Storyboard for Individual Soap

 






Establishing shot of Jade fidning out she is preganat with her boyfriend, Max's baby





Everyone at a house party. Loud music playing.

Hannah’s mum injecting drugs into herself.

Fight breaks out between two boys. One of which is Hannah’s boyfriend as she is seen to be dancing with another guy.

Jade crying, wondering how to tell Max and also her family.





Hannah and Joe (her boyfriend) arguing.

Individual Pitch Table

Possible Title	Content	Target Audience (age, gender, social class etc)	Frequency
Northenders	Teenagers in the North dealing with general day to day issues.	Teenagers 14-19 Years	2 - 3 Times a Week
Hill Side	Based in a school where again general day to day issues with teenagers are being raised.	Teenagers 14-19 Years	2 - 3 Times a Week
Teen Goers	Based in a school but mainly around a boys football team and the issues with them being typical boys with girls and life in general.	Teenagers 14-19 Years	2 - 3 Times a Week
Totty Lane	Looking particularly at the certain events which have been going on recently to do within the city of London but based around a number of teenagers who get involved in certain events and the consequences.	Teenagers 14-19 Years	2 - 3 Times a Week

Treatment for Individual Soap

When creating a soap, it is crucial that the right elements are put together in order for the opera to work as there is a fine line between making the programme a drama and a soap.

The idea which I have put together for my individual treatment is:

Title: North Hill 

Summary: General day to day life in the North, raising awareness of certain issues with the community. It is situated in a horse shoe type of location where there are locations within a the main location.

Target Audience: Teenagers 

Characters: General day to day teenagers along with the stereotypical good and bad person.

Jade which is the good one has come from a tough background as her mum and dad died when she was younger and was therefore raised by her grandparents but she wants to do well in life; get a an education, job and be very successful. Although she has a boyfriend called Max who does bad stuff like get into fights and smokes. However Jade does try to stop him but is not always successful in this matter.

Hannah who is the bad person again has come from a tough background but instead decides to live with that life instead of trying to change for the better. Her parents have split and she is always moving from one house to another, her mum takes drugs and under the influence has now started to take them to.

Mark is a disabled boy who gets bullied quite a a lot because of this. He had a car accident and is now paralyzed from the neck downwards on his right side. 

Storylines: There are going to various hard hitting storylines to get the attention of young teenagers who are watching it so that they are aware. Bullying will take place with Mark who is disabled. Teenage Pregnancy with Jade and Max who pressures her into bed and then tells her to abort the baby. Other storylines will include: Domestic violence/ family problems/ drugs, Hannah gets beaten by her mother because of the drugs. 

                

The frequency for this soap would be 3 times a week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday at an earlier time of 6.30 on BBC. I feel this would be most appropriate due to the target audience being teenagers and also popular shows such as Eastenders and Coronation Street are on after.

Eastenders: First episode

Eastenders was originally screened twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) which lasted about half an hour each. However, due to the soaps popularity, in August 2001, BBC One increased to four episodes per week with each episode being repeated on BBC Three at 22.00. In addition to this, an omnibus edition broadcasted on Sunday afternoons.

The very first episode of Eastenders was a murder mystery which enabled the audience to establish each of the characters. This was done by the police officers as they questioned each character about the death of Reg Cox. They were asked;

• Who they were?
• How they knew Reg?
• Where they were at the time?

All of these questions helped introduce the soap itself and the characters that were involved.

Thirteen million viewers watched the first episode when Arthur Fowler, Ali Osman and Den Watts forced their way into Reg Cox's flat and found Reg near to death. However, several weeks later, Nick Cotton was revealed as Reg's murderer.

Th casting for the soap was important to the success of Eastenders. Many of the characters were unfamiliar but the inclusion of famous faces such as Wendy Richard and Barber Windsor who are now iconic faces of the soap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGIFPjc54ZM

Heightened Drama - Eastenders

Eastenders itself is a drama with all their story lines and it began right from the very first episode when they started the soap. The first episode was a murder which helped the audience distinguish characters and established a sense of community. 


Gradually, the drama within Eastenders increased and therefore attracted more audiences, one episode in particular was with Angie and Den as 30 million people tuned in to watch her receive divorce papers from husband Den on Christmas which was record breaking in TV history. 


Another heightened moment in Eastenders is when Little Mo hit Trevor with an iron; not only was this another story of domestic violence which was heavily raised to show awareness, but also something out of the blue which happened as we saw Little Mo as the quiet, innocent person who wouldn't do anything to hurt anyone, although at this point she was pushed to limits as she burns Trevor. As a result of this, the audience gets more involved. 

Social Realism and Representation - Eastenders

When in the process of creating Eastenders, programme makers emphasised that it was about everyday life in the inner city; ''A slice of life". Smith, one of the creators had said that ''We don't make life, we reflect it".
Eastenders first featured gritty story lines in the eighties which involved drugs and murder which was reflecting a time in Britain where society and communities had been broken down. Similarly to Coronation Street in the 1960's, Eastenders represented the issues of people, particularly in the working class in Britain. 
Such story lines included Sue and Ali's baby cot death, homosexuality between Colin and Barry which lead to homophobic Nick Cotton, the rape of Cathy Beale in 1988, Michelle Fowler falling pregnant with Den's baby as well as drug dealing, prostitution, mixed race relationships, shoplifting, sexism, racism, divorce and muggings.
Gradually as the show progressed into the nineties, it moved with society, as the issues in the eighties still existed, there was less attention to them. However they still featured hard hitting issues such as Mark Fowler discovering he was HIV positive in 1991 and the death of Gill, murder, adoption, alcoholism and domestic violence. 
Euthanasia was also covered in the early 2000's between two well established characters; Ethel Skinner and Dot Cotton. 
Although many of the issues where portrayed earlier on with Eastenders when they first started, some issues are addressed more now than before. For example, Sexuality; before with Sonia being a Lesbian, it wasn't fully embraced by the audience as it is now with Christian and Syed. Sonia was just a one off and then she was back with Martin, where as Christian and Syed are a couple in the square. 


Issue's such as these are not really thought about unless on a soap although they do reflect on todays society. For example prostitution with Whitney was also apart of Children in Need to address the issue even further because of the amount of teenagers at the time this was happening to. By doing this, they are introducing a younger generation and portraying issues that teenagers do go through. Viewership is crucial and in order to attract certain audiences they have to appeal to them. Recently, Eastenders have been heading more towards a youth audience and therefore the style and format has slightly changed as drama and comedy are combined together. Fatboy being one of those characters as he along with a couple of other people between the age of 17 - 22 came together for E20 which is exclusively online which is mainly for the younger audience. Therefore they have been able to attract a new audience as well as keep the old ones. 

Eastenders:Inception (How it came about)

In February 1983, two years before Eastenders had hit the screens it was nothing but just an idea in mind as BBC One needed a popular bi-weekly drama series that would attract the kind of mass audiences ITV was getting with Coronation Street. When the idea came around, there was anxiety at first as concerns were raised that the viewing public would not accept a new soap set in the South of England. 


Julia Smith and Tony Holland are a well established producer/script editor team who had first worked together on Z-cars. David Reid who originally came about with the idea had presented a vague; two episodes a week, 52 weeks a year.  They are both Londoners; Holland had come from a big East-End family but when researching where to locate the soap, Victoria Square had become a possibility, however they found massive changes to a area they thought they knew well. Although when delving further into the East-End area, they found a place with real East-End spirit; an inward looking quality, a distrust of strangers and authority figures, a sense of territory and community that both Holland and Smith summed up as 'Hurt one of us and you hurt us all'.


The chosen location had various aspects which made everything so significant in the soap, Albert Square itself was a significant figure as it had its own self contained community. Even bench's and parks were notable figures as they allowed characters to meet outside their home. It is also very important as it was soon dedicated to Arthur which also allows the soap to keep initial characters and new ones are introduced. Families within the soap run the market outside the Queen Vic Pub which creates a sense of realism:

• Fruit and Veg Stall - Pete Beale 
• Arthur - Gardens 

And over the years has only gotten bigger and new stalls have been added:

• Stacey - Clothes Stall 
• The Masoods - Food Stall

As well as having a self contained market within the square, they had everything within the one location they were in;

• Laundrette 
• Minute Mart 
• Pub

Everything was real, real streets and real locations which created a sense of familiarity within the audience.

The target launch date was January 1985 as the BBC was planning a revamp in its schedules. Both Holland and Smith had just 11 months to write, cast and shoot the whole thing. 


After a shooting location was finalised, Smith and Holland then had to create 24 original characters which was needed in just 14 days and so Holland had created characters based on people in his own family and their own experiences in the East End; Lou, Pauline and Pete. 

Noteworthy Characters - Eastenders

The entire cast are a family as they all interlink with each other and a self contained community within the square.  Eastenders is built around the ideas of relationships and strong  families, this theme encompasses the entire square, making the community a family of upsets and conflict, but pulling together in times of need.


Like every drama, soap and film there are stereotypical characters;

• Good - Dot Cotton 
• Bad - Janine Butcher 
• Heart throbs - Ryan Malloy

However over the years, female characters have become very strong; Lou Beale (Pauline's mum) takes control of the well being of her family. But a iconic matriarch such as Peggy Mitchell are seen as being loud and interfering individuals but most most importantly they are responsible for the well being of the family and are usually stressing the importance of family, reflecting on the past. This particular role has been seen in various reincarnations since the soaps inception, often the centre of the family unit.









Another element key to the success of the soap is the stereotypical strong, brassy, long suffering women who portray diva like behaviour and battle against tragedy and misfortune. These characters include Kathy Mitchell and Angie Watts. Female characters in general are central to programme such as these. Characters such as Stacey Slater and Kat Moon are recurring characters which are often popular with viewers. Often their promiscuity is hidden with vulnerability and a desire to be loved; "Tart with a heart".

Within the soap a gender balance is maintained as various macho male personalities such as the the Mitchell brothers; Grant and Phil, bad boys such as Den Watts and Dennis Rickman and Heartthrobs such as Jamie Mitchell. Over the years, recurring smartly dressed businessman have come in and out of the soap and they are often involved in gang culture, crime and most importantly seen as a local authority figure who people look up to. Such characters include; Steve Owen, Jack Dalton and Andy Hunter.