Analyze two scenes from a soap opera you are familiar with and show how they are typical of the genre.

Coronation Street's story-line was a serious story-line as it was about a 16 year old girl named Katie Wilson collapsing at the local pub. I saw the scene from when three boys, Tyrone, Jason and Kirk carry him back to her home and her father Tommy Nelson opening the door and seeing them carry her in. Tommy Nelson assumes that the three boys have gotten her drunk. Katie had not been drinking at the pub and the three boys tries to tell Tommy Nelson that but he doesn't believe them and argues with the three of them while trying to revive Katie and wake her up. Katie's brother, Craig then comes down asking what has happened but he isn't told anything about the situation. Craig then goes back to bed and Tyrone, Jason and Kirk are ordered to leave by Tommy. They all leave protesting their innocence. The stereotypes in this scene is the over protective father, the presumably 'bad' boys of the area and the innocent girl. These are seen in many other soaps.

The story-line is also typical of soap operas as it has a lot of tension in the plot and is a situation that can happen in real life. An over protective father can accuse the wrong person or even accuse someone when there is no-one to blame. The camera helps show the plot of the story as there is a lot of cuts which adds tension to the whole plot and there are a lot of close-ups on the actors so you can see their emotions clearly. in the one scene there are sixteen scenes in just fifty seconds. this averages to about one scene equalling around 4 seconds each. This is a short time to show the story and emotions.

The Eastenders plot is very different to the Coronation Street plot as there is humour in it. The Eastenders storyline is an April fools joke that a bar manager named Alfie Moon plays on his inept younger brother Spencer. Alfie Moon switches the money in the till for euros and leaves Spencer to take care of the bar while Alfie has to do something else. Derek, a sympathetic character in the area arrives with a delivery of lemons for the bar. Spencer pays for the delivery in Euros but Derek questions Spencer about paying him in Euros. Spencer replies saying that we have changed to Euros and asks him didn't he know. Spencer ends up confused and laves the bar and going out to the back of the pub. We find out that Derek was in with the joke and feels a bit guilty afterwards but the trick works and Spencer ends up an April Fool.

The stereotypes of people in soap operas are re-enforced as the three main characters in the storyline are typical of soap operas. Most of the soap operas have a grown man acting like a child and there is someone that has a younger brother or son that is inept. Derek is a sympathetic person is in many soap operas. Coronation Street have people that a sympathetic and care about other people in the street.

The storyline is not as typical as the Coronation Street as they seem to be more serious but as the episode was aired on April Fools day this re-enforces that they are meant to be real-time programs. Most of the Soap Operas also have plots that only last an episode but these are very rare in Soap Operas. The whole scene lasts around sixty three seconds and has sixteen cuts. This averages to around 4 seconds a scene. The camera isn't important in this storyline until it shows that Spencer is confused when Derek questions him over the money and when Derek feels guilty for playing a trick on Spencer.

Even though they are scenes from the same genre of, they are different in some ways. The seriousness of the scenes is different. Coronation Streets storyline is hard-hitting and very serious where as the Eastenders storyline is a fun plot for April Fools. They also show the different stereotypes in the genre and how the camera can work to add tension and show emotions. The storyline length is also different as the Coronation Street storyline will last around 3-4 months whereas the Easenders plot will last just only an episode.

Even with these differences they are still typical of the soap opera genre. They both have stereotypes typical of the genre and use the camera to show the story in a quick way, which is needed in a soap. the length of the scenes is also typical of all soap operas as they are all 35-30 minutes long and have around four storylines in total happening at once. this makes 6-7 minutes for each storyline, With only a few minutes for each storyline, good camera work is needed.

Mathew Howell