TV Genre: Soap Opera

TV Genre: Soap Opera

Typical examples:

1. Emmerdale                                    6. Doctors
2. Coronation Street                          7. Neighbours
3. Eastenders                                     8. Home & Away
4. Hollyoaks                                      9. The Archers
5. Brookside                                     10. Crossroads

Scenes typical of the genre:

Format:

The format typical for a soap opera is to be continually broadcast on weekdays, and occasionally weekends. Episodes are usually broadcast during the daytime and early evening (E.g. Doctors is shown around 2pm where as Coronation Street is broadcast at 19:30pm), however due to their popularity TV Soap Operas often have 'Omnibus' episodes shown late at night for people who have possibly missed episodes.

Soap Operas are usually based around a small community so that the audience are able to relate to the same characters in each episode. Storylines in Soap Operas unfold through a number of different episodes, the length of how long the same storyline runs for will depend on how big the storyline is or its relevance in society. When nearing the end of a storyline a new one will be introduced so that the episodes will flow smoothly when storylines change.

Appeals:

When thinking of the Uses & Gratifications model the audience would mainly use Soap Operas for Entertainment/Escapism, a lot of soaps are shown at times where most people will be sitting down at home to relax, having episodes shown at the same time will create a routine and help people relax. For entertainment purposes, soaps do show everyday events however they show events/situations that are dramatic or certain characters are used for comedic purposes. People will often use

Soap Operas for Social interaction. Shows like Eastenders are very popular with high viewer ratings so people will use the latest episode of the show to create conversation about events that have happened or speculate who has done what, an example of people using this show for Social Interaction could be the "Who killed Lucy Beale?" storyline and people speculating who the murderer was. The audience could also use this show for Personal identity purposes, as these shows often portray real life events the audience may be able to relate to characters and the situations that they are in.

Different soaps also appeal to different people for example people from the north of the UK are most likely to watch Coronation Street because they will be able to relate and see similarities with themselves and the character being portrayed.

Target Audience:

The target audience of Soap Operas is typically a member of the Mainstream category, a mainstream audience member is a person who has a daily routine, watching the Soaps at the same time on weekdays will fit into this persons 'routine'. Soap Operas are very popular and have high viewer ratings, this due to the Mainstream audience being the biggest of the 4C's. A mainstream audience members core need in life is for security, knowing these shows will be on every weekday at a specific time will fulfil this need. When looking at lifestyle categories the typical audience member would be a traditionalist. As previously said soaps broadcast times very rarely switch so for a traditionalist being able to stay to a routine will encourage them to watch soaps.

When creating an audience profile the typical audience member would be in groups C2-E. The audience would be mainly women in their late twenties and older. They would find it relaxing to watch the soaps after a day of working or taking care of children. They are most likely have a basic level of education.

Opening sequence: Emmerdale 

  

(I have added the Brookside opening titles, to show similarities between different soaps)

The opening sequence of this programme is very typical of this genre, throughout the audience are given short clips of settings that are used in the programme and at the end the audience are finally able to see the overall setting. For example, this opening sequence shows 4 different settings each very different to the other and then before the sequence ends giving an overall view of where the programme is set. In one of the settings (Set in 'Home farm' the manor house) clothes are spread over the floor whilst in the top right you can see a woman running in just a shirt, by showing this the audience are able to come up with their own ideas of possible storylines e.g. Cheating. Throughout the opening sequence the lighting of each setting varies this helping to portray the drama and changes that happen within the show. The music of this show is very dramatic and flows with the changing settings. The music is very traditional and sounds like an orchestra, this representing the shows history and possibly appealing the more traditional people within the audience.

However, some soaps prefer to introduce the audience to characters instead of showing different settings, these tend to be soaps that are shown in the daytime like the show Neighbours or Hollyoaks (Shown below).  These opening sequence is entirely different to the previous one.



Neighbours and Hollyoaks is shown at a earlier time and is a lot less traditional compared to the opening for Emmerdale, this possibly suggesting that it would appeal to a younger audience. In this sequence a lot of graphics is used to create backgrounds for characters instead of showing actual settings, these backgrounds do give the audience a sense of what the show is about however doesn't actually tell show the audience where the show is set. The use of graphics makes the show seem very in 'up to date' in within todays society. The characters are also posing for this sequence making it seem like the show cares more about the way it looks than the stories it is portraying. The music in this sequence is very fast paced and formal making the editing of the sequence also fast paced in order to keep in time with the music. A various amount of camera shots are used within this sequence however a lot of CU shots and long shots are used to emphasize the characters appearance.

Despite the two opening sequences being so different they are both very typical of the Soap Opera genre. Soaps have very distinctive theme tunes, making them very easy for the audience to remember and creating differences between very similar shows.

Settings:

Soap Operas are usually based around small communities. Scenes take place in characters homes, showing familiar settings for the audience to relate to. In a Soap Opera there are many places characters would be seen interacting however in typically in a soap their would be a two usual settings that all characters are seen in throughout the episode and where quite a lot of important scenes take place, their is often a indoor setting e.g. Pub/Café/Workplace/School and then usually their is an outdoor setting e.g. street/park. The setting of Soap Operas are very significant because if settings where too complex, it may lead the to audience feeling detached. By having frequent familiar settings that the audience can relate to will help the audience concentrate on what is going on within the show, instead of having to work out where each character is. A lot of Soap Operas have their own sets, for outdoor scenes however indoor scenes are often in studios that have been purposely built for the re-occurring settings.

Technical codes:

When looking at the technical codes of a soap they are quite basic and repeatedly use the same camera shots. The main cameras shots used in a Soap Opera would be 'CU', 'MLS' and 'Over the shoulder shots'. In normal scenes these shots are used when the characters are interacting, however in more dramatic scenes as a various amount camera angles are used to emphasize the character’s emotions and their actions. The editing of this type of show is usually jump cuts into different scenes so that different storylines are able to be shown easily, by using jump cuts scenes change without the audience really noticing due to the change being so fast. To make episodes more dramatic, when it comes to a very important part of a scene it jumps cuts into something different, leaving a cliff hanger and the audience wanting to know the outcome of what has just happened. Narratives in Soap Operas are very similar to one another and events can sometimes be predictable, however in major storylines soaps will often add a twist to add to the drama of the events that have already taken place.

In Soap Operas non diegetic music is very rarely used and is most often used when an important character has left the show, when a character is making their final appearance on the show after working on the show for a long amount of time, their departure is often dramatized due to adding slow piano music or a softer version of the show’s theme tune.

Characters and representations:

In Soap Operas there are many different types of characters, but most soaps have similar characters such as: (Examples from- Coronation Street/Emmerdale/Eastenders)

1. The disobedient teenager- David Platt, Ben Mitchell,
2. Troublemaker/Law breaker- Phil Mitchell, Cain Dingle, Tracey Barlow
3. Elderly resident- Emily Bishop, Dot Cotton, Edna Burch
4. Entrepreneur- Ian Beale, Eric Pollard, Dev Alahan
5. The gossip/Nosey neighbour- Norris Cole, Val Pollard, 

These stereotypes/archetypes are used in Soap Operas so that the audience are able to easily identify which character who fit into categories like the ones above.  The functions of these characters change throughout storylines, certain characters play a huge role in storylines, some help to move storylines along and then certain characters are used to help resolve the problem. However the functions of certain characters do change, this often changed to add twists to storylines.

An example typically linked to  Elderly resident's function could be that they guide characters helping to move the story onwards and often giving a character important advice in order to help them do 'the right thing'. 

The typical functions of the Troublemakers/Law breakers are either to start the problem or help resolve it (often by breaking the law to do so). These characters have a reputation that they are not to be messed with and this helping the audience to possible predict that something dramatic will happen with this character.

Soap Operas using the 'Nosey neighbour' character also use this person because the audience are likely to relate and know someone who is like this character, the audience are able to recognise similarities between their own lives and soaps. 

Narrative:

Soap Operas try to portray real life events however to make the programme appealing to the audience the storylines or characters actions are exaggerated to make the episodes dramatic so they are not deemed to be 'boring'. Twists can play a huge part in a soap's storyline which then could have lasting effects on other characters and also due to a lot of soaps using mysteries (Previous example, Who Shot Lucy Beale?) this intrigues the audience to try and solve the problem. When looking at the structure of Soap Operas they most of the time do stick to Todorov's narrative theory and in some cases have an end result of a new equilibrium being introduced, e.g. people divorce. Soap Operas tell the audience a lot about the world, however due to them partially portraying real life situations they do emphasize certain things to do with this, e.g. Family/Friends are important, make the most out of the time you have.