Compare ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Eastenders’ paying particular attention to their suitability for their respective audiences.
MEDIA COURSEWORK ESSAY
Compare 'Neighbours' and 'Eastenders' paying particular attention to their suitability for their respective audiences.
Eastenders and Neighbours are very different soap operas. Eastenders is a 'prime-time' programme usually shown at 7.30pm or 8pm, whereas Neighbours is shown twice a day at the earlier times of 1.45pm and 5.35pm respectively. Eastenders is shown at a later time to attract the older viewers as well as the younger ones. Being on at a later time gives people time to get home from work in order to watch it. However, Neighbours is shown during the late-lunch and teatime slots, which generally attract the younger viewers who have returned home from school by this time and are able to watch it. The second showing of Neighbours, shown at 5.35, is shown immediately after the Children's BBC airing so therefore it is likely to attract a greater younger audience for this reason also.
Both Eastenders and Neighbours are stereotypical soaps with regard to their settings. Eastenders is set in a small London suburb called Walford, with most of the characters living in the houses around Albert Square. The area is not a very clean or respectable looking place, and the majority of the characters are working class and quite poor. The characters that do have some money behind them, like Steve Owen and Phil Mitchell, seem to have acquired it dishonestly. On the contrary however, Neighbours is set in a relatively wealthy area known as Erinsborough in Australia. . The majority of the characters live down a single street of this neighbourhood, known as Ramsey Street. Most of the characters seem to be quite well spoken compared to those of Eastenders.
Eastenders is more dramatic than Neighbours. It has a lot more serious and controversial storylines where Neighbours is more light-hearted and taken less seriously. Eastenders has a typical British climate but Neighbours is very hot and sunny.
Both Eastenders and Neighbours have familiar places in them, but some more than others. For example, in Eastenders the Queen Vic is probably the most well known location, and in Neighbours the Coffee Shop can probably claim the same honour. Both of these are regular meeting places for the characters and some of the most important storylines take place in them, more so the Queen Vic than the Coffee Shop.
The Queen Vic is a typical East end local pub and it has its fair share of fights and arguments, along with parties and celebrations. It is usually the place where a lot of bombshells are dropped about characters which often leads to them leaving the programme. It is also the place where characters that return after along absence turn up to surprise the unsuspecting locals. The Coffee Shop however is part of the Lassiters Complex. It is often the meeting place for many of the characters and the place they go for their lunch and a snack. Unlike the Queen Vic, the Coffee Shop rarely sees any violence or arguments, but it is often just a place to hang out for the younger characters.
Eastenders also has a coffee shop known to everyone as 'The Caff'. This appears in the majority of episodes but is not so much a meeting place but just a place where either someone goes to look for someone or where people go to have breakfast if they can't be bothered to cook. It doesn't seem a very clean place and the service is not often the best.
Neighbours also has a pub, called 'Lou's', named after its owner Lou Carpenter. This is the place where people often go to relax or to have lunch with ...
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Eastenders also has a coffee shop known to everyone as 'The Caff'. This appears in the majority of episodes but is not so much a meeting place but just a place where either someone goes to look for someone or where people go to have breakfast if they can't be bothered to cook. It doesn't seem a very clean place and the service is not often the best.
Neighbours also has a pub, called 'Lou's', named after its owner Lou Carpenter. This is the place where people often go to relax or to have lunch with a client etc. It is not a rowdy pub like the Queen Vic and is owned by a well-respected businessman who also owns the Erinsborough Garage.
Another well-known place in Eastenders is the bench in the Square. It is a memorial bench in honour of Arthur Fowler, and is the spot where most of the Square goes to think things through or to get away from it all. A similar spot in Neighbours is the memorial in the park but it is not often used.
Eastenders is often shown in the Archers too. This is the mechanics garage owned by Phil Mitchell. A location in Neighbours that Eastenders does not have is a school. Erinsborough High is the setting for quite a lot of scenes with the younger characters.
The most talked about family in Eastenders has to be the Mitchell's. They have been in the soap for many years now and they own many businesses in Walford between them, such as, Peggy owns the Queen Vic, and Phil owns the Archers, the Café, and the Snooker Halls. They have also been at the heart of many of the major storylines over the soap's history. Not all of the Mitchell's have a clean background and Phil is probably known as the soap's 'bad guy'. However, Peggy, his mother, is very proud of her family and will not hear a bad word said about any of her children, despite all of the crimes and bad deeds they may have committed in the past. There is not really any similar family in Neighbours as very few of the storylines are as big as the ones involved in Eastenders.
Another family in Eastenders that have had a lot of big storylines lately are the Slaters, being Mo, Charlie, Kat, Little Mo and Zoë. Charlie is the caring father of Kat and Little Mo but also acts as Zoë's father. Mo is the aunt of the girls. She is into dodgy deals and will do anything to get prices knocked off for her own benefit. The rest of the family aren't happy with her dodgy dealing as they feel she might get in trouble for it. Kat is known as the 'man eater' in the Square. She had Zoe when she was very young so she lived the life of being her sister and Charlie and his late wife bought her up as their own. Little Mo is the quietest of the family. She always tries to do the right thing but has had trouble with her husband, Trevor, who she almost killed when he constantly beat her and she finally had enough and attacked him with an iron.
The main family in Neighbours is probably the Scully's. Many of the storylines revolve around them and the family has five members. Husband and wife Joe and Lynn, are the parents of, in age order, Steph, Flick and Michelle. Joe is the overprotective father figure who tends to compete with neighbour Karl Kennedy in many petty things. Lynn is the caring mother who wants the best for her children. Steph, the oldest of three daughters is in her early twenties and is just getting over splitting up with her boyfriend her boyfriend. Flick is the girl most boys in Ramsey Street have a soft spot for. She knows this however but is remaining single. Finally, Michelle is the youngest. She is just hitting her mid-teens and has started to get into trouble with her new friends. Joe isn't too happy about this and wants it to end.
The stereotypical characters in Eastenders are probably as follows:
* Man Eater- Kat Slater, when under the influence of alcohol is all over men.
* Lady Killer- Steve Owen, although married had several flings. Now deceased.
* Gossip- Dot Cotton, as innocent as she my seem, she often puts her foot in it.
* Grumpy Boss- Phil Mitchell, will sack an employee with no hesitation, even his own nephew.
* Workaholic- Little Mo Slater, has her own cleaning business.
* Bad Guy-Phil Mitchell and Steve Owen, always enemies, Phil got the last laugh when he killed Steve in a car chase.
* Funny Guy- Robbie Jackson, nothing ever goes right for him and he can't understand why.
* Dodgy Dealer- Barry Evans, co-owner of the car lot, always finding ways of flogging cars.
The stereotypical characters in Neighbours are probably as follows:
* Man Eater- the closest to this category is probably Flick Scully. She could probably have anyone she wanted.
* Lady Killer- Darcy Tyler, got engaged and cheated on his fiancée with her best friend.
* Gossip- nobody really fits this description.
* Grumpy Boss- Karl Kennedy, was not happy with his nephew employing a receptionist and then starting a relationship with her.
* Workaholic- Drew Kirk, will work all the hours possible to make up the money he lost to a friend he thought he could trust.
* Bad Guy- Darcy Tyler, tried to trick his own uncle out of his job for his own benefit and a huge profit.
* Funny Guy- Toady Rebbechi, always a joker at school, has now grown up a bit but still enjoys a good laugh.
* Dodgy Dealer- Lou Carpenter, owns several businesses and always looking to make a profit.
Eastenders' biggest recent storyline has to be the death of Steve Owen. This story has had many twists and involved many people including Mark and Lisa Fowler, Phil Mitchell, Beppe di Marco, and Mel and Steve Owen. Some of the issues involved in this storyline are the custody over Lisa's baby, friction between Lisa and Mark, and Mel and Steve, Steve having a fling with Sam Mitchell, Mark not being able to move to America because of his HIV virus, Beppe buying the club off Steve without Mel knowing, and Steve trying to get away from Phil with his baby, resulting in Steve Crashing his car and burning to death. I feel that these sorts of issues would never be shown on a soap like Neighbours mainly because it is shown at a time when mainly children are watching and it goes against the traditions of the soap of being a family programme for all to enjoy. Although some of the issues happen in everyday life, I feel that they are highly unrealistic and sometimes soaps in general take storylines too far and in certain circumstances, beyond belief.
A recent storyline in Neighbours has been where Steph's boyfriend was being hunted down by some criminals for something he didn't do. He eventually got tracked down, and when Steph saw his car being driven off at high speed and then hit a tree head on, she presumed the worst that they had killed him. Months later after she was coming to terms with it, her boyfriend, Woody, turned up at her door expecting things to be normal. She didn't know what to do but eventually told him to go as he had been selfish in not letting her know he was alive after all the hurt she had been through.
Both of these storylines from Eastenders and Neighbours were one of the biggest for a long while. Compared to the Eastenders' story, the Neighbours' one was considerably mild. I think it suited its audience, as it was nothing too strong and dramatic whereas the Eastenders' story was highly over the top but what its audience would probably enjoy more. Being on at a later time to Neighbours, I think Eastenders is able to cover many more controversial storylines and takes full advantage of that opportunity.
The camera sequences in both soaps are very similar in most cases. When the characters are in a room you only ever see 3 sides of the room as one side contains the cameras. This is a basic filming technique used in almost every moving picture production. Other filming techniques used are:
* Shot/Reverse Shot- this is used successfully to show conversations. It is where two cameras are involved; one filming over the shoulder of one person looking at the person they are talking to, and the other one over their shoulder looking at the first person.
* Match on Action- this is where the action from the end of one scene matches the action at the start of the next.
* Eyeline Match- this is where a shot of a person looking is followed by the shot they are looking at.
* Crossing the Line- this helps to establish spatial relationships between characters in a scene. They are always looking or travelling in the same direction.
In Eastenders during the car chase they used the 'crossing the line' technique in order to help the viewer understand what direction the cars were travelling in. They also used a number of different shot types such as medium shots and close ups. When something dangerous happened such as when Steve's mobile phone started ringing, it firstly gave a close up of his face looking worried and then it kept switching between a medium shot of him sitting in the seat concentrating on the road but also the phone call, and close ups of the worried look on his face. In Neighbours they also use a wide variety of shot types to show facial expressions and the movement of characters, whether alone or in groups.
Both soaps have quite dissimilar opening and closing sequences. Eastenders has its well-known theme tune along with a rotating map of the river Thames in the centre of London. This has become familiar to us all. Neighbours however, instead of a theme tune as a cheerful song about neighbours, and has photographs of all the characters in groups, seemingly very happy, as if everyone gets on fine and it's a happy neighbourhood. The end sequences of both the soaps are almost exactly the same as its opening sequence, apart from special episodes of Eastenders such as the recent one where Steve Owen died in a car crash. Instead of having the map of London at the end, it continued from the end of the episode where Steve's car had just exploded, and Phil was standing nearby holding his little baby. I think they did this to give the impression that Steve was definitely dead and that Phil had finally won the battle between the two villains.
In conclusion, I have established and given reasons that Eastenders and Neighbours are very different soap operas. The main factor are the lengths that Eastenders' creators will go to get ratings with outrageous storylines that sometimes are beyond belief, whereas Neighbours' storylines are somewhat more believable and the whole nature of the show is more viewer friendly. Eastenders is far more controversial but it seems that that's what the viewers want judging by the rating figures. Another major factor in the difference between the soaps is the characters. In Eastenders they tend to be working class and quite common, although in Neighbours they seem to be of a better class and background. The attitude of the characters also seems to be different. In Eastenders there are far more 'bad guys' and arguments, but in Neighbours it is rarely seen that there is hatred between groups of people or that any fights might break out in the pub etc.
So, my final view on soaps is that although they are somewhat over the top and unrealistic, they provide entertainment for millions of people nationwide and they bring up important issues that you might not consider otherwise. It is important to have two soaps like Eastenders and Neighbours that contrast each other in so many ways I feel, because otherwise viewers would get bored of seeing repetitive and boring programmes.
Kieran Tallon
