An analysis on two soap opera trailers including Hollyoaks and Eastenders

1. ANALYSING SOAP
OPERA TRAILERS

2.  In this trailer the characters personalities have already been established and the audience has
already been able to establish a connection with the characters.
 The trailer doesn’t focus heavily on one main issue/plot and instead has a lot of multi-strand
narratives. In the trailer we can see a storyline that is going to be coming up in the next few weeks
for at least every character in the show.
 At the beginning of the trailer we can see the Hollyoaks title with the slogan of what the trailer is all
about which is ‘six weeks of summer’. This needed to be a main focus at the beginning of the trailer
so that the audience are able to anticipate the six weeks that are going to come. As well as this the
trailer uses non-diagetic sound by using background music to add a summery feel to the trailer. This
supports the main theme of the trailer which is all about summer.
 One key moment was right at the beginning when a sound bridge was used, this was used when the
character says “Why do I get the feeling you're using me to get Esther’s baby”. While the audience
hears what this character is saying we see a visual which shows two clips in which both of the
characters who are in the first shot are pictured doing something which revolves to that part of the
storyline. This plot is only highlighted for 2-3 seconds which gives the audience the opinion that this
storyline will not be a major storyline that will come up in the summer.
 The trailer also features a plot in which a young teenage girl is having a relationship with an older
man who is seeing the girls father. The scene starts with the older man telling the younger girl that
he loves her in which this is also a sound bridge with a clip of the older man kissing the younger
girls mum. This shows to the audience that there is going to be a strong focus on the jealousy of a
young girl over the fact that her mum can have the guy that she likes. This is a key theme that I
would like to portray as I feel that the target audience that I would like to target to would like the
dramatic scenes that would come with the storyline. Although the audience may not be able to relate
entirely to the specific scenario of the character they will most likely be able to relate that scenario
to something that they have experienced.
 As a whole the trailer utilises the use of a sound bridge. A sound bridge is used with dialogue to help
narrate what is going on in the scene. In another example we see another girl get into the bed of one
of the boys as she says his name we see another scene in which another girl is talking about how
she is having problems with that boy. The use of these two scenes being played back to back allows
the audience to understand what is going on and who could possibly be the main cause of these
problems.
HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF
SUMMER

3.  The show Hollyoaks is aired on E4. The show is shown on E4 on weeknights at 7pm. This is the prime time
for soap operas to be shown during the week.
 The main target audience for Hollyoaks is aimed at people aged between 16 -24.The show likes to have a
heavy focus on students and their lives which makes me believe that the how wants to target students
from all different backgrounds which is why they use such diverse storylines in hope to connect with a
large audience. The show mainly aim to target females mainly this is because the stereotype that
surrounds soaps is that women are more likely then men to watch a soap opera. The audience would likely
be from the socio -economic grouping of c1, c2 and D. This is because the vast majority of the characters
are either students which is why they would be in group D, or the other characters relate to groups c1, and
c2 as some characters run their own business and some characters contract/employed to work in that
specific place of work.
 The trailer uses many technical aspects Including the following:
 Editing: The pace of the trailer is fast we see a lot of action happen in a short amount of time. This is
predominantly used to show the different multi -strand narratives that are going to take place in the
episodes to come. This is Hollyoaks foreshadowing to the audience of what is to come in a few weeks
time. This is an effective technique to entice the audience as the audience will be looking out to see if
they can work out what will happen to their favourite character sin the weeks to come. The scenes that we
see are very short, the whole idea of this is so that the audience are kept guessing ‘what happens next?’
this is a way for the show to have returning viewers as they want to be able to hold up an audience.
 Sound: At the beginning of the trailer we hear diagetic sound in the use of background music. The music
used is very happy and adds to the idea that summer is mean to be a good and happy time. However we
see that in the clips the characters are not happy and are defiantly not having a good time. The trailer
uses a lot of sound bridges in order to hurry the narratives along. This also allows the show to be able to
show multiple clips when playing only one piece of dialogue, this is essential to be used in a trailer so
that the show is able to show the multi -strand narratives as proposed by Levi strauss.
 Camerawork: The trailer never uses an establishing shot which I found quite odd. For returning viewers not
using an establishing shot is fine because they are familiar with the location and places that action may
take place. However this is not appealing to newer viewers as they don’t get a sense of location and aren't
HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF
SUMMER

4.  The way that the trailer entices the audience in and makes them want
to watch the show is by briefly showing small clips of the major plot
lines that are yet to come in the soap. This is an effective technique as
the audience will want to know more and as long as the audience are
questioning and wanting to know what is going to happen next then
they will be able to keep a repeat audience.
 In conclusion I feel that this trailer follows the conventions of a soap
opera as we can clearly see the multi-strand narratives that are going
to go on throughout the show. This is a key aspect of the trailer
because it shows that there are a lot of characters that are in the
show. The main idea of this show is to create verisimilitude (realism)
as most soap operas are devised as an escapism from real life they
need to show stories which the audience can relate to. Hollyoaks does
this by using issues that their target audience may face, because they
have a niche target audience they are able to focus heavily on getting
the message that they want to across.
HOLLYOAKS – TRAILER SIX WEEKS OF
SUMMER