Sample fonts and colours - Front Cover and Poster

Fonts and colours

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Drafts of text - Front Cover

For the drafts of texts, I used my draft layouts and enter in the different texts that I felt would have the best impact. Doing daft texts allowed me to think about the way in which I was going to use the titles and what type of phases will have the best effect on my audience and put over the right impression of the soap.

Planning for photography - Front Cover

For the main photo I plan on using a stereotypically photo being that using this I would be able to put over the representation of the characters. For the photo I think that using two characters on the front cover would have a better effect being that the audience would be able to see their relationship and gain an idea of what the soap will be able. The shot I plan on using will be a mid shot being that using this framing will allow the audience to see the characters and their costumes, giving them an idea as to what the character will be like. Also using this shot allows the audience to see the facial expression of the characters, doing this will put over the storyline and allow the audience to relate to the characters in the soap and on the cover. With this the will have the characters looking out at the audience being that this will allow the audience to relate to them. As from my research I found that using a low angle makes the characters come over as better than the audience and this puts them off, this is why I plan on not using a high or low angle being that I want the audience to relate and connect with the characters I am going to use. For the main photo I will also use a plain background being that this is conventional and will not take away from the characters shown on the cover. The characters I plan on using is the main characters from the soap being that this will best put over the new soap the audience and will hopefully link the front cover to the other adverts. 

For the teasers around the outside I plan on using both closes ups and mid shots being that I feel this will allow the audience to clearly see who is being shown and what they are repressing. Using closes ups will have a better effect being that the teasers are small and the close up will allow the audience to gain a better understanding of what soap the teaser is for. Along with make sure that the main photo stands out from my research I found that it is important to make sure that the teasers stand out being that if my target audience dislike the main photo then the different soap teasers should appeal to them.  

Tilte Ideas - Front Cover

Draft of Layout- Front Cover

First Draft

Second Draft

Third Draft

From doing my research I was able to create drafts of what my magazine cover will look like and how I plan on laying it out. I choose to lay it out this way as from my research into similar products, allowing me to see that laying my cover out in this way will make it look presentational and also stand out from the other covers when distributing my magazine. Also from my focus group I found that the cover needs to be order but still need to be different from other magazines as this draws in my target audience to the cover.

Summariesr's Findings

Through my research I was able to find out differed things about the audience and what I need to include in my soap to make it appeal to my target. I did a focus group, questionnaire and internet research to allow me to find out what my audience want from a soap and how to make it appeal to them.

Focus Group
For the focus group I asked a small group of people that would be my target audience. Through the focus group I ask different questions about two covers, two posters and two adverts. Finding out there view on the different products allowing me to make sure that products that I create will appeal to my audience. The responds that I got about the covers was that in need to order to allow the audience to understand what is inside the magazine. Along with this they the use of images need to fit in with the titles use and these titles need to stand out and get the audience attention. Along with this I need to think about my use of colours and if I am making the cover aimed at a female audience. Along with this I need to make sure the way in which I use the image makes the audience want to watch my soap.

            From looking at the posters, I have found that my target audience want something that puts over the soap and allows the audience to gain a clear idea as to the up coming plot line. From the responds that my target audience gave me about the posters means that I need to think carefully about the way in which I use the colours and image, looking at what they show. Along with this looking at the way in which I lay the poster out to make sure the means is clear.

            Getting my focus group to look at two different adverts allowed me to see what I need to include in my advert to make it appeal to them and put over the up coming plot lines. I found that the audience liked the way in which the music links to what is being shown, letting the audience gain a wider understanding of what is happening. Along with this makes sure that the characters shown are relatable and the appeal to the audience.

Questionnaire
By doing a questionnaire it helped me workout what type of soap I need to creates. For this I found that my target audience want a soap that fitted in with their age rage. Being that they felt there is not a soap that is aimed at their age rage and details with issues they face. The questionnaire also allowed me to think about the types of story lines that will appeal to them but along with this need they to be unconventional, making the soap stand out from other soaps out their. Doing the questionnaire allowed me to see the who my target audience are, finding that they are mainly female age between   12-20. Showing the way in which my soap will based around school life.

Internet Research
From doing internet research on my target audience I was able to find out the typical audience for soaps are women. This was the original target audience for soaps but now it has changed appealing to a wider audience. Knowing this means I to think about how I will make my soap appeal to both female and male audience. Finding that long running story lines work best as they keep the audience watching.

From my research I found that for my soap I will aim it at a target audience of mainly female audience but still not excluding the male audience by not keep it stereotypical female through the storyline and the characters. The age group being 14-20, as I found that their is not a soap aimed at this age rage. This reflects the idea that the soap needs to portray they live. Creating a soap based around school/college life allowing the audience to identify with the storylines and the characters. 

Focus Group

I got together a small group of people that would be my target audience to find their views on existing product, to help create me create my product that will appeal to my target audience.   

Hollyoaks Trailer

1. What do you think works well?
• The use of music fits in with the soap and what it being shown. Using this allows the audience to gain a better understanding of the soap and what the advert is showing.
• The way in which the characters are representation appeals to both female and male audience.
• The advert puts over what is going to happen well, being that it puts over the new characters. Along with this they show the different type of characters they are going to be and the possible relationships.

2. What does not work with this advert?

·   Their do not show you what type of soap it is and what is going to happen. You are not given any information about the setting, the types of soap it is and what’s going to happen.

·   The way in which the characters put me off being that I feel that I would not be able to connect with the characters.

·  The way in which the story is told breaks the realism of the advert and makes me uninterested as what is happening.

·  I find the advert uninteresting, being that nothing really happens.

3. Does this advert make you want to watch the soap?

·   Yes - being that the use of characters has made me want to see what’s going to happen with them.

·    No - as I feel that I will not be able to connect to any of the character. Along with this the advert gets you no information about what the soap is and the plot line used. 

Eastenders Trailer

1. What stands out to you from the advert?

• Not being able to see Eddie Moon till the end keeps me interested in what is happen. Having this keeps my attention till the end, making me to see who it is.
• The use of music fits in with the advert and allows the audience to gain an understanding of the character Eddie and connotes the relationship he has had with his child.
• The use of the mirrors at the end works very well and allows the audience to see the reaction of the sons and see their importance’s they play.
• The advert clearly puts over the up coming story line.
• The use of camera work allows the audience to see each characters reaction to Eddie allowing us to gain a insight to who the characters is and what they are going to be like.

2. What does not work with this advert?

·  Your not told what day’s it on and what time, this makes it harder to be able now when to watch the soap. This the important information that the audience need to know and feel that it should be include in the advert.

3.Does this advert make you want to watch the soap?

·  Yes- it builds drama and puts over the up coming story line making me interested in the soap and what is going to happen.

·  I enjoy the music used in the advert and it easy to understand what is going to happen, which makes me want to watch the soap.

What's on TV

1. What works well in this cover?

• You can easily see the main story; the image of Stacey stands out and gets your attentions. Having her as the main image appeal to me as I watch 'Eastender' and the shot allows use connect with the main character
• The use of bright colours makes it stand out and gets the audience attention. This is good when it come to buy the magazine as it allows it to stand out from the other ones.
• The title stand out, using short snappy headline gets the audience attention. Having "Stacey's pregnant!" draws my attention to the story and what is going to be in side the magazine.

2. What does not work well?

• The use of yellow along the side does not fit in with the other colours. It too light and blocks it off making it out of place.
• These no image Bradley, if you don't watch 'EastEnders' you would not know who he is.
• The layout of the cover is unconventional having the title in a box and the teasers down the side and along the bottom dose not fit in with the magazine. Its does not get my attention and the teaser lines do not stand out.

3. Does it make you want to buy the magazine?

·  Have the photo and main story standing out and bold, would make me as an ‘EastEnders’ fan buy the magazine.

·  No as I do not like ‘EastEnders’ and the other teasers do not stand out, which means the magazine would not get my attention in the shop.

·  Being a teen audience I feel that magazine is aimed at a more grown up audience and would not include articles that would appeal to me.

4. Does it make you want to watch the soap?

·   The head gets my attention and I would probably watch the soap to see what happening. Also the photo of Stacey allows you to connect with the character, which allows you to want to find out more about her.

·   I might read the article to see what is happening but probably would not watch it.  

Soaplife

1. What works well in this cover?

·   The use of the ripped effect behind master head and the cover line makes the stand out and makes the cover unconventional and gets my attention from other magazine.

·   The way in which the front over is split up between the different  plot lines appeals to different audiences and allows them to see what is going on in them all.

·   All the different images used allow the audience to connect with the different characters. The use of close ups of each character puts over their relationship and the story that’s going to happen.

·   The use of colour makes it stand out. The red master head against the white makes it stand out from the other magazines. The use of the bring pink has the same effect and makes the teasers grab my attention

2. What does not work well?

·    Having most of the cover pink puts me off as a male audience as I felt that it will only contain things that appeal to a female audience.

·   The board does not continual all the way around the cover which is a bit odd.

3. Does it make you want to buy the magazine?

·   Having the unconventional cover makes it standout from others I’ve looked at and when shopping it would appeal to me and I would end up buying it.

·   I don’t think that the colours fit in with me and this would not appeal to me, making me buy a different magazine as I think it would have different elements that would appeal to me.

·   Having the different images means that it appeals to a wider audience and means that I would buy it as I feel that it will cover all the different soaps I like.

4. Does it make you want to watch the soap?

·   I don’t know as I cover puts over different soaps I don’t think it draws me to any of them.

·  It draws me to the different soaps being that the images used are close up and clearly show the different plot lines that are coming up.

Home and Away Poster

1. What works well for this advert?

•  The blue back ground and use of the sun puts over the hot, sunny atmosphere linked to the soap.
• Using the male characters appeal to me as a female audience member.

2. What does not work well?

• You can not see the title well, which means it's not clear to see what soap is being averted.
• There is no storyline or plot being shown, which means it does not appeal to me. As I have no information on what is going to happen or the type of soap it is.
• The use of the male actors puts, me as a male audience off watching it. This is also because of the low angle shot, which make the characters look down on us. Making it hard to connect with them and puts them over as arrongant.

3. What would you change abotu the poster?

• Put in more information on the podter, as to what soap it's for, up coming plot lines. Including these things will mean that the poster will be able to give the audience the information need to know about the soap.
• Maybe having mixed charatcers on the poster to appeal to both genders and putting them on the set of the soap allowing the audience to gain a better idea of the soap.

4. Does it make you want to watch the soap?

• Yes, only because of the male charatcers shown on the poster.
• No, as its gives you no information about the soap and I don't know what type of soap it is and what the plot lines are going to be.

Hollyoaks Poster

1.What works well for this advert?

• The shot used allows you to see the two characters. it highlights thier relationships and allows the audience to see the type of characters they are.
• Having the teen characters means that we as an audience can relate to them. This is also match in their positions, looking out at the audience means that we are able to connect with them.
• The use of colours stands out, being that they are bright. They get my attention and make me look at the poster
• The title fit in with the house style of 'Hollyoaks', creating a link between their other advertisements.

2. What does not work well?

• Having the title along the side makes the poster look disorganised and has a childish feel to it.
• The poster gives you little information about the soap; you don't know what is being advertised. There is also no storyline being put over.
• The use of the orange along the bottom blocks the photo and again gives the poster a childish feel.

3. What would you change about the poster?

• Change the image used, to allow it to put over more information about the soap and the up coming story lines.
• Change the layout to make it appeal to a more groen up audience.
• Have a house style for the writing used; having the different fronts makes it look non-professional.

4. Does it make you want to watch the soap?

• No, the poster does not tell you much about what's going to happen. It is also not clear that the poster is advertising a soap and I feel that it is trageting the poster at a younger audience. Which makes me feel that the soap will not entertain me.

Socail Network - Audience Reseach

For my research I used social network sites to find out more information about my audience and their views on different soaps. Doing this will allow me to be able to create a soap that will appeal to my audience and have creative storyline that is relatable for my target audience. First I looked at ‘Facebook’ looking at the ‘Hollyoaks’ page to gain information from their fans on the storylines and what they think of what’s happening. Along with this I looked at ‘Twitter’ see what people were twitting about ‘Home and Away’ to gain an understanding of their view and how I can develop my soap.

 

The tweets that the fans, put over the different ways that they watch the soap, being that these were tweeted as they were watching the programme and from looking at these I can see the important elements that I need to include in my soap. The tweets show the way in which people connect with the characters, showing the way in which I need to create believable characters. The tweets also put over the way in which finding the right music is important and has an effect on the emotion of the audience and what they are seeing. It also puts over the way in which I need to think the impact of choosing a costume that reflects the characters but also fit in with the style of the audience. 

  

From looking at the comments on ‘Facebook’ page the comments manly focused on the storyline and showed me that I need to think carefully about the way in which I create my plot. Make sure that I have a storyline that allows the audience to become excited about it and talk about by having a plot that creates issues and allows the audience to relate to the characters.

Questionnaire result

I produced a questionnaire, to found out information about my audience and their views on soaps. This allowed me to find out the type of soap opera that would appeal to me audience and find out what I would need to include in the soap to make sure that it appeal to the target audience.

For my questionnaire I got the reasons from both male and female as I feel our soap opera should feel to both the female and male audience, gaining our soap a wide audience. However with this I asked more female’s being that they are stereotypical audience for soaps, through my audience research I found that this is still the main audience for soaps. From analysing different soaps I found that they were aimed at a older audience and their wasn’t a soap targeting at young adults, this is why I asked people that were between 12-20. With 18.2% of those who I asked being 12-16 and then 81.8% being 17-20 as I felt that this was my main target audience and I wanted to found out their views. This made my target audience in the demographic data being E and D, as they are likely to be students and not have skilled jobs. Being able to have a clear idea of my target audience, means that when it comes to creating our soap I will be able to include element that will appeal to my target audience.

I felt it was important to find out the reasons why my target audience watch soaps so that I could make sure that the soap I create will appeal to them. The reasons they watch soaps was because they found “it interesting” and as it’s “entertainment”.  Along with this I found that people said it was “cause they cooool” and “funny”. Knowing this will help me when creating the characters and the different storylines, need to make my soap appeal to the target audience. With this I also found out the reasons why people did not watch soaps, knowing this will help when creating my soap allowing me to see what I need cut out to make it appeal to my audience. With someone saying that they “get bored of them quite easily, not really one at the moment that has enough gripping storylines to keep me watching”. Knowing these highlights the way in which I need to make sure I kept my storylines attention-grabbing. Other people said that their “not on when I am watching TV”, this means that I need to look at the scheduling of the soap to make sure that it does not conflict with other programmes that appeal to the same target audience.      

To find out the peoples views on different soaps I asked them to rate each soap out of six, with six being the best and 1 being the worst.

I found that ‘EastEnders’ had the most people saying that it was the best soap, knowing this I will look closer at the different elements used in ‘EastEnders’ to appeal to their audience. Where as ‘Hollyoaks’ and ‘Home and Away’ had most people saying that they were the worst. Knowing this gives me an idea as to the type of element that I need to avoid when creating my soap to make sure that it appeals to my target audience. Where as the soaps ‘Neighbours’, ‘Emmerdale’ and ‘Coronation Street’ where more in the middle, showing the way in which some elements of their soap appeal to my target audience. Knowing the different rates of these soaps allows me to find out the different element that I will need to include in my soap and gives me an idea of the type things my target audience are interested.       

To allow me to gain an insight as to why these soaps appeal to my audience and know what they feel is important to include in my soap to appeal to them. From this question I found the “good stories”. Having a good storyline is something that came up a lot with my target audience saying that they need to be “Dramatic”, “exciting” and “gripping”. Knowing this when creating my different products I need to think carefully about the way I lay my poster and cover out so that I put over the storyline. As well as making my trailer show the storyline my audience said that they wanted “Characters you can relate to” and “Funny characters”, knowing this I need to think about the ways in which I am going to represent my characters to make sure that at least one character appeal to a member of my audience. Along with this I need to make sure that they are relatable and that the audience can clearly understand what is happening.            

So that I could see the types soaps that my target audience do not like I ask them which soaps they find boring. Finding out this allows me to see the type of story lines my audience do not like I found the ‘Hollyoaks’ had 72.7% as my target audience are a similar to theirs. Knowing that they dislike this soap mean that I need to look into the different storylines in ‘Hollyoaks’ and find out what I need to avoid to make sure that my soap appeal to my target audience. Where as ‘Eastenders’ and ‘Coronation Street’ only got 18.2% showing the way in which these soap are the favour but still my have thing that don’t appeal to them, this could have been as they have an older target audience. Knowing this shows the way in which there is not a soap aimed for my target audience that do not appeal to my audience, which hopeful means that I will be able to gain a wide audience.

As storylines was something that my target audience felt was important, I ask them what has been the favour storyline so that I could find out the type of storylines that I could include when creating my soap.  The first one was “John Stape and Fizz” this was a long running story line about scent identity and kidnap. This is something that another person said “returning charaters/explosions/the climax and end to a long running story”, knowing that my target audience enjoy long running dramatic plots is something I need to think about when creating a storyline. Others were “Dirty Den”, having old characters coming back this is a typical story line use in long running soap. “Stacy/Max/Bradley/Tanya” storylines about cheating and love are popular “People cheating on each other, always a cracker”. This is a popular storyline that lots of people like but however it is used a lot and if we use this storyline I felt we would need to think creatively about who we use it to keep the audience interested in. Also with love and death are commonly used “Jackson and Aaron” in which the two were in love but end in death, “death normally good” but again with this death is commonly use and I will have to think imaginatively about the way in which I use the plot line.

I ask my target audience if they watch soaps daily, this would allow me to find out if my target audience only watch the soap when there’s a big storyline or if they only watch the odd episode.

From this I found that 54.5% said that they watch them daily. The main reasons were “because you might miss something exciting and good”, “Easy viewing on prime time TV” and “To see what will happen next”. Knowing that most of my target audience watch soaps daily means that I will have an audience. Where as the 45.5% that said no was because “Don’t have the time” or “not really drawn towards one to watch at the moment”. This shows the way in which I need to think carefully about when I schedule the soap to make sure that it plays when my target audience are watching TV but does not conflict with other programmes. It also shows that I need to keep that storylines in my soap interesting at all time to keep views watching daily.    

As I need to my soap to appeal my target audience, I want to find out if they could create their own soap what it would be about. Finding this out allows me to make sure that the soap and storylines I create appeal to my audience. Some for my responses were:-

·        “Killings” – this is a typical storyline in soap and would be dramatic and keep the audience attention.

·        “Have people more like me”- this would work well allow my audience to connect well with the character and appeal to them  

·        “HAPPYNESS, they’re all sad”- Putting in both upbeat and gloomy plot line would allow me to have a mixture of emotions appealing to a wide audience

·        “Chatteris”-  (a local town)this highlights the way in which my target audience find it hard to relate to the characters and situation, which is something that I will try and put over in my soap

·        “University students”- this fits in with the idea for creating a soap that has character similar to my audience  

·         “One that is aimed more towards people my age (17). They are all quite general at the moment so they appeal to everyone. It would be good if there was a soap that appealed directly that I could relate to.”- this idea came up a lot of times with my audience and is a popular idea that I feel with allow me to create a soap that appeals to all area that my target audience want.

Questionnaire

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Institution - Print

Bauer

This company would be good to publish my magazine being that they have many magazines all read such as ‘Bella’, ‘Take a Break’ and ‘TV choice’ which appeals to a similar audience and would be able to disturbed my magazine across the UK.

                                           

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

This company is a family ran company and has been under the management of four generation of the Bauer Publishing Group has grown from its humble beginnings as a printing house into a worldwide publishing empire comprising of 282 magazines in 15 countries with 6,600 employee's worldwide and annual turnover of 1.79 billion Euros. The Bauer magazine portfolio includes some of UK number onr woman's weekly magazine. Meaning that it would reach my target audeicne and make sure that the magazine is successful.

IPC Media

This company would be good being that they publish a wide rang of magazine, which would allow my magazine to fit in well. With magazines such as ‘What’s on TV’, ‘Nuts’ and ‘Now’ through they have a big rage, there is also some that appeal to my target audience and would allow me make sure that my magazine appeals and reaches that audience.

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

IPC stands for Inter-process communication. It is the leading UK consumer magazine publisher. Almost 26 million UK adults read one of IPC magazine, highlighting the way in which they would be a good company to when publish my magazine. They have 80 magazines. The ICP is owned by Time Inc, the publishing of Time Warner Inc. There business is split into three distinct of publishing, these are ICP Connect,  ICP Southbank and ICP Inspire. ICP employs over 2,200 people. 

Institution - Trailer

'BBC Three'
A possible channel that our soap could be shown on would be ‘BBC Three’ being that its target audience fits in with ours and is tag line is “The digital TV channel that’s never afraid to try something new” showing the way in which it will fit in with what I would like to create.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/

The channel is owned by the ‘BBC’ and was started in 2003 but they were worried due to commercial rivals ‘ITV2’ and ‘E4’ and that they would just be competing for the sake of competing. Through when the channel opened their aim was to appeal to a younger audience, focusing on new talent and new technologies. Seen with the way in which they incorporated the news within the channel to appeal to their target audience by only having ’60 Seconds’ news bulletins which appeal to their target audience. It was proved in 2008 when it reached 26.3% of the 16-34 years old audience, with an average nine million people watching ‘BBC Three’ ever week. With the channel having a wide rage of programmes including comedy, drama, spin-off series from ‘BBC One’ and ‘BBC Two’; having this rage of channel means that the soap I create would fit in with the programmes all ready on the channel along with appealing to the audience and having issues that effect them. Seen with the way in which there programmes attempt to alert others of their actions and challenging common beliefs. Many of their programmes have made the move to ‘BBC One’, showing the way in which there is possibility of the soap to become something bigger and reach a wider audience. With programmes such as ‘Little Britain’ and ‘Gavin & Stacey’ making the move showing the way in with the channel is becoming more successfully and reaching a wider audience.

‘E4’

Another channel that my soap could work on is ‘E4’ being that it is aimed at 15-35 age group similar to the target audience that I plan to aim my soap at.  This means that I would be able to reach my target audience directly.

http://www.e4.com/

The channel is owned by the Channel Four Television Corporation and was January 2001. With the ‘E’ standing for entertainment, the channel focus on bring the best in entertaining programmes to it audience and is seen to shown many American imported sic-coms, such as ‘The O.C’, ‘Friends’ and ‘Glee’. Through with this its own programmes are just as successfully with ‘The Inbetweeners’ getting over 3.7 million viewer and is one of the most successful broadcast to date and would be able to pull in a big audience. The channel first start as part of ‘Sky’ and then move to become available on ‘Freeview’ in 2005 and with that move their audience rating grow. Having many interactive features that get the audience involved, having this interactive element will fit in with my target audience and allow them to become more interested in the programme.

Regulation - Tailer

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/guidance/831193/watershed-on-tv.pdf

Looking at the ‘Ofcom’ information about Soaps being that it is more than likely that I will have my soap and trailer played pre-watershed to be able to appeal to the youngest members of my target audience. Through looking at ‘Ofcom’ I found that most soap caused the most concern for parents being that they often attract child meaning I need to think about making sure that may material is suitable for children and being careful about repeats during the daytime being that they may being watching without an adult. With the mean concerns being about violence, sexual content and offensive language, meaning that I need to think about if the content will be suitable. Along with this another concern was about the long run storyline and non-regular viewers appreciating the overall context meaning that before each episode I need to provide information to views and not just rely on the long running storyline and established.

Along with this I looked at the regulations of Trailers being that it will be placed pre-watershed and that means that the trailer can only have content that is appropriate for a per-watershed audience. I will also need to look at the time when the trailer goes out being that there is a young audience watching set programmes or family entertainment meaning that I will need to think about when the trailer will be should and how this effect the context.     

Internet Reseach

When ‘Soap Operas’ frist came out they were aimed at housewives who would be avilable to listen and the ‘soaps’ where aimed at them with soap  manufacturers using this time to adverts which is were the name ‘soaps’ come form.  This traget audince of women is still many the audince that views ‘soaps’.This is as the storylines appeal to more of a female audince but mordan ‘soaps’ are trying to reach a wider audicene this can be seen with ‘Hollyoaks’ being that the actors used were normal mordals before, which makes that sopa appeal to a more male audience. Other soaps have tried to appeal to a younger audicen as well by having a mixer of charatcers doing this makes the soap appeal to both audlts and young people. However from the reseach I have found that most ‘soaps’ foucs manly on the audlt side and there is not a ‘sopa’ aimed at young people.

            The time which ‘soaps’ on follow each other which allows view to wacth more than one. Their also strat after school/colloage or work which allows a wide audience to be able to wacth the ‘soap’. However the genre of ‘soap opera’ is said to be in trouble, with audince numbers droping over the past few years. Some industry insiders say “that the recent dwindling in the number of shows still on the air is just the beginning of the end”. This is said to be because there is a dissatisfaction in the quality of the storylines and charaters are no longer relatable. Knowing this means that when I creat my new ‘soap’ I need to make sure that I can creat charatcers that my traget audience will be able to relate to, as well as keeping the storyline exsiting.   

            The term soap opera has at times been generally applied to any romantic serial, but is also used to describe the more naturalistic, unglamorous evening, prime-time drama serials of the UK such as ‘Coronation Street’. What differentiates soap from other television drama programs is the open-ended nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. The defining feature that makes a program a soap opera is that it, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". Soap opera stories run concurrently, intersect, and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several different concurrent story threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another, or may run entirely independent of each other. Each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines but not always all of them. There is some rotation of both storylines and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of a week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely "wrap things up" story wise, and generally avoid bringing all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time. When one storyline ends there are always several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger.