Soap Opera Conventions: Lighiting and Mise-en-Scene, and Iconography Conventions

Lighting and Mise-en-Scene
Lighting within soaps is usually naturalistic as it represents the real world, and the lighting is rarely symbolic or expressive.
The mise-en-scene is very important; this includes the decision on costumes, interior and exterior design, props and layout of shots used in order to remind us who the characters are and create representations.

Iconography
Iconography originates from the study of art, it focuses on image analysis and deconstruction of a genre. It is  used in order to convey significant meanings, within soaps iconography would be used in order to express storylines and settings. This may be shown through the use of colours (natural lighting within soap and non-edited so will only include mise-en-scene such as clothing), composition, hand gestures, poses, and facial expressions (heavily used within soaps, usually shown through close or extreme close ups).

Iconography may also be things we expect to see within a soap, this may include the setting or mise-en-scene of a soap; an example of a soap setting may include homes, shops/businesses, and communal areas such as a pub. Examples of iconography with mise-en-scene may be a cafe, viewers would expect to see kitchen appliances, food, customers, and other feature people mat expect to see within a cafe.

Male and Female Characters and Representation

Male Characters and Representation

Men within soaps are also known as Patriarchs, they are far less common within soap operas then the female character who is arguably a counter type role as we see many female character that lead their communities, and dictating the terms within family issues and situations, this may affect the males representation as it takes away their typical masculine qualities such as; assertiveness, strength, and ruthlessness, these qualities would make the male character an outsider to the soap communities and can be supported by the fact that we often see successful and long-lasting male characters who have adapted similar capabilities which are associated with femininity by adopting feminine traits such as sensitivity, caring and the ability to demonstrate emotion, an example I have chosen for this description is; Tyrone from Coronation Street.

Taking this into consideration, this creates a limitation based on the variety of male roles, which can be made available; this effects the representation of male characters as they are commonly televised within soaps as, the figure of the businessman or entrepreneur within the soap, a recent example I have chosen for this description is; Derek Branning from EastEnders.

Female Characters and Representation

Females within soaps are also known as Matriarchs, they are often more important and withhold strong representations within soap operas, this is arguably why many women watch soap operas as this is rarely seen in other genres. The term gossip is often related to women and may carry largely negative connotations, however it is widely used within soap opera and empowers the female representation within soaps as Brown’s theory indicates the importance of intimate conversation and problem solving as narrative features, females are often the centre of this theory which causes them to play a vital role within their community and the majority of narrative strands used within episodes, and explains why there is a wider range of female roles to be played within soaps.

Female representation is also strengthened by traits they possess as we often see them as ringleaders of the community, as well as possess a great deal of male traits, as previously mentioned; assertiveness, strength, and ruthlessness. A good example of a strong female actress within soaps is; Kat Slater from EastEnders.

Soap Opera Conventions: Camera, Editing and Sound Conventions

Soap do not usually contain a lot of action, and are mostly dialogue-driven, the camera is made as invisible as possible in order to create an eye witness affect, the shots that are used to achieve this affect are establishing shots, over-the-shoulder shots, two-shots, mid close ups and extreme close ups.
Movement of the camera is also important as it navigates to and from conversation, moving the narrative to another interweaving the storyline changing the subject matter and visuals.

The establishing or linking sequences show the spacial context by providing an overview of the location, this is used when the storyline changes but can not be changed by the narrative.

The editing within soap opera is very simple, this means there are no or very little use of dissolves or fades, and only use of cuts in order to create a natural transition between story lines.

Sound within soaps is always diegetic; this means there is no added sound, meaning the sound within soaps is normally conversation, background noise, or music being played in the background (not soundtrack). Theme music for soaps plays an important role as is signals the start of the programme and at the end of the the programme which works as a cliff-hanger as well as adding suspense to the scene; it is usually the first note which overlaps the final frame of the programme which is the only non-diegetic sound within most soaps.

Soap Opera Conventions: Narrative Conventions

Soaps have no beginning and no end in terms of narrative, this makes them ongoing. This is achieved as there are interweaving storylines, narrative threads and strands. Soap opera episodes usually begin with an establishing sequence in order to show the location and are normally set at the beginning of the day. Each episode also ends with a cliff-hanger in order to tease the audience and influence of them to watch the next episode.

Episodes may contain the enigma code; this is where the question is raised, and an action; answer to the enigma occur, these are useful in creating storylines. Soap opera's storylines are usually based around themes, which can be introduced and develop over a period of time until they come to a resolution, or partial closure where something is left open and can be developed if the future.

Soap Opera Conventions: Location, Characters, and Subject Matter

All soap operas have an established location; example of established location: a street. Within established locations there are communities; characters who all know eachother.
Communities make meeting places in soaps important, they enable characters to gossip and share information, which is great for the creation and continuity of a storyline; example of meeting places: a pub.This may also be related to the proximity within soaps as characters never get far away from the established location for their work, or meeting places for an evening out.
Established characters within close-knit communities are an important narrative focus within soap operas, this is because new characters can be introduced, characters may leave, or old characters may return.
Families are also an important aspect of this convention as they may be extended or feuds between families. Both characters and families can give more information on the location or their class as well as their secrets which may be exploited to the viewers resulting in more interesting storylines which keep the audience entertained.

Group Planning: Pitch

Left: Seb Hall, Centre Left: David Maddy, Centre Right: Myself - Dalian White, Right: Philip Gatward

In order to obtain feedback on our goups ideas for a new soap and trailer, we had to plan and deliver a pitch to the class.

Our roles which we assigned within our group for the pitch were and a description of each section:

Seb: Name and Channel, Roles.

As we was undecided on a name for our soap we did not have a title for our soap in time for the pitch.

The chanel we chose to air our soap on was BBC 1; the main aim for this was to be the channels equivalent to Channel 4's Hollyoaks, we felt this would be new for the channel and attract younger audiences to watch.

David: Location Photos, Music.

For our group planning we needed location photos in order to find locations where we would be able to film our footage. After taking photos for our planning we used them in our pitch, the key locations within our pitch was the Pig and Falcon (Pub/Communal Area), and an Alley (for drug scene). We was also still undecided on the music for our soap as we was still planning our storyboards for the soap, a website which we had been using to look for music was Sound Cloud.

Myself: Target Audience, Editing Specification.

As we wanted to be the equivalent to channels 4's Hollyoaks on BBC 1 because we wanted to attract a younger audience, we decided to target the age group of 16-24. We had a very brief outline of the editing that we wanted to use within our soap which was based on the story board. As many soaps are used to create realism we did not want to include a lot of editing within our trailer, so we aimed to use as much raw footage as possible, as a group we decided we would use basic dissolves, and title screens within our trailer.

Philip: Characters

Finally we mentioned the characters within our soap trailer that we wanted to introduce, these where mainly teenaged males, we planned to use two males for the drug deal, a male losing a bet, and a pair of males getting ready to go out, and a coouple (one male/one female) which would be used to exploit the theme of family issues as we wanted an argument to occur within the trialer.

Pitch Feedback

The key feedback we recieved in order to help us with the planning of our soap, was to come up with a title by using local location or something which can relate to the characters of the soap we have created. The class suggested that we also involve more female roles within the soap as they are matriarchs within soaps so it was important to have females within a soap. The final piece of feedback which we recieved from our pitch was based on the music and to have a more specific target audience and valid reason as to why we have chosen to target them.

Settings: British Soap Operas

 Many British soap operas use common/public areas for their settings. Most sets used for soaps contain houses where the local characters reside and a communal area such as a pub. The use of these communal areas helps to create a multi-strand narrative as well as interlink characters and storyline of a single episode.  We see many times where a vast amount of characters within one episode, are all in one communal area.  A good example of this would be Eastenders where characters meet at the Queen Vic.

Another key reason for having these types of settings is in order to create a sense of realism. This is because they are places which we; the viewers can relate to, and is where we also go for family or friend gatherings.  Examples from British soaps of these types of settings include; Eastenders (Queen Victoria), Hollyoaks (Dog in the Pond), and Coronation Street (The Rovers Return). Below are images of these settings.

 Eastenders: The Queen Victoria

 Hollyoaks: The Dog in the Pond

 Coronation Street: The Rovers Return

Other settings within soaps usually include profession; an example may be a corner shop, salon, restaurant or a club. These also add to the realism of soaps, as they gives us more information on the characters and what they do for a living, which makes their personality and lifestyles more believable.