Soap Opera- Production Log

1. 1
St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: ___________________
Candidate Number: _____________________________________
Candidate Name: _______________________________________________________________________
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?
YOU MUST demonstrate what you already know by completing a
“Spider Diagram” of what you know about OR expect from 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

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2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre
The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’
(S _ _ _ e N _ _ l _ ) elements of:
1. Romance
2. Family Relationships and/or conflict
3. Focus on Working Class communities

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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.
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+

7. 7
Gender
Women
Nationality
British
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Dialogue, Roxy and
male character.
Hartley- 20-40
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
‘Crazy Woman’
‘Stay from bro/sis’
‘It was me’
Red lightning
Focus on
working class
communities
Shallow depth
Mid shot of family
Sheryl and Danny
Family
‘New Owner of the Vic’
East End Accent
Accent- Hartley
Personal Identity- Katz
Social Climbers- Maslow
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
Vic Takeover
Janine killed husband
Runaway
Sister Relationship
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Killed husband, no way
out, £250,000 to get
away.
Trailer 2)

8. 8
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Alfie and Kat kissing
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Alfie and Kat arguing
Branning’s family in Vic
Pace
Personal Relationship
Focus on
working class
communities
Market with people
Pub
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
One storyline
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Kat and Alfie fighting
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:

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 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
Hartley- Gender
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Phil and Jack Tension
Carol and Male Character
Katz- Personal
Relationships
 Focus on working
class communities
Stag Do and Hen Do
Full Shot
Hartley- Class
Hartley- Accent- East End
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Stag Do mistake- Jack and
Phil mistake
Katz- Personal
Relationships
 Romance
Bride and Groom storyline Katz- Personal
Relationships
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)

10. 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
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology: Beliefs
1. Woman working in kitchen, man sitting down
2. Woman giving lift (Gran)
3. 2nd woman strong character
4. Old woman surrounded by her family
5. Young woman sitting in chair rather than at the table
6. More women to men

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“Multi-Stranded Narrative”
In first house- family, gran, lift
In second house- holidays
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Conflict between two woman
Two couples in 2nd part
 Focus on working
class communities
Quite small dining room runs into living room
‘Slap up meal’
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Disruption of Gran
 Romance
Two couples
 Other Themes &
Issues represented:
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 C onvergence is important when promoting a text to the
target audience.
3)

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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.
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

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Woman Pregnant- close up
Black/Dark- represent evil
White wedding- opposite to darkness+ dark track and sarcastic
Emotionless- faces of characters
Tear- Doesn’t want to go through with it or it’s going to go wrong.
Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
Decision Making, oversee, organization, consideration to the target audience,
financing.
2) What is the role of a Director?

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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 licences so no ads