There are many formal features in soaps and they are time, settings, narrative and characters.
Soap Essay
Soap opera can be defined by looking at the two words separately: The word soap originated from soap powders because the women used to stay at home looking after the house and children and would watch T.V while doing the ironing and it would show soap powder adverts between programmes. The word opera means emphasis on emotion. Soap operas were first heard on the radio during the war because they didn't have much money and it was not safe to go out.
There are many formal features in soaps and they are time, settings, narrative and characters.
All soaps last half an hour each episode and they all show 'real time' focusing on real events like those experienced by the audience that day (e.g. Going to work or having a family feud) although some episodes are quite exaggerated compared to audiences real life. There are ways that soaps show 'real time': they have the same days (e.g. In Tuesday's episode of Eastenders you may hear Alfie talking about what he is going to do in the pub Wednesday) having special events at the same time (e.g. Bank holiday, New Year, Christmas etc) also the episodes take place in continuous real time - life goes on a daily basis between episodes also known as 'unrecorded existence'.
The use of setting in soaps is normally limited and usually shows the same areas as the audience are familiar with this and it also creates more realism in the soap. The usual settings in soaps are houses, shops, cafes, laundrettes and many more. In Eastenders and Coronation Street they both have pubs, which are used as the main focus setting where you see all the characters together expanding possible narrative. In all soaps the settings are very out in the open where everybody knows everybody and one person's business is everyone else's it is very public, soaps use many community settings. Although some of the settings are quite private where discussions are in people's houses hidden from all the other people in the community.
Soap opera can be defined by looking at the two words separately: The word soap originated from soap powders because the women used to stay at home looking after the house and children and would watch T.V while doing the ironing and it would show soap powder adverts between programmes. The word opera means emphasis on emotion. Soap operas were first heard on the radio during the war because they didn't have much money and it was not safe to go out.
There are many formal features in soaps and they are time, settings, narrative and characters.
All soaps last half an hour each episode and they all show 'real time' focusing on real events like those experienced by the audience that day (e.g. Going to work or having a family feud) although some episodes are quite exaggerated compared to audiences real life. There are ways that soaps show 'real time': they have the same days (e.g. In Tuesday's episode of Eastenders you may hear Alfie talking about what he is going to do in the pub Wednesday) having special events at the same time (e.g. Bank holiday, New Year, Christmas etc) also the episodes take place in continuous real time - life goes on a daily basis between episodes also known as 'unrecorded existence'.
The use of setting in soaps is normally limited and usually shows the same areas as the audience are familiar with this and it also creates more realism in the soap. The usual settings in soaps are houses, shops, cafes, laundrettes and many more. In Eastenders and Coronation Street they both have pubs, which are used as the main focus setting where you see all the characters together expanding possible narrative. In all soaps the settings are very out in the open where everybody knows everybody and one person's business is everyone else's it is very public, soaps use many community settings. Although some of the settings are quite private where discussions are in people's houses hidden from all the other people in the community.
