Conventions of Soap Opera Trailers

I will make a list of the conventions found in most soap opera trailers as it will be helpful to me when it comes to creating our own soap opera trailer.

- Either several story lines shown in the trailer or the trailer is based on a special episode such as a character leaving. For example the trailers currently being shown for Eastenders are focused on Peggy leaving whereas the trailers for neighbours show the different story lines.

Peggy's leaving trailer for Eastenders
- Important characters to the episode being advertised are shown
- Fast paced editing and transitions to maximise the time used to advertise and to make the trailer more hard hitting
- Usually fairly short, approx. 30 seconds
- Contain information about the episode being advertised such as the time of broadcast. For example this trailer for Coronation Street has information at the end.

- Sometimes voice overs are used to add drama. For example this trailer for Hollyoaks has a voice over towards the end.

- They do not give away too much about the episode to make the viewer want to watch and find out what happens

These conventions found in trailers can be similar to those found in the actual soap episodes. For example the scenes in an episode are quite short and the transitions are fast paced, one story is only focused on for a minute or so before the episode moves on. This is like how a trailer will often show the different story lines in a short space and are often quite fast paced.

Voice overs are not used in episodes of soaps as they are used in the trailers to give information or create drama by saying something ambiguous that does not give too much away. These voice overs are not needed in the actual episodes as the drama or story is revealed.

As the trailer cannot give too much away regarding the story lines, the episodes will resolve the signs encoded in the trailer to the audience to make the stories clear to follow.