Last years soap opera trailer

This is a soap opera trailer from the media students from last years year 13.

Things that work in the trailer:

• Dark lighting- connotes murder/danger/fear


• Black and dull coloured costume- highlights the darkness of the bad characters.


• White writing on the black background- sticks to dark theme and looks professional


• Loud tense music- builds tension


• Dutch angle shots- puts across a confused/ unknowing feel.


• Fades- makes the clips look darker and builds tension

Dark Lighting

The dark lighting in the interior connotes danger and puts the audience in a tense state as they would be waiting for something to jump out as darkness in horror films usually leads to the conventional loud outburst of high pitched music with Propp's 'Villain' character making an appearance. So this soap trailer complies with the conventional dark and dingy lighting of a horror film.

Black and white coloured costume

The opening of the trailer is where there is a man in bed, he is in a white t shirt and sleeping in white bedding. White connotes innocence therefore the audience would associate this costume with a protagonist. So when the man in full black costume walks into the room the connotations of black are danger and secrecy therefore the audience would link this man to be the antagonist. This theme of good vs evil complies with Claude Levi-Strauss's theory that all stories operate to certain clear binary options and for instance in this trailer it is good vs evil which is shown through the contrasting costume.


White writing on the black background

The transition used make the titles seem as if they are creeping up on the characters and audience. The colour scheme of the titles are black and white, these stick to the contrasting colour scheme of good vs evil. The background is black and the white writing scrolls over. Having the background black it makes it the dominate colour therefore this could draw connotations to the evil character having the power and dominance over the good character which is highlighted through the white writing.


Loud tense music

The loud tense music builds tension and puts the audience on edge. The loud music is continuous throughout the whole trailer which would keep the audience alert and active waiting for something. There is a break in the non diegetic music at the end where the female speaks. This makes her dialogue seem extremely important and because it stops the music it connotes her importance.

Dutch angles

Dutch angles are used a lot in the trailer, the dutch angle has connotations of twisted and evil this could denote that the characters in hoods are evil and twisted. Also it is unnerving because the angle because it is seen from an uneven perspective.



Things that did not work as well:

• The prop (black bag)- unrealistic


• lack of character profile- didn't know enough about the reasons why each character were doing what they were doing in the trailer.


• Lack of narrator- the title clip of the name of the soap was very plain therefore if there was a narrator it would have had a bigger effect on the viewer.

The prop

The black bag should give the audience an eerie tense feeling as it should denote a dead body as that is conventional. However, the black bag just looks like a duvet which makes the whole storyline look unrealistic because it does not make the audience question whose body is in the bag, which should be happening keeping them more active.

Lack of character profile

During the trailer the hooded characters are not seen full front therefore their identity is not revealed, in some films this is conventional but in soap trailers it is not conventional. This is due to soap operas complying with the Hypodermic Needle theory where the audience are passive so the trailer should reveal the characters but leave the storyline and final conclusion for them to figure out.

Lack of narrator

The narrator usually makes a soap trailer more conventional and easier to follow. The narrator could have also given the end of this trailer an eerie feel. However, they just left the trailer to finish with titles, although the colours of black and white connote secrecy and fear but a narrator would have had a bigger impact with a more conventional end.