Analsis of Eastenders episode 17/06/2011

Eastenders is one of the longest running soaps and one of the most famous and most talked about.
It covers many different storylines from murder to divorce and love, there is normally two or three storylines going on at one time and many cross together.

In the episode that i watched the themes and storyline that was running through it was engagement, murder, everyday work and life, court appearances, a couple trying for a baby and organising a wedding. These are mostly everyday situations, of course the situations are exagerated to create more drama so is more interestiong to read.

The age in soaps is continually changing as part of the soaps is that you see different characters evolve and turn into adults, it is done to create verisimilitude. The age ranges from new born babies up to old age pensioners. The main age groups are teenagers and adults, this could be a device used to target the audience they are trying to reach which is predominatly teenagers and adults.

The representation of ethnic minorities are shown in a stereotypical manner through the want of a large extravagant wedding with lots of bright colours. Ethnic majorities are shown in a stereotypical way of being in a large family but with some fmaily conflicts, but these are found in all families.

The places where scenes are taking place are in very normal places, they range from the street, inside a kitchen, living room, cafe, restaurant, kitchen, and a house party. These places are used as they are not out of the ordinary and try to keep the drama as close to real life as possible. The same is said for the different types of people shown in the piece, many people are students, a large amount are manual workers, a few aree office workers and a few are businessmen or other high proffesions. The exact number for these are:

A- Higher class/Businessmen- 1
B- Nurses/Teachers- 2
C- Office workers- 6
D- Manual Labour- 6
E- Unemployed/Students- 11

This is quite even spread of different classes of people and is quite similar to the overall spread of professions in the real working world.

I have analysed a complete episode of a Soap opera to allow my self the chance to see how they are structured, what types of situations they contain and how they keep to verisimiltude. By doing this exercise I feel that I have a better understanding of how Soap operas are edited and put together in a viewable order. This in turn will help me when making my Soap opera as I have been able to spot many conventions found in Soap operas.

Specific Knowledge of Soaps in a Mind Map

I have created this mind map to show my specific knowledge of Soap operas. This way I will be able to show what level of knowledge I am starting with and I will know what topics I will need to improve on.

Specific Knowledge of Soaps in a Mind Map:

Mind map of Soaps

I have created this mind map to show what knowledge I have of soap operas. This will allow me to see what topics I need to improve on and what ones that I am confident on.


Soap