EVALUATION:

QUESTION 1
BY PATRICK WALDRON

BASIC CODES &

CONVENTIONS OF SOAP
- Multiple storylines.
OPERAS
- Multiple characters.
- Average length of a soap is 25 minutes.
- A social hub e.g. pub, caf.
-Cliff-hangers making you want to watch the next
episode.
-Semi improvised scripts.
- Humour and seriousness.
- Erosion of regional identities.
- Location shooting.
- Wide shots.
- Non professional actors, to create experiences
of real Britons on the screen in domestic
situations of the working class.

Q1: How did you USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE

codes and conventions of real media
products?

This is a screenshot from a Coronation Street trailer and a screenshot from our trailer. Its an over the shoulder
shot of them both starring at pictures of the people they most care about and clearly always look at as they
have the picture either on their possession or as their wallpaper on their phone. It may mean different things
as the screenshot from the Coronation Street trailer may insinuate that hes lost her or still loves her because
in the shot of the photograph, hes blacked out in the photo to connote how their relationship is complicated.

These are shots from an Eastenders, Coronation Street and our trailer. Its a close up of all the women who are
affected by whats happening in their soap in order for the audience to feel their emotion.

These are establishing shots of the pubs used in Coronation Street, Eastenders and our trailer. These pubs are
mainly used by your typical working class people who may come to the pub straight after work, as many people in
the soap Coronation Street do. Many scenarios from the soaps take place in these pubs and are the main social
hub for those that live in the area, therefore we decided to include a scene with a pub.
The main topic of our trailer was all based
around a murder storyline. This is because
from the research we did, we realised that the
most popular stories in soap operas are
murders. Therefore we decided to include this
close up of the murder scene in our trailer with
a pool of blood around it, in order to intrigue
the viewer, just like Coronation Street have
done as shown on the left. We did this because
then the viewers would pay even more
attention to who they think the main suspect
might be to get them as involved as possible.
These are shots from Eastenders and our
trailer. Here, a character in each shot is clearly
angry with the other as they have them
pushed up against the wall whilst holding onto
them. These are both mid shots to show the
expression and body language of both people
so as to show who is in control during the
scene. This may mean in our murder storyline
more people may now think that Aidan (black
hoody) could be the murderer as hes being
quite aggressive so more people now are

COMPARING WITH OTHER TRAILERS OF SOAPS

EXAMPLE 1
All soaps have quite similar storylines but one of the most common storylines are the murder
storylines. This is because theres often a lot of mystery and suspense around who the killer might
be as the audience will make their own presumption on who they think has committed the murder
e.g. in Eastenders its still unknown who has killed Lucy Beale, which has been going on for nearly
a year now so theres a lot of suspense surrounding that story.

EASTENDERS MURDER
(LUCY)

CORONATION STREET
MURDER (TINA)

MERSEY SQUARE MURDER

(DOM)

EXAMPLE 2
In order for a murder storyline to work and to be successful, there needs to be suspects
so that the audience can decide who they think their main suspect is and what their
motive might be. Therefore, in my trailer I wanted to make it clear that theres a number of
people who it may be and a glimpse of their motives:

Therefore, in the trailer there were constant flashbacks with it all revolving around Dom, the victim.
In Coronation Street, they did something similar for the death of Tina and got the suspects to reveal
their motives in a trailer just for the purpose of the audience.

EXAMPLE 3
Why dont you love me?!

But I love you!

These two shots are quite similar and are based around quite a common topic in soaps, love.
Both women in this shot are declaring their love for the other character which is normally quite
unusual in soaps as its the man who would normally state this. However, theyre going against
the stereotype here, yet in our trailer, Beth, is being quite more aggressive than in the screenshot
from Eastenders where shes being much more gentle. This just shows how love can always
affect someone and how it can be represented through the media.

MISE EN SCENE
The mise en scene is important in social realism as its used to create storylines/scenes that can be
related to modern day life. An example of this could be the lighting as there were certain scenes
where we changed the lighting of the shot to create an affect for the audience.

This scene is set in an alley and involves

drugs so therefore we made the lighting a lot
darker as the suspect is addicted to drugs
which cant be depicted as being happy at all.
Example from a social realism programme:

However, the lighting here is a lot more high key as

even though this is the woman Dom is having an
affair with, he obviously has feelings for her so its
when hes at his happiest, being with her.
Example from a social realism programme:

HOW WE REPRESENTED THE CHARACTERS

- As our programmes genre is social realism we wanted to dress the characters just like
your typical characters in soaps, with just quite casual clothing e.g. Dom (left) is just
wearing a polo shirt a coat, which many characters of his age in soaps would wear.
However, we also wanted to base the costumes on the characters, so dressed Angel
(right( in a fur coat to show that obviously cared about what she looked like.

- We also felt that picking the location was important as we wanted to include an area
that gives off the feel of a working environment, just like soaps like Coronation Street or
Eastenders. Therefore, we filmed scenes in pubs or alleyways to help create that.

COMPARISON
BETWEEN MY FRONT
COVER & ANOTHER

The masthead on both is clear and bold as

its important that the reader knows who the
magazine is written by as that will help them
decide whether or not to buy it.

The central image on both magazines

has more than one person to show the
audience that they offer a lot and that
theres clearly a lot happening in each
programme this week.

Overall, the colours I have used are

much darker as its based around a
murder storyline yet I have still kept
some vibrant colours in e.g. yellow
so it doesnt look dull.

COMPARISON
BETWEEN MY
POSTER & ANOTHER
Both have included the time & date
of the programme as the main
objective of each programme is t
gain viewers so as to retain them
and to bring up the figures. Ive
also circled the channel as its
positioned in a similar position on
both posters.
The lighting of each poster is different
because its supposed to be quite
dark for the Mersey Square poster
because of the murder whereas its
more high key lighting for the Misfits
poster as it connotes how much of a
shock it is that theyve suddenly got
these new superpowers.

Overall these posters are quite different as

in the Misfits poster they're situated across
the poster whereas for my poster Dom is
clearly the main topic as hes positioned
centrally.