Main Conventions of Soap Operas

Before we even begin to start planning our soap trailer, it is essential for us to be aware of the typical conventions of a soap opera.
Below are a few conventions that are found in soap operas:

1.       Soap operas are serialised drama that usually runs throughout the year, week-in, week-out.

2.       Continuous narratives are proposed which deal with domestic themes and personal relationships.

3.       It normally has a well-recognised theme tune and introduction sequence which has only changed slightly over the years.

4.       There is a limit to the number of characters shown at any one time, even though the casts for soap operas tend to be larger than for drama series. This allows more time to be spent proposing each character as a smaller number of them are shown, thus the audience will engage with the character s better and the storylines are able to be more detailed, as well as there being several over time.

5.       The plots in soap operas are open-ended and many stories are told or even interlinked in an episode, often following the same issue. For example, the soap may show a break-up of a relationship, showing the two characters dealing with it. In these cases, stories run parallel.

6.       The setting is often around a small, central area. For example, a square, such as EastEnders, or a cul-de-sac, such as Brookside.

7.       For events taking place in the real world such as Christmas or the Millennium, soaps often show special episodes. Some of these episodes bring in long-departed characters, or current characters that travel to a location which is not where their usual surrounding is. These episodes are often acknowledged as ‘soap bubbles’ as they usually do not have much of an impact on the on-going stories of the usual show.

8.       Common, ordinary, working-class characters are mostly proposed in British soaps, in contrast to American soaps, where richer, flashier, more fantasy-inspired characters are proposed. This reflects the preferences of their target audience.

9.       British soaps focus on realism and aim to display a realistic story

10.   Many storylines will be in progress in the duration of one episode, with the action switching between them. After one narrative is resolved, a completely different one with different characters will already be in progress.

11.   There is usually a ‘hook’ to begin an episode in a soap in which narratives from the previous episode are continued. The end of the episode will be a ‘cliff-hanger’, which leaves the audience questioning themselves on what will happen next.

The purpose in making note of the conventions in soap operas is so that I can look back at these for reference when planning my own thriller. My aim is to use as many of these conventions in my soap trailer in order to create an effective final product, which consists of all the vital elements needed to display the soap genre.