Soaps Opening Sequences.

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Soaps Opening Sequences

I am going to analyze the opening sequences of two soaps. Home & Away and Eastenders.

Eastenders is set in London and the opening sequence reflects this. The opening scene shows an aerial photo of modern London. The camera gradually zooms out whilst moving slowly clockwise. In the aerial photo we can see famous landmarks like the Thames River and the Millennium Dome. The Dome is fairly modern. This is done to make sure the viewer knows where the soap is set and that it is modern.

The music during this is designed to act as a trigger to grab the viewer’s attentions. So if a viewer has the TV on and is in another part of the house, in the kitchen making some tea for example, they can hear the familiar theme tune and come in to watch. With Eastenders, they also have a loud, heavy drumbeat because the music kicks in. This makes the tune very unique and hard to get confused with other programs themes.

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For newer viewers this heavy drumbeat sounds like a heavy heartbeat in some ways, which gives them impression that this program will be very dramatic, and maybe worth watching if they are a fan of dramatic programs. The drum beat sounds like tis building up to something and reflects the dramatic storylines

The main tune is played on piano and reminds me of sing songs in pubs sitting round the piano

The colours are very dingy, mostly greys and dark blues. The writing 'Eastenders BBC' is very simple and plain white.

The first scene is a conversation between a ...

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