Conventions of a Soap Opera

A British soap opera almost always features the following conventions:

·         A Soap is a drama that usually air around 4 times a week, all year round.

·         Many of the storylines that are continuous involve the themes of domesticity and relationships.

·         Soap opera theme tunes tend to be recognisable even though they have changed slightly over the years.

·         In any one scene the number of character present is kept to a minimal to focus on a certain plot and avoid confusion with audience members.

·         Many storylines are carried on throughout several episodes, consequently leaving episodes on cliff hangers which are often tense and suspenseful.

·         They are often set around a small community e.g. the square (Eastenders). Many characters are linked to each other either by family of friends.

·         Soaps always have specials at Christmas and possibly at Easter these episode focus on the climax of a storyline and often have a depressing ending.

·         Many characters are classed as common, ordinary and working class.

·         British soaps are supposed to be realistic.

·         Three to four story lines often run parallel together, with the soap alternating between them. Once one storyline is solved another may be underway of getting solved or solved in conjunction with another storyline.

·         Recently soaps include songs in the background (Eastenders) or over score (Hollyoaks) to coincide with the situation within the scene.

Update: 21/09/12
In order to produce a successful soap opera, we plan to utilise many of these conventions in our own production. Our ideas of using domesticity and relationships as a main focus of our soap trailer adheres to the conventional themes of the genre. Furthemore, to give a sense of community, part of the soap set will be a pub which is the heart of the most successful British soaps (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Eastenders). While in the process of gaining our first audience, although part of the setting will be the pub which is a very social place, we will not overwhelm them with too many important characters. Therefore, we will use extras in the scene to give it a realistic feel but will keep the ultimate focus on a small amount of crucial characters so that the audience can familiarize themselves and become engaged.
Finally, We want the audience to be able to relate to or feel a relationship towards characters and so to attract a mass audience we believe ordinary/working class/middle class characters would be the right choice. Upper class and hugely financially superior characters would distance the audience too much and the main aim of a soap opera is to entertain and make the audience feel comfortable.