Soap research

In class we did some research on different type's of soaps. We listed several soaps including; East Enders, Corranation Street and Emma Dale. After we had spoke about all of these, we then listed some conventions that most soaps contain. These included; relationships, adultury, murder and rape. After we concentraed on the narratives we looked at some of the camera shots that they used.

A wide variety of close ups is used to show the expression on the charactors face. This shows the audience how they are feeling without the charactors having to tell them. A large amopunt of two shots were used aswell to show the convorsations between two charactors. At the start of every episode a establising shot is used to show were the setting is based. This usually shows comfertable locations including a pub and a local shop or market.

Very simple editing is used in all soaps. This included cross cutting and cuts. Simple editing is used to show realism in the soap. For example, if non-diegetic music was used juxtapose to the diegetic sound used in soaps, the audience would feel like they are watching a film. Another example is the simple cuts used. No tranistions are used between scene's, this is to show the realism. With an exception to Hollyoaks, nearly every soap used diegetic sound. Another type of editing used in most soaps is a sound bridge. This is where you can hear a sound before you see if. For example, in the East Enders episode we watched in class, the scene was in a church and a child was being baptised, but just as the preist was about to put the baby down, you could hear another baby crying. This shows that they are happening at the same time and also gives a sence of realism.

While researching soap's i found out that the charactors can give you a catch up from the previous episodes but the dialogue. For example, in the episode of East Enders that we watched in class, Charlie starts talking about what happened in previous episodes just in case the viewer missed that episode so that they know what is going on now. Also al the charactors call other people by their names. This is so that the audience know who is who and who they are talking to or about. They all discuss there relationships and family to show who is related. This is done by calling people; 'Mum, Dad, Son, Brother' ect.