Evaluation question 1

In what way does your media product, use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?

I have created a montage of different photographs from different soaps to show the conventions that I
have used within my soap that are existent in soaps today:

1. This is a scene taken from Stacey and Bradley’s wedding in Eastenders. This wedding gets
stopped due to Bradley passing away, although this is not the case within my soap it is
extremely conventional and generic for a wedding to get stopped.
2. Here is a scene of two characters sitting within the local pub in Coronation st talking about the
village news and gossip, this is conventional within near enough every soap on the television
with the characters talking about what has happened within the episode or whether there is an
event taking place such as a wedding, or a family affair.
3. This is a shot taken from Coronation st between Tyrone and Sally, whose partners are secretly
having an affair behind their backs. This is to cause tention between the viewer within the soap
 and is very generic for a soap to revolve relationships between characters around ‘forbidden
love’
4. This is a shot taken from Hollyoaks, where there is a house party that goes wrong and ends up
with the police being called; it is also dealing with the idea of drugs within teen parties. This is
conventional in soaps that have a wide target audience for demographic groups d to e.

1. In this scene George the character who is in love with Helen the bride to be wedded to Dan is
sitting alone in a dark room, admiring a photo of her. Much like other soaps such as Sally and
Tyrone’s partners having affairs forbidden love becomes a crucial part of conventional soaps.
Although the story within my soap differs slightly it still revolves around a love triangle, which is
also secretive. Normally in soaps the love triangle becomes evident to all of the characters;
however Helen is unaware of this which causes more tension in case the character George reins
the wedding scene. I have tempted to challenge the typical convention of a love story by doing
this, which gives it an edge over other new soaps as it has a twist.
2. This shot is of the wedding ceremony taking place within a registry office between Helen and
Dan. The registrar announces whether anybody has any reason why the couple should not
marry. This is very conventional within soaps with young marriages that do not go to plan, this is
 generic but also challenges typical conventions within weddings and George’s love is unaware
by all of the characters, so the audience feel more engaged within the trailer, and have
suspicions to whether George will charge to the wedding ceremony.
3. This scene is of the pensioners sitting in the pub local within the village, this is one of the most
conventional scenes as the locals are gossiping about Helen and Dan’s wedding, this also makes
it more realistic for the viewer also. This is much like other soaps such as Coronations Street
where the locals will chat about occurrences within that episode or upcoming events such as
Christmas time or a wedding. After researching into other soaps it is evident that a pub is
extremely generic within soap operas and the community is based around pub life.
4. This is the party scene with Jenny and her friends that is forbidden, much like Hollyoaks where
josh and Sasha are having a forbidden party including alcohol and drugs in my soap the party
goes wrong and Jenny get in a lot of trouble. These types of scenes within soaps challenge the
younger audience. This is also much like the episode within Eastenders of Lucy Beale’s house
party that goes wrong which hit 11.2 million views.

My soap trailer uses an open narrative which is very conventional within other soap trailers. This means
that there is no definite end to each story, and each storyline links together, as well as the different
characters within them. The advantages of this are that the audience feel like they are always drawn in
and involved within the storylines so that they do not find it boring. This also makes the storylines
always seem new and exciting as they never focus upon just one at the same times, as there will be
several different storylines that will link together. This therefore means that the trailer makes use of the
Todorovs theory, which states there are several different stages within a narrative that lead to one main
story:

- He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period.
- Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement and disquiet.
- This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists
- a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end

My Narrative:

- The equilibrium at the being of my soap trailer is at the ceremony at the beginning of Helen and
Dan waiting to be told they are now husband and wife, this is a calm area within the trailer as
nothing is going wrong and it is conventional within a soap opera where couple are about to be
wedded and someone or something will to make it go wrong.

- The disequilibrium is George sitting in a dark room admiring the photo of Helen, this is the
unsettling part of the trailer as it causes tension and begins to unsettle the wedding as the
audience become aware of George’s obsession with Helen which connotes disruption between
the characters and their relationships.

- The renewed state of peace is the scene between the two pensioners sitting in the pub gossiping
about Helen and Dan’s wedding. This brings harmony and peace as it connotes that the wedding
is taking place and the villagers are exciting about the young couple being wedded. This does
 not bring peace for the antagonist George, however it bring peace to the antagonists being
Helen and Dan

- The last narrative by the Theory Todorovs states that a new equilibrium brings the chaos to the
end. I have also followed this aspect as Jenny the ‘newby’ within the village hosts a party which
ends badly due to drugs and alcohol being brought to the party by the villain Hendrick. This is
also juxtaposed with the suspicion that George is going to rein the wedding.

This is challenging forms and conventions within my soap opera, as I have based it around Eastenders
which is one of the leading soap operas in television. The fact that I have also been inspired by Todorovs
theory of different stages within soap shows that I have followed these conventions however I have also
added a twist. Although I have not completely followed conventions I have used different forms to
enable me to piece all of the scenes together within my soap to build up to one main scene which
causes the Chaos at the end of the trailer. By challenging the forms of soap conventions I have used
scenes such as the flashbacks of the scenes within the soaps which bring a twist to the conventions. I
have also challenged conventions of the soap with the storyline of George secretly being in love with
Helen the bride. This challenges the conventions of the soap as normally in soap operas the idea of
‘forbidden love’ is presented between characters who are having affairs with a different character who
is generally close to the couple. I have not included the convention of ‘forbidden love’ however I have
complies with the theme of there being a love triangle and George is shown to be in love with Helen
however Helen is unaware of this which shows I am challenging conventions as different members of
the audience will be able to relate to this type of storyline when the feelings are not reciprocated from
Helen to George.

Forbidden love:
Characters in existing soaps that I have followed with my characters:

Jenny Lucy Beale

I chose to Present the character Jenny who hosts the party scene which goes wrong, she is new within
the village and is always trying to fit in and find ‘cool’ ways to make friends and become popular. This is
also presented within Eastenders with the character of Lucy Beale who never generally stands out until
she decides to host a forbidden party with all of the teenagers from her school and around the square.
This was an episode where many teenagers within the audience could relate to, but it isnt until Lucy’s
Dad Ian Beale come home to find the house is a wreck and belongins have been stolen or broken. This is
another reason why I decided to change the character from Jenny’s mother to step-dad as it becomes
more authoritive and serious within the scene. This shows that I have followed the forms and
conventions within a soap as I have gained inspirtation from this episode within Eastenders. I wanted
these characters to be similar in personality to shows that I have followed conventions but to also create
a scene within a trailer that targets my demographic group D where audience members that are
teenagers will be interested in this storyline and could also relate to both the characters Lucy and Jenny
from making teenager mistakes.
George Riley’s father in Hollyoaks

The next similar characterisation that I have made is between George and Riley’s dad in hollyoaks who is
in love with his Son’s fiancee Mercedes. This is much like George who is secretly in love with Helen but
cannot confess his love, and is dreading the thought of Helen being married to Dan for the rest of her
life. Riley’s father in Hollyoaks is in love with Mecedes yet wants the best for his son, he wants him to
go to football academy and not to move out with Mecedes who he is in love with. This is much like my
soap although George is not as open or close to any of the other villagers, this makes it all the more
interesting and causes more tention within the soap. I have shown to use existing characters as this is
conventional within different soaps.

Dan Bradley In Eastenders

This is the character Dan who is the groom at the wedding, he is truely in love with Helen and has no
idea that George is in love with her too. He is an ordinary down to earth young guy living his life happily.
Bradley from Eastenders can be seen as a very similar character. This is mainly because Bradley was also
a down to Earth guy floating through life happily; he was also once engaged to Stacey Slater. The reason
I wanted to make Dan a similar character to Bradley is because Bradley was a very likable character
within Eastenders and many viewers could relate to the character, as he was down to earth and real.
They are similar age and share many of the same characteristics.
 Characters Peggy Mitchell and Pat Butcher

Deardry and Peggy

These two characters are very similar to Peggy and Pat from Eastenders. This is because they play the
similar age group even if they do not look old enough. These characters are both best friends much like
Peggy and Pat. They are both pensioners and enjoy talking in the pub talking about village gossip. The
reason I chose to have two characters similar is because they are also likable characters and also make
the soap a lot more realistic to watch. It also added to the excitement of the wedding and helps to build
tension around the different occurrences.

After comparing the characters within my soap to existing characters, it becomes evident that I have
used elements of soap opera conventions in order to create my own trailer. This shows that I have
followed forms and conventions within soaps, as many of the storylines that I have used are commonly
presented within existing soaps. However I have also challenged this as not every character is the same,
and if similar they have different traits and a different way of looking into a story or the way it is
presented.