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 middle aged male and a younger female in street. They mention each others names, which wouldnt normally happen in real life but Eastenders have done this to help the newer viewers establish the characters. They also mention the name of the pub. This is good because newer audiences have allready established the main meeting place which will hopefully help then to understand the soap more.
In contrast Home & Away is set in Australia so its opening sequence is very different to Eastenders.
The music is very different to Eastenders. Its faily modern pop music and it is very light and airy and sung by a boyband, which will appeal to young teenage girls. The music isnt heavy and has no great emotion which makes it very laid back and easy going, which may remind the viewer of being relaxed sitting on a beach, or on holiday.
The song has lyrics about love and being close to each other, which could be about possible storylines. The lyrics wouldnt appeal to many males. This is very different to british soaps who dont usually have any lyrics atall, wish an exception to the newer soap 'Night and Day' which breaks this convention of british soaps. When the theme draws to an end and the title comes up on the screen the music changes tone and finishes by saying 'Home and Away' the ending note sounds to me like it doesnt end the theme properly, but leaves it open, hopefully this will get people to stay watching because of the surgestive note.
This opening sequence is very different to Eastenders. Its much more complex and uses a lot of computer generated graphics. The opening is very bright and airy. Alot of blues and yellows are used which makes it appeal to a younger audience who perhaps have a positive outlook on life and who are happy people, maybe the younger people.
It shows each characters photo, they all look happy and are smiling and look like their having fun on a beach in the sun. The charactor names and actors are writing underneath each moving photo. Small tropical fish have been super-imposed by computer to swim around the photos and writing. While all this is going on it says 'Home and Away' at the bottom of the screen all the way through the opening scene. They stop when the theme tune draws to a hault saying 'Home and Away' and the main title comes up on the screen.
There are 22 actors i counted and they are of equal sex which will help appeal to both females and males. The charactors are shown near each other. For example famils would have each characters photos next to or very near to each other. This would help a new viewer to establish the characters relationships with each other.
Anouther big difference to Eastenders is that Home and Away has a reprise. In the reprise they show a scene, possibly the last scene of the previous episode. Often the actors mention each others names which helps new viewers to understand better what is going on. In the reprise i studied they also established the profession of the characters in the dialogue, which gives a new vewer even more understanding of the soap. Home and Away would be better for getting new audiences because of this.
