Hollyoaks Launch Trailer Analysis

I chose to analyse the Hollyoaks launch trailer as it takes an unconventional way of creating a trailer wheret the actors break character and speak directly to the viewer, this may be considered in our Soap Opera trailer although it would be risky and time consumer to justify that it is a soap as it must follow the conventions of the genre.

The launch trailer for Hollyoaks is extremely unconventional due to the actors breaking character and directly addressing the audience. By doing this it breaks every soap opera convention, although this isn't the actual soap opera, more specifically it is the trailer which is supposed to have a lasting affect on those who view it in order to make them remember it. This will eventually build a fan base (which is vital to the success of a soap), not only will it appeal to those who watched the trailer, fans will gossip amongst their friends which inevitably increases the public awareness of the new soap opera. The comedy within the trailer uses a very noticable sexual innuendo and highlights it within the trailer. For example the male characters says "its only a small part", to which the attractive female responds "so I've heard". This appeals to mature teenage audiences due to the sexuality, not only within the comedy features in the trailer, but the way the entire cast is aesthetically appealing. Therefore launch trailers differ significantly from trailers from Eastenders due to the fact it has an established audience which therefore means the trailer often advertises or promotes a particular narrative of high profile event features within a future episode.

However within our Soap Opera trailer I feel it is necessary to incorporate a narrative into the trailer as the approach taken by Hollyoaks is particularly risky due to the fact in the past there wasn't a very prominent soap that was targeted primarily to a young teenage audience. Therefore within our trailer we must ensure that there is an appealling narrative which is shown very briefly in order to attract viewers to see how it unfolds.