Initial Ideas
When thinking of ideas for my soap I created a number of brainstorms of the ideas I could use for my trailer that I thought would be appropriate for my target audience and that would be suitable to familiarise the audience with the characters on screen. After thinking about my choice of ideas I chose this as the idea I would use to introduce my new soap to my audience in the form of a trailer.
For my idea I decided that I would portray three different characters and the issues in their lives by shooting the trailer through their eyes and what happens in their day. By doing this I thought of the having the first character waking up in the morning to show their events to going to sleep to then wake up through the eyes of the second character and their day showing their daily events and so on. By showing the lives of the characters through the eyes of them and I am not giving them an identity, therefore I am keeping the character's identities open to the audience to decide what they think the character will look like and how they think they would be which would then be uncovered when they watch the episode. I also think that having each character interacting with eachother throughout the video but not giving away to the viewer who they actually are would also start a character profile but anonymously until the first episode when all is revealed.
Themes
By targeting my soap at a younger audience I decided that my themes should be suitable for the audience so that they can relate and understand the topics being portrayed to them in the soap. From the questionnaire I gave out to people the results lent towards the topics of Relationship Issues, Teen Pregnancy, Bullying and Abuse which I have decided to incorporate into my idea which will be what each character is based on.
Location
In terms of location I have chosen within Cheshunt as my town to have a mixture of locations between the same school for each character being my school 'Goffs School' and three house locations for each character in which the dramatic events of their day can continue to their home location. I have chosen to use my own house as it will be easy for me to get cast into my house and I am allowed to do so so that one of my character's homes are done.
My House
I have chosen to use various rooms in my house to portray different characters, by having three different bedrooms I can portray different characters in the different rooms without making the location look the same. Other tooms in my house such as the living room, hallway and the street will be used to film seceral different areas of my trailer. For each establishing shot of the houses however, I have chose to just film the outside of a couple of friend's houses but not the inside of their house.
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My School
At school I can base the majority of my dramas as my set is to be based in a school environment with the events of a school shown to the audience as a location that they can familiarise with. I feel my school will be suitable for filming as there is adequate classroom, corridor and outdoor space to create a realistic environment for the storyline.
Characters
The aspect of characters along with storylines in a television soap is most important element in attracting the right audience. A character's personality, style and look affects an audience's decision on whether they will watch a programme or not. Therefore, as a soap for a young audience I have chosen to ensure that all my actors/actresses are under the age of 19 and are of an age that can be relevant and interesting for my viewers. From this decision I have also found that it is a convenient age range as I can cast my characters easily by using my friends as characters being involved. From the storylines I have chosen I am going to have to choose relevant actors/actresses to interact with the character so that the image of the character being presented is convinving and conveys the realism of a television soap.
Also, throughout my soap as the character in the current story is not shown the surrounding people are the main focus of the soap. With the transition from school to home I have also considered the family that my character will be surrounded by and how they will be relevant to my stories.
From the mix of stories and envrionments I will be able to include a range of people of different ages so that there is always a character that any viewer can relate to. However, because I am aiming my soap at a young target audience the majority of characters will be young.
Typical teenagers as a example of actors/actresses (below)
Name of the Soap
The name of a soap is important as a first impression of the soap and what it is all about. A catchy name is essential so that it is easy to pronounce when talked about and easy to advertise. When looking at current soap opera names they are near enough all based on location but teen dramas seem to move away from this idea with names such as Skins and 90210.
Here are some ideas I came up with for the name of my soap:
Goffs Oak, Blameless, Theobolds Grove, Beaumont Park, Falconwood, Winchmore Hill, Saffron Croft, Oaklands, Oakleigh Park.
I finally decided on using the name Beaumont Park as the title of the school that my characters attend. I like this name as I think it sounds like a school name and the word 'Beaumont' is quite unusual and memorable. Also with the word 'Park' it illustrates a natural countryside mixed with urban feel which my town of Cheshunt/Goffs Oak is like.
Duration
When deciding on the duration of my soap I thought it would be reasonable to have a duration of 30 minutes like EastEnders and Coronation Street, with maybe a advert break in the middle depending on the channel I decide to broadcast my soap with.
This duration seems to have been successful with other soaps so a average 27 minute slot with a three minute break in the middle should suit my soap. Programmes longer than the average thirty minutes can drag and with a programme styled like a soap I think will risk the chance of losing the viewers interest.
Choice of Channel
When deciding on a channel I would like my soap to be broadcasted on I need to consider the main audience of the channel, the other programmes shown on the channel and the company's methods of broadcasting and advertising in order to produce the best marketing and showing of my soap.
BBC One BBC One is one of the longest running channels in television history and currently broadcasts the popular EastEnders four days a week. This means that if I chose to broadcast my soap on this channel I would have to rearrange it around the ever popular soap so that I can still maximise my viewings without having it shown too closely to EastEnders. I thought this may be a problem so I chose against this channel. | BBC Two BBC Two does not currently broadcast any soap operas on their channel which I felt may have an open slot for a soap but when looking through the channel listings it is evident that it is not a channel that appeals to young people. The listings include programmes such as documentaries and news programmes for the more intellectual people of the country not what young people would be interested in. |
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ITV1 As the broadcaster of both Emmerdale and Coronation Street I straight away decided against showing my soap on ITV1 as I felt the channel would be over run with soaps and there was little space for another soap that will bring in a large audience. | Channel 4 Familiar with a younger audience I considered Channel 4 as the channel is open enough to feature a young generation soap however, this market is already met within this channel as they broadcast Hollyoaks which holds a young audience for their viewers. Therefore, I decided against using this channel as the competition with Hollyoaks would be too fierce when the similar audience is already caught on this channel by this soap. |
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E4 The idea of broadcasting my soap on E4 was an instant win as there are no current soaps being shown on this channel. As the channel is connected to channel4 the audience of of a younger generation with shows such as Skins and extra Hollyoaks is shown on the channel. With an open gap for a soap I think my soap would fit in well with this channel by its youthful aspect which is expected of E4 and it's programmes. | SkyOne SkyOne is an open channel with no soap operas shown at all. The channel however features a range of programmes from comedy including The Simpsons and Futurama to news channels and documentaries. Being a Sky channel however the audience is limited to Sky users which although makes it exclusive to Sky viewers I want my soap to be open to all people from all background whether they have a particular television network or not. Therefore I chose against Sky to avoid the limitation on my audience numbers. |
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Time of Broadcast
When deciding on a time to broadcast my soap on E4, I firstly decided that I definitely wanted my soap to be an evening programme shown after 6 o'clock as daytime shows seem to develop through until this time and people have normally arrived home just after or before this time. The majority of successful soaps are also shown after this time so I felt it should fit into this this time frame. From looking at television schedules I found that these soaps are shown at these times: EastEnders - Monday and Friday 8.00pm, Tuesday and Thursday 7.30pm Coronation Street - Monday, Wednesday and Friday 7.30pm, Thursday 8.30pm Emmerdale - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - 7.00pm Hollyoaks - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - 6.30pm From my target audience research the most popular times were 7.00pm and 7.30pm, however from the popularity of EastEnders shown at 7.30pm I decided not to compete with the soap on another channel and choose to show my soap at 8.00pm on E4 an hour after Hollyoaks so that the similar audience are still attracted to the channel. I have also chosen to broadcast my show on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as a midweek soap avoiding the scheduling of all soaps within this time frame.
