Existing Media Texts - Coronation Street & Soap Conventions

Coronation Street – Episode broadcasted on the 2^nd September.

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=170013

 (2.10 minutes - 10.12 minutes)

Coronation Street one of the most well-known British Soaps on television and has recently celebrated its 50^th birthday. Set in the fictional village of ‘Weatherfield’ the soap shows a realistic view of a working class community in Manchester. All soaps use the conventions of a soap to ensure that the action and dialogue on the screen is as realistic as possible and clearly represents the characters relationships and roles within the community.

Controversial storylines are an important convention of soap operas, they often have three to five storylines running parallel within each episode, each one interlinking. In the eight minutes of this recent

Coronation Street

episode the audience are introduced to 3 storylines, a range of different themes and at least two previous storylines. Soaps run more than one storyline to keep their audience entertained and interested but also because it’s much more realistic; in real life everyone has their own problems, you don’t take it in turns. One of the main storylines within the episode is based around two teenage girls, Sophie and Sian who are in a homosexual relationship. This is one of the things that soaps often get commended for, raising awareness mainly amongst the teenage generation about the more serious issues of life.

Another convention of soaps are their characters. They use stock characters and stereotypes to help the audience relate to the characters, by using characters like this from everyday life the audience can develop feelings and emotions towards them ensuring they watch the soap regularly. In this extract of this episode we are introduced too two confused teenage girls – Sophie and Sian, a business and family man – Kevin Webster, an Indian Family – The Alahans, someone who has suffered with mental issues – Claire, the snob – Sally Webster, the ‘chavvy’ young mum – Kylie and a strong female – Liz McDonald. Many of these characters are parallel to characters from other soaps such as Liz McDonald and Peggy Mitchell, both strong-willed landladies of the community’s local pub. The Indian family, The Alahans, are in the soap to portray a fair view of the local area Manchester – you could not go into Manchester and see only people of a white race. The Masood family in Eastenders were recently brought in as a repercussion of absence presence. Although

Coronation Street

does well in including a variation of characters of different ages, backgrounds and genders they do not include a diverse range of races, something that could be critised by many viewers.

Other common conventions apparent in this episode are the forums of

Coronation Street

, within the short episode we are introduced to three main settings, the Factory, the Rovers Return and Roy’s Rolls.

Within the episode, and all soap operas, the camera angles are simple and realistic to make things more realistic and also cheaper for the company to make. In this episode we see mid-shots, close-ups, extreme close-ups, long shots, two shots and tracking shots. The most common camera shots used to portray conversations within the extract are two shots and 180◦ shots. Something else important to soaps is the composition of their shots, such as in this extract at 4.36 minutes the background of the shot is just as important as the foreground, consequently the depth of the field has been made so that the foreground is blurred. Shallow focus, a change in the depth of the field and simple cuts are mostly the only editing technique used in soaps however, if a big storyline is showing other techniques such as fades may be used. The use of sound is again kept simple and realistic within soaps; largely the sound is only diagetic, made from the dialogue of the characters and the ambient sounds from the setting. Soaps often use the radio in the background of their settings to create atmosphere and occasionally irony; the radio can be heard in the background of Roy’s Rolls towards the end of the extract. Mis-en-Scene could be classed as the most crucial part of each soap as it is this that ensures the soap is realistic and fitting to its social class and time era. Within this extract settings such as the factory and the alley are an indexical reference to the urban, working class place ‘Weatherfield’ is portrayed as. Costumes are essential within soaps and need to be thought about carefully, they need to fit to the character and their stereotype, costumes can also cleverly carry colour connotations that allow the audience to relate to the character easier. For example, Sophie wears a white top with a black cardigan, the white connotes her innocent ‘act’ and the dark connotes her ‘dark secret’ she is hiding. Sunita Alahan is dressed in blue, a parallel to the sad storyline she is currently involved in whereas, Sally Webster wears red, a parallel to her fiery character. The character Becky is wearing alot of gold jewellery a trait commonly associated with the working class and the ‘chavvy’ stereotype (9.53 minutes).  The mis-en-scene of Claire and Ashley’s house (6.04 minutes) clearly represents them as a close-knit family, with young children due to the soft toys that can be spotted in the background of the shot.