Tuesday 13 December 2011

Soap opera differences - English and American

We use our soaps as catharsis as they relate to how the audience may live. They are much less dramatic and tend to feature 10 - 15 main characters at any one time. They are aimed at the working class audience. They do this by setting it in locations where these can relate to. For example coronation street is set in the inner city location of manchester. EastEnders is set in the east end of london, hence the name. The story lines of english soaps are tend to be much more realistic and believable and tend to include such things as love affairs, fights, arguments and jealousy. However there are also UK soaps which run in series like The only way is Essex or 'TOWIE'. These are scripted reality which is when the outcome is given to the actors and they have to think of what to say themselves.
Americans use soaps as escapists, unattainable lifestyle so therefore tends to be much more glamorous and have much more beautiful actors/actresses with perfect appearance. They are also melodramatic and based on emotional stories, love affairs and feminine genres. This is because they are aimed at the stay-at-home wife audience. American soaps are more like televised novels are they have a beginning, middle and end. They are usually set in series. They are all about having luxury lifestyles and are there to make the audience feel better. They also use more diegetic sound which helps the create the emotion behind the scene. 

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