Soap Opera Conventions (Academic Research)

A soap opera is a dramatised programme which is aired in chronological order, often shown several times a week- all year round. Using the same core set of characters, locations and on-going plots that a dedicated fan will be able to follow through for months on end. When creating Bathwood we took this aspect into account and ensured that we had enough interesting characters for them to be involved in varied stroylines, as well as the potential to grow as individuals. As well as making them relatable for the audience by inclusing everyday issues as well as controversial.

  
Pubs from Right to Left: Eastenders: Queen Vic. Coronation Street: Rover's Return. Emmerdale: The Woolpack.

   Soaps generally have a well known logo and theme tune that changes as little as possible throughout the years. Bathwood follows this convention by obtaining a catchy melody throughout the trailer as well as using the bleak east midlands setting as an indexical reference for the pathetic fallacy of the soap.
   There tends to be set locations in soaps where the local people will meet up regularly and are the settings for the most important scenes such as public arguments, they tend to be Pubs (Queen Vic, Rover's Return, The Dog in the Pond). As is the main building for the Bathwood trailer, the Asfields pub serves as this particular necessity.
   Episodes tend to have one ongoing theme within each episode, in the first episode of Bathwood we feel the appropriate theme would be new beginnings and fresh starts. As it offers the chance to get to know the Malone family as they are in the process of reinventing themselves and therefore they won't be missing out on past events unless they are revealed through flashbacks etc.
   It is common to have special, extended episodes with riveting plots during holidays such as Christmas, New Year, or on Anniversaries (Coronations Street's recent 50th) of the show itself. Bathwood would stick to this convention as whilst it prides itself on being innovotive it would also be good nostalgia for the audience to be able to relate to television interperatations of events that everyone takes part in all over the country. Adding to the idea that soaps are windows on reality.

 
Special Edition Episodes: Eastenders Christmas, and Coronation Street 50th Anniversary.

   Cultural differences can also be seen as British soaps tend to be based around working class life (Eastenders) whereas American soaps tend to focus on the lives of the rich, glamourous lifestyles (Dynasty). In Bathwood we would include fair representations of all races and cultures fairly without falling into the traps of stereotypes, absent presence, present absence, tokenism, etc.

 
British vs. American Soap Operas: Everday family life opposed to upper class glamour

   Cliffhangers are often used to entice the audience back to watch the next episode, possibly ending with a close up of a character's anguished expression as the soap's theme song begins to play, indicating the end credits are about to appear. Bathwood has many storylines that could be used as cliffhangers whether it be the revelation of secrets or the impending consequences of a characters immoral actions.

 
Cliffhangers: Eastenders plotline of a car driven into a lake, character Phil Mitchell to the rescue.

   There are usually a maximum of four or five seperate stroylines per episode, just enough to keep the audience interested, but not so much that they lose track of what's happening. In Bathwood there are four main characters of all ages so the audience would be able to relate to atleast one storyline and then be introduced to other types of dilemmas in seperate parts of the plot. This is what is good about the soap opera media in that it opens people's minds to other ways of life away from their own.