How did Hollyoaks start?
When was it first broadcasted?
Who is it aimed at?
What can we get from this?
Hollyoaks-Analysing
Hollyoaks is a soap / entertainment programme mainly targetting age groups such as the 16-34 year old age margin based in England. The target group is extremely important as it helps to develop who should be viewing the soap. It also encourages people to watch it knowing that this certain soap is for their age, so the issues that come up at that certain age are more properly addressed and people can understand what certain situations are like and what reactions would usually happen.
The show has been broadcast at 18.30, much mainly based on knowing that most of the people coming how from work, would want to see a soap after work or dinner on Channel 4 in the UK since it was first broadcast on the 23rd October, 1995.
The show has been broadcast at 18.30, much mainly based on knowing that most of the people coming how from work, would want to see a soap after work or dinner on Channel 4 in the UK since it was first broadcast on the 23rd October, 1995.
Since then, many people also watch Sunday's catch-ups where they are able to see a "hollyoaks omnibus" and see all the programmes of that week for roughly 3 hours.
For those who don’t watch the programme, Hollyoaks is simply a kids’ show with no appeal except it’s young and pretty cast. The reality is, however, that Hollyoaks has come a long way from something small to being the soap to recieve the most awards at the British Soap Awards in 2008 this is mainly because of its hard-hitting and gripping storylines from paedophilia to incest, from binge drinking and drugs to anorexia and from teenage pregnancy to rape and domestic violence.
I think that Hollyoaks is a good line to our own trailer, the multiple interwearing storylines play a vital part in seducing the audiences to watch more. The whole base of cliffhanger effects is more widely accepted as they leave it to a point that really does create suspense and tension-mainly achieveing that from music and blackouts. Less is more.
A well-known statement, this should be out motto. Achieving a storyline that doesnt suggest too much but at the same time means a lot. So for example if Prince and me "create" the illusion that we are getting married, leaving it at a blackout, showing little scenes with the talk with his mother and the exchange of rings. Switching it the next storyline enables the questions to be left with a question. Hollyoaks is aimed at young adults as well as adults, however, I do think our soap is going to be mainly aimed at the lives of young adults.
In certain times young adults experience most of the troubles such as fitting into schools, bullying, certain changes in their bodies which make them question it or become confused and scared, diseases, deaths and ways of coping with it. All these factors help build up an intense and dramatic storyline which helps audiences connect with it more as they may be dealing with such issues themselves. This was shown in the latest statistics, many times we had seen binge drinking and alochol related storylines of teenagers getting too involved with drink and it having an extremely negative effect on them, in reality,
Alcohol use is a continuing problem on most college campuses, where nearly 73% of the students drink at least occasionally. This was clearly shown through characters such as Chris, Nancy, Ravi, all the students in Hollyoaks who love to drink and get drunk at parties, which leads to regretful situations.
Another link to look at is that there are approximately 2,075 young people in England between 15 and 29 years of age diagnosed each year with cancer and about 326 deaths per year in this age group.
Being able to address such issues can help benefit the public into knowing what to do next. Most of the time Hollyoaks can show symptoms or side effects.
The most famous magazine article was that Hollyoaks was sincerely thanked by one member of the public.
Here it showed Miss Cordingly who suffered from gax monoxie poisoning but never knew. Hollyoaks helped her understand this as she recognised the same symptons they were showing. Doctors were telling her to see an eye opticion.
This just goes to show that soaps are benefical for the public as well as entertaining.
This woman probably wouldn't be alive right now if she didn't realise what was actually making her feel so bad.
Also, I do think that using helplines at the end of each soap is an effective way of ensuring people have the best protection given to them and help if they simply want to do it.
Hollyoaks trailers are usually only about 30 seconds long, it helps audiences see only a part and start to gossip and try to understand what may happen next. I hope to make this more vital in our trailer too. Prince, Barbara & I will ensure that our trailer sets of a number of different questions but at the same time fills in the audiences of the current storylines or situations characters are stuck it. Introducing the characters is the main objective, we want to perhaps display their interest or problem, but we have to make sure that the audiences don't get confused with who is who and what may be going on. Short and simple that's another of our motto.
Barbara, Prince, read this and tell me if you agree with half the stuff i've stated here, I wanna see your analysing soaps as well .. :)
By Yana :)
Very detailed work.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with it because you have stated most of the important factors and have got links to prove it.
Barbara