RESEARCH;
QUESTIONNAIRE
Before thinking about creating my own soap opera trailer, I need to think about how I can make it most attractive and appealing to the audience. I need to know what it is that viewers like about current soaps and why; I will then be able to pick out the key features and intricate them into my soap opera. In order to find this out I created a questionnaire which asked people simple questions such as what their favourite soap opera's were and why, who their favourite characters were and some questions about location and settings. Below is a copy of the questionnaire that I distributed.
Soap Opera Questionnaire
How old are you?
Do you like watching soap operas? If so why?
What is your favourite soap opera?
Why do you like this soap opera?
Who is your favourite character and why?
How many soap operas do you watch?
Do you watch your soap operas regularly?
What was your favourite episode and why?
What has been your favourite setting in a soap?
What would you add to your favourite soap opera to make it more interesting?
Below are some graphs showing the information that i found out and analysis.
Who is your favourite character and why?
- EASTENDERS - Jack Branning- good looking and mysterious
- EASTENDERS - Stacey Slater; fun and scandalous
- EASTENDERS - Mo; hilarious, sarcastic and trouble!
- EASTENDERS - Alfie; cute and funny
- HOLLYOAKS- Waren; good looking!
- HOLLYOAKS - Calvin; really hot! and likeable
- HOLLYOAKS - Sarah; hot, good storylines
- CORONATION STREET - Ringo, hot
o Happier endings!
o Newer characters more often
o More teenager characters
o Realism!
o Graphics to emphasize the action more
o More settings and explosions
o Drug bust ups
o Take away the cheesiness
o Deaths and shootings
o Policewomen
o Realistic
o Bring back old characters more often!
o More good looking men!
How old are you? I tried to get a cross section of ages however the majority of people I asked were aged 16-18. This is because since I am 18 I am more likely to know more people of these ages and come into contact with them. Most people were 17 which would be helpful because our soap is going to be aimed towards young teenagers.
Do you like watching soap operas? 54% of people asked said that they did like watching soaps; this was just over half. 33% said that they didn’t like watching soaps at all whereas 13% stated that they were ok and would watch them when bored. If so why? Yes;
What is your favourite soap opera? Hollyoaks was the most favourite soap with 43% of people voting for it over Eastenders which came second; 35%The least popular soap turned out to be Neighbours. This could have been due to many different facts; possibly because of the ages of people asked as they might not be able to relate to the soap. Why do you like this soap opera?
How many soap operas do you watch? Exactly half of the people asked said that they watched just the one soap, whereas 42% said that they watched two. 8% said that they watched 4 or more which surprised me.
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Do you watch your soap operas regularly? 63% said yes; I thought that this was quite low as I was expecting more people to say yes. However those who said no mentioned that they didn’t watch them all the time because they didn’t need to know on a regular basis what was happening; if they missed an episode in between then it wouldn’t matter too much. Others also mentioned they were too busy to be watching soaps religiously on time every day. What was your favourite episode and why? What has been your favourite setting in a soap? Favourite settings ranged from most people mentioning Chester village in Hollyoaks whilst 7% mentioned hospital, beaches and lakes. I think that audiences prefer having a range of different locations although they do like having a few main important ones featured all the time; this makes them feel more familiar with the settings. |
VOX POPS
Our task is to create our own trailer for a brand new soap opera. Before we can do this we need to thoroughly research current existing soap operas and explore how they attract their audience members. As well as creating my own questionnaire, Amanda and I went around our school and did Vox pops; we asked random pupils and teachers within our school of their thoughts and opinions about existing soap operas.
FOCUS GROUP
Once we had come up with our initial ideas for our soap opera, we sat down with a group of people and explained our ideas to them. They were then able to mention any ideas they had and express their views and opinions. I think this focus group was really good as everyones comments were helpful and as we videoed it we were constantly able to look back at it.
PITCHING OUR SOAP OPERA
Finally we had all our ideas for our soap opera and trailer and we presented them to our class. We decided to use a flip-chart presentation instead of a PowerPoint presentation as we thought it would be more visually pleasing. We included the storylines we would be exploring, our characters, settings and etc. I think our presentation was a real success as everyone seemed impressed and they gave us a lot of positive feedback as well as asking many questions. Below are photos of each page from our presentation.
PLANNING;
ORIGINAL IDEAS
STORYBOARDS
We already knew what characters and storylines we were going to use, so our next step was to create a storyboard in which we would mark out what would happen in each scene we wanted to film. We draw out each scene and included the setting, character and their dialogue.
 SCENE ONE The very first character we wanted to introduce was Summer, and we wanted to have her standing in the middle of a roundabout. We decided to do most of our filming in Letchworth and there is a roundabout there with six exits; therefore we thought this would be ideal. |  SCENE TWO When introducing our other main characters, we wanted to show each of them walking down a road outside or a school corridor (to reflect that our soap is set in a school) and we thought it would be an interesting parallel to introduce Summer’s mother, Blanche Howard who works as a drama teacher in the school. Ironically the person we got to play this character is actually a drama technician at our school! We used a low angle when filming this scene and wanted her to say “I’ve always believed that forbidden love is the perfect release for my troubles.” We felt this was appropriate because she starts a relationship with one of the students (Lukas) who is really in love with her Daughter. |
SCENE THREE I filmed Summer and Lukas just sitting on a sofa, spending some time with each other and laughing. I split this scene into two parts and used one part near the beginning and the other towards the end. I thought this would be a nice scene as it would show the relationship between Summer and Lukas developing, and another character would be introduced. |  SCENE FOUR The character of Summer isn’t liked much at school, and many people bully her. We wanted there to be a scene where Lukas helps her out, therefore we created this scene where a random member of the school walks past Summer and knocks all her books onto the floor. Lukas then runs up to her and hands her all her books. |
We planned to have the character of David (Summers brother) walking down a road outside saying how he was glad that he had moved, but that he had noticed people watching his sister. However due to lack of time we didn’t get to film this scene exactly how we wanted to. The person we were using for this scene really didn’t want to say anything, therefore we filmed him walking down a corridor and focused on is facial expressions. We also filmed a short snippet of his feet walking as we thought this would look quite artistic and different. | 
I filmed a short scene of the character Otis walking down a road outside the school, saying the lines “Finally I’ve found somebody to talk to.” This little bit of speech would suggest that he maybe has secrets or a big problem. |
 SCENE SEVEN We then planned to go straight into a scene with Otis telling his secrets to the character of David. Originally we planned to film this scene outside on a brick wall, but we then changed this and did it in the boy’s toilets. In the beginning of the scene I filmed the characters reflections in the mirror as they spoke to each other. They were then filmed separately walking out of the toilets. This would leave audience members wondering what was said in the conversation.
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Instead of having the character of Jafooli walking outside a street, I filmed him standing in a corridor with his hood up; this would create stereotypes of him being a mean thug which we wanted. I then moved around with the camera starting from behind him to reveal his face. We planned for him to say the lines “I would have done anything for her, but she didn’t even give me a chance.” Jafooli is an angry character but falls in love with Summer.
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 SCENE NINE One of the most important storylines was that of adoption. Therefore we planned to have a scene where David was rummaging through a file cabinet looking for something. Accidentally he stumbles across a folder labelled “adoption papers” and this is where he discovers he is adopted. Although he doesn’t say anything, his facial expressions say it all. | 
Originally we planned to have the three Langston sisters bullying Summer in the school canteen. However one of the girls who were meant to be playing one of the sisters became unavailable for filming so we decided to split up this scene. Amanda and I decided to play the other two sisters and in one scene (near the beginning) I push past Summer when coming out of the toilets and tell her to “watch where you’re going!” In a later scene near the end, Amanda bullies Summer by throwing paper at her and mocking her. |
 SCENE EVLEVEN Although Lukas is in love with Summer, he also has a thing for her mother and begins an affair with her. We planned to have a scene where the characters Blanche and Lukas would be flirting and arrange to meet up. I also split up this scene and added in the second part of the scene in which Summer and Lukas were on the sofa to create a contrast between the two relationships. |  |
 | SCENE THIRTEEN We originally planned this scene to included Summer standing in the middle of the roundabout, with each of the six main characters (Blanche, Lukas, Jafooli, David, Otis and one of the Langston sisters) standing at the entrance of each of the lanes. Summer would then collapse, however we didn’t have enough time to film this and we had problems getting everybody to the same place. Therefore we simply decided to use the piece of Summer that we used at the beginning (360 camera spin) but on the MAC I put it in reverse and speeded it up a bit. We then finished with a close up of her face. |
FILMING SCHEDULE
Scene one: Summer OUTSIDE
Scene Three: Summer and Lucas COMMON ROOM; SOFA Scene five Blanche and Lucas Scene seven David and Otis BOYS TOLIETS Scene nine David SCHOOL LIBRARY Scene eleven SCHOOL CORRIDOR
Scene thirteen Langston twin TEACHERS OFFICE | Scene two Random School student
Scene four
Scene six Otis
Scene eight SCHOOL CORRIDORS
Scene ten Summer SCHOOL CORRIDOR Scene twelve SCHOOL TOLIET MIRROR Scene fourteen COMMON ROOM - SOFA |
