Script #1

Storyboard #1

Analysis Of Soap Opera Poster

Soap Poster Analysis

Analysis Of Magazine Front Cover

Soap Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Character Profiles

Name - Emma Louise Rolfe

Age - 25

Facts - Emma Louise is the wife of Victor, who married into money, however despite their best efforts to keep it secret, she knows about her husbands afair with Rochella Wembridge.

Character Comparison - Cindy Hutchinson (Hollyoaks)

The character of Cindy Hutchenson in Hollyoaks is portrayed as 'pretty girl' who does not originate from wealth but marry s men for their money. She has a pretty soft look but at the same time her dark short hair gives across an slightly darker side. We would like a similar concept established with our character 'Emma-Louise' however we would ideally like to cast her with fair hair, to show on her exterior an innocence but throughout her story lines and as the character develops it can be shown she has a much darker side.

Name - Victor Rolfe

Age - 26

Facts - Husband of Emma Louise, however is having a sauded affair with Rochella Wembridge, later to find out that Rochellas baby could be his.

Character Comparison - Carl Costello (Hollyoaks)
The character of Carl Costello was part of a new family to arrive in 'Hollyoaks'. He has wealth as he is an ex footballer with a young beautiful wife and is shown as a loving family man but it is soon established that he cannot resist being unfaithful on his wife. The character of Carl even peruses an affair with his wife's cousin. Our character of Victor we wish to be similar, quite traditionally good looking similar to Carl as he has to have the ability to attract the females he does. In the storyline in 'Façade Manor' shows Victor being unable to resist the charms of the local singleton despite having his wife at home.

Name - Leo Brown

Age - 24

Facts - came to money by gambling and blackmailing certain members of the street. Falls in love with someone he shouldn't, resulting in finding out about the Jarvis' illagitamate son.

Character Comparison - Kane Dingle (Emmerdale)

The character of 'Kane Dingle' is at times to be shown as the sort of personality who has a complete lack of morals and not to mind who he hurts in the pursue to get what he wishes. He has been involved in story lines which have shown him hurt people close to him which is similar to how we want our character of Leo Brown to be portrayed. Kane has longish hair which is also how we want Leo to look. He should have dark good looks but ideally with slightly longish hair and even slight facial hair as he will not be as groomed as the rest of the residents on the estate.

Name - Jessica

Age - 18

Facts - stereotypical teenage sweetheart, who is in a relationship with the 'local hero' Patrick. She cant help being 'the girl next door' type, and finds more than one person is falling for her charms.

Character Comparison - Maria Sutherland (Coronation Street)

The character of Maria in Coronation street is mainly shown as an innocent figure with a lot of beauty but is also young and naive. She often sees the good in people and kind traits and aspects make her easy to fall in love with. Much like the character of 'Jessica' who's partners best friend eventually ends up falling in love with her. Maria has soft features and dark hair which shows her with an element of class. We would similarly like our character of Jessica to have a darker classier colour of hair to auburn or brunette with similarly pretty and soft features.

Name - Brad

Age - 24

Facts -secret son on the Jarvis' however he doesnt know this. He is also in love with Jessica, however is in a relationship with Rochella Wembridge.

Character Comparison - Leon Small (Eastenders)

Leon Small is a character in EastEnders who is shown as a cheeky popular 'jack-lad', he has a likeability factor due to his quick wit but often gets in a mess for following heart wherever that may lie. In the soap 'Brad' is already in a relationship with someone who doesn't treat him well yet he is not disheartened by it as he is in a relationship where his heart is not. In fact he has fallen in love with his best friends girlfriend and can't help but pursue his feelings at the expense of his friend. Leon is a good looking, active male and can be seen as a 'heart throb'and we wish our character for Brad to be similarly attractive. Ideally with darker hair but a light tan and dressed in expensive flattering clothes.

Name - Patrick

Age - 21

Facts - is seen as the local hero, and is in a realtionship with Jessica. Is the Jarvis' ligitamate son, however he is unawear he has a secret brother.

Character Comparison - Jack Branning (Eastenders)

Jack Branning is a character in EastEnders who is typically good looking and has not problem finding a stable relationship with a good looking female. He is at times very serious but is also fearless and selfless doing anything to protect the people he cares about and at times has been the 'local hero'. Our character of 'Brad' will have similar characteristics after recently saving 'Rochella Wembridges' life. He is protective of Jessica who he regards as the love of his life and is always faithful to her, we wish him to have dark hair and to also be well dressed but slightly less caring about the way he presents himself as he is a less materialistic character in comparison

Name - Mr & Mrs Jarvis
Age- 65 & 67

Facts - Own the local Cafe 'Edgars' and are mother and father to Patrick, however their other son, Brad, is kept a secret.

Character Comparison - Jack and Vera Duckworth (Coronation Street)

Name - Rochella Wembridge

Age - 22

Facts - having an affair with Victor Rolfe, whilst in a relationship with Brad. Is pregnant with Victors baby, however is stringing Brad along.

Character Comparison - Mercedes McQueen (Hollyoaks)

Mercedes McQueen is a character that is seen as 'promiscuous' in the area in which she lives. She is beautiful and dresses often provocatively. She has seductive traits and often has men lusting after her and falling at her feet. She has been involved in many adulterous plots where she has been portrayed as 'the other woman' or it is her herself who has been unfaithful. The character of 'Rochella Wembridge' we wish to have all similar traits as Mercedes. She is often promiscuous and getting involved with already married men such as 'Victor Rolfe' and often finds herself in a lot of trouble due to this. We would like our character to have a similar look to Mercedes, with perhaps an exotic appearance and long dark hair and that is traditionally presumed as 'sexy'.

Analysis of Relevant Audience Statistics

As we are largely basing our soap around the 'young money' category, with characters who's lives are filled with wealth and riches we investigated the audience statistics for programmes that have a similar concept, for example "90210" and "Gossip Girl" although these are not soap operas they adopt a similar idealization as the soap opera "Façade Manor" that we are creating. E4 is a spin off channel of Channel 4 and the 2 channels are more teenage focused than other mainstream television channels such as the BBC and ITV.

On channel E4 90210 has the second highest rating of all programmes, with 623,000 viewers in 2011.



However channels such as the BBC which are predominantly targeted towards a more adult audience and run soap operas statistics show that programmes such as "EastEnders" which is an episodic on going drama are by far the highest rating, in fact Eastenders currently ranks as one of the most watched shows in the UK.



http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?_s=3

Rough Plan For Soap Opera Trailer

We put forward ideas of the snippets of drama in our soap that we wish to be displayed in our trailer to draw in the audience. We wish to use 3 main storylines and seemingly happy relationships. We will then show how behind closed the doors the relationships are not so perfect. The soap opera will begin with a persons view (as if the audience are part of the soap opera) walking down a street of houses. Standing outside each house will be a family looking happy, the scene will then change to display the drama going on in their private life. contrasting with the happiness the orgininally displayed.

FAMILY 1 -

Emma-Lousie and Victor looking happy holding hands
The drama unfolding will be Rochella Wembridge telling Victor she's pregant with his child
Emma-Louise takes comfort on Mrs Jarvis' shoulder as she is aware that Victor has been unfaithful.









FAMILY 2 -

Jessica and Patrick are the streets young beautiful couple who appear to have a strong stable relationship and are happy.
A close family friend of the couple and Patricks oldest best friend Brad tells Jessica he's in love with her and trys to kiss her.
Patrick threatens Brad to stay away from his girlfriend Jessica











FAMILY 3 -

Mr and Mrs Jarvis are the streets older well off conventional couple and seemingly get on well with the rebellious youth Leo, who is seen mowing there lawn for them out of what appears to be neighbourly kindness.
They comfort each other as behind closed doors Leo is blackmailing them after discovering they have a secret son who conveniently lives on the street.

Initial Plot/Narrative For Soap Opera

We created a word document flow chart of the plot of the first episode of our soap opera. We need to have planned the first episode of the soap well so that we have footage to take our clips from for our trailer.

Flow Chart Episode 1

Target Audience Profile

Target Audience Profile

Relevant Audience Statistics and Ratings

As we are largely basing our soap around the 'young money' category, with characters who's lives are filled with wealth and riches we investigated the audience statistics for programmes that have a similar concept, for example "90210" and "Gossip Girl" although these are not soap operas they adopt a similar idealization as the soap opera "Façade Manor" that we are creating. E4 is a spin off channel of Channel 4 and the 2 channels are more teenage focused than other mainstream television channels such as the BBC and ITV.

On channel E4 90210 has the second highest rating of all programmes, with 623,000 viewers in 2011.



However channels such as the BBC which are predominantly targeted towards a more adult audience and run soap operas statistics show that programmes such as "EastEnders" which is an episodic on going drama are by far the highest rating, in fact Eastenders currently ranks as one of the most watched shows in the UK.



http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?_s=3

Audience Theory Research

Moat soap operas take the form of the Hypodermic Needle Theory which involves the programme requiring a passive audience. A lot of viewers take comfort in soap operas as they feel they can emphasise with the characters and it's a touch of normality that they can follow which does not require decisions or interaction from them. As the viewers of a soap opera are passive it means they are directly affected by what they view, people automatically accept the story lines and soaps message without considering its merits. Another name for this theory is the 'Magic Bullet Theory' as the information is shot at the audience like a 'magic bullet' and directly penetrated into the viewers mind. Soap operas are long-running serials concerned with everyday life. The serial is not to be confused with the series, in which the main characters and format remain the same from programme to programme but each episode is a self-contained plot. In a serial at least one storyline is carried over from one episode to the next. A series is advertised as having a specific number of episodes, but serials are potentially endless. Soap Operas also take an episodic structure which means that although over a couple of episodes a storyline may be gradually resolved a new one in the meantime has been started (or a number of story lines) there for the soap opera is ongoing and ideal for regular viewers or working class people that use their evenings to relax out of routine. For this reason also there is often a weekend 'omnibus' for soap operas so that if an episode is missed it can be reviewed sometime after it was shown. This is especially important as if a vital part of a storyline is missed it can be re-seen for enthusiastic viewers.

references; http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/soaps.html

Analysis of Questionnaire Results

Questionaire


Questionaire Results Analysis

From our questionnaire results I have analysed that the most popular of the main soap operas (Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Doctors and Neighbours) was Eastenders. This may be because it’s easily relatable to all types of people due to the wide variety of characters. The second most popular was Coronation Street which concurs with this reasoning as Coronation Street has a very similar set up to Eastenders. Hollyoaks was then most 3rd most popular with my participants. This may have been more popular because the majority of volunteers I questioned were teenagers and young adults and Hollyoaks is mainly targeted to this audience. Emmerdale was the 4th most popular, this may be because it is set in the country side which is not a similar surrounding to where my participants lived there for it may be more difficult to emphasise with the surroundings of that soap. Neighbours and Doctors were equally the least chosen and also possibly the hardest for my volunteers to emphasise with as none are ‘doctors’ or live in Australia (where neighbours is set). These findings seem to hint that soaps are more popular with an audience that can relate to the setting and characters.
It can be certain that our soap opera trailer will be a positive to our soap opera as 80% of the participants agreed that a trailer would encourage them to watch soap. This is important as it means the popularity of our soap opera may be dependant on the effectiveness of the trailer there for making it important to produce a popular piece.
It will be important for us to make sure that we make our storylines clear and attractive to an audience through our soap opera trailer as 70% of the participants said the main reason they are attracted to watching a soap opera is due to a storyline that interests them. 20% said that they continue to watch soap operas out of routine, but it is still important for these viewers to watch a trailer so they are equally as curious to the upcoming storylines as a viewer that does not usually watch the soap. 10% said that they would watch a soap opera due to a specific character. Although this isn’t a large percentage of the participants it still shows that to attract some of the audience it is important to have clear well rounded characters that viewers can aspire to be like, develop emotional attachments too and emphasise with.
We established that the importance of a relatable soap applies to 60% of our participants which means over half of our viewers want to watch characters similar to themselves or going through similar situations. However it is also important to have elaborate characters that do not remind viewers of themselves so that they feel they can have a ‘break’ from their day to day lives.
60% of our participants agreed that they watch soap operas with their family. Which means that we have to use family friendly storylines which are not graphic and could offend viewers. We must use characters that are young and can relate with a younger audience as well as a more adult audience and their storylines must match to these. 30% would watch soap operas with their partner which shows that it is important to have some romantic storylines that couples (old and young) can emphasise with. 10% would watch soap operas on their own which shows how watching a show can be a ‘release’ and a break in day. This makes it important that we make our soap opera enticing so that viewers fix their whole concentration on it and they are more likely to watch the soap repeatedly.

Target Audience Questionnaire

Target Audience Questionnaire

Target Audience Profile

Target Audience Profile

Soap Opera Brief

Media Soap Brief

Initial Ideas

Here, I have sorted out our intitial ideas. We are most likely to use these in our media pieces because these we the ideas we have had first. Also, by writing all of these down it helps towards writing our soap brief as everything will be clear.

By doing a chart for our characters, we can see all of the possible storylines and then interlink them in with all of the diffferent characters, creating the soap piece that we want.