2. Channel
We have decided to produce our soap opera for
Channel 5. Channel 5 do not currently have an
English soap on their channel so we have seen a
gap in the market that needs filling. Channel 5
currently have shows like Neighbours and Home
and away showing on there, we feel that channel 5’s
audience need a British soap that they can relate to.
We have decided to choose channel 5 as currently
94% of all UK households can receive Five, which is
around 54.3m people. This is a massive
demographic so we would be able to reach to many
different people, but our target audience is
predominantly male 16-45, but we feel we could
have a small female audience too.
3. Channel 5
Channel 5 currently have two foreign soaps which are
the Australian ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Home and away’.
Both of these soaps gather a massive audience of all
ages who tune in regularly to catch up on their
twisting storylines.
We want to create a soap which will look interesting
and new to this audience, and also be more focused
at the male audience.
4. The Brief
We have decided to choose the Soap Opera project
because we all feel that our abilities would be best suited
for it instead of the alternative projects.
If we were to do the Documentary Project, we would
have to narrow down the type of documentary and carry
out a lot of research into the topic we would be
discussing and we could not find a topic that all three of
us enjoyed, and knew enough about to create a
documentary.
5. The Brief
In our Foundation Portfolio’s (AS) most candidates
lacked in certain areas of work at different points in
the project.
For example, I (Edgar) did not do enough research
and planning into the kind of Mise en Scéne that was
required for our film, as we were producing a
detective crime drama and so as a result our film was
not as believable and realistic as it should have been.
6. The Brief
For the Advanced Portfolio we intend to go further into
depth with my research and planning particularly for
the realism of our work.
All three members of our group were originally from
different groups for the Foundation Portfolio which we
feel will work to our advantage as we have all learnt
from our mistakes of last year and intend to work on
these for our soap.
7. Title of Soap
We have decided to create a Locker Room soap.
This soap will be from a different angle that the press
see and will be from the point of inside the club and
all the affairs that happen.
We gave our soap the title of ‘Heartbreak United’ as
a way to merge the emotional problems going on in
the club with the outside, press supported view of
the club.
We came up with the name early on in our
brainstorming process and it stuck with us ever
since.
8. Title of Soap ‘Heartbreak Utd’
This soap will be from a different angle that
the press see and will be from the point of
inside the club and all the affairs that happen.
The team will be a U18 team but at a
championship side level club. The club is
called ‘Staines Town Saints’
We thought for a while over how we could
make our soap work, at first we were thinking
of doing the first team of a championship side,
but we realised it would be less realistic when
we came down to casting the soap, and the
age group that is easily available to us.
10. Themes
The themes of soap opera are
all very dramatic. The target
audience for soaps being
aimed at housewives to listen
to during the day, meant that
the dramatic storylines gave
these women something to
gossip about with each other.
Across all of the most popular
soaps in Britain all have the
same recurring themes. The
themes themselves have
developed over time. This could
be down to the change in the
position of women in society
11. Themes
The usual themes of Soap
opera’s include: Marriage,
Divorce, Affairs and Deceit.
Like most Soap Opera’s, our
main themes will be highly
dependant on the storylines
that are presented, but we
can expect to see; Lust,
Greed, Love, Hate and
Violence and the major
reoccurring themes.
For our soap we have based
it around a football team a
subject that would probably
attract a predominately male
audience; but by using the
same themes as the standard
soaps we can also attract a
female audience to our
programme.
12. Settings
The settings in soaps vary
depending on country. In British
Soaps there are various different
areas soaps are set in, but
nowadays a lot more soaps are
being set in the south of
England especially London. The
most popular settings include:
Pubs, Salons, houses,
newsagents, police stations.
It is vital to have a communal
meeting place. This is a place
that all different members of the
show can meet in one place,
allowing flow across storylines.
An example of this being the
‘Queen Vic’in Albert Square in
Eastenders.
13. Settings
For our soap we have decided it is vital for us to have
a communal area.
We put a lot of thought into the different places we
could have this area, originally thinking the locker
room, but we then put a lot of thought into that and
realised that it is unlikely that the WAG’s would be
allowed in there, making it impossible for all members
of the cast to meet in one place.
Setting our soap around a football team our main
problem will be trying to create a setting that is unique
but also maintains the identity of being a soap opera
which is why we have decided the communal area is
going to be a pub/bar.
14. Soap Stock characters
There are certain types of characters that can be seen
to be common among many soaps:
The grandparent figure: A wise old person,
usually female. This character helps others with their
problems with advice and support. In EastEnders' This
character is Dot Branning.
The strong woman: An independent, powerful,
aggressive woman. She can usually be found at the
centre of conflicts Eg. Peggy and Sharon Mitchell.
Tough guy : A male character that manipulates
others to his own ends. Often the stock 'baddie'. This
character may become softened over time, and this
often leads to him becoming the comic relief of the soap.
Examples include Phil Mitchell on EastEnders.
15. Young couple: A couple that bravely face the
difficulties of life, through their own, serious
relationship problems. Feisty young female: A
strong-willed girl, almost always young, who
desires independence. She is usually
argumentative and miserable. Eg Alfie and Kat
Moon
Troublesome oldie: An older, grumpy,
meddling, interfering character, always with
his/her nose in everyone else's business. For all
his/her faults this character is still loved for his/her
generally good intentions. Eg. Peggy Mitchell
16. Characters
Our Characters will all revolve
around the team ‘Staines
Town Saints’
Although the team on the field
play well together, there is a
lot of conflict amongst them in
the locker room.
Some players like to stay to
themselves and keep quiet but
they are ‘Dark Horse’s’ and
often sleep around with other
WAG’s.
Players are in constant conflict
over who will make the starting
11 as they all want a shot and
one day play in England’s
greatest league, the premier
league.
17. Possible Storylines
New player in the team kisses
the captain’s Wife.
Team have a game in the
morning but two of the players
are seen out at 4am drunk.
Star player is caught having an
affair with Managers daughter
and they get into a fight at half
time.
Player has rough time finding
form so turns to steroids, his
mood changes to angry and he
takes it out on his wife.
• Affairs with the chairman’s wife
and arguments between
players.
• Rivalries between different
players of who is going to be
picked for the next game.
• Old ‘hero’ being shown up by a
young 17-year old player.
• Transfer season and a heated
changing room of who is leaving
and who isnt.
18. 4. Sub- Genre
Our Stock Narrative will be based upon what goes
on behind closed doors. All the things that go on in a
Championship Football Club that don’t get released
to the public, focusing on the Youth Team (the future
of the Club). From Sexual Affairs to which players
are getting picked for the next game.
We can expect to see rivalries between players over
personal grudges, unexpected plot twists to shock
our audiences.
19. 4. Sub- Genre
All three group members are fans of football so
when it comes to Iconography, we should all
have a reasonably good idea of what needs to
be included in a Locker Room set, as well as the
training ground.
20. 4. Sub Genre-Themes
Like most Soap Opera’s, our main themes will be
highly dependant on the storylines that are
presented but we can expect to see; Lust, Greed,
Love, Hate and Violence and the major reoccurring
themes.
21. Soap’s target audience
Soaps are mostly built around domestic,
relationship and family concerns, which women
usually are more interested in men.
When we chose this project, as a team we
immediately said to ourselves that we want to
make a soap which is also appealing to men.
Then we came up with the idea of mixing a sport
with these domestic, relationship and family
concerns which lead to ‘Heartbreak Utd’ being
created.
22. Our Target Audience
Our target Audience would be predominantly 16-
45 year old males. Our soap involves the loved
sport of football mixed with the dramatic and
realistic everyday problems which evolve in
modern day Britain.
Due to dramatic storylines and frequent affairs
and gossip, our soap would also be appealing to
women and could be enjoyed by young couples,
as something they can sit down together to
watch.
23. Print work
Our print work will involve the different characters,
pictured separately, all merged into one setting, where
just by looking at it, The audience will know what type
of people are being showed to them.
We will do this through Costume, Mise en Scene and
Facial expression. We want to be able to do this as
we feel that the audience will be more intrigued if they
are able to identify with the characters.
We want to create posters that will stand out from the
crowd and attract more people to watch the show. But
also want them to be easily identified by one glance,
as what show it is.
24. Next Three
weeks (outline of
jobs)
Over the next three weeks there are
several key things items we have to
work on. The First thing we have to
do is finalise our characters (who we
would like to play them) write a first
draft of our script, correct script,
finalise our script. Do a recce to find
the setting that suits our product
best. Once we’ve finalised our script
start to write up our storyboard. Get
the improvements that need to be
made to the storyboard back then
finalise our storyboard. Then find the
correct actors together and find the
times and dates that suit us all for
our filming. Write up our filming
schedule and distribute it to all the
25. Next Three Weeks (Who’s Doing
What?)
With each of our roles in
planning over the next three
weeks we have delegated
tasks that suit all of our skill
sets. Edgar will be doing the
storyboard, Ollie will be doing
the script and Mark will be
doing the recce and finding
suitable actors to play each
role. We feel that if we stick
to our strengths it will lead to
an extremely efficient
working group with a high
standard of work produced.
