Soap Opera's Past and Present

This is the first ever trailer that advertised Eastenders on BBC1.

This is the latest Eastenders trailer that has been shown.

Both of these trailers are introducing something, either the actual soap itself or an individual character, however there are a number of other differences for example the length of the trailer. The first trailer is only 14 seconds long where as the newest trailer is 30 seconds long, the first trailer was filmed in 1985 and the second one was brought out this year (2012) over 30 years technology has completely changed, special effects, editing software and even the cameras that are used to film the trailers. This means that trailers now days are more likely to attract the audience compared to previous ones.  The only title that was used in the first trailer was the Eastenders title painted onto the side of a lorry that drives past the camera, within the second trailer 13 different titles are used. Titles that are used within trailers help the audience to understand the story lines within the episode and overall soap and they also give you an insight into the individual character personalities. The first trailer doesn't give you any insight into the soap apart from the iconography of the red double decker bus showing that the soap is probably set in London. The second trailer doesn't give any indication of location or setting but the use of theme and colour builds up the tension of the storyline and gives the audience connotations of danger, fear and suspense. I think that due to the use of technology trailers are a lot better and they attract their target audience's a lot better however it could be seen that as the first trailer doesn't give away much the audience may be likely to watch it in order to find out more and to be introduced to the characters.