Storyline

Challenge Conventions?

So far the modern soap adverts we have analysed have had a surreal theme to it, we are looking to make our advert a cross between this elements but to add more realism. I highly enjoy the adverts that I have analysed but as the brief states that it is for a new soap I feel that we need to convey the characters in much more depth, whilst combining the lighter elements of the existing adverts.

By doing this in some way we will be challenging the conventions of modern soap ads, but focus on plot and characters will hopefully entice audiences more then an advert which glamorises and particular storyline, which the existing ones seem to do.

So with Teenage Pregnancy as our chosen plot, we began research into British soaps which tend to have a strong regional identity, EastEnders is set in the East End of London, while Manchester is the setting for Coronation Street. This is not just to attract viewers from that area, but also to make it more realistic. The area in which the soap is set also has an effect on its plotting and characters, this is important to show in our trailer because it must have a brief overview of the soap.
Many people watch soaps because of its trailers it pleases us to see and hear other people's problems, which in turn distracts us from our own. However, a soap opera has no real victims as the characters are fictional. However, we like to make guesses about their actions and reactions based on our knowledge of them. We like to see them develop as we get to know them and we enjoy learning about the complex relationships between characters, which is previewed in trailers. We become semi-experts on our favourite soaps, and our encyclopedic knowledge of them, fuelled by the above points, gives us great pleasure. In a voyeuristic manner, we like to watch other people's lives like in the case of soap operas they are just like ours, but more interesting.
Rebecca and I, decided to pursuit a story much alike to that of Sarah-Louise Platt. Because when it came to men, Sarah was very unlucky.


In February 2000, just after her 13th birthday, Sarah found out she was pregnant. Her daughter Bethany was born four months later.

The father, Neil Ferns, had no interest in Bethany and was always an "absent father". However, in late 2003, after Neil died in a car crash, Bethany's paternal grandmother, Brenda Ferns, established contact after Sarah took Bethany to Neil's funeral. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah-Louise_Grimshaw