Genre

TV trailers are created to promote a particular storyline that is coming up in the soap. They usually concentrate on one particular character which focuses on the characters role in the leading storyline.
Below is a TV trailer for Coronation Street where it focuses on Tony Gordon,the local business man, who has two sides to his character. This is all shown and promoted in this trailer.It is clever as it establishes the genre of the soap well as Tony is considered a caring, kind and thoughtful character on the street, something which audiences usually associate with the genre of Coronation Street. The trailer also includes a slogan which is a pun on the soaps trailer content and the soaps narrative. It relates well to the soap and allows consistency within the branding element of a soap. It goes against what the audience expect from this particular soap, however special storylines are created to entice the audience and give them something interesting and something almost unexpected of the soap, this draws in the viewers as they are not something that happens in every episode unlike social issues and realistic storylines.





Below is a TV trailer for Emmerdale which does not follow the conventions of the soap but is more like a film trailer, something that is typical for promoting a main story line coming up in the programme. It does not show one typical geographical location, it is instead mainly set in a luxurious bathroom something that is not a typical location in any soaps as it does not create a sense of realism. The costume of Charity excluding the end of the trailer is not typically something an audience would see a soap opera character wearing and there is no particular social issue present in the trailer.



Our soap is not really a hybrid but could be argued that it has a 'gangster' genre with the protagonist and the main storyline which our trailer will
TV soaps do follow the main conventions of the genre with main characters and stereotypes, the soaps distinctive mise-en-scene and typical ideologies. However in soap promos all of these are broken and there is no evidence of soap conventions.
For example typical conventions of a soap is
-the iconic theme tune and establishing shot,(shown below, the Eastenders opening)
-a close geographical location
-a core cast of familiar characters that the audience recogise and form personal relationships with.
-Stereotypes
-Multi-stranded narratives
-Cliff Hangers
-Time-the past is acknowledged and there is a sense of future
-Communal meeting places (pubs,cafes etc)
-Realism of costumes and set
-Important social issues are addressed, Crime, pregnancy, adultery, rape etc...
All of these conventions are present in most soaps with few breaking the conventions.



According to Brown (1997) soap operas are primarily aimed at a female audience even though many males enjoy watching them.


Christine Geraghty (1991) suggests that there are four elements which explain the appeal of soap operas...
-an emphasis on a central woman whom the audience is invited to support,
-a division between the public and private sphere with woman controlling the public space.
-an emphasis on building and maintaining relationships.
-an element of fantasy in which things such as love and relationships are given priority.


There are two genres that our main project is going to follow, the soap opera genre and the soap trailer genre . However our trailer will not follow the conventions of a typical soap but follow a similar format to film trailers. They often break the realism which soaps are normally confined.