Soap Opera Genre –

Ancillary Product Analysis

Name: Imani Ayimba-GoldingCandidate Number: 1012Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

OCR Media Studies – A2 Level

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

Tagline The verbal code of the tagline draws in the attention of the reader. This is because the words ‘Walford will be changed. Forever’ suggest that something that has never happened on ‘EastEnders’ before will happen. This makes people want to watch the show, so that they can find out what will happen.

Image – The non-verbal code of the image is of ‘Lucy’ looking to the right with a suspicious looking facial expression. This connotes that something bad if either going to happen to her or she is going to do something bad. This draws in the attention of the reader in and makes them want to watch ‘EastEnders’ so they can find out why she looks suspicious. Colour has been used to demonstrate violence, the colour red indicates that there will be some blood shed or that we should be warned of the danger.

Synergy with social media The use of a ‘#hashtag’ gives the audience another platform to follow the latest gossip for this soap. This

especially attractive to the younger generation who are constantly using social media. This is good for the institution and audience as

they can find out about what has happened if they missed the latest episode of the soap. This also helps promote the social media site

‘twitter’.

Institution Logo This is for brand identity. It allows the audience to

know what channel this show is going to be on. It is also displayed in very small font. This could connote that the institute is very well known and

don’t need to exaggerate its presence.

ImageThe people present are all seen to be in flames. This could illustrate to the audience that there may be a fiery argument between certain characters or take the manipulation of this image literally and say that there could actually be a fire. The connotations of fire is usually bad, could possibly involve death.

Institution LogoThis is for brand identity. It allows the audience to know what channel this show is going to be on. It is also displayed in a very big font. This could connote that the institute is very well known and the show want to show off that they are on that instituted channel.

TaglineThe tagline for this poster illustrates that something will happen in the episode. The word ‘change’ suggests that everything changes in Hollyoaks. The verbal code ‘forever’ also suggests that these changes are permanent and cannot be reversed. This also supports the connotations of the fire.

Student Exemplar Work – Textual Analysis

Synergy with social media: Synergy with social media in this poster is associated to ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’. It is key to have social media synergy in the poster as it creates another point of entry and allows the audience to interact with the show using the twitter ‘#’. By using a popular media convention such as the hashtag, it helps spread the brand identity of the soap across the web as it make sit available for anybody with Twitter to access the #hashtag and be made aware of the soap.

The dates are clearly displayed on this poster. By doing this it makes it clear to the audience when the episode is due to be aired so they will not miss it. The connotations of the verbal code ‘starts’ illustrates that it is the beginning of a big change that will not go back to how it was previously.

Image Manipulation The black and white effect could be trying to portray the past or a time in life of which is indescribable. Facials expressions give away a lot about a character, however in this poster the students have decided to hide the characters identity. This creates a sense of mystery and makes it more intriguing.

Evaluation • I would ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale – 1980) the manipulation of the main image because

it will draw in the attention of the viewer because of the unusual effect it has. I also like the idea of the use of the big brand logo because it will give the channel good brand recognition. This is because they will know what channel the show will be on and market the channel as well. The use of the date can be a key convention because it will be able to say when my new soap actually starts, so it is a good bit of marketing and may attract a wider audience.