This document provides planning and research details for a media studies student's advanced portfolio project on producing a trailer for a new soap opera. It includes aims and objectives, chosen brief, contents, research on soap opera codes and conventions using examples from EastEnders and Coronation Street, production deadlines, and research on the roles of a director and producer. Research is also presented on BBC Two, the channel the trailer will be exhibited on, including target audience details and history.

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St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Candidate Number: 4131
Candidate Name: Keir Speirs
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –
Production Log
Evidence of Planning & Research

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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)

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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

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SoapOpera Codes & Conventions – Lesson2
1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?
‘Repertoireof Elements’ (Steve Neale – 1980)
Setting:
Pub
Houses
Market
Strong regional identity
Narrative:
Relationships
Death
Adultery
Flashbacks
Family issues
Sexuality
Character:
Manipulative characters
Killer
Geezer
Voyeuristic
Active and passive
Icons:
Community
Regional identity
Theme tune
Over arcing storyline
Plots and subplots
Gossip
Special episodes
Verisimilitude – attempt at creating realism

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2) Codes & Conventions of the SoapOpera Genre
The Soap Operagenre can be categorizedby the ‘repeated’
(Steve Neale) elements of:
1. Romance
2. Family relationships and/or conflict
3. Workingclass community
4. Antagonism and conflict within community
5. Fixed representation of regionalidentity
Eastenders (1985 – Present)
Key informationregarding this text:
 Exhibited – BBC 1 – repeated on BBC 3
 UK’s highest rated program
 Set in Watford
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 SHOULDaim to identify key examples(Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical)
from each trailer that demonstratesyour understanding.

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Extension- YOU COULD apply relevantaudiencetheory to explain what
impact these key examples would haveon the target demographic.
In your opinion, accordingto Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, whatis the
target audiencefor Eastenders?
Age 15 – 45
Gender Women
Nationality British
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
The theme of violence – taking over the ‘Queen Vic’
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance Hugging – between man
and woman
Hartley – characters 20-40 appeals to those of
the same ages. This appeals to the audience as
they can relate to this sort of relationship.
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
“stay away from my
brother”
“it was me”
Mid shots – people
standing in pub ( working
class)
Maslow – ‘caregivers’
This theory Appeals to audiences that identify
themselves as caregivers and can sympathize
with them, trauma is represented in the scene.
Focus on
working class
communities
The Pub ( Queen Vic)
Working class sense of
community
Hartley –accent
Location appeals to the audience as they can
recognize with the characters.
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
New Owner of the
Working Class Queen Vic
Money and Greed
This relates to the audience as this gives them a
sense of community as this is where all the
characters go to meet.
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
New owner of Vic ,
replaces other character
The audience wonder what the new owners of
the Queen Vic will be like.

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Trailer 2)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Find the cheater
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance Kissing Hartley – characters 20-40 appeals to 20-40.
This appeals to the audience as they can relate
to this sort of relationship.
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Kat and Alfie fighting
Three brothers together
Pace - fast
‘Personal relationship’ (Katz) – This appeals to
the audience as they feel sorry for Alfie due to
Kat cheating on him.
Focus on
working class
communities
The location of the Queen
Vic Pub and market.
‘Personal identity’ – Katz
Region - Hartley
The audience can relate to this as they get a
sense of community.
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
One story line of Kat and
Alfie fighting.
Audience can focus more on the one story
rather than lots of different ones.
Katz – personal identity – audience can relate to
multiple stories at once.
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Kat and Alfie fight over
her cheating.
Audience feel sympathy for the characters as
they are fighting.
Katz – personal identity – audience relate to the
characters who are in distress.
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrative can be defined as…..
Telling a story from more than one person’s POV
Telling multiple stories about multiple characters in a 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.

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Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
 Multi-stranded
narrative
max and girl fighting
stag and hen
Phil
Ronnie ring jack
Audience can focus one lots
of different storylines
making it more interesting
for the audience.
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Max and girl argue
Phil and jack argue
Audience can relate to the
characters if they have had
family/relationship
problems.
 Focus on working
class communities
The Vic/club This relates to the audience
as it is a working class place.
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Ronnie ringing jack Adds another story. Which
lets the audience follow
more than one story at once.
This means the audience
won’t get bored as they have
to concentrate on more than
one story.
 Romance Woman kissing man Audience can relate to
romance. This gives the
audience a sense of personal
identity.
SoapOpera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson3
Textual Analysis
According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the Soap
Opera genre tends to focus on:
“The family, the home, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as such, it
has a long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
1) – Do you agree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY (First 5 minutes)

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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.
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology: beliefs and values
1. Woman cleaning doing house work however this challenges Feasey (2007) as this
connotes that this female isn’t being shown in a dominant way.
2. Domestic tribulations: the family where sitting down together having a
conversation.
3. Man taking kid to school – this conforms to Feasey (2007) as it connotes that the
man is doing the work rather than the woman doing everything.
“Multi-Stranded Narrative” Granddad talking about kids mother
Man leaving and honeymoon
This appeals to the audience as it allows the audience to
follow other story lines and find out more information.
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Family sitting down eating together
Couples
This appeal to the audience as they can relate to the same
sort of relationships.
 Focus on working
class communities
Setting
“going out for a slap up meal”#
This appeals to the audience as the majority of viewers are
from the working class. This means they can relate to the
same language.
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Arguments between the mother and grandmother. This
connotes to the audience that something bad has happened
between the two characters.
 Romance Man and woman kissing
Man and woman – “honeymoon”
 Other Themes &
Issues represented:
N/A

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SoapOpera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
To gain the audiences interest.
2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
 Get to a wider audience using platforms.
 More advertising.
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)
 Coronation Street: 50th Anniversary
 Multi-stranded narrative:
 One narrative throughout the whole trailer. This was of all the characters effected
by a train crash, which created a massive fire trapping a lot of characters.
 Character dilemmas:
 All the characters were affected by the crash and fire. These lead characters to go
and search for those trapped inside the fire causing other problems between
characters.
 ‘Personal Identity’ (Katz)
 The audience can relate to something like this if they have been in a similar
situation. This makes the audience feel sympathy for all the characters affected by
this disaster.

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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 signs – appeal to both, colour – pink and blue – gender stereotype
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
Music – white wedding – good contrast to black costume of the characters. Binary
opposite white and black – good and bad. The verbal code of the non-diegetic lyric “nice
day” is a binary opposite (Levi Strauss) to the costume, where everyone is wearing all
black. This connotes that something bad is going happen to one of the characters.
Tear – black – the black tear connotes no one is happy about the wedding and also could
be a symbol for something bad about to happen.
Petals – black – the black petals connote death or end of something
Pregnancy – who is the father? Forced smile from the other characters – this connotes
they don’t like what is happening and also connotes a sense of hatred between characters.
Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
Decision making, oversee the production, organization, consideration of target audience,
successful, finance and budget.
2) What is the role of a Director?
The visualization of the scene – action, leader on set, calm, focus, on the spot decisions.

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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.
 Total population covered - 53,502,000 adults (15+)
 The average age of the BBC listeners are 32.
 The launch of a second channel in April 1964 saw the creation of BBC 1 and BBC 2
brands, with the distinctive horizontal stripes across the screen. A big publicity
campaign was mounted to launch the new channel, using the rather playful symbol
of a kangaroo with a baby in its pouch, with the even more unlikely names of
Hullabaloo and Custard (visuals drawn by artist Desmond Marwood). The evening
of the launch was famously marred by a power failure in West London, and at one
point candles even appeared on the screen.