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 photo montage to show the comparisons of existing storylines in

soaps that live up to generic conventions, and how we have used these conventions
in our soap.

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1. This is a scene from Emmerdale where Chas and Carl are getting married. The
wedding is stopped by a secret being revealed. This is a very common factor
to soap operas and a very generic storyline.

2. This is a well known scene from Eastenders where the character of Lucy Beale
holds a house party. The party gets out of hands and the police end up
getting called, and the police then call her parents.

3. This is a very recognisable scene and is seen in a lot of different soaps. This
particular scene in from Coronation Street where the older characters are
sitting in the local pub having a drink and gossiping about what has happened
in the day, or the episode.

4. This is a picture from a storyline based around forbidden love. It is from

Eastenders when Max is secretly in love with Stacey even though she is
already in a relationship with Bradley.
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1. In this scene of our soap opera trailer, the registrar is asking the wedding
party if there is any reason for the two not to be wed. This sets up the illusion
that something is going to wrong. In this sense we have played into the
disrupted wedding storyline.

2. This is the scene where the character of Jenny holds a house party and it all
goes wrong when unwanted guests turn up. This is very similar to the Lucy
Beale party story in that the characters get into trouble and things are stolen
from the house. This is a good way to appeal to a younger audience as there
is a good sense of drama and the audience would want to know what
happens in the aftermath.

3. We have recreated the popular and well used scene of the soaps local pub.
We have our two older characters sitting at the bar gossiping about the
wedding day. This is very conventional to soaps as most soap operas are
heavily based around a local pub and community life.

4. Storylines based around ‘forbidden love’ are very commonly used in soap
operas, for example, the story given above including Stacey and Max. Our
soap uses a similar scenario where the character of George is secretly in love
with the character of Helen. However, our storyline differs slightly from the
convention by showing his love as a lot more secretive. Usually in soaps, it is
known by the other character, but in our soap Helen is unaware. This is one
way in which we have challenged the typical conventions of soap by giving
this storyline a different twist on the norm.
Another way in which we have used the forms and conventions of a typical soap
opera is with our title scene. We have taken a road sign and edited it so it says the
name of our soap. This is also famously seen in the Coronation Street titles with the
road sign saying Coronation Street. I think this is a good way to start to show the
community based life shown in soaps as it clearly shows that the whole of the soap is
going to based around one area.

Our trailer uses an open narrative which is very typical of soap operas. The stories all
link into one another as do the characters. When using an open narrative there is no
defined end to stories. We have used this in our soap as it is a good way to keep the
audience drawn in and to keep their attention. The trailer also makes use of
Todarovs theory of narrative, which states there a several different stages in a
narrative.
Our narrative is as follows:

1. A state of equilibrium – Helen and Dan are excited about there wedding,
Jenny is excited about her party
2. A disruption of that order- George is planning something involving Helen and
shows up outside their wedding, unwanted guests show up at the party
3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred – Jennys step dad comes home
to see the mess left from the party
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption – Jenny tries to apologise
to her step dad and explaining it wasn’t her fault
5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium – we have not shown this stage
as this part of the theory would be used in the episode following the trailer as
we do not want to give away if the problems are resolved or not in the trailer

By not completing all the steps to this model, we are enabling our trailer to be much
more captivating as the audience will want to see if the problems are resolved and if
equilibrium is restored. In our case, the audience will want to know if George goes
ahead with stopping the wedding.

During planning we paired up the characters we created with existing characters in

existing soaps. This enabled us to create realistic characters that had the traits of
conventional and generic soap opera characters. I think doing this helped us as it
gave us something to refer back to when developing our characters personalities.
We paired the following characters together:

George and Loretta from Hollyoaks

We paired these too characters due to their personality similarities and actual
similarities. Both the characters are in the demographic group E, as they are both
unemployed. With regards to personality, they both share very obsessive traits.
George is secretly obsessed with Helen and Loretta with her ex boyfriend Jake.
George is very secretive about his obsession whereas Loretta is trying to shift her
obsession onto Jake so it does not like it is her.
Helen and Carla Gordon from Coronation Street

We have compared these two characters together as they are both from the same
demographic groups, C1. Helen is a bank clerk and Carla works for a business named
Underworld. Carla is quite a controlling character and likes to be the boss; this is
similar to Helen as she has taken control of arranging the wedding for her and Dan.

Dan and Rhys Ashworth from Hollyoaks

Dan and Rhys are both of similar ages, and of similar demographic group. They are
both group D and both work in local stores. They are very similar characters in
personality and share a lot of traits.
Jenny and Lucy Beale from Eastenders

We have compared these two characters together I think they are very similar in
nature. Both the characters try to have a lot of friends and be social, and they both
decide the best way to do this is to have a party. For both of the characters the party
is a disaster and both get into trouble.

To conclude I think we have made good use of including existing soap opera
conventions to create a product that is easily recognisable as a soap, and uses these
conventions in order to make it popular amongst the already existing soap opera
fans.