Soap Opera Episodes Analysis

As a part of my research, I have analysed 4 different soap opera episodes to get a clearer understanding of what they may contain and what kind of patterns and similarities soaps share. I will be looking at the characters, the setting, the number of scenes, the evident story lines and the representation of sexuality, ethnicity, social class and gender.

Findings

The main similarity between all 4 soaps is that they are all set in domestic locations that tend to be common in lots of cities, towns and villages. By using characters that visit popular domestic locations, such as pubs and cafes, the audience can relate to the location and engage with the characters.

Another shared similarity is the mix of Caucasian and ethnic characters. Although there are some mixed race characters in each soap, the majority of the characters are Caucasian. This suggests that soaps tend to use tokenism to broaden their range of audiences, and create a sense of verisimilitude by including members of society from other ethnic backgrounds.

The final significant similarity is the number of storylines portrayed. The fewest storylines found in an episode is 4, while the most found is 8 storylines. This shows that soaps are consistently moving and developing storylines to keep their audience tuned in.

When creating our soap opera trailer, we will follow these conventions by:

• Filming in locations that are domestic and typically found in existing soap operas
• Including characters of different ethnic backgrounds
• Keeping several storylines going at once to keep our viewers' attention