2. During the research phase of my production, I used YouTube to find existing soap opera trailers such as ones for EastEnders
and Hollyoaks and then I analysed the codes and conventions of these products. YouTube proved to be a great form of digital
technology to use for research as it offered a variety of existing soap operas for me to view , it even gave the option to view
non British soap operas such as Home and Away and neighbours. Through this I was able to compare British soaps to others
and realise that whilst other soap operas glamourized life British soap operas gave a sense of realism , which is a convention.
Whilst using YouTube I either had a PowerPoint presentation up besides it where I would screen shot certain aspects of the
clip such as the use of an establishing shot in the opening to introduce the location , & then transfer this screen shot to the
PowerPoint document for analysis once the clip had ended or I sometimes had a word document opened so that whilst I was
watching the clip on the YouTube page I could also be typing my analysis down so I would not forget it once the clip had
ended.
YouTube proved to be a very useful and efficient digital technology to use for my research as I was able to see examples of
existing soap opera trailers and choose aspects to incorporate into my own trailer and those to avoid. This can be seen with
our decision to create a storyline specific trailer. After watching examples of seasonal trailers we decided that trying to create
one would be too difficult for the group due to our lack of actors and time , this was also the same decision we made once
watching a thematic trailer, whilst they did look interesting they would be to difficult for us to create , therefore we chose to
create a storyline specific trailer as we realised that after viewing a few like this we believe that we could be time efficient and
create a good storyline specific trailer as opposed to creating a thematic or seasonal one.
During my research into the ancillary tasks I mainly used the Google search engine to find results on existing soap opera
magazines and posters. I believe that google was the best suited form of () to use as it gave thousands of examples for the
soap opera magazines. By searching with Google I was able to see various soap opera magazines , ranging from Soap life to
TV Choice this proved important as I was able to analyse the conventions of different soap opera magazines.. This was a
really quick and effective way of gathering my research as the results given from the search included old as well as new soap
opera magazines , it even showed examples of soap opera magazines created by other A level students.
5. During the planning stages of my production I created a
storyboard and shot list for our trailer onto A2 paper as a rough
copy of what we wanted to include in our trailer ,However I later
transferred these images to final cut pro X to create an animatic
storyboard this was really beneficial as final cut pro allowed us
to add voice over and music to accompany the shots , which
gave us a better understanding of how our trailer would look
once we had completed it.
In addition to this we also created an online survey on survey
monkey to gain feedback from our audience, this enabled us to
gain some valuable feedback , and proved much easier than
creating the survey by hand and then distributing them and
having to collect them again , by using survey monkey we were
all able to view the results at anytime
6. Filming&Editing:Trailer
To film our trailer we used a Cannon camera. This proved to
be the best camera for us as it enabled us to easily transfer
the footage onto our Mac computers , which we we were
then able to edit using Final cut pro X. Final cut pro was a
very good editing software as it allowed us to add special
effects and cut specific parts of the clip using various tools
such as the blade, which meant our editing looked smoother.
The Mac computers were really good to use as it allowed us
to use sophisticated programmes that were not available on
the other computers in our school, such as The Dell
computers. Using the tripod helped to keep the camera
steady and help us record better.
7.
8. M
In addition to this we also used photo shop for the construction of both
ancillary tasks . This proved to be a great software to use due to all the
functions and editing tools it offered. This helped us to create a realistic
soap opera magazine and poster, as opposed to software’s such as
Microsoft publisher .Photoshop was also a great software to use due to the
availability of tutorials available for beginners on how to use this
9. For my evaluation I used several different methods of
presenting my answers. Each software proved best suited for
the question. For example using Final Cut Pro to create a
video which I then uploaded on to YouTube , was best suited
for answering the question ‘How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary task?’. This proved the best
suited as I was able to present the magazine and poster at the
same time as having a voice over of the specific areas of the
magazine and poster I was discussing. I was also able to
zoom into these areas by using the Kens Burns effect.
In addition to this I also used Emaze,Prezi and slide share.
