Soap operas include multiple main characters in order to allow multiple parallel narratives and convergence to keep the audience interested and attract their attention.

Soaps often have special episodes for events in the real world. E.g. Christmas, New Years Eve. This is to create the sense of realism and also build suspense as these special episodes usually demonstrate powerful storylines and outcomes that happen on these days to keep the audience wanting to watch more.

Soap operas always include conflict and disequilibrium between characters to create tension and reflect real life conflicts.

Soap episodes often begin with a ‘hook’ where one or more of the narratives from a previous episode are continued. This will usually end with a ‘cliff-hanger’ to create suspense and tension within the soap.

Every soap contains an opening theme tune during the title card which sets the scene for the soap and makes it instantly memorable. However, soap operas rarely contain music throughout the soap unless there is a particular piece of music used for dramatic purposes, which generally has repetitive beats and a harmonic drone throughout.

Lighting is generally basic and features day lighting. However, in some soaps such as The Only Way Is Essex, the lighting used is a lot brighter and flatters the characters to make them look appealing unlike in soaps like Coronation Street.

Social Realism soaps include storylines that are based on real life and everyday issues such as family arguments, crimes and affairs. This is so the audience can relate to them and.

Examples of Social Realism soaps:

Plots are open-ended and an episode usually consists of three or four storylines which means that there is no set narrative as social realism soaps are continuous. The episodes usually end with a cliff-hanger to build suspense and attract the audiences attention so they continue to watch the soap.

Editing in Social Realism soaps is very subtle featuring natural transitions between scenes. There has to be an element of continuity in Realism soaps.

Camera work is kept simple and avoids any tricks to help create a realistic product. The camera acts as a casual observer, as if to watch the events of the episode.

Characters in Realism soaps have an accent and dialogue that matches the location of the soap. This is to build on the regional identity of the soap to make it more recognizable to the audience and fits in with Social Realism conventions.

Lighting used is very basic and features day lighting. This is to replicate sunlight or lamps in a characters homes.

Stereotypes are portrayed within Realism soaps to set the location of the show. E.g. Emmerdale featuring the rolling hills.

My media products are based on the Social Realism soap Eastenders as the mise en scene, lighting, editing and camera work is very similar to this soap. Additionally, the storylines in both Eastenders and my soap trailer reflect real life and everyday issues so the audience can relate to them and gain an emotional attachment towards the soap, which is conventional of Social Realism soaps.

I called my soap opera ‘Northern Quarter’ as it was shot in Manchester and suggests the regional identity of the soap, just like Eastenders implies it is set in the East end of London.

This is my first draft of my title card for my soap.

This is the title card for a Christmas special of Eastenders.

Key: Green = used conventions. Orange = developed conventions. Red = challenged conventions.

shot Reverse shot

shot Reverse shot

The shot reverse shot is conventional of all Social Realism soaps as the camera is acting as the forth wall and therefore reminding the viewers that they are watching the characters real life narratives, rather than contributing to it. Moreover, the use of outdoor shots featured in all Realism soaps helps to demonstrate the dull natural lighting used to create a realistic picture. Realistic, casual costumes are featured on the characters to imply the day to day problems these characters have so the audience can relate to it.

Coronation street.

Medium close up.

I have used the convention of medium close ups as they are presented in all Social Realism soaps. They allow the audience to see the emotions and body language of the characters as they focus more on the subject and less of the setting.

Coronation Street.

I have also used close up shots which are a dominant conventional feature in Realism soaps as they provide insight into the characters emotions and thoughts which helps to engage the audience.

Close up.

Emmerdale.

Point of View shot. Ground level shot.

Eastenders.

I have challenged conventions with a ground level a ground level shot as the focus in Social Realism soaps is usually the characters faces to demonstrate emotions, not their feet. However, Eastenders do use a ground level shot in an episode.

I have developed conventions by incorporating a point of view shot with an over the shoulder shot. This allows the audience to feel part of the soap without breaking the forth wall. Also, they provide the audience with the main focus to imply the narrative.

Emmerdale.

Two shot.

Coronation Street.

I have used conventions by adding two shots in my parody. These two shots are both tightly frames so the focus is on the characters and not their surroundings. The natural day lighting sued helps add to the realism, along with casual costumes and facial features to suit the narratives.

These are two shots which are more loosely framed to show the setting of the scene as well as the facial expressions. This helps the viewer to gain a clearer insight of the mise en scene portrayed, e.g. a café or home.

Eastenders.

Shocked face Slap

Slap scenes are conventional of Social Realism soaps as they show the audience a dramatic emotion which attracts their attention. However, the characters reaction is not as over the top as the reaction of slap scenes are in Scripted Realities, which adds to the realism of the soaps.

Shocked faces are also conventional of Realism soaps and allow the audience to see the characters reaction to a certain action/narrative. This makes the soap more interesting to the audience and the natural make up presented on the characters adds to the realism.

Depth of field.

In my soap Northern Quarter, there are lots of deep focuses which allows the audience to see clearly into the distance of the surroundings which helps set the scene. This challenges conventions with Social Realism soaps as they usually provide shallow focuses as the want the closest element to the camera to be the main focus. However, Realism soaps do also include focus pulls from shallow focus to deep focus sometimes.

The straight cuts and simple editing is conventional to create realism and imply smooth transitions between scenes. Although Social Realism soaps rarely use music in the soaps, it is conventional to have a soundtrack to a trailer. This catches the audiences attentions and depending on what mood the soap wants to portray, major or minor keys with repetitive melodic drones help to create the feeling of urgency and anxiety.

The location of my soap Northern Quarter is in Manchester and this is demonstrated through the use of outdoor shots. This is conventional of Social Realism soaps as the majority of these soaps are set outside. This is to emphasize the realism of the soaps as natural day lighting is used. This is where I have used conventions for my Realism parody so the audience can associate the dull day lighting and setting with the everyday issues portrayed in the narratives.

Social Realism soaps usually contain normal named characters such as Emily and Josh. However, I have developed conventions as there is sometimes one or two characters with abstract names such as Charity in Emmerdale and Diesel in Northern Quarter. This allows certain characters to stick in the viewers minds and contrasts with the ordinary day to day feel of Social Realism soaps.

I used the same logo as BBC One as the simplistic plain font creates brand identity. The BBC One logo appears after all BBC One trailers, e.g. Eastenders and the title of the soap and the showing time is presented on a title card after the trailers, where as in my trailer it is presented at the start.

I based my soap magazine front cover on the ‘Classy’ style of magazine ‘TV & Satellite week.’

The simple colour scheme of using 3 dominant colours used throughout helps to make the product look professional. The colours also stick in the audiences minds and helps them to instantly recognize the magazine type and make it memorable.

The caption under the dominant photo anchors the image in both magazines and helps the reader to understand what soap it is and gives a small insight into the storylines and emotions portrayed. The stand out quote also helps to emphasize this.

The mast head is in a simplistic font which matches the TV & Satellite week magazine. The plain white text and the drop shadow effect helps the text to stand out on the dark background and image to attract the readers attention.

The main stars use eye contact with the camera to directly address and engage the audience. This allows the audience to clearly see the characters serious facial expressions and get a clearer view of the storyline.

The features are all placed around the dominant image with their soap names and captions. They all have the dark red colour around them which is conventional of TV & Satellite week and also allows them to stand out against the background.

One way I challenged conventions was by using Enter Shikari’s ‘Hello tyrannosaurus meet tyrannicide’ as my background music track. This challenged conventions because the genre is drum & bass and metalcore, which aren't stereotypical music choices for Social Realism soaps. I chose this because the repetitive beat goes well with my clean cut edits and the melodic drone throughout creates an eerie atmosphere and suspense which is the mood I wanted to get across in my soap trailer. Here is the YouTube link for the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ams0VGceOXI