Initial Ideas on Our Own Soap

I created a mind map of initial ideas for our own soap in which I looked at the type of charcters and their personalities, any possible settings and locations which could be used, storylines and how they develop and the content of the soap opera trailer. In dark blue lettering dotted around the page, I brainstormed some ideas of the title of our soap opera which fit in with a glamour theme.

LOCATION/SETTING

To adapt my intial ideas on the possible locations and settings of my own soap opera, I am going to look at generic conventions of soap opera locations and analyse existing soaps with relation to location.

Soaps tend to have a strong regional identity in which it is well known from - Eastenders is set in the East of London and Coronation Street is set in Manchester. This enables audiences to identify soaps with location and also makes the soap realistic and believable. When it comes to choosing a location for my soap, i will consider this and make sure that where i choose to film is a familiar area in which the audience can relate to and therefore associate the soap and attract a wide range of people.

Most locations in soap operas are domestic & interior settings with some exterior settings such as streets and the square in Eastenders. Pubs and Shops are main locations used along with kitchens and living rooms (interior) within the house.

Using these would follow generic conventions of a soap.

Pubs
'The hub of the community'

In soap operas, pubs are the central location where characters meet and many events take place. Soaps are generally known for their pub such as the 'Queen Vic' in Eastenders and 'Rovers Return' in Coronation Street. Pubs are conventional locations in soaps and for this reason, I think a good idea would be to base our soap trailer primarily in a pub location which would also give the oppurtunity to introduce multiple characters.

Cafe's & Corner 

Soap operas usually have a cafe and a selection of other small shops and businesses. Most of these locations are featured in each episode of the soap and they are seen as conventional locations. Characters own and run the cafes and shops and are normally related to certain characters and families, for example Kathy's Cafe in Eastenders owned by the Beale's. Many of the charcters get together in these places, however, not as popular as the pub, cafe's tend to invite the younger generation.

With the theme of our soap being young and glamourous, a central, upmarket cafe would be an ideal location for the trailer to be set as it can connote unity and give a sense of youthfulness.

Another main location would be character housing. Soap operas are based around a small community of many older style terraced properties. Introducing multiple characters in houses would be difficult, but we could base the trailer around a party which would mean the characters would all get together to celebrate the new soap opera.

CONTENT OF TRAILER

STORYLINES

I have looked into possible storylines that could be included within my own soap opera episodes which will be highlighted in the trailer (content of the trailer) to the audience. I have listed conventional storylines of a soap opera and i have also created a small flow chart to show how the opening of the first episode could run and how these storylines could be incorporated into our trailer.

Flow Chart

CHARACTERS

For further research into characters I have looked at conventional characters in existing soap opras and given a brief description on the type or character and their role in the soap.

Characters

I have looked at the stereotypical characters of pregnant teenagers and grandparent figures and researched into individual characters of different soaps.
Looking at these conventions we have decided to use a pregnant teenager in our piece as our target audience is of the younger generation they will be able to relate to this conventional character as this also creates verisimilitude to a real life situation.

Other conventional characters are:
Badboy such as Sean Slater, Eastenders
Businessman such as Dev in Coronation Street
Young Couple such as Andrew and Summer in Neighbours
Homosexual such as Christian in Eastenders
Boss Figure could be Phil Mitchell, Eastenders
Feisty Young Female and Jack-the-lad could be Kat & Alfie Moon, Eastenders
Children - Simon in Coronation Street and Jacob  in Emmerdale

In our soap opera, we will be following these conventional characters and will be using a younger cast with a pregnant teenager, young couple and homosexual which also represents different social groups and this will target our audience and create a verisimilitude, an impression of reality.
Comparison of existing trailers

As we are creating a trailer for a new soap opera, we need to introduce new characters to the audience so they are able to understand the soap and the storyines linked to the characters. I thought that a good way of doing this was to use the characters names within the piece next to each character as they appear in the trailer so the audience are given a clear idea of who the characters are. An example of this in similar real media texts is the trailer for Roxy and Ronnie Mitchells arrival in Eastenders.