change into a better person.

Julia, 16, Quiet, spends all her time studying for her A-level exams, hard working and in a relationship with Tony. Julia comes from a high class background and lives with her mother Judith. Her father lives nearby but has a previous record of being violent towards her mother. Julia was always the quiet girl at school until she met Tony who changed her life. Julia feels she is being forced into bad habits with Tony but loves him too much to end their relationship. I feel the audience will be able to relate to this character the most and sympathise with her issues.


Judith, 40, mother of Juila, solicitor, strict parent who only wants the best for her children and divorced. After splitting up with her violent husband Judith wants the best for her daughter and wants her to succeed in life. This character will be relatable to both teenagers and parents as many parents want the best for their children but it isn't always communicated.

Location : North London - Winchmore Hill which is explained in the title of the soap opera. It is important to make the audience aware of the location and surroundings so they can relate to the area. To show the location i will use shots of road signs, buses, inside houses along with cafe's, bars and clubs.

Episode 1 : Amanda gets ready to go out clubbing at her massive house with her friends Emma and Sarah. Once reaching the club they find Tony. Tony and Amanda get on well with each other as they have met at college. They later share a kiss which leads to taking drugs together, the security catch wind of this and call the police to the club. Juila (Tonys girlfriend) is at home studying and keeps calling Tony but he rejects her calls. The first episode ends with a cliffhanger as Tony is arrested for drug possession. This will leave the viewers in suspense to see what will happen to Tony.

Future episodes: Tony pressurizes Juila into sex with him which leads to her falling pregnant at the age of 16. Judith finds out about her daughters pregnancy and demands an abortion. Julia leaves school and home with her violent father .
Tony's count sentence which leads to other criminal sentences. Amanda and her friends become drug users with Tony. There are many future story lines for "Winchmore Hills" i feel they will keep the audience interested, it is important to involve characters from different ages to ensure we aim to target different viewers.

Target audience : Both male and female teenagers starting from 18+, this soap can expresses issues from all cultures. I now aim to attract male viewers by introducing a lead male character in this soap. This soap is not targeted at only high class people as the issues faced are common with any social class. Although we mainly are aiming at Teenagers, I feel adults will be interested in watching this soap as they will gain an insight to the lives of some teenagers. There are also main male roles in this soap so males may also view this soap opera.

Channel, time of broadcast and frequency : Channel 4 at 9.00pm on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I feel with heavy advertising this soap can compete with Eastenders and Coronation Street as this is something fresh and will attract many teenagers. I choose this soap to be on three times a week on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday because this will allow it to get maximum exposure. Its not on everyday as i will end each episode with a mini or large cliffhanger leaving the audience to wait a day for the new episode, this will create some suspense and interest in the soap opera. The time of this soap has been changed from 8.00pm to 9.00pm as although no drug abuse will be shown it may be insinuated and is not suitable for viewers at 8.00pm.

I will now search for an example of a member of the public who I will aim to attract with this treatment. It is important I understand who I want to attract as I can improve my treatment to suit my target audience.

Although "Winchmore Hills" may not be the final treatment chosen, I found it was good research to find out the sorts of people who watch soaps and what other activities draw them into watching soaps.


Target Audience for "Winchmore Hills"

A prime example of my target audience is shown above. Anna Philona is 18 years old who lives in Palmers Green studying journalism at University . As Anna is studying she has no job at the moment which limits to her spending power. Her favourite television programmes include 'Eastenders' 'Gossip Girl', 'The Vampire Diaries' '90210' and 'The Hills' and she often tunes into the television channels 'ITV2', 'MTV' and 'E4'. Anna watches Eastenders religiously and has not missed in episode in years, she also watches the series every week which they are on. This shows that Anna watches television in a big way and is a perfect target audience member.

Anna enjoys listening to mainly Pop music along with some RnB, with her favourite artists including 'Taylor Swift', 'Katy Perry' and 'Chris Brown'. She shops at places such as 'Jane Norman', 'H&M' and 'Topshop'. She enjoys socialising with her friends, going for a drink at Starbucks and hanging out at the shopping centre. Anna also enjoys reading in her spear time and her favourite writers are Stephanie Meyer and Katie Price.

Although Anna is an example of the type of people i will be targeting my soap opera at, I realise that Soap Operas are generally watched and enjoyed by a huge variety of people at different ages and with different interests, appearances and personalities.

As a group we must now decide on the chosen treatment. It is important that we choose the treatment that we can improve and that will be easier to target many audiences.

Trailer Analysis - Eastenders

Eastenders Trailer 2010 - Kat and Alfie's return.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p4xlLezos0 - the trailer is located on this link.

To introduce Kat and Alfie's return to Eastenders, producers choose to make a short trailer that would be played on BBC1, in order to attract audiences. The soap may have interested old viewers into watching the soap again who used to like the previous characters. However this trailer can be seen as disadvantage to producers as existing viewers may not have seen the soap when they were characters, which would confuse them as viewers and make the trailer a waste of money. Although that can be seen as a issue, many of the viewers of Eastenders are religious viewers and would be aware who these characters are. The return of these two characters has been much anticipated as the press had been writing stories in the papers insisting they were returning, along with many gossip magazines. Once the trailer appeared on TV it was then aware to all audiences that they would be returning.

The trailer as made to introduce these characters along with creating suspense and tension. For example the trailer begins with an establishing shot of the Queen Vic which is an iconic feature of the soap. Suspense is then creating as we see a close up shot of feet walking along the path way, this interests the audience as they want to find out who the mystery character is. A tilt shot upwards is then used to finally reveal who the character is. Along with this closeups of existing
characters are shown, these characters are hiding and looking very specious at Kat which will leave many questions unanswered by audiences as they will be wondering why all these characters are afraid of Kat's return, this feature also explains that Kat will have stories and scenes with these characters when she returns.

No dialogue is used in the beginning of these trailer to create suspense, Kat then speaks out " Where can I get a drink around here". An over the shoulder shot is then used to introduce the next character Alfie, her husband. He then insists "your going to need one". The characters are then placed opposite each other within the frame which explains a sort of conflict between the two characters. The theme for this trailer is Western which we are able to identify by the costumes and the soundtrack played throughout the soap. To end this trailer a quick shot reverse shot is used between these characters which expresses the tension between these characters. A voice over is then used to explain that "Its all kicking off in Eastenders this week". This then explains to the viewers that these characters are entering the soap this week which can be seen as a form of advertising.

After conducing all the different research into a soap episode, sequence and trailer I can now edit my treatment and show it to the group. I do understand that another pitch and treatment may be better suited, which is why communication is vital working in a group.