Soap Opera - Production Log

1. 1
St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Candidate Number: 4068
Candidate Name: Chris Jacobs
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –
Production Log
Evidence of Planning & Research

2. 2
Aims and Objectives
 AO2 – Assess candidates’ application of knowledge and
understanding in evaluating their own work, showing
how meanings and responses are created.
 AO3 – Assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct
media products using appropriate technical and creative
skills.
 AO4 – Assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and
present appropriate research.
Brief Chosen
A 45 second – 1 minute 30 second trailer for a NEW Soap Opera
that will be exhibited on at 8:30pm (after Eastenders)
that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.
YOU SHOULD research when Eastenders is scheduled (Day –
Time)

3. 3
Contents
Textual Analysis
 Eastenders
- Soap Opera Codes & Conventions
- Multi Strand Narrative
 Coronation Street
“..the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as
such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
‘Masculinity and Popular television’ – Rebecca Feasey (2007)
- Is this evident and how is this presented to the audience?
Research
 Purpose of a Trailer
 Multi-Platform promotion
 Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks
Deadlines – Production Work
Filming Dates:
Edited Trailer – Complete:
Promotional Poster – Complete:
Promotional Magazine Cover – Complete:
Evaluation – Complete:
Production Work
 Director – Roles & Responsibilities?
 Producer – Roles & Responsibilities?
 Institution research – BBC Two

4. 4
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions – Lesson 2
1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?
Setting
The Vic (Pub)
Local Housing
Market
Narrative
Relationships
Death
Adultery
Flashback
Family Issues
Sexuality
Gossip
Characters
Manipulative Personalities
Geezer
Bully
Voyeuristic
Icons
Community
Regional Identity
Theme Tune
Overarching storyline
Repetitive Elements
Week in Week Out all year around
Open ended plots
Special Episodes for events
Realism
Begin with a hook
Jack-the-lad
Troublesome oldie
Active/Passive Stereotypes

5. 5
2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre
The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’
(Steve Neale) elements of:
1. Romance
2. Family Relationships and/or conflict
3. Focus on Working Class communities
4. Antagonism and conflict within the community
5. Regionality
Eastenders (1985 – Present)
Key information regarding this text:
 Exhibited on BBC 1 and repeated on BBC 3
 1 OF UK’s HIGHEST RATED PROGRAMMES
 Set in Kitchen setting of fictional Walford , East London
Textual Analysis Task
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -
YOU MUST complete the Table below whilst watching the TWO promotional
trailers for the BBC Soap Opera Eastenders.

6. 6
YOU SHOULD aim to identify key examples (Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical)
from each trailer that demonstrates your understanding.
Extension - YOU COULD apply relevant audience theory to explain what
impact these key examples would have on the target demographic.
In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the
target audience for Eastenders?
Age
15-60+
Gender
Women
Nationality
British
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Theme of violence, takeover of the Vic (Pub), murder of Michael
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Roxy and male character.
Hartley- 20-40, young audience, This is because
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
‘Crazy Woman’
‘Stay from bro/sis’
‘It was me’
Red lightning on man
Ronnie protects sister which is shown when she
says ‘stay away from my sister’ – ‘Care Givers’
(Maslow)
Katz- The audience can ‘personally identify’
with characters, due to resemblance of how it
would feel to lose everything and willing to
protect the ones you love at all costs.
Focus on
working class
communities
Shallow depth
Mid shot of family
Sheryl and Danny Family
‘New Owner of the Vic’
East End Accent
Accents are to do with Hartley due to the
representation of regionality.
Location attracts to the audience because they
can relate to where they live and recognize the
way the characters are portrayed.
“Multi-Stranded
Vic Takeover
Janine killed husband
Katz – the entertainment value is increased for
the viewer’s when having more storylines going

7. 7
Narrative”
Runaway at the same time.
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Killed husband, no way
out, £250,000 to get
away.
Community drivers/Explorers –
agree/disagree
Trailer 2)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Who is Kat cheating with?
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Alfie and Kat kissing Maslow’s: ‘care givers’ they want Alfie to find
out what is going on.
Hartley – characters are 20 – 40 so appeals to
this age range
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Alfie and Kat arguing
Brannings family in Vic
Personal Relationship (Katz) – Feeling sorry for
Alfie.
Moral Ethics – people would disagree with Kat
cheating on Alfie with one of the Brannings.
Focus on
working class
communities
Market with people
Pub
Hartley – regionality and nationality
represented here with people from different
countries and from the same region.
This is also shown in the pub with the region
represented with the type of people in the pub,
community.
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
One storyline –
cheating on Alfie
N/A
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Kat and Alfie fighting –
over the affair Kat had
with one of the
Brannings
‘Caregivers’ (Maslow) – Audience feels
sympathy for Alfie because he was put in this
position by Kat.

8. 8
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrative can be defined as…..
_Telling a story from more than one person’s point of view.
Telling multiple stories about multiple characters in an Open Narrative episode for
example.
YOU MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastenders and identify where
the following elements are presented to the audience:
 Multi-stranded narrative
 Family relationships and/or conflict
 Focus on working class communities
 ‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
 Romance
YOU SHOULD write down x1-2 examples for EACH of the elements above that are
presented.
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
 Multi-stranded
narrative
Carol and Male Character
Stag Do/ Hen Do
Katz- ‘Personal
Relationships’ - sympathy
with Carol trying to hold to
relationship with guy.
Social Interactions- makes
people like they can relate
to the characters.
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Phil and Jack Tension
Carol and Male Character
Katz- ‘Personal
Relationships’ - The tension
between Jack and Phil due
to previous rivalries.
 Focus on working
class communities
Stag Do and Hen Do in Pub
and the club
Full Shot
Hartley- Relates to the
working class place they are
in
Hartley- Accent- East End
relating to the regionality
that is represented.
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Stag Do mistake- Jack and
Phil mistake
Katz- ‘Personal
Relationships’ - Rivalry
between these two
characters as they dislike
each other.

9. 9
 Romance
Bride and Groom storyline Katz- ‘Personal
Relationships’ – The
audience can relate to the
romance between them.
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 3
Textual Analysis
According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the Soap
Opera genre tends to focus on:
_’… the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as such it
has long been said to appeal to the female viewer
Personal Identity
1) – Do you agree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY (First 5 minutes)
Next Page - YOU MUST deconstruct the opening 5 minutes of a sequence from the
popular ITV Soap Opera Coronation Street (1960 – Present) to identify examples of
where this ideology is presented to the target audience.
YOU SHOULD also try and identify, to demonstrate your knowledge and
understanding of the genre, any Codes & Conventions associated to the Soap Opera
genre.

10. 10
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology: Beliefs
1. Woman working in kitchen, man sitting down
Man not helping
Yellow gloves
2. Woman giving lift (Gran)
Sarcastic comments
3. 2nd woman strong character
Swanky and slap up meal
4. Old woman surrounded by her family
5. Young woman sitting in chair rather than at the table
6. More women to men
“Multi-Stranded Narrative”
In first house- family, gran, lift which leads to different
storylines.
In second house- holidays and talking about the
honeymoon they are going on.
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Conflict between two women as mum thinks she’s better
than the Gran.
Two couples in 2nd part family sitting down together eating.
 Focus on working
class communities
Quite small dining room runs into living room
‘Slap up meal’
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Disruption of Gran, when they are having a family
discussion and she enters the room and changes the whole
mood of the family.
 Romance
Two couples – talking about their honeymoon.
 Other Themes &
Issues represented:
N/A

11. 11
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
Advertise and anticipate the episode, the show, elude to normal Working class
family
2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
 Wider audience appreciation
Ultimately, some form of Convergence is important when promoting a text to the
target audience.
3)
Textual Analysis –
Next Page - YOU MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this
sequence from Coronation Street:
 Multi-stranded narrative
 Character dilemmas
 ‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od
The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.

12. 12
1. What are the connotations of the ident for the popular Channel Four Teen
Soap Opera Hollyoaks (1995 – Present)?
Gender- symbols+colour
Next Page - Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4
2. YOU MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this
sequence from Hollyoaks:
 Binary opposition of the non-diegetic music
 Symbolism of the non-verbal code of the tear
 Representation of Pregnancy
 Any other examples that would impact the audience
Black/Dark- represent evil
White wedding- Binary Opposite (Levi Strauss)
- Darkness: death at wedding representation
- dark track and sarcastic due to the title, white wedding, contrasting costumes
with white and black representing good and bad.
- The connotations of these lyrics are talking what could be happening to the
main character in the forthcoming episodes in the show.
Emotionless- faces of characters and the creepy smiles of the characters show they either
don’t care what is happening or represent that they know the wedding is doomed.
Tear- Doesn’t want to go through with it or it’s going to go wrong.
- People don’t want the wedding to happen
Woman Pregnant- close up
China doll is shattering represents the baby could be doomed due to the family she is
being born into.
Murder - the wife seems to be the only one to know which could represent why they are
creepily smiling at her giving a clue who the murderer was.
Verbal code used in the non-diegetic voiceover ‘love, honor and betray’ – this could allude
to betraying her husband in the future?
Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
Decision Making, oversee, organization, consideration to the target audience,
financing.

13. 13
2) What is the role of a Director?
Visualization of the scene, leader, strict and decisive.
3) Institution research –
YOU MUST research the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on.
Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.
 Programmes are specific to audiences (Wimbledon exception)
 Focus on documentaries and niche audience shows
 Latest highest viewing figures was spring watch, 2.36 million
 Aims highbrow programmes compared to mainstream BBC Two
 Funded by TV licenses so no ads
 Launched on 20th April 1967
 Audience share was 6.6% in July 2014
 1st July 1967 was the first channel in Europe to be broadcast in color
 Target audience is people who don’t already watch BBC 1 or ITV
 Several sister channels including: BBC1, BBC3, BBC4,BBC news, BBC Parliament,
CBBC and Cbeebies