Conventions Found In Trailers Compared To Full Episodes

Conventions of Soap Opera Trailers:
-Short in length
-Usually only feature a few characters
-Can include multiple jump cuts
-Soundtrack throughout
-Following one storyline
-Can be seen at various times on the television
-Cliffhanger


Only 1:01 minutes long.
There are only two main characters and only a few other characters that appear for a few seconds throughout the piece.
The audience are left to wonder what is going to happen next.
Music is played throughout the piece.
Only one storyline is showed to the audience - the return of two characters.

Conventions of Soap Opera Episodes:
-Music is only normally used to introduce the soap
-Certain times it is broad casted
-Many story lines and characters
-Usually half an hour in length of episode
-Cliffhanger at the end
-Uses various locations (exterior & interior settings) and lighting


Nearly half an hour long
The theme tune is played at the beginning so that the audience can recognise the soap opera.
Throughout the piece the audience are able to follow a large number of story lines that also include a lot of characters.
The episode is left with an open narrative so the audience are unsure of what is going to happen in the next episode.
There are many differences between soap opera trailers and full episodes and when creating our trailer, we will need to take this into consideration to ensure that it follows the key conventions of a trailer avoiding those of a full episode. From research we found that trailers are short and are normally focused on a specific character or storyline where as a full episode would normally be on for half an hour to an hour and include multiple story lines within the one episode which would flow together within the episode. However, we found that both a trailer and full episode would leave the audience wanting to find out more by using a cliffhanger at or towards the end. A trailer would show the time and channel where to find the soap as it is can be broadcast at any time of day which is different from a full episode as they have a scheduled time every day in which they are shown on the television. Taking all this into account, for our trailer, we are looking on focuses on introducing the new characters and new soap without over-complicating it and will be looking to use just one main storyline with the information on the soap at the end of the piece.