Soap analysis- Eastenders

Eastenders is a conventional British Soap Opera which has been running since 1985. The fact that it has been running for so long without any problems shows it is successful. Its storylines revolve around the lives of the people who live in the fictional borough called Walford in the East End of London, and their lives and how they live within their community which includes a pub, street market, night club, community centre, cafe, a park, allotments and a variety of other small buisnesses.

The programme has come a long way, from having just two episodes broadcasted every week, to four episodes being broadcasted each week today, including an omnibus edition which screens on Sunday afternoons.

This soap is a great example of a successful soap, and how the same character can remain within the soap for many years, and still get audiences after more than 25 years.

We want our soap to have this effect on our audiences.

Being put into our group

Today in class, we were put into our coursework groups. I was put with Anna Philona, Shadei Rabeie and Elena Antoniades. These are the people I am going to be filming my soap trailer and creating my website with. I do not usually work with these people, so it would be good having them as group members as we will be able to work with each other effiently and progressively and be able to put our ides together in order to complete tasks and move successfully through the coursework. Today, we were discussing possible pitch ideas for our soap, and next lesson, we will come together with our pitch ideas and share them.

Elements and conventions of a soap opera

I am making a list of some of the most obvious conventions within soap operas so that I can be certain of what soap operas contain. It is important to have a good knowledge of this list when creating soap operas or trailers for soap operas otherwise mistakes can be made and the end result may not represent a soap opera.

*Cliffhangers
*Narrative enigmas
*Gossip
*Music- diagetic/non-diagetic
*Locations- ficticious
*Accents- regional
*Real life issues
*Point of gatherence
*Sensationalised storylines
*Realism
*Relationship issues
*Love triangles
*Concurrent storylines
*Flashbacks

Social realism and representation

I am going to analyze characters from 'Eastenders' and how their storylines they have been in have created their impact on the soap opera's audience. Through understanding this, I aim to develop an understanding of how characters fit their storylines so that we can make our own characters and their storylines understandable to our audience.

Character: Pauline Fowler

Storylines:

*Worked in a laundrette with Dot
*Married to Aurthur
*Brother Pete- Fruit and Vegtable stall
*Pregnant with Martin
*Michelle (daughter) Mark (son)
*Mother

Representation:

*Working class mother. Strong, willed, tough and protective
*Strong sense of family
*Young audiences relate to older characters through trust
*Character traits are projected to other characters but also to audience. She is the 'rock', holding other characters together.


Character: Dot Cotton

Storylines:

*OAP religious chain smoker
*Euthanasia storyline- helping to kill Ethel Skinner

Representation:

*Good/bad side to character. Has flaws which the audience can relate to. She is gullible. The audience sympathize with her
*Nick Cotton manipulates her
*Two sides to her character- family orientated
*She makes hard decisions that we could all be faced with.


Character: Phil Mitchell

Storylines:

*Two sides to him- Struggled initially with the loss of contact with two children, Ben and Louise
*Enjoys a position of power in the square- power over Billy Mitchell.

Representation:

*Brutish hardman- links to pub/garage. Alcoholic- unsettled, unfaithful. Relationships- Kathy, Lisa, Stella


Peggy accuses Billy at Christmas

The family are celebrating Christmas when Peggy accuses Billy of stealing money.

*Exposions often occur during family occasions.
*Audience is always one step ahead.
*Drama is heightened by juxtaposing a scene of calm with a scene of chaos.


From this in depth research of characters and their roles and effect on the whole soap, I have realised just how much time is needed when creating storylines for characters. This knowledge will be useful when we are creating storylines for our characters because we will be able to judge whether the storylines suit the characters well.