Freshers Question 1.

OCR G324 Advanced Production
PALMER, Joshua
Aquinas College
4690

Question 1 - How does your
product use, develop and
challenge conventions of
real media texts?

Question 1 – How does your product use, develop and
1 challenge conventions of real media texts
In order to get an understanding and plan my soap trailer,
I decided to carry on some research on the ‘history of
soap operas’. This allowed me to channel the conventions
into my final piece making it as professional as possible.

Main Conventions

• There is always a central place that the soap is based around. For
example, The Rovers Return in coronation street.
• Position the camera to make a fourth wall.
• Lots of extreme close up lingering shots to show the emotion of
characters.
• A dilemma in each episode in order to capture the viewer to
watch again next episode.
• Consistency of realism or parody; by this I mean that you would
not expect ‘Downton Abby’ to suddenly have an extremely comical
episode as it would cheapen the image.

-How does my soap conform to the conventions?

TITLE CARDS EXTREME CLOSE UP End title card showing
name of show, time it is to
be aired and channel.
(Following e4 style guide).

CLOSE UP HIGH ANGLE SHOT

PAN

-How does my soap conform to the conventions?

Filmed in passage
covered with tree’s
therefore we had to find
the perfect spot where
there was enough
natural light. This adds
OVER THE SHOULDER realism to the sequence. EXTREME CLOSE UP.
SHOT. More of a shadow on Sam’s
face as he is playing the “bad
guy”.

Minimal makeup to create
realism, also fitting in with
the genre of my soap.

-Similarities and differences between my media product and a real media product.

FRESHERS
Differences
-I have added title cards in between
each scenario to help reinforce what
Similarities each part is about.
-Program based on a small group of people. - Each story line is very dramatic.
- Type of music shown reflects the visuals in the
trailer.
- To start off there are conversations between
characters to show the storyline, then as the music
drops or reaches maximum volume and tempo there Cross blur
are quick edits of each character on there own.
transition moving
- Stereotypes used in the type of clothing worn to
reflect personality. the sequence
- Transitions on the beat of the song – thought beats. from Shad to
- Similar young target audience. Harriet's phone is
exactly on the
beat (guitar
strum).

-Comparison

As you can see the title cards from Made
In Chelsea are simply black and white,
which makes them look very sharp and
clean cut; this reflects the glamour
aspect of the program. On the other
hand FRESHERS is a lot more rebellious
and catered for a slightly younger
audience. This is shown by my use of
colours making them look quite fun and
eye catching. Even though I may have
changed the colour of the title card I
have kept the consistency with the size
and font of the text in order to keep it
looking professional. By having the title
cards it helps guide the audience
through the trailer and letting them
know what is happened in the storyline.

-What makes your trailer a Soap Opera?

CLOSE UP

FRESHERS

EXTREME CLOSE UP

FRESHERS

Title card to end
showing brand, date
of air and program
name.

FRESHERS


Similarities Differences
-The framing of both these shots are the - On the misfits screenshot the actor is
same with the actor in the centre. being focused on by the camera; you can
- The shot type – both using a close up. see this by looking at the blurry
surroundings. I did not want to do this as I
wanted to make it clear to the audience
that Sam was stood outside in a passage.

Challenge
In this shot instead of the actor looking away I wanted him looking straight into
the camera in order to show the audience his emotions and serious nature
through his eye contact.


Similarities
-Both using an over the shoulder shot
Differences
positioned in such a way where the actor In the FRESHERS trailer there is a
that is being focused on is in a medium natural source of light coming from
close up. the left of the frame however in the
-Background visible in order to instantly skins trailer it is a lot more dull and
see where the event is happening. In the definitely artificially lit. The dullness
skins trailer in a bedroom (poster) and will reflect the mood of the scenario.
then outside for FRESHERS (brick wall).
-Medium close up helps show emotion
on the characters faces, this confirms how
they truly feel; the audience can clearly
see this.


Differences
-The FRESHERS shot is lit by lights inside the room whereas the Hollyoaks shot’s light comes from
natural light.
- A lot of shadows in the Hollyoaks shot – this is because ‘Justin’ is up to no good therefore darkness and
shadow creates a sense of eeriness.
-There are a lot of props and clutter surrounding the Hollyoaks stars however in the FRESHERS trailer
there is nothing in sight, this suggests to a viewer that the conversation could be serious as there are no
distractions which allows you to concentrate purely on the facial expressions.
Challenge
Similarities Both using two-shots however the shot for
-Both Hollyoaks and FRESHERS using a FRESHERS is a long shot instead of a medium
two-shot with the characters quite shot. I have done this so you can clearly see
central in the frame how JP is sat on the sofa. He is sat in a
-Both are set in what it seems to be a stereotypical homosexual way therefore
home, one set in a kitchen and another showing his whole body gets this across to
in a living room, shown to the viewer the viewer as quick as possible – this being
with the sofa being in shot. imperative in a short trailer.


-What messages do you locations and costumes send to the audience about the class and status of the characters

Costume/Props Looking at the locations that reoccur in both Skins
One of the characters in FRESHERS is called JP, he is a and FRESHERS; it is clear to see that both soap operas
young male who is just coming out that he is a represent a similar class of people. Both include what
homosexual. In order to show is homosexuality in the seems to be an average sized houses and the clothing
quickest concise way we decided to choose his costume worn in both are of similar style; casual day to day
very carefully fitting in with many stereotypes. On the wear. Taking all this into account I think that both
trailer JP is wearing faded skinny jeans, a bright pink polo soap operas represent the middle and working class.
shirt tucked into his jeans, two earrings and a pair of
glasses. We decided to all this so that it would come
across to the viewer very quickly without JP actually having Another program similar to FRESHERS is Skins; in this
to state that he was a homosexual. Especially in a trailer there is a character called Naomi and she is also a
for any sort of soap opera, movie, documentary it is homosexual. Below is an image of how she would
imperative you get your point across quickly as they are normally dress when appearing on screen. As you can
only going to last for around 60 seconds on the TV or see she has the stereotypical short hair, minimal make-
YouTube etc. up and baggy clothes. Her costume is chosen to match
up with how she acts etc; for example in the program
Naomi stereotypically enjoys watching football which is
seen as a slightly manly thing to do. Once again
stereotype.

FRESHERS

- Do the lighting, props, locations and costumes reinforce audience expectations about your programme?
Location
In this scenario in the FRESHERS trailer it was imperative we got the
location perfect as it was the “drug dealing” scene. We knew that this
needed to take place outside otherwise it would not have looked realistic
as there would be too much light and not enough risk of being caught.
We chose to do it in a dark passage with just natural light, this worked
very well, fitting into the stereotype that a lot of ‘things’ can happen in a
dark passage/ally-way. This made the viewers on edge as they naturally
no that crime is very high in these sorts of places.

Props Lighting
In the “drug dealing” scene we used migraine relief In this scene there is a lot of shadow around
tablets in a small plastic bag to resemble a bag of Grimmers’ face this made him look more dark and
pills; this was our main prop and on camera it came mysterious. This is the ambience we wanted to
off very effectively and realistically. (view health and surround this character as he was up to no good
safety video for detail). and in fact a drug dealer. Also it allowed us to
Costume contrast with his girlfriend Mon who is simply
innocent therefore when she is on screen we
In the scene where Grimmers is persuading Mon to take drugs we had to choose the
positioned her in such a way that there is plenty of
costumes carefully. We decided to make Grimmers wear all black; consisting of black
light on her face.
jeans, hat, jacket and tee shirt. This was done to fit in with the stereotype that ‘chavs’
who are strongly associated with drugs always seem to wear dark clothing no matter
the weather or circumstance. We also made the peak of his hat point slightly
downwards covering a bit of his face and creating shadows. This made him look
slightly more menacing as his whole face could not be seen and the ‘unknown’ is
usual a scary thought. The choice of this costume was all very important because it
made the viewer make an assumption that this character would not be up to no good
before he even got the drugs out of his pocket. On the other hand it also allowed us
to create the ‘badboy’ assumption and then surprise the viewer by him having the
total opposite personality and mannerisms as his stereotype; we did not go down
this route but that may have been an option.

- Evaluating an existing E4 trailer

“SKINS”
At this point in the trailer (image below) the party
seems to be getting worse and things seem to
going wrong because of the drug use. In this
screenshot there is a body lying in a bath = a
shocking image which is reinforced by the
crescendo in the music. Tension is built and then
silence at the end with this shot above to leave an
eerie lingering sense of shock in the viewers
mind.

Uses the song “Roads” by the artist Portshead.
This song is a very slow, chilled song, this
relates the effect you may have whilst on
drugs. Fitting in with the mise en scene in this
shot where you can clearly see a bunch of
teenagers at a party.

- How my piece of music worked for my trailer – FRESHERS
I thought this song worked very well throughout the
trailer; I realised that I needed a song featuring strings
and a soft tone in order to get the emotions across to
the viewer. The song starts off upbeat and then drops
in tempo and finally back to being upbeat. Also what
attracted me to using this song was that the beats
were very distinctive and spaced the right amount of
time apart so that I could make sure each transition
was on the beat. It was quite fiddly and needed to be
done on Imovie however it was not to hard as the
beats were very clear.

As this shot comes on screen on the trailer the
music starts to slow down and there is more of a
melodramatic tone in comparison to the upbeat
start of the music. This is fitting as it is when Shad
comes in the room to find that her sister has ran
away; the slowing of the music highlights what is
going on in the scene for the reader therefore
making the whole scenario seem more emotional
and shocking.

-Creating are character names

Once we decided that our show was going to similar to the likes of
skins and misfits we started to do some research into the
characters that appear in these sorts of shows.
After some research we realised that a lot of the character names
were nicknames of some sort. For example in Skins there is a
character called Cook, Jay-Jay and Freddy; none of these being full
names. This is done to make the program seem realistic as people of Elizabeth Stonem’s
the targeted audience (16-20 year olds) within a friendship group do nickname being
Effy in Skins. Letter ‘E’
not normally call each other by there full names whether it just be
out of Effy coming
‘Josh’ short for ‘Joshua’. from her first name.

In FRESHERS one of the characters is called JP simply because his real
name is Joshua Palmer, this is a nickname and it is very catchy
and concise – a name that will stick with the viewers very easily. By
using the convention of nicknames for our final product the characters
names were as follows: JP, Mon, Grimmers, Shad, Hal & Soph.

-Characters of FRESHERS

Sam/Grimmers – Drug Dealer
Grimmers is quite a mysterious character in the
programme who comes across rather moody
and always seems up to no good. In the trailers
for FRESHERS he is forcing his girlfriend Mon to
take some drugs; this causes a lot of conflict
between the two as Mon is a girl who hardly
puts a foot out of line.

Mon – Grimmers’ Girlfriend
Mon comes across as quite a shy person who can
be easily overpowered and manipulated. This is
taken full advantage of by her drug dealer
boyfriend Grimmers. She always seems very
frightened of Grimmers because he seems to
change a lot when he is under the influence of
drugs – this scares her.

Josh – JP
JP has been best friend with Soph for a number of
years now as they went to the same secondary school
however he has never told her his little secret. The
secret being he is a homosexual – only now has he
came out to her about it as he has now plucked up the
courage to tell her. In the actual trailer for FRESHERS
he tells Soph, this creates a little bit of conflict as Soph
would have expected to be told ages ago as soon as
he knew himself

Sophie – Soph
Soph is JP’s best friend, they do everything together
whether it be go shopping together or go out in town
together clubbing. They are basically inseparable, the best
of friends. In the trailer JP confesses to Soph that he is gay
and that he has been “seeing guys for a while”; this creates
some tension between them as Soph is slightly annoyed
that he has been hiding it from her, she feels slightly let
down by her best friend.

Hal – The runaway teen
Hal has been struggling at home for a while now, her
mum and dad have just split up and everything seems to
be going wrong; the divorce, exams, arguments with her
sister and boys – typical problems faced in the life of a
college girl. In the trailer we see Hal about to runaway,
she leaves a small letter on the kitchen side for her little
sister informing her that she has gone. Later on you see
her at the train station ready to go with her bag in hand.

Shad – Hal’s sister
Shad is the younger sister of Hal’s, at the moment
there has been a lot of arguing and bickering
between them two due to the circumstances
surrounding the family at this moment in time. In
the trailer Shad is the one who finds the note off
her sister telling her that she has left, this is very
hard for her as she doesn't want to lose her only
sibling no matter how much they fight.

LOCATION 1 - Kitchen

Shad is wearing quite dull clothes (browns and dark
maroons), this could be to match the mood of this part of
the trailer. Shad has just read a letter from her sister
informing her that she has ran away.

Mise en scene – clearly in a kitchen as in
the background we can see a toaster, a
fridge and Shad is sat around a table.

LOCATION 2 - Lounge

Neutral coloured wallpaper and no ‘flash’ objects in sight
therefore fitting to the conventions of an average university
students household.

Soft lighting coming from
either corner brightening
up the shot. Making the
scene look more realistic
as the light looks to be
coming from a lampshade
which would typically be
in a lounge/living area.
Framing – two shot (wide angle) – this
type of shot makes the viewer feel like
they are involved in the scene and
somewhat close to JP and Soph.

LOCATION 3 – Alley Way
Framing – You can see the other end of the passage
however not clearly; this makes the passage look very long
and slightly daunting. Making the viewer address the
assumption that anything can happen in an alleyway.

The lighting is quite
dark due to the tree’s
covering the skyline.
This is to make the
setting seem a realistic
place where a action
of this manner would
go down.

Mon is backed up against the wall which highlights the lack of
escape she is feeling brought on by her forceful, aggressive
boyfriend Grimmers.

LOCATION 4 – Train Station
Dull atmosphere which could represent
the negative vibe at this point in the
trailer. Hal has just ran away from home
therefore she feels like this.

Framing – train is in the shot
this shows that Hal is stood
at a train station. Quick and
obvious for the reader to
see; imperative in a trailer.

Freshers Question 1.

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Freshers Question 1.