1) The document discusses the conventions of soap operas that the author's media product used, developed, or challenged in their soap opera trailer. 2) Key conventions included a non-linear narrative with multiple storylines, cliffhangers to intrigue audiences, and elements of realism through everyday activities and issues portrayed. 3) The author's trailer incorporated these conventions through flashbacks, an ambiguous cliffhanger about the killer's identity, and having characters with roles like a priest or nurse.

1. Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCTS USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF
A REAL MEDIA PRODUCT?
BY KAYLA CARSTENS

2. Prior to creating my soap opera trailer, I did a lot of
research on the soap opera genre in order to have a good
understanding of what the different codes and
conventions were. The majority of my classmates could
already identify some of the stereotypical features of a
soap from our individual experience of watching soaps
such as Eastenders and Hollyoaks for all these years. The
different features identified were as followed;

3. Non-linear narrative. This is where there could be up to 3-4 different story
lines told at once all involving the different characters. An example of this
could be in Eastenders where, the different families could have a different
story, for example something could be happening within the Mitchell
family, and then other story line within the Beale family all happening
within the same episode to create a 'multi- stranded narrative' or a non-
linear narrative as these narrative may intertwine or be completely
separate. In my trailer the majority of these conventions were 'repeated'
(Steve Neale) in order to conform to my target audience and their
expectations of a soap opera trailer. In my trailer the connotations of black
and white shots juxtaposed with the colour shots to represent that its a
flashback within the scene for example when Tom was running down the
stairs, it showed that before he was killed by one of the suspects he was
running away from that person, to create a non-linear narrative as any
one of the characters could've been the killer due to the different scenes
which conforms to the conventions of a soap opera.

4. Cliff Hangers. Its clear that in every soap one of the clear and
stereotypical conventions is a cliff hanger, that presents the audience
with an 'enigma clue' (Roland Barthes) so the audience is captivated and
will continue to watch the soap to see how the story unravels. For
example the 'Who killed Lucy' story kept on leaving the audience in
suspense to wonder who was the killer. Likewise I also 'repeated' the
conventions of a cliff hanger within my trailer due to the diegetic sound
of "no comment" as it didn't reveal who was the killer within the scene
yet left the audience wanting to find out more which is another way it
conforms to the conventions of a soap opera.

5. There are many different elements of realism amongst them too such as the
issues such as teen pregnancy's such as 'Peri Lomax' in Hollyoaks likewise
homosexuality like Christian and Sahid in Eastenders and likewise many
different disorders represented in an exaggerated form. Similarly elements of
realism are also included through everyday activities, such as going to the pub
(The Queen Vic) for a drink or Lindsy working as a nurse in Hollyoaks, or even
working in the market. The way in which my trailer uses this is through the
different roles In which each suspect plays, for example Leeza is a Priest and
Ellie is a nurse to connote the aspect of realism where each character plays a
role which is found in society. The way my trailer could also challenge this idea
Is that even though these different roles are used it isn't realistic that a Priest
would be someone who would want to kill someone likewise a nurse, therefore
it can seem unrealistic to the audience watching.

6. The idea of juxtaposing different shots and likewise the non-diegetic
modern soundtrack in comparison to old era themed trailer was inspired by
Ripper Street, this was because Ripper Street is based in an olden day era,
but it used the modern Kanye West soundtrack to connote that people in
todays society is still interested in the olden day themes. Therefore my
group 'repeated' this theme and used "The Hills" by The Weeknd as a
soundtrack to create a modern affect on the trailer. Therefore by repeating
this it conformed to the same conventions seen in Ripper Streets soap opera
trailer.

7. My trailer also conforms to the conventions of a soap opera in terms of the
presence of "strong woman" (Rebecca Feasy) due to the fact that the
characters Christie, Leeza and Ellie played were represented as dominant
because they all were one of the potential suspects. This therefore
challenges John Burgers theory 'Men act, woman appear' as stereotypically
the men would normally be made out to be the killers , however in this
aspect more of the woman are the suspects to portray them to be the more
dominant figure.

8. Another convention my soap opera trailer 'repeated' was the stereotypical
ident/logo of 'BBC 2' this is clearly repeated amongst all trailers likewise the
voice over at the end of the trailer which was 'The Lodge, on BBC 2 and
BBC2 HD' I repeated this because it is a good technique to inform the
audience to when the soap airs and likewise it is one of the main and
frequent conventions used on every soap opera trailer.