This document summarizes the results of a survey about conventions for soap opera trailers. Key findings include: - Trailers should use dialogue and action to introduce characters and hint at upcoming storylines like arguments and deaths. Cliffhangers are also important. - Visually, trailers benefit from quick cuts, close-ups, and varied lighting and locations. - Gender roles in soap operas are often stereotypical but some shows feature strong female characters. Trailers could consider counter-stereotypical portrayals. - Audiences expect trailers to provide hints about upcoming narratives, mention what channel/when the show will air, and end on a cliffhanger.

1. Primary Research
Survey Results
By Asuka Young candidate No: 4149
centre No: 64135

2. This question helps me to understand exactly what sort of information the audiences expect to
see/hear in a trailer. In summary of the 11 people that answered was: the use of actions and
dialogues to inform the audiences about the upcoming episodes, the multi-stranded narratives
and drama. (including deaths and arguments). In other words, it is compulsory to have a range of
characters to achieve this, and throughout the trailer I am going to introduce their
characteristics, through mise-en-scene features such as actions. Attention grabbing dialogues are
also important to emphasize a character one person said, which in my opinion, would have a lot
of emotions through the dialogues to make the audience feel something in one way or another.
Some people said that cliffhangers are an important factor too.
On the other hand, visually, two people said that quick cuts, close-up shots, strong use of
lighting and locations can promote an audience appealing soap trailer as well.
This means that there shouldn’t be shots with long duration, and the more different lightings and
locations are used, the more interesting / informative the trailer will be.
Q1
What are the conventions of a soap opera trailer, in terms of
visual and oral conventions?

3. This question lets me think about how to represent my chosen
characters in the trailer. For example, 8/11 people agreed that there
are stereotypical elements to gender roles in soaps, saying that it
should be stopped and is taken quite negatively. However, some said
that there are strong female characters (Rebecca Feasey - 2007) are
often involved in the storyline, which leads to the fair representation
of the female gender. In this respect, one person stated that when the
characters are being portrayed stereotypically, they are to the
extreme, and so is on the counter-stereotype. From this survey, I
took it that some soaps are giving negative feelings to the audiences
using stereotypes, so I would like to consider the possibility of
counter-stereotypical characters, because they create a new. hence
memorable characters. However, I don’t want them to be overly
stereotypical/anti-stereotypical, as it may offend some audiences, but
on the contrary Soaps are there for escapism and one of the factors
may be to watch someone that has a more extreme personality than
the audiences.
Q2
What do you think of the gender roles in soap operas? Are they
stereotypical?

4. This is probably the most important question, and it really helped
me to consider overall, exactly what to include in my trailer, that
the audiences wants to see. 6/9 responses stated that presenting
the hinting of the upcoming narratives are important information of
a soap trailer. As most people agreed, In my opinion that’s the
purpose of the trailer, and therefore it is important to include
multi-stranded narratives. Two people specified that disasters
should be included in the trailer. I will include some links to
disasters / something going wrong, within the narrative. Other
people stated that the mention of what channel it’s going to be
streaming on and when is important too. For my view, there is no
point in creating a trailer without these point of call, because it is
impossible to get spectators without it.
Lastly, one said that a cliff hanger can be another important
element for a trailer. A cliff hanger can leave the audiences to a
mystery, that they can only solve by watching the soap. In my
trailer, I would like to leave the audiences with a cliff hanger.
Q3
What sort of information do you expect from a soap opera trailer?

5. From this chart, it came to a conclusion that conflict
within relationships and conflict within families was
the most common and perhaps, popular, theme for
soap operas.
In my opinion, this may be because it is the most
‘personally identifiable’ (Katz) everyday issue that
audiences can relate to.
The reason why the spectators often seek to relate
to characters, is because they can sympathize for the
character and have a feeling for the soap characters
at a personal level. In my trailer, I would like to
portray some scenes of everyday life, (relationships
and family issues mainly) in order for the audiences to
‘personally identify’ (Katz) themselves with it, and for
them to remember some of the characters.
Q4
Rank the most common themes for a soap opera in your opinion.

6. I posed this question in order to find out how to target a segment of the
audience as successfully as possible – Age, Gender (Hartley’s subjectivities).
7/10 people answered that there should be issues and narratives that they can
‘personally identify’ (Katz) with. One said that it helps having teen actors in the
trailer. One said that in some cases, teenagers seek comfort in characters that
they have a connection to.
In the trailer, I would like to include (if it’s going to be targeting teenagers)
some scenes with a range of emotions that teenagers can identify, using certain
situations as reasons behind the emotions. Teen actors would be crucial if I am
going to target these audiences.
Q5
How does a soap opera appeal to teenagers?

7. Q6
This question was asked in order for me to know how to target
adult and middle aged audiences (Hartley’s subjectivities). Again, 6/10
answered that typical story lines with middle aged issues are
important. Some suggested that these issues can include family and
finance issues. These kind of situations can lead into arguments
between characters, resulting in conflict. This narrative could go into
my trailer, as reasons for the characters to have arguments. One
person stated that interesting settings, such as those of a historical
drama and context like Downton Abbey, could be good for audiences
of these age groups. Two people said that one of the purpose of
these age groups watching soap operas is for ‘escapism’ (Diversion -
Katz), and relaxation. Another stated that it is a release from
everyday issues- which is the opposite to what other people said.
However in my opinion, perhaps watching others’ suffering the same
issues as the audiences are a form of escapism, knowing that they
are not the only ones, or perhaps seeing them in the worse
situations releases them from the pressure concerning everyday
issues. In my trailer, I would like to use the typical middle aged
conventions to attract this age group.
How does a soap opera appeal to adults from 20’s to 40’s?

8. Conclusion
In conclusion of this survey, I will clearly present the narrative whether it’s linear or multi-stranded or not, that appeals to my target audiences (most likely to be middle aged group), perhaps
with more than one themes, making prominent use of mise-en-scenes and editing. (As well as sound and cinematography). The way I am going to make this appeal to the male gender as well
as females, are by including narratives that applies to the relatable feelings of a male gender, such as scenes of husband’s anxiety of his wife’s affairs and work scenes in terms of representing
daily lives, but also having a good balance of happiness and struggles, as people answered that escapism (Katz) is an important element, as well as identification (Katz).
This survey has clarified me with what I have to include in my trailer, and how to appeal to that the target audience.
By Asuka Young