Production notes

Location of Filming

We used Broomfield to record our whole soap trailer. It was ideal for several reasons; firstly, shown by the line on the map, it had both rural and urban locations. Secondly this urban location could be used as a base camp to get supplies or used for more practical reasons such as lunch. A crew members home was located on Mill lane making it ideal for this purpose. The urban location also homes our pub ‘The king’s arms’ shown on the map along the main road. The church featured was also beside the pub, known as 'Church green'. The close walk to all locations made filming simple and easy.

Locations of Filming 2

The above picture shows where we filmed our first scene (though it isn’t the first scene of the trailer). It was a complex shot which required four actors, two camera men and two crew members standing alongside the road as traffic watch. The smiley face represents the position of our two cameramen. One filmed actor two (shown by 2) and the other filmed actor three and four (shown by 3). Actor two simply had to walk forward from the gate and stand still when instructed; her position had to be perfect so the other two walking actors could be seen in the distance of her to the left side. Actor one (shown by 1) drove a car past actors three and four until it went out of site. We established and explained to each actor the pace they must move so all four could be seen in the frame, after several rehearsals we had the shots desired and moved to the pub, the kings arm, for further filming.

Location of Filming 3

This was the church location were we filmed the Vicar and the elderly lady. It was a simple shot. The smiley face represents were the camera crew stood and the black lines highlight the frame of the shot. The blue car was not in the shot on the day of filming.

Other shots were taken in varied locations but finding their position on Google maps is difficult or impossible. The two examples above highlight the skill and planning needed to get footage for our trailer.  

All images were found using Google maps.

What needs to be re-filmed?

We had several issues regarding lighting. The last three shots in our trailer have varied lighting. Going from gloomy to night then back to daytime; this is obviously not acceptable. To deal with the issues we have been playing with light using final cut express. We can change the brightness of shots which allows us to have a better flow of continuity within our piece.

The final shot was captured in daytime lighting but the shot before was at night. This is because our actors were available at different times. To fix the problem we are re-filming the final shot in night so we have a timeline within our piece from early morning to night time. This is an ideal plan as the actors filmed at night are no longer available making it possible only to re-film the day shot at night time.

Famous soap jingles

Every soap opera has an introductory piece of music. Most stick to the same music throughout the soaps life which helps it become recognisable and, too a degree, famous. Some soaps, like Hollyoaks, will change their music to help keep the show ‘fresh’ and to attract new audiences.

More traditional soap music includes Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street. All shown below.

Each piece of music helps attract its target audience, as does the imagery that goes along side it. Eastender has lots of drums and zooms out, it’s very fast pace and dramatic which is similar to the narrative of the show. Emmerdale is more chilled out but increasingly becomes more dramatic. The shot of the woman’s leg stroking the man’s attracts a younger audience who are more interested with ‘flirty’ storylines. Yet, the music staying more traditional still attracts an older audience. Coronation Street remains very old fashioned and will attract more mature audiences as it has little appeal to younger generations. Its final shot, of the chimneys, looks very British and feels the viewer with pride which keeps them engaged with the stereotypical British show.

Hollyoaks opening has changed over the years. This is because, rather than introducing locations in their opening they introduce characters. So, when characters leave and enter the show the opening changes with the cast. The credits is extremely fast pace and contains many flashing lights and colours, giving it an upbeat, younger feel, which attracts younger audiences to the over exaggerated narratives.

The reason it is important to research jingles is because at least a short section of our soap jingle should be featured within the trailer. This is a convention which can be shown by the Eastenders original trailer below. Our soap is targeting a wide range of audiences of all ages and several classes. The imagery from the trailer attracts a younger audience so our priority for our music should be too attract an older, more mature, audience which would require a more traditional genre of music.  

Actors I would use for our soap opera.

Farmer Husband - Charlie Collins               

Farmer Girl - Harriet Collins                        

Bad Boy - Ryan Parker                                

Essex Girl - Rachel Mannings                      

Farmer wife - Jennifer Ward              

Pub Owner - Barry Brooker                          

Pub Owners Son - Marcus Brooker              

Vicar - Simon Claude                                  

Old Woman - Edith Jones

In order to create the best piece of television or film you must find and gather the ideal actor for each character. These are the characters I would use if this was a real soap opera.

 

Farmer Husband - Charlie Collins  

The farmer husband is a cheating husband with his wifes bestfreind, Jennifer Ward. In order to portray this character well we must find an actor who finds acting natural to him, making the character and the storyline more powerful. My research has led me to recruit actor Gary Farmer.

Though too old now to perform a believable Charlie Collins, Gary would have been ideal in his younger years to be our farmer’s husband.  He could easily suit the required outfit for the character and he is a brilliant actor adapting to all roles quickly and sufficiently. He has appeared in over 100 television series and movies, ranging from main characters to extras. His career began as a small role in the film ‘police academy’ (1984) and since he has evolved to tackle larger roles.

IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) highlights how ‘Gary has shown he can adapt easily to any genre when necessary.’ This is why he is ideal to use, as he can make the audience feel the required emotions we set for the character Charlie Collins.

Farmer Girl - Harriet Collins      

The farmer girl is kind, shy and attractive. She is liked by all of the community apart from Rachel Mannings, who finds Harriet’s crush tempting. This rivalry premiers the feisty side to Harriet which ultimately means we need a character who seems innocent but has a feisty, hidden attitude.

My research led me to the actress Gemma Merna.

Already a Hollyoaks star she understands how to be a successful soap opera character. Above this she already performs the attributes our character must possess through her Hollyoaks character Carmel Mcqueen. On the other hand I am not confident Carmel has the look needed to suit a rural, innocent character. My choice in picking her was a tough one and if this was a real soap opera I would have tested her abilities and saw if the look suited with an audition before production.

Bad Boy - Ryan Parker  

Ryan is the cast stud. He is the bad boy who has the two most attractive girls after him. He works with cars and has to be seen as cool. This is why I did little research and knew quickly that the actor I would use for Ryan is Nigel Harman.

He, like Gemma Merna, has experience in the field of soap operas. He portrayed Dennis, son of dirty Den for Eastenders. The bad boy character is a commonly found convention of soap and that is why Dennis and Ryan Parker are almost identical in their actions and hobbies. Unlike Gemma Merna I do not question Nigel Harman as i have complete faith that he would be perfectly suited for the role of Ryan.

Essex Girl - Rachel Mannings 

I do not want our Rachel Mannings to be the over the top Essex stereotype. Instead I just want to portray her as a flirt. Using macke up, extensions and saucy dresses will connote Rachel as a self centred, conformational person. To help create a real Rachel we need a makeup covered proud woman who seems both strong and capable of living inherently.  

My research has suggested that Hannah Voice would make a good Rachel.

Hannah is 19 and has done several modelling jobs showing her confidence. She is also a commercial model which suggests she can act to a certain degree. She would suit the desired look of Rachel and if an audition showed me she could act I would offer her the role.  

Farmer wife - Jennifer Ward  

                                                                              Jennifer Ward is a good person despite her affair with her  best friends husband. We want people to still pity her despite her wrong doings. This is why we must find an actor who can do one thing but portray an opposite message during the performance.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter….

In my opinion the best actress of all time, Helen would be perfectly suited to bring the role/storyline of Jennifer Ward to life. She is a brilliant actress shown by her long list of main characters in hit films such as Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd , Fight Club, The Kings Speech and tons more. As a result she has little expertise or experience in television and none in soap operas. Yet I feel she would be brilliantly ideal. Realistically even if this soap real Helena couldn’t join the cast, she is just far to famous but I still think she would be the most capable actress for bringing Jennifer to life.      

Pub Owner - Barry Brooker 

                                                                          Barry Brooker is seen as the typical tough landlord; this portrays him as an antagonist. To bring this character to life we need an actor who looks tough and cruel.

My research led me to actor Steve McFadden.

Already a well-established soap opera actor Steve’s character is Phil Mitchell, perhaps the most famous pub owner who has screened on the small screen. He has all the stereotypical conventions of this character and is seen as the antagonist our character, Barry, must be.

Pub Owners Son - Marcus Brooker

                                                                     The son of Barry Brooker is homosexual; he appears weak and his father psychologically abuses him and rejects him because of this. The audience must pity Marcus; as a result our actor must look weak and terrified as well acting this trait equally as well.

My research indicated that Guy Burnet has the experience to suit the role

Craig Dean, character played Guy Burnet, was the gay landlord son for Hollyoaks. Taking on a starring role he gained experience for this stock character convention and would be ideally suited to rein act his role as Marcus.

Vicar - Simon Claude

Our Vicar must be one with the lord and must appear slightly boring. He is the kindest character from the cast and a boring voice will be a desired trait. He too must be elderly and seem wise.

My research has suggested David Neilson .

With years of soap experience in Coronation Street David may want to attempt more grown up characters in his later acting career. That is why he would be a good candidate for Our Vicar. Though an audition would be required, as he may not be suited for the role I think that David is a strong candidate for the role as he can portray both wise and kind characters.

Old Woman - Edith Jones

Our old lady is a widow and is the kindest character on the block. Yet, her hobbies include gossiping which connotes a slight weakness in her protagonist personality. She has to look sweet and act adorably making actress Hilda Braid perfect for the role.

With a long career in acting she played Nana Moon in Eastenders and gained good experience in the soap opera industry. Suiting the role with both her appearance and acting ability’s she is perfect for Edith Jones.

Magazine cover blue prints

Mag draft 1

Mag draft 2

These are the two drafts I created for a soap opera magazine cover. I prefer the first draft yet logically it should be the choice I reject.

Draft one is more packed, a convention for these covers. Yet, the title is not located in the left third. Draft two title is located in the left third. To get rid of the problem for draft one I will copy existing soaps strategies of having a catchy title, achieving being noticed by the audience because the first few letters are recognised.



Cosmo (thought not a tv listing magazine) is a good example of my draft one.

NOTE: On both my drafts i wrote main cover line for both the titles of the magazines located towards the top or left section of the page. I have noticed my error but cannot change it so please be aware of the title.

Generic characters of soap opera compared to our characters

  After creating a generic character information page on our group blog for Hollyoaks characters I started question that, if any of these character, can be seen similarly to our own cast. This led me to research each big British soap including, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.

The Essex girl

Our Essex girl is a nasty piece of work, only capable of caring for herself. This is why I would place her in the character brand of the villain/gold digger. If compared to a real soap character I would say she is most like Eastenders star, Lucy.



Lucy  Beale
 played by Melissa Suffield

Lucy lies, steals and cares little for others, only making a caring acceptation for her twin brother. She is a nasty diva; like our character. This also is the look we want to create for our character, Lucy looks like a diva. She looks like a selfish drama queen. This is the desired look we must achieve.

The pregnant woman

The pregnant wife made a mistake, she cheated on her husband with his best friend, this is evil, yet you feel sympathy for the character despite her wrong doings. She is the role ‘the pregnant woman’ nearly always found in soaps. This is why I would compare her to Eastenders star, Heather.

Heather Trott (played by Cheryl Fergison)

Heather, like our pregnant character got herself knocked up. She too made a mistake with the father, sleeping with a teenager. Though we know what she did is wrong we feel pity for her like our own pregnant character.

 

 

The mechanic

The mechanic loves himself, he cares little for other people as long as he gets what he wants, yet don’t be mistaken he would never harm anyone to gain his desires. He is the generic character ‘the player’. This is why I would compare him to Coronation street star Nick.

Coronation Street actor Ben Price on why playing Nick Tilsley means he’s finally in a TV show that won’t scandalise his local church

'Nick became troublesome in his teenage years and began smoking, and later married his girlfriend Leanne Battersby. But he left for Canada in 1999 after he got her to abort their child. When he returned back to the street in 2003, he resumed his relatonship with Maria Sutherland after a brief relationship he had when he visited for his mother's wedding to Richard Hillman a year previously. He began working with Mike Baldwin at Underworld, but lost the job. He later left again for Canada in 2004. Sometime between that, he returned to Britain and moved to Nottingham.
He returned again in 2009 when Audrey wanted him to talk Gail out of marrying Joe McIntyre although Nick didn't mind him. He moved back to the street in 2010 when Gail was accused of murdering Joe and after he lost his job. After briefly running Underworld with Carla Connor, he set up a bar called The Joinery under the viaduct, which was managed by Leanne. They had a brief affair despite Leanne being engaged to Peter Barlow and Nick tried to stop Leanne from marrying Peter, but Leanne realised her mistake and spurned Nick. He currently lives at No.8 with Gail and half-brother David Platt.'

Even this short article from Coropedia.com reveals the many relationships Nick has had over his years on Coronation Street. He is good looking and uses this to his advantage, very similar to our own ‘player’. Like our character he will not use violence to his advantage but relies only on his charms.

The farm girl

The farm girl is a sweet girl, kind and caring and what she lacks in fashion she makes up in with her stunning beauty. She usually is cast to a side, not getting what she wants, always caring for others before herself. She is the generic character of the damsel. When faced with confrontations however she becomes a strong powerful woman fitting into another generic role of ‘the strong woman’. This is why I would compare her to Eastenders star, Whitney.

Whitney Dean
 played by Shona McGarty

Whitney is caring towards others; she often looks after the children in her family and help out friends. Yet she is feisty and aggressive in an argumentative/threatened environment and as a result she has both generic traits our farm girl peeresses.

The hunter/landlord

The hunter is also the pub owner. He cheated on his friends trust by sleeping with his wife and potentially getting her pregnant. He is a boss figure and can be compared to Eastenders star, Phil.

Phil Mitchell
 played by Steve McFadden

'Don't mess with this East End hardnut...

or else! Nobody gets away with dissing the Mitchells.

 Phil will stop at nothing to protect the family honour.'

Phil, the boss of several businesses, owns the characteristics I want to apply to our own generic boss figure. He is tough, he is a leader and he breaks all the rules fitting in the generic role of the bad boy. He commits crimes and acts which connotes him to be an antagonist yet by the audience he is still loved as a protagonist.

He too had a son he wanted to change. Ben Mitchell wasn’t gay like our landlords son but he was a coward and liked activities such as dance more than boxing. Phil’s struggle to change his son is similar to our bosses struggle to change his son.

The famer

The farmer, the kind loving husband to a cheating wife has always been putting over’s before himself. Seen as the protagonist and loved by the audience he is the generic character ‘the good guy’ and can be compared to Tony, from Hollyoaks.

Tony Hutchinson (played by Nick Pickard)

Tony, a kind caring character always finds himself in awful situations. The saying ‘bad things happen to good people.’ revolves around his daily life, much like our own kind character that was betrayed by his wife and best friend. Tony even was arrested for being a paedophile after sleeping with a seventeen year old girl who he believed was an adult.



The vicar

Leading every conversation back to God the generic character of the old and wise is remarkably similar to Eastenders star, Dot.

Dot Branning (formerly Cotton)
 played by June Brown

There is little to say about the similarities between our religious figure and Dot. The only difference is Dot is female. Both are very religious and fit into the stereotypical ‘grumpy senior’ category.  

The elderly lady

Loving every second of life and always putting smiles on people’s faces she too plays the generic role of the old and wise. She is similar to Coronation street star Vera.



'One of the best-loved characters in the show, Vera died in an armchair as her husband Jack was in the Rovers Return. Actress Liz Dawn, 68, who played Vera since 1971, is retiring because she suffers from chronic lung disease.'
 
Vera leaving the show in 2008 until she appears in a special afterlife special.

'Coronation Street's Jack Duckworth is helped into the soap afterlife by late wife Vera as he dies peacefully in his chair.' 

Vera, a show favourite since its birth left in a dramatic story plot involving her husband’s death. In her later years she was kind and helpful sharing her knowledge to younger generations much like our own old lady.

On a further note creating this storyplot of the afterlife brakes all soap conventions, instead of showing life it shows death making it more of a drama than a soap episode.

The pub landlord’s son

Unknown by his family the landlords son it gay, most people expect this; yet, he tries to hide the truth from everyone (including himself). His father, a powerful man always picks on his son to act more manly. This generic character of the gay can be compared to Hollyoaks star Craig.  

 

Craig Dean (played by Guy Burnet)

Craig is very similar to our gay character; his family finds it hard to accept his new attraction. He tries hiding this attraction from himself, despite having sex with character John Paul. He has the same traits as our character and fits into the same storyline, a gay soap opera character convention storyline.

Introduction of generic characters

Introduction to generic characters of Soap operas
by: scott94


 website used to createt this video is called xtranormal.com

Own soap idea

Some ideas came to mind when I thought of ideas that could make a potentially popular soap opera.

I considered a gap in the market, ‘a time period soap opera’. This has not been done before and would, I believe, attract a huge potential target audience who wish to learn as well as being entertained. This in turn would make two sections of the uses of gratification theory true, people watch to be entertained and people watch to learn.

However, without target audience research I could not even consider creating a time based soap opera. Also for a student to find locations, props, clothing and decent actors to fit the criteria of creating a time based trailer is near impossible, time consuming and money consuming, concluding the time based soap opera to be an impossible task with facilities available.

This led me to look for alternative solutions. We wanted to avoid an urban based soap opera and challenge ourselves to find rural locations, as well as props and clothing.

With few solutions left we decided to create a rural soap opera, like Emmerdale.

Are soap operas harmful?

In order to fully comprehend the task of creating a conventional soap opera trailer I researched the public’s view of soap operas. This is an important step in creating any form of media product, for it leads us to the holes in the market wanting to be filed. Here are just a small percentage of the debate, essays and complaints I researched.

UK: Soap operas ignoring negative effects of alcohol - research

Author: Katie Smith | 8 December 2010

A failure on the part of soap operas in the UK to feature the risks of alcohol abuse in their storylines could affect under 18's views on drinking, according to recent research.

Alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware has released research today (8 December) claiming that, on average, over a third (38%) of soap air time features alcohol. From examining four top soaps broadcast in the UK, the research shows that characters were more often than not depicted drinking alcohol to socialise or as a celebration. Only extreme storylines show the harmful effects of alcohol misuse.

Chris Sorek, chief executive of Drinkaware, said: "We need to avoid normalising the idea of consequence-free drinking to excess, especially among under 18s, so people of all ages can make informed decisions about their own drinking based on the facts"

Drinkaware warned that, with 42% of 11- to 17-year-olds watching pre-watershed soaps, the programmes are not depicting the negative effects of too much alcohol consumption enough.

As a result, Drinkaware has requested meetings with UK broadcasters and has developed recommendations to encourage soap opera producers to highlight the risks associated with alcohol misuse.

This article was posted on ‘just-drinks.com’ and it highlights a growing concern of negative impacts soap operas have on children.

Over the last few decades soap operas are more frequent and appear before watershed hours hosting some adult themed storyline. These plots often include alcohol; however, alcohol is now seen as a prop rather than a luxury. Many believe this could be harmful for children and a high rise of teenage alcohol abuse may be linked to television ignorance.

This can show a possible change in the potential market or call attention to the problems with watershed observations.

Furthering the defence that these shows may be copied I have a small section of an article…

Adolescent Soap Opera Viewers

Louise Saffhill

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION & LITERATURE REVIEW

Aims of study

My initial aim in undertaking this study was to investigate adolescents’ viewing of soap operas in terms of its effects upon their identity. However, I began to question the validity of this investigation upon determining my own reasons for viewing soaps. I have watched soap operas since childhood and cannot think of a simple example of how my engagement with this genre may have affected my identity or personal development. My prime reason for watching is escapism, coupled with the desire to be entertained. Herzog’s study of soap opera viewers lists the three main reasons for engagement in soap as "emotional release, fantasy fulfilment and desire for information and advice." (Brown, 1994: 68) Although this study was carried out in 1944, its relevance remains today and was adapted by McQuail, in 1987 (Brown, 1994: 69) who established four categories of reasons people use the media. They include

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 The writers of the London-based soap have hit the headlines with their cot death/baby swap storyline involving Kat Moon and Ronnie Mitchell. I for one took that particular story with the same fictional pinch of salt I do with all soaps. Pity it left such a bad taste in the mouth for a minority.

EastEnders viewers have always and will always turn on for a good dose of doom and gloom. And as an EastEnders spokesperson simply put it: “Our job is to be a drama”.

Around 10m of us watched the very real (followed by very surreal) turn of events over the Christmas period as Ronnie Mitchell discovered her newborn James had died in his cot before sneaking into the Queen Vic pub and swapping him for Kat Moon’s newborn, Tommy.


Shocking, thought-provoking, and utterly ridiculous at times; the storyline is everything we should expect of a soap opera and more. And it’s the ‘more’ that’s rattled a few cages, most of which appear to belong to ‘appalled’ and ‘distressed’ mothers. The same mothers who watch the soap four times a week for the reasons they’re now slating it.


Over 6,200 complaints have been made about the storyline so far. An Ofcom spokesperson told Confidential: “We are currently looking at them to see whether we are going to investigate or not.”

Information founded at http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/Entertainment/TV-and-Film-Reviews/EastEnders-from-soap-opera-to-soap-box

I remember this story to be on the covers of many magazines, news papers, news headlines and internet pages.

It is rare for a storyline to gain so much negative attention. The plot could be considered cruel to many mothers who lost children and offensive to many other viewers. Yet this boundary braking episode brought in a wave a mass audience attention which ultimately ended with huge success for ratings.

 'Unrealistic and hurtful': Mothers take to internet to protest at EastEnders cot death storyline’