OPENING TITLES:

Immediately we can identify that these soaps are aimed at two differing audiences due to
the differences in their opening titles. Hollyoaks heads for a introducing the characters
style with bright, popping colours and an accompaniment of fast-beat, pop-music which is
clearly aimed at a young demographic with the purpose of making the characters
immediately identifiable for the audience. Contrastingly, Coronation Street chooses to
introduce the iconic locations (such as the pub and streets) while implementing throw
focus, a sepia filter and the iconic slow, string theme-tune to represent the soap as calm
and fairly slow-paced for the older target audience.

SHOOTING AND EDITING:

Both soaps mostly follow the same generic and expected shot types often seen in soaps,
with the main features being shot-reverse-shot due the soaps being massively
conversation-based, along with the majority of the shots being close-ups/medium closeups as the reactions/facial expressions of the characters drives the episode forward

However, when comparing the soaps we can see that Hollyoaks implements much more
abstract/experimental shots that break the generic expectations of how soap operas are
usually shot. For example, this specific episode sees the use of extreme high and low
angles and a rotating camera. This makes the soap more visually engaging as a way of
targeting a younger audience. Similarly, Hollyoaks also breaks traditions by using nondiegetic music and displaying text on screen to represent text messages/phone calls.

CASTING
Obvious casting choices have been made to create a range of characters that the target
audience can identify. On the channel 4 website, the creators of hollyoaks state that the
soap is shown through the eyes of our primarily young cast to reflect the aspirations, fears
and preoccupations of modern young adults, explaining why the cast of Hollyoaks are
mostly young, stylish and good-looking. Contrastingly, Coronation Street states that their
target audience is predominantly Female, Housewives with children, explaining why the
majority of the characters in the soap are more mature in age and behaviour compared to
Hollyoaks characters.

THEMES AND NARRATIVES:

As expected, narratives within Hollyoaks often revolve around issues faced during
adolescence and growing up as the majority of the cast are young adults. This particular
episode contained themes of eating disorders, body image, family violence and
relationship disputes. Coronation street offers issues revolving around family/grown ups
that arent as dramatic and are more identifiable for the target audience, such as moving
house, money problems and finding a job.