Soap Operas essays

Soap Operas essays The soap opera genre originated from American radio in the 1930s, and owes its name to the sponsorship of the programs by large soap powder companies. They were targeted at women, particularly housewives, and designed to entertain, without distracting them from there daily chores while their husband was out working. They were formulated to be easy listening and numerous Storylines woven into one episode. Basically unlike radio plays or melodramas, there were no ending points only ending storylines. Part of this assignment is to review modern day Soap operas, which have now evolved to Television and to examine the ideolology and certain traditions behind them. I included a recording of Eastenders, which was taken from UK Gold. It was interesting to breakdown the Scene and analyze the technical details as well as the subtext of the program. The title sequence, is very simple, it began in the river Thames, for about half a second the screen is completely green, then very quickly, accompanied by the familiar theme, the camera zoomed out, whilst rotating clockwise to revel a colour map of London ( Interestingly not just of the East end of London). The River Thames remaining central and the main focal point within the golden triangle of the frame. The primary meaning of the map is nothing more than a map of London, a nice pictorial, aerial view. The semiotic meaning however is considerably different, It suggest Entertainment, Scandal, maybe time to stop doing what you are doing and relax. Even Before the title, which is indecently one word, Eastenders appears, the visual image has captured peoples attention, The Distinctive theme tune has in its own right become an audible code, to Provoke the same response from the viewer, even if they are at that point not in the same room as the television. Its Become an alarm bell to tell them that the program has begun. The wor...