ANALYSING SOAP OPERA TRAILERS

I n t h i s t r a i l e r t h e c h a r a c t e r s p e r s o n a l i t i e s h a v e a l re a d y b e e n e s t a b l i s h e d a n d t h e a u d i e n c e h a s a l re a d y b e e n a b l e t o e s t a b l i s h a c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e c h a r a c te r s .

T h e t r a i l e r d o e sn ’ t f o c u s h e a v i l y o n o n e m a i n i s s u e / p l o t a n d i n s t e a d h a s a l o t o f mu l t i - s t r a n d n a r r a t i v e s . I n t h e t r a i l e r w e c a n s e e a s t o r y l i n e t h a t i s g o i n g t o b e c o m i n g u p i n t h e n ex t f e w w e e k s f o r a t l e a s t e v e r y c h a r a c t e r i n t h e s h o w.

At t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e t r a i l e r w e c a n s e e t h e H o l l yo a ks t i t l e w i th t h e s l o g a n o f w h a t t h e t r a i l e r i s a l l a b o u t w h i c h i s ‘ s i x w e e k s o f s u mm e r ’ . T h i s n e e d e d t o b e a ma i n f o c u s a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e t r a i l e r so t h a t t h e a u d i e n c e a re a b l e to a n t i c i p a te t h e s i x w e e k s t h a t a re g o i n g t o c o m e . A s w e l l a s th i s t h e t r a i l e r u s e s n o n - d i a g e t i c s o u n d b y u s i n g b a c k g ro u n d m u s i c t o a d d a s u mm e r y f e e l t o t h e t r a i l e r. T h i s s u p p o r t s t h e m a i n t h e m e o f t h e t r a i l e r w h i c h i s a l l a b o u t s u mm e r.

O n e ke y m o m e n t w a s r i g h t a t th e b e g i n n i n g w h e n a s o u n d b r i d g e w a s u se d , t h i s w a s u s e d w h e n t h e c h a r a c t e r s a ys “ W h y d o I g e t t h e f e e l i n g y o u ' re u s i n g me t o g e t E s t h e r ’ s b a b y ” . W h i l e t h e a u d i e n c e h e a r s w h a t t h i s c h a r a c te r i s sa y i n g w e s e e a v i s u a l w h i c h s h o w s t w o c l i p s i n w h i c h b o t h o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s w h o a re i n t h e fi r s t s h o t a re p i c t u re d d o i n g s o m e t h i n g w h i c h re v o l v e s t o t h a t p a r t o f t h e s to r y l i n e . T h i s p l o t i s o n l y h i g h l i g h t e d f o r 2 - 3 s e c o n d s w h i c h g i v e s t h e a u d i e n c e t h e o p i n i o n t h a t t h i s s to r y l i n e w i l l n o t b e a ma j o r s t o r y l i n e t h a t w i l l c o me u p i n t h e s u mm e r.

T h e t r a i l e r a l s o f e a t u re s a p l o t i n w h i c h a y o u n g te e n a g e g i r l i s h a v i n g a re l a t i o n s h i p w i t h a n o l d e r m a n w h o i s s e e i n g t h e g i r l s f a t h e r. T h e s c e n e s ta r t s w i t h t h e o l d e r m a n t e l l i n g t h e y o u n g e r g i r l t h a t h e l o ve s h e r i n w h i c h t h i s i s a l s o a so u n d b r i d g e w i t h a c l i p o f t h e o l d e r ma n k i s s i n g t h e y o u n g e r g i r l s m u m. T h i s s h o w s t o t h e a u d i e n c e t h a t t h e re i s g o i n g t o b e a s t ro n g f o c u s o n t h e j e a l o u sy o f a y o u n g g i r l o ve r t h e f a c t t h a t h e r m u m c a n h a v e th e g u y t h a t s h e l i ke s . T h i s i s a ke y t h e me t h a t I w o u l d l i ke t o p o r t r a y a s I f e e l t h a t t h e t a rg e t a u d i e n c e t h a t I w o u l d l i ke to ta rg e t t o w o u l d l i ke t h e d r a m a t i c s c e n e s t h a t w o u l d c o m e w i t h t h e s t o r y l i n e . A l th o u g h t h e a u d i e n c e m a y n o t b e a b l e t o re l a t e e n t i re l y t o t h e s p e c i fi c s c e n a r i o o f th e c h a r a c t e r t h e y w i l l m o s t l i ke l y b e a b l e t o re l a t e t h a t s c e n a r i o t o s o m e t h i n g th a t t h e y h a ve ex p e r i e n c e d .

A s a w h o l e t h e t r a i l e r u t i l i s e s t h e u s e o f a s o u n d b r i d g e . A so u n d b r i d g e i s u s e d w i t h d i a l o g u e t o h e l p n a r r a t e w h a t i s g o i n g o n i n t h e s c e n e . I n a n o t h e r ex a m p l e w e s e e a n o t h e r g i r l g e t i n t o t h e b e d o f o n e o f t h e b o y s a s sh e s a y s h i s n a me w e s e e a n o t h e r s c e n e i n w h i c h a n o t h e r g i r l i s t a l k i n g a b o u t h o w s h e i s h a v i n g p ro b l e ms w i t h t h a t b o y. T h e u se o f th e s e t w o s c e n e s b e i n g p l a y e d b a c k t o b a c k a l l o w s th e a u d i e n c e to u n d e r s ta n d w h a t i s g o i n g o n a n d w h o c o u l d p o s s i b l y b e t h e m a i n c a u s e o f t h e s e p ro b l e ms .

HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF SUMMER

The show Ho l lyoaks i s a i red on E4. The show is shown on E4 on weekn ights at 7pm. Th is i s the pr ime t ime for soap operas to be shown dur ing the week .

The main target audience for Ho l lyoaks is a imed at people aged between 16-24.The show l i kes to have a heavy focus on students and thei r l i ves which makes me be l ieve that the how wants to target s tudents f rom a l l d ifferent backgrounds which is why they use such d iverse s tory l ines in hope to connect wi th a la rge audience. The show main ly a im to target females main ly th is i s because the stereotype that surrounds soaps is that women are more l i ke ly then men to watch a soap opera . The audience would l ike ly be f rom the soc io -economic group ing o f c1, c2 and D. Th is i s because the vast major i ty o f the characters are e i ther s tudents wh ich i s why they would be in group D, or the other characters re la te to groups c1, and c2 as some characters run the i r own bus iness and some characters contract /employed to work in that spec ific p lace o f work .

The t ra i ler uses many technica l aspects Inc lud ing the fo l lowing: Edi t ing: The pace o f the t ra i ler i s fast we see a lo t o f ac t ion happen in a short amount o f

t ime. Th is i s predominant ly used to show the d ifferent mul t i - s t rand narrat ives that are going to take p lace in the ep isodes to come. Th is i s Ho l lyoaks foreshadowing to the audience o f what i s to come in a few weeks t ime. Th is i s an effect ive technique to ent ice the audience as the audience w i l l be look ing out to see i f they can work out what wi l l happen to the i r favour i te character s in the weeks to come. The scenes that we see are very short , the who le idea o f th is i s so that the audience are kept guess ing ‘what happens next? ’ th is i s a way for the show to have return ing v iewers as they want to be ab le to ho ld up an aud ience.

Sound: At the beginn ing o f the t ra i ler we hear d iaget ic sound in the use o f background music . The music used i s very happy and adds to the idea that summer i s mean to be a good and happy t ime. However we see that in the c l ips the characters are not happy and are defiant ly not hav ing a good t ime. The t ra i ler uses a lo t o f sound br idges in order to hurry the narrat ives a long. Th is a lso a l lows the show to be ab le to show mul t ip le c l ips when p lay ing on ly one p iece o f d ia logue, th i s i s essent ia l to be used in a t ra i ler so that the show is ab le to show the mul t i - s t rand narrat ives as proposed by Lev i s t rauss .

Camerawork: The t ra i ler never uses an estab l i sh ing shot which I found qu i te odd. For return ing v iewers not us ing an estab l ish ing shot i s fine because they are fami l ia r w i th the locat ion and p laces that act ion may take p lace. However th i s i s not appeal ing to newer v iewers as they don’ t get a sense o f locat ion and aren ' t ab le to s tart to re la te to the characters or the locat ions in the show. The t ra i ler uses very min imal camera angles but has a hefty focus on mid shots , and two shots . Those are the two main camera angles used throughout the t ra i ler. The t ra i ler a lso features other camera angles such as a low angle to show a character as weak and a h igh angle to show a character as s t rong and one long shot i s shown throughout the who le t ra i ler.

HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF SUMMER

The way that the trai ler entices the audience in and makes them want to watch the show is by briefly showing small cl ips of the major plot l ines that are yet to come in the soap. This is an effective technique as the audience wil l want to know more and as long as the audience are questioning and wanting to know what is going to happen next then they wil l be able to keep a repeat audience.

In conclusion I feel that this trailer fol lows the conventions of a soap opera as we can clearly see the mult i-strand narratives that are going to go on throughout the show. This is a key aspect of the trailer because it shows that there are a lot of characters that are in the show. The main idea of this show is to create veris imilitude (realism) as most soap operas are devised as an escapism from real l i fe they need to show stories which the audience can relate to. Hollyoaks does this by using issues that their target audience may face, because they have a niche target audience they are able to focus heavily on getting the message that they want to across.

HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF SUMMER