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NW1 8QQ
Broadcast TV
"Want to get involved in television production? Then read on."
As an independent producer of Television, we are always looking to commission new programmes.
Currently, we are working on ideas for a new soap opera that is targeted at prime time audiences.
However, we are aware of the criticisms that are levelled at Soap Opera. It has developed a reputation for its extreme representation of reality.
We want to take it back to the real issues that society face and we must avoid the negative stereotypes often seen on television. We don’t want to lose the entertainment value of Soap Operas but we do want a programme which is informative, relevant and encourages positive role models and a sense of community. Remember an important element of Soap Opera is that of establishing a relationship with the audience.
All we have got so far is the setting- a village in the Vale of Belvoir. It is up to you to decide on a format. It is important that our programme is suitable for prime time family viewing. So we need to be careful about the content of the programme.
We are planning to pilot a six week run in the summer. Your remit is to come up with a pitch that meets our challenge.
An important aspect in considering your idea will be how we are going to market it to the target audience. Don’t forget that a successful Soap Opera relies heavily on its ability to be effectively promoted across the media.
You have four weeks in which to research, plan and prepare and then you will be asked to complete four tasks.
Remember to:
keep your responses short and focused
use diagrams/illustrations where appropriate
provide examples where you can support your ideas.
The successful pitch will be used for the production of this pilot.
Good luck with this. We look forward to hearing from you.
Ray Lite: Commissioning Editor
rlite@broadcasttv.co.uk
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Soap Opera: Notes
Soap Opera is one of the most dominant forms of drama on British television and occupies most of the primetime slots of terrestrial television. The BBC's EastEnders tussles with ITV's Coronation Street for ratings supremacy, and ITV has other big guns in Emmerdale and The Bill. Imported soaps include Neighbours (BBC1) and Home and Away (Channel 5) and the form is so popular there are now annual British soap awards.
Many Soap Operas purport to present a version of real life very close to one we might recognise. This kind of drama is frequently described as being 'more realistic' than crime and fantasy-based dramas, and for that reason they deserve careful study. But are Soaps really a dramatised version of real life?
Origins of Soap Opera
Soap Operas were born, not on television, but on radio in the 1930s. They were serialised daytime dramas, and were sponsored by major detergent manufacturers. Since most men were at work when these were broadcast, the audience was mainly female. Most of the drama revolved around female characters too - often professional women, presenting lives that the listeners could only aspire to.
The first British Soap was Mrs Dale's Diary, broadcast on the BBC Light programme (now Radio 2) in 1948. Mrs Dale was not an aspirational character: she was a middle-class doctor's wife living in the suburbs outside London with two grown-up children. The show lasted more than 20 years and came to an end in 1969, just as the feminist movement was taking root.
The Archers was launched alongside Mrs Dale in 1950 and is still running on BBC Radio 4. From the start this was a modern soap opera, with a mix of familial, community and domestic settings, characters and storylines.
The most long-lasting television soap is Coronation Street, made by ITV. It began in 1960 and focuses on day-to-day community and family life in the fictional Manchester suburb of Weatherfield. It was originally commisioned for just 12 episodes - it's now on its way to 5000!
What makes a Soap?
There isn't a single, set formula for making a Soap Opera, but there are a number of criteria which are broadly recognisable in the genre
Localized settings with communal areas
Characters need places to meet and mingle, and producers save on set costs by using the same set for many different character encounters.
The loveable rogue, the tart with a heart, the put-upon wife, the fussy widow, the loveable softy, the stroppy (and prematurely pregnant) teenager... need I go on? Soaps do not have central characters: they are ensemble pieces with large casts.
A defining feature of Soap Opera is that several stories are running at the same time in each episode. One storyline may end, but episodes do not have clear endings: there is no overall narrative closure. Rather, they have...
...guaranteed to bring audiences back to see what happens next. Eastenders uses the dum dum start of its theme tune at the end to heighten the impact of this device.The cliffhanger has a long and illustrious history: Charles Dickens originally published his novels a chapter at a time in magazines, and frequently ended chapters on cliffhangers.
Soap Opera plots are often built around personal, human stories and family conflict, rather than crimes or adventures.
Soaps like EastEnders and Hollyoaks have become increasingly interested in storylines built around issues, rather than stories driven by characters. Most famously, EastEnders decided one of its regular characters would contract AIDS and more recently was the first to portray a Muslim same sex relationship
Many soaps run for just 30 minutes, but are screened three or four times per week.
Relatively few people bother to record soap operas when they go on holiday: they know they'll be able to pick up what they missed when they return. This is because dialogue makes heavy use of plot recaps to remind the audience what happened in previous episodes.
Soap Opera is produced quickly and relatively cheaply. Therefore it tends to be heavy on dialogue (cheap and quick), light on action (time-consuming and expensive
Realism in Soap
Social realism
There is a longstanding tradition towards social realism in British Soap: that is, a 'warts and all' presentation of the world as people experience it, rather than an idealised version of reality. Soap operas like EastEnders and Coronation Street may reasonably be described as social realist serials: they explore lives and issues that seem broadly 'realistic', although the idea that all these issues could arise in one small place is dramatic licence
Light entertainment Soaps
The sunny, upbeat opening titles for Neighbours and Home and Away tell us that these are programmes designed to entertain their audiences without presenting too much of a challenge to their audience. The issues they deal with will be presented less confrontationally, and characters are frequently redeemed - they change their ways for the better
Glamourised Soaps
American 'Soaps' like Dallas and Dynasty popularised this genre in the 1980s; today it is epitomised by series' such as Desperate housewives. Characters are always immaculately presented and beautiful, and the idea that there is anything realistic about their lives for all but the rarest of people is patently absurd.
Technically most glamourised Soaps aren't soaps at all - in that they have seasonal, rather than on-going, runs
Hybrids
Some Soaps use elements of more than one style. Hollyoaks, for example, sometimes appears to be social realist, but also borrows techniques and devices from light entertainment shows which its teenage audience finds more enjoyable
Who watches Soap Opera?
We've already established that soap operas were originally developed with a female audience in mind - they were aimed at American housewives. But who watches soap operas today
We can guess who advertisers think are watching soap operas by thinking carefully about the commercials screened during soap ad breaks. Broadcasters schedule adverts with great care to maximise their target audiences - if the adverts appear to target mainly women, then women are the dominant audience still
But why are they? Here are a few thoughts - bear in mind that I will be making some crude generalisations in what follows
Women and soap
Soap opera narratives are mostly built around domestic concerns. Many men find their attention divided between home and work; women tend to focus more of their attention on their home lives. With more invested in the domestic, they will be more naturally interested in home-based, relationship-based storylines.
Soap operas frequently features strong female characters of all ages and appearances, including middle-aged and elderly. e.g. Dot Cotton in EastEnders. How common is this in other kinds of television. Other female characters may suffer badly at the hands of men, offering recognition and association for some women, and identification with the more morally upright female victims. In soap opera, it is a convention that villains always get their comeuppance in the end - the narratives show escape routes for the worst of life's problems. It also shows how 'ordinary people' might cope with the ongoing struggles of day to day life without money, fulfillment, job satisfaction etc.
The portrayal of sensitive men may also be appealing reassuring to some women, as will the 'realistic, warts-and-all' representation of many teenagers.
Soap operas also form the starting point of many casual conversations - "did you see Corrie last night?" - and these are stereotypically a female preserve. "Women like to gossip" it is said, and soap operas provide a host of characters to gossip about harmlessly, without fear of the subjects of the gossip biting back
They also present narrative enigmas: opportunities to guess what is going to happen next. Men are said to enjoy crime drama because they like to solve puzzles and mysteries. The more character-based enigmas typical of soaps may provide women with a similarly satisfying 'problem' to solve.
Teenagers and soap
While women still form the biggest audience for soap opera, it is also worth noting how many teenagers (of both genders, but especially girls) have become soap opera fans. Certain mainstream soaps (Neighbours, Hollyoaks) have been structured around a teen audience, with many settings (schools, cafés, bedrooms) familiar to that age-groups. Meanwhile, other series (Grange Hill, Waterloo Road and Skins) seem to be leading audiences into a lifelong soap habit!
