Questionnaire

Questionnaire for my soap opera trailer

1. Do you think that a wide range of characters have been used within the Soap trailer?

2. Do you think that characters have been shown clearly within the trailer?

3. Do you think that wide range of camera shots have been used effectively within the trailer?

4. Do you think the music is appropriate for a Soap trailer?

5. Do you think that the trailer has continuity?

6. Do you think that the mise-en-scene fit the stereotypes of a Soap Opera?

7. Do you think I should include transitions?

8. Do you think there is anything that I can improve within my trailer?
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9. What do you think is successful about my trailer?
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First Draft

This is the first draft of my soap trailer. I will be creating a questionnaire whereby different people will be shown this draft and will analyse it through the questionnaire. I will be asking different questions which will help me gain an understanding if I have used the right conventions of a soap opera.

Photos of Settings, Filming and Characters.

Affair storyline-

For this particular scene, I thought it would be appropriate to have a house that everybody would be able to relate with. By using mise-en-scene that is conventional it promotes realism. This helps to attract my target audience because it allows members to relate to storylines as well.

Teenage drinking and peer pressure-

For this scene, I needed to ensure that I mirrored stereotypes within society. I believe that a park best helps to give an accurate representation of the characters and the storylines to the audience.

Drug dealing- alley setting-

                                          

I believe that an alley is the best place for this scene, as selling drugs and selling drugs is all connoted as being in a dark alley which is hidden away. I think this helps to best represent conventional social issue to the audience.

The Eaton Oak Pub-

I decided to use the ‘Eaton Oak’ pub because of the names. I think that audience will be able to remember the soaps name easier if the pubs name corresponds with the soaps name. The pub is a main social/meeting place where many storylines occur; therefore audiences will be able to remember the name of the pub as well.

Poising of the elderly man-

For the poisoning scene, the same thing applies as the affair scene. As to create realism, I needed a place where by the audience would be able to relate to the characters and issues involved within the storylines.

Filming of the affair scene -

Filming of drug dealing scene-

Filming of poising scene-

Filming of the peer pressure drinking scene

All of these images show the process of filming; it shows how the camera was used to achieve successful shots, which are conventional of a soap opera. For example shot reverse shot.

Characters-

I have chosen this actor because I believe she represents a particular demographic audience. The character she plays is a hard working business woman who is also a wife and mother. In the storyline she having an affair, although the audience is going to be left on a cliff hanging to which questions are going to arise like:-

- Why is she having an affair?

- Who is she having an affair with?

- How did the affair start?

Not only will the representation of the character like mise-en-scene like a smart black dress and heels, location of a nice house ect will appeal and attract the audience; but the use of cliff hangers with unanswered questions will help to do this as well.

I have used the actor because I believe he best represent the middle aged men in society. I believe that mise-en-scene like casual clothing helps to give the audience an idea about this character.

Both of these teenaged characters are represented through stereotypes and stereotypical behaviour. Firstly the use of mice-en-scene like clothing is a very stereotypical view that society has on teenagers. Also the use of location and lighting helps to connote darkness and mystery to the audience. Again this narrative is left on a cliff-hanger where the audience is left wondering and questioning the scene. This type of tease helps to attract and hook them about what is actually going on within the lives of theses characters; making them want to watch the programme.

These actors have to represent an dominating elderly women who is poisoning her helpless husband; again the audience is going to question the actions and behaviour of both characters due to the tease. The mise-en-scene shows that they live in a nice house where they were nice clothing- so the audience is going to be questions the actions of the women.

These teenager actors again need to promote the stereotypical views that society has on them in order to entertain my target audience. Therefore mise-en-scene like hoodys are used to connote these stereotypes. Props like the bottle of alcohol is iconic as the audience will automatically think the worst. But they will want to watch to find out what happens, and may be drawn to the programme due to these characters due to similar situations which they can relate to.

All the characters chosen for my soap opera all help when attracting the target audience. Therefore within my soap trailer I have included a variety of different age groups; teenagers, middle aged and the elderly. I would say that my target audience is mainly 15-25, but I think a lot of people will watch the soap because they are able to relate to the different characters, social issues and storylines that the soap has to offer.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule                                                                     Name: Amyrose

Date/time	Place	People	Equipment	Props	Notes
8th December 4:00pm-6:00pm	Eaton Socon: Alley/garages located around Eaton Socon Eynesbury	Emerson White, and Rhys Irons. Camera Operator, Director, sound technician  Paige Isaacs, Amyrose Prout and Rhys Irons. Steven Isaacs	Digital video camera, boom mike, tripod and still camera.	Icing sugar inside a clear bag to represent drugs. Kettle, Cup	All the characters need to wear appropriate costumes, eg. Stereotypical characters. (Emerson and Rhys dark clothing, hooded jackets.
9th December 12:30pm- 11:30pm	Grandparent’s home in Eaton Socon	Maureen Isaacs, Roy Isaacs . Camera Operator, Director, sound technician  Paige Isaacs, Amyrose Prout and Rhys Irons.	Digital video camera, boom mike, tripod and still camera.	Kitchen, Kettle, making a cup of tea, pain killers (to represent a sedative)
15th December 3:30pm-5:30pm	Eaton Socon: Queen’s Garden Park Eaton Oak Pub- Eaton Socon	Actors- Christy Isaacs, Maureen Isaacs, Roy Isaacs, Rob Isaacs, Steve Isaacs Camera Operator, Director, sound technician  Paige Isaacs, Amyrose Prout, Rhys Irons and Ellie Fennor	Digital video camera, boom mike, tripod and still camera.	Glass bottle (to look like alcohol), dust pan and brush to sweep up broken glass. Glass bottles	Teenage girls tracksuit bottoms or jeans, ugg boots, trainers, hoodies and jumpers. Torches will be needed to create suitable lighting if it gets too dark. In the pub the actors must wear stereotypical clothing.

Script for filming

Soap Opera- Scripting of filming

Affair scene-

Paige’s dad’s house-

Mid shot of a woman saying goodbye to her husband, see him in the back ground walking off and then she shuts the door.

Close up of her locking the door.

Long shot of women walking into the kitchen

Close up of her making tea

Long shot of a man knocking at the door

Mid shot of the woman looking up and turning her head

Long/mid shot of women walking and opening the door, then the man and women hug and kiss.

Drug scene-

Eaton Socon- Alley by balfour

Mid shot of the first teenager standing in an alley, looking around suspiciously

Long shot of the second teenager walking

Mid shot of them meeting

Close up of the exchange of drugs and money

Poisoning scene- Paige’s Grandparents house

Close up of elderly women making a cup of tea, and adding some pills to it.

Long shot of women walking out of the kitchen

Mid shot of an elderly man sitting at a table when the women bring in the cup of tea

Mid shot of the elderly man drinking the tea

Underage drinking and peer pressure scene- Balfour park

Close up, shot reverse shot of three teenage girls standing
Emma- ‘go on have some’

Long shot of Emma pushing the bottle of alcohol into Meg- Megs facial expressions = scared

Close up of the bottle of alcohol falling to the ground

Close up/mid shot of the bottle rolling across the ground

Soap Opera

Ideas of the soap:-
Title- 'Eaton' - use the Eaton Oak pub to help with remembrance of the soap. The soap will run for 30 minutes.
Target audience- 15-25 years old- soaps always attract a mass audience, as there is always something for someone to like or relate to.
Channel- BB1, it will always be available on BBC iplayer, as well as an repeat on BB3. Main characters- Teenagers, Middle aged and the elderly.
Main storylines- Teenagers drinking in a park, where there is peer pressure to drink. Another storyline involves a teenage boy buying drugs. A middle ages women having an affair and an elderly woman posing her husband. Setting- used many that were iconic of a soap opera, for example, pub, park and houses.

From here, i was able to create storyboard, so that i was able to visually plan my soap opera.

This also helped me when I was filming as it allowed me to know exactly what I wanted to achieve when filming, It also allowed me to figure out how long each shot was going to be. I was able to adapt, expand and develop my ideas with in the stages of filming because I had an idea of what I wanted from each, shot, frame, action and character. I think that it was important to have this behind me, it made filming easier and it took less time. It also meant that editing became easier as I had less outtakes to cut out allowing me more time to focus on small details.

Here are the storyboards:-

Questionnaire Analysis- Target Audience.

This is the analysis of my target audience questionnaire. All of my questionnaire participants were female because they are the people who mainly watch soaps; therefore these are the people I am aiming to attract.

Graph one shows that my participants all watch soaps, however overall they described their viewing habits as ‘quite often’.

Overall Eastenders seems to be the most popular soap; it seems that soaps that are shown around 6-8 in the evening deem to be more popular with my target audience. As Doctors for example which is apart of day time television does not seem to be as popular with my target audience. This is probably because of the commitments they attend during the day like school, college and work.

This shows me that my target audience watches soaps frequently on a weekly basis.

My questionnaires have shown me that my target audiences like to watch soaps because they are entertaining. I think that the dramatic storylines which creates uses and gratifications’ for the audience is important. Therefore I will have to mirror this within my soap so that it attracts my audience to watch my soap.

5) Is there a specific time you watch soaps? – All of my participants answered this question as ‘evening times’ as this is when they are able to settle down and relax after a day. It maybe that they watch soaps after dinner, before bed or whilst eating dinner, therefore I will aim to put my soap on between the times of 6-8 as this is where audiences will available to watch my soap.

I think is question is important as it helps to me to develop my characters with in influence of my target audience. As I am able to create characters that I know my audience will be able to relate to, so that they are able to enjoy watching my soap.

By doing this questionnaire and analysis I have been able to have a better insight of what my target audience wants from a soap opera. I now can create and develop characters, where by my audience will be able to relate to them and the issues and storylines they occur in. By using dramatic and entertaining storyline, uses and gratifications will be created for my audience pleasure, meaning they will want to watch more of the soap. The success of existing soaps shows through the amounts of times they are watched by my targeted audience and the reasons why they are watched helps me to understand how to create a successful soap opera- which will help me when creating my soap trailer.