Font Analysis

Magazine & Poster Draft Mockups

Dates Of Filming

29th October- Pub Scenes

9th November- Katies House and Train station

16th November- Charlottes House

22nd November- Charlottes House

Group Minutes

28th of June

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 9.12am

Aim-We want to research the conventions of soap operas so that we have an understanding of how                           soaps work and what common themes and conventions they have.

History of soap operas – 5th of July

Conventions of a soap opera – 5th July

6th July

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 2.05pm

Aim- It is essential for us to gather information about the audience. Therefore, we need to generate a questionnaire with appropriate questions, so that we know what should be included in our soap to gain a mass audience.

12^th July

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 10.10am

Aim –We need to watch a few trailers and analyse what the production team has included to make an impact on the audience.

3^rd September

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 9.45am

Aim – We must look at the highest ratings of popular soaps, see what was included in that episode, so we can attract a high rating of viewers

3^rd September

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time - 2.50pm

Aim – We gathered all our results for our questionnaire, we now need to total it all up create graphs and analyse our findings, so that we know what storylines, characters, setting, times and days a week that our audience prefer in order to attract a mass audience.

Selection of our results - 7th September

Questionnaire totals – 7th September

Questionnaire results graph - 7th September

Analysis of audience questionnaire – 20th September

20^th September

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time - 9.55am

Aim – We need to decide what channel our soap should be on, to be able to gain our target audience in mass form.

20^th September

Present - Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 10.05am

Aim – To be able to understand our present audience, we need to analyse present soap rating to see what audiences prefer in soaps in today’s society.

27^th September

Present - Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 2.05pm

Aim – Once all our research is done we need to decide what to call our characters, decide what their background, storyline in our trailer and their timelines.

Character list – 4^th October

4^th October

Present - Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time – 10.30am

Aim – It’s vital to start planning our trailer plot and devise a script at this stage.

Trailer plot – 4^th October

Script (draft) – 18^th October

25^th October

Present – Chloe, Charlotte, Katie and Adam

Time - 12.13

Aim-To create a draft of our magazine and poster.

        To start the filming process

23^rd November

Present – Charlotte, Katie, Chloe and Adam

Time- 10:20

Aim- To create and design final creation of the Tv listings magazine cover and our soap poster.

Tv Listings Magazines

Woodberry Town Script

Characters in order of significance to storyline:                                               *minor characters

Scarlett Fisher

Martin Turner

Zoe Turner

Aiden Barnes

Louise & Lauren Turner*

Dave Foster* 

Present

Scene 1: Pub

Scarlett: walks up steps and through door and drops bag.                                     
Barman Dave & Extras: Nosily turn to stare at Scarlett. 

Flashforward 1

Scene 2: Turners house with audio of backing music

Scarlett:  stands in doorway of Martin’s house with right hand on door-frame in a seductive    

                manner. 

Present

Scene 1 continued: Pub with audio of backing music

Scarlett: walks to bar. 

Flashforward 2

Scene 3: Alley outside Pub

Scarlett: being overly forward pinning Martin to wall.

Martin: I CAN’T DO THIS! 

Present

Scene 1 continued: Pub with audio of backing music

Scarlett: still walking to bar. 

Flashforward 3

Scene 4: Turner’s kitchen with audio of backing music

Zoe:  inquisitively picks up martins phone as he receives new message. 

Flashforward 4

Scene 5: Fishers bathroom with audio of backing music

Scarlett: hides pharmacy bag, takes make up of in front of mirror.

Backing music fades

Aiden:  enters and stands in doorway.              

             Where have you been? 

Flashforward 3 continued

Scene 4 continued: Turner's kitchen with audio of backing music

Zoe:  views messages from Scarlett - feels shocked, in a state of disbelief. 

Present

Scene 1 continued: Pub with audio of backing music

Scarlett: still walking to bar. 

Flashforward 5

Scene 5: Alley outside Pub with audio of backing music

Scarlett: sitting against wall, drinking, drunkenly and dramatically crying. 

Flashforward 6

Scene 6: Fisher's front door with audio of backing music

Martin: storming out of door. 

Scarlett: standing in doorway, looking desperate.               

               YOU CAN’T WALK AWAY NOW! 

Present

Scene 1 continued: Pub with audio of backing music

Scarlett: still walking to bar. 

Flashforward 7

Scene 7: Fisher's doorway with audio backing music

Zoe: slaps Scarlett. 

Present

Scene 1 continued: Pub with audio of backing music

Scarlett: still walking to bar. 

Flashforward 8

Scene 8: Turner's inside front porch with audio backing music

Lauren and Louise : standing in doorway, sad and confused.                                   

                                   Where are you going Daddy?

Flashforward 9,10,11,12

Scenes 9, 10, 11 & 12: Fisher's house, Turner's house, road and trainstation all with audio of

                                         backing music

Scarlett & Zoe: leaving their houses.

Martin: Walking down road. 

Present

Scene 1 continued: Pub with audio of backing music fading out

Scarlett: pushes extras out of the way to get herself to the front of the bar.

Bartender Dave: as if thinking that there is going to be trouble.                              

                             What can I get you?

Scarlett: turns to look at someone (past camera). 

Title Shot Runs

Trailer Plot

Trailer Plot:

Scarlett walks through the door of the pub. Looking tarty yet dishevelled; she drops her bags down on the floor and everyone turns around to stare.  This then cuts to FLASHFORWARD 1. Followed by interludes of the first scene as Scarlet walks towards the bar, with cross-cutting of FLASHFORWARDS 2 – 12. Finally Scarlett makes it up to the bar, after pushing her way to the front, the barman asks “what can I get you?” and as she turns around to look at someone, the camera cuts off, theme tune music plays and a date for the showing is presented.

FLASHFORWARD 1 – SCARLETT SEDUCING MARTIN (Turners’ porch)

FLASHFORWARD 2 – MARTIN TELLING SCARLETT HE “CANT DO THIS” (alley)

FLASHFORWARD 3 – ZOE LOOKING THROUGH MARTIN’S PHONE (Turners’ kitchen)
FLASHFORWARD 4 – AIDEN ASKS SCARLETT WHERE SHE HAS BEEN WHILE SHE TAKES OFF HER
                                  MAKEUP (Fisher's Bathroom)
FLASHFORWARD 5 – SCARLETT CRYING ON GROUND (alley)

FLASHFORWARD 6 – PREGNANT SCARLETT TELLS MARTIN “YOU CAN’T WALK AWAY   
                                  NOW!!" (Fisher’s Hall way to front door)
FLASHFORWARD 7 – ZOE SLAPS SCARLETT (Fisher’s back door)

FLASHFORWARD 8 – LOUISE AND LAUREN “WHERE ARE YOU GOING DADDY?” (Turners’ Inside
                                  front porch)
FLASHFORWARD 9, 10, 11 & 12 – SHOTS OF TRAINSTATION, SCARLETT, ZOE AND MARTIN LEAVING 
                                 HIS HOUSE

Main Characters (Martin, Scarlett & Zoe) Timeline: Past - Now

Brief Storyline Plot:

When Martin and Scarlett got involved with each other aged 16 and 14, their love was fuelled by drugs, drink and mindless behaviour. On a fast downward spiral, Martin decided to get out before he ended up dead, and broke off his strange and corrupted relationship with Scarlett. Wanting to go on the straight and narrow, Martin began a relationship with conventional good girl, Zoe. They marry, and have two children together – they are the traditional happy family. But Zoe doesn’t know of Martin’s past and when Scarlett returns – same terrible state as always – with a toy boy on her arm, it seems like old secrets will come out while new secrets will form.

Character List

Turner Family:

Martin Turner

Zoe (Campbell) Turner – wife of Martin

Louise Turner – eldest child

Lauren Turner – youngest child

Fisher Family:

Scarlett Fisher

Aiden Barnes – Boyfriend of Scarlett

Extras:

Bartender of the Pub (Dave Foster)

Customers in the Pub

Present Soap Ratings

Eastenders was the most watched soap on Tuesday 18^th September when Billy Mitchell’s great granddaughter faced being put up to adoption and he himself lost his job. The viewing figures were 7.32 million at 7.30pm on BBC 1. BBC repeat screening gained 593 thousand at 10.30pm.

Meanwhile Emmerdale attracted 6.5 million at 7pm on ITV and 134 thousand on ITV+1 when pregnant Genie became concerned over motherhood.

Hollyoaks appealed to 968 thousand at 6.30pm on channel 4 as Jacqui lashed out at Cindy. Whilst E4’s first look brought in 486 thousand at 7pm. Hollyoaks Later, which airs at 10pm on E4, gained 425 thousand viewers and 142 thousand viewers on E4+1.

Soaps contain real life situations such as job loss, bankruptcy, sexuality, relationships etc. Because of these every day circumstances, the target audience can easily relate to the problems, big or small, involved within the characters’ lives, this being the primary reason why the soap opera genre is so popular.

Looking at recent figures teenage pregnancies and family feuds seem to be prevalent themes within soaps that also appeal to the audience and increase the viewing numbers. This rise is due to the current levels of these issues within the past few years. Therefore if we want to target an audience emotionally enough to generate a loyal fanbase for individual characters, storylines and the soap itself, these are relevant issues to present.

           

Our Chosen Channel

The chosen distributor for our soap opera is Channel 4. With an ethos to present innovative, diverse and creative programmes, Channel 4 have the perfect outlook to appeal to our target audience. By scheduling our soap at a peak viewing slot of 7pm or 8pm, we are able to address a mass audience’s conventional schedule.

9pm signifies the start of the airing of comedy programmes on Channel 4, which usually attracts younger viewers  – alike our target audience – and so with the hope that these viewers will tune into the channel in time to see some of our soap, more viewers will be gained and figures will rise. On the other hand, with the hope of expanding our audience to one of mass - like customarily popular soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street – showing our soap at 7pm or 8pm means it won’t be too late for older viewers or too early for those who work late and have evening commitments.

With Channel 4’s aim to discover new and young talent, our soap opera, with young actors building the foundation for unravelling dramas, adheres to both the wants and needs of the channel and audience.

Audience Profile

Once we conducted our research we were able to develop a firm understanding of our target audience, prior to the basic idea that served as a guide in the creation of our questionnaire. Using the conclusions we drew from our research, we were able to complete an audience profile and determine our finalised target audience.

Demographics:

·         Age: 15-25

·         Sex: Both

·         Our chosen TV channel and scheduling to broadcast our soap opera will be influenced by the age demographic of our target audience. BBC1 and Channel 4 proved to be the most prevalent of channels and we can deduce that this is due to the contrasting aspects of the national reverence of the BBC and the youthful visions of Channel 4. Viewers may well know the BBC for their peak time slots filled with programmes that attract mass audiences, such as Eastenders. On the other hand, while Channel 4 do not have predominantly valued peak times, their ethos of being an innovative, creative and diverse channel means a younger audience is drawn to their promise of a variety of cultures, locations and circumstances that represent their lives today.

Social and psychological factors:

·         Our target audiences’ preferred time of viewing is the late evening slot around 7/8/9pm. This is due to the lack of free time in their schedule, e.g.  because of school, university and/or work.

·         This schedule also would affect the amount of times a week they are able to watch Soap Operas; we discovered that our target audience would only view or want to watch a Soap three times a week.

·         Through our research, we discovered the audience’s preferences towards the nature of the soap and successful audience pleasures. With none of our participants selecting ‘Neighbours’ as their favoured soap, we realised that audiences find comfort and pleasure in storylines, settings, scenes and characters that they can relate to. Therefore, as ‘Neighbours’ is set in Australia, audiences may be deterred by the change of surroundings, accent and lack of familiar lifestyle. In conclusion, it would be more beneficial for our soap to be set in the UK as to not dissuade viewers with unrelateable material.

·         Furthermore, we discovered that a popular choice of soap is ‘Coronation Street’, and we could hypothesise that this is due to the humour and comedy element that is lacking in the other soaps.

·         However, it also appears that audiences find pleasure in the most dramatic and dark of storylines with murder and crime being a popular choice for our questionnaire participants. It seems that with realistic characters and misé-en-scene the audience can partake in suspended disbelief as they build relationships with characters, which then makes for more of an impact when dramatic scenes are suddenly thrust upon the audience.

Analysis of Audience Questionnaire

We conducted a questionnaire to both target our most accessible and profitable audience but also to find out how we can take into consideration the wants and needs of as many demographic and psychographic groups as possible, increasing our chances of a lucrative revenue.

Firstly, it is obvious that Eastenders is favoured amongst our potential audience as we found both men and women of ages 15-25 preferred the soap itself but also it’s city location was found to be more popular than the countryside.

The preference of storylines did not appear so clear cut. Many women were drawn to the idea of love and affairs but the choices of our overall selected participants was split over all options of murder, crime, family affairs, love, affairs and revenge. We soon realised it would be possible and incredibly beneficial to link these subcategories into one storyline. It seems audiences can find excitement in any story that can unfold into crisis and adversity and so by giving them a storyline with several strands of drama, we can address all of their ideologies of an engaging soap opera storyline.

Additionally, after the majority of the audience seemed interested by the idea of our characters being from an ‘unconventional family’, we realised we could encompass many different characters and walks of life to interest audiences that are different from the characters presented and give integration and social interaction to those who can relate to and feel comfortable with characters. Soap operas are based on reality and real situations, however dramatic, and so we want to have an aspect of suspended disbelief where audiences can draw on their own emotions and feel emotions of the characters – giving them a vast array of characters with different living circumstances, mannerisms and personalities we hopefully can attract a mass audience.

On the matter of viewing slots for our soap opera, evening seems a clear decision as not a single participant preferred afternoon times to early evening or late evening. Despite this meaning we would be competing for peak times on our broadcasting channel as well as competing for our target audience against other soaps that are shown at similar times, an evening slot would still draw greater audience figures and a wider range of audience than a daytime slot due to more people being able to watch TV at later times; after work/school and daytime commitments.

Furthermore, it seems an audience would be attracted most by a soap that is broadcasted three times a week. It is so easy to lose track of storylines in a soap if you do not watch it regularly enough, therefore if a soap is scheduled five times a week and it is impossible for you to watch it that often, you may become complacent or lose interest completely. When presenting a new soap to the public, we aim to give them enough to familiarize themselves with but also allow them just enough episodes to fit into a general schedule, this way audience figures do not suffer due to complex storylines not being kept up with and a loyal fan base can be generated and maintained.

Questionnaire Results Graphs

Questionnaire Totals

	Men Aged 15-20	Men Aged 20-25	Women Aged 15-20	Women Aged 20-25
3) What soap opera do you prefer?
Eastenders	1	2	4	1
Coronation Street	1	2	2	1
Emmerdale	1	0	0	0
Hollyoaks	2	2	1	1
Neighbours	0	0	0	0
4) What type of storylines interest you?
Love	0	1	4	1
Affairs	1	1	4	3
Murder	3	3	3	3
Crime	3	3	3	1
Family Feuds	0	3	2	1
Revenge	4	2	3	0
5) What time are you most likely to watch  soap operas?
Afternoon- i.e. 1pm/2pm	0	0	0	0
Early Evening- i.e. 5pm/6pm	1	1	2	2
Later Evening- i.e. 7pm/8pm/9pm	4	4	5	1
6) How many days a week would you watch  a  soap opera?
Five	2	0	0	1
Four	1	1	1	1
Three	2	4	6	1
7) What TV channel do you prefer?
BBC1	2	2	1	1
BBC3	2	1	3	0
ITV	2	1	1	1
Channel 4	1	2	3	1
Channel 5	0	0	1	0
8) What type of characters interest you?
The Criminal	2	3	1	0
The Unconventional Families	3	2	6	2
The Unstable	4	3	3	1
The Loose Woman	1	3	1	2
The Loverat	0	1	4	3
9) Do you prefer programmes set in the  city or the country?
The City	4	5	6	3
The Country	1	0	1	0