Media A2 production log soap opera re-done

1. 1
St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Candidate Number:
Candidate Name:
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media
–
Production Log
Asuka Young
4149

2. 2
Evidence of Planning & Research
Aims and Objectives
· AO2 – Assess candidates’ application of knowledge
and understanding in evaluating their own work,
showing how meanings and responses are created.
· AO3 – Assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct
media products using appropriate technical and
creative skills.
· AO4 – Assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply
and present appropriate research.
Brief Chosen
A 45 second – 1 minute 30 second trailer for a NEW Soap
Opera that will be exhibited on at 8:30pm (after
Eastenders) that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.

3. 3
YOU SHOULD research when Eastenders is scheduled (Day
– Time)
Contents
Textual Analysis
· Eastenders
- Soap Opera Codes & Conventions
- Multi Strand Narrative
· Coronation Street
“..the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and
as such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
‘Masculinity and Popular television’ – Rebecca Feasey (2007)
- Is this evident and how is this presented to the audience?
Research
· Purpose of a Trailer
· Multi-Platform promotion
· Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks
Deadlines – Production Work
Filming Dates: (after October half term)
Edited Trailer – Complete:
Promotional Poster – Complete:
Promotional Magazine Cover – Complete:
Evaluation – Complete:7:30 / 8:00 on Weekdays
Not aired on Weekends.

4. 4
Production Work
· Director – Roles & Responsibilities?
· Producer – Roles & Responsibilities?
· Institution research – BBC Two
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions – Lesson 2
1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?
YOU MUST demonstrate what you already know by completing a
“Spider Diagram” of what you know about OR expect from this
genre:
Repetoire of
elements
SETTING:
Conventional soap settings:
-a pub
-local housing
-local market
NARRATIVE:
-Relationships and family issues
-Death
-Adultery
-Flashbacks
-Sexuality
-Overarching storylines
-realism
-social issues
-several stories running at the
same time (multi-stranded)
-sudo (fake), verisimilitude
(attempt at realism).
CHARACTER:
-manipulative characters
-killer
-geezer
-femme, fetale
-nosy
-bullies
-active/passive
-figures for the audiences to
relate to.
ICONS:
-community
-regional identity
-Theme tunes
-Plots/sub-plots
-Gossips

5. 5
2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre
The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’
(S teve N eale) elements of:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Eastenders (1985 – Present)
Key information regarding this text:
·
·
Textual Analysis Task
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related
Romance
Family relationships/conflict
Exhibited on BBC1 / repeated on BBC3
Set in the kitchen sink setting of fictional Walford, East London.
Focus on Working class communities
Long, overarching narrative / fixed representation of regionality
Antagonism

6. 6
YOU MUST complete the Table below whilst watching the TWO
promotional trailers for the BBC Soap Opera Eastenders.
YOU SHOULD aim to identify key examples (Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical) from each trailer that demonstrates your understanding.
Extension - YOU COULD apply relevant audience theory to explain what
impact these key examples would have on the target demographic.
In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the
target audience for Eastenders?
Age Adults (40’s, 50’s?)/ teen- similar
lifestyles.
Gender Both Men and Women – dominant
women
Nationality English with strong accents.
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
A narrative of Taking over of the vic, death, violence themes.
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-
Verbal, Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
- -
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
-action of man pushing
woman(NV)
-‘It was me!’: argument(V)
-‘stay away from my sister’
(V)
-violence: actions with
furious facial expressions.
-Katz: escapism, entertainment.(K)
Informing about characters, (K)
-Care givers (M)
-Gender: Male-enjoy /familiar with violence? (H)

7. 7
Focus on
working class
communities
-mid-shot, tightly framed
-new owner of the vic:
leader of a community
-‘250 a grand’ sounds a lot
according to people’s
reactions.
-Personal identity within working class (K)
-Age: for young people (20’s etc), 250 grand
sounds a lot of value. (Hart)
-Social climbers- have reaction to money.(M)
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
-Money, relationships of
different characters shown
simultaneously.
-Katz: it is more entertaining to have more stories
going on at once, rather than one constant
narrative.
Disruption in storyline
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
-New owner of the vic
disrupts the overarching
storyline?
-Community Drivers/Explorers- agree/disagree with
it?
-Personal identity to the storyline?
Trailer 2)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Finding the cheater to a relationship (marriage).
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-
Verbal, Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Shouting ‘it does to me!’ –
conventional couple
argument?
-action of kissing
-Entertainment & Personal identity (K)
-Care givers feeling sorry (M)
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
-shouting, burning paper
-lots of cuts
-violence (pushing woman
against wall)
-background?
-class-mid: lots of arguments (H)
-Entertaining? (K)
-Creating social interaction between people
-making people feel better about themselves

8. 8
Focus on
working class
communities
-The market- when he was
stalking her- conventional
shop for this class.
-funfair brings the
community sense to a
location
-working class audiences can identify themselves
(H)
-Country: typical British market? (H)
-Social climbers? As they like status symbols and
cares about money- they will think that either they
are higher up in authority than the characters, or
lower and be competitave.
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
It is one story line but with
lots of shots of multiple
characters.
-It may mean that many different kinds of people
can identify themselves (K)
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
7 people cut in the same
way- seems like a different
narrative.
-Perhaps, people with different regional identity,
age groups etc can identify with the different
characters (H),(K).
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrative can be defined as…..
telling a story from more than one person’s point of view.
Telling multiple stories about multiple characters in an open narrative for example.
YOU MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastenders and identify
where the following elements are presented to the audience:
· Multi-stranded narrative
· Family relationships and/or conflict
· Focus on working class communities
· ‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
· Romance
YOU SHOULD write down x1-2 examples for EACH of the elements above that
are presented.

9. 9
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
· Multi-stranded
narrative
-boys in bar & girls on street
-2 adults stuck in a room
-focusing on different characters’
story
-entertainment- different genders
etc
-personally identifying
-educate- how different age groups
act and go through different things.
· Family relationships
and/or conflict
-a sense of a parent & child-
drinking together
-men and women fighting : ‘Im so
sorry’ ‘I’ll punch you in the face’
-making up with a friend
-self identity
-entertainment
-care givers may feel like resolving
the fights
-explorer may think how to change
bad attitudes?
· Focus on working
class communities
-The bar- setting -people with
dress: not appropriate
-lots of action scenes
-lots of beer scenes, medium shot.
-bars etc are familiar to working
class audiences
-therefore can personally identify
with characters
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) -sound of knocking door changes a
constant situation.
-expecting something to happen:
entertaining
· Romance -kissing, room with a pinky
environment
-personal identification with their
current relationship
-survivors: conventional situation.
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 3
Textual Analysis
According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the
Soap Opera genre tends to focus on:
The home/family / domestic tribulations and strong women and the such. They’re long
been said to appeal to the female viewer. Personally identifying, but also reinforces
stereotypes.
1) – Do you agree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY (First 5 minutes)

10. 1
0
Next Page - YOU MUST deconstruct the opening 5 minutes of a sequence from
the popular ITV Soap Opera Coronation Street (1960 – Present) to identify
examples of where this ideology is presented to the target audience.
YOU SHOULD also try and identify, to demonstrate your knowledge and
understanding of the genre, any Codes & Conventions associated to the Soap
Opera genre.
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology:
1. Woman doing housework using gloves (Full shot)- traditional ideology. Female
audience identifying themselves, as care givers (K&M) / stereotypical.
2. Woman Arguing, where she stands is quite dominant compared to the man. -Her
taking boy to the hospital is a traditional role of a mother.
3. An old woman controlling the situation- ‘I don’t want you to think that I’m the sort of
woman that...’ -counter stereotyping traditional woman.
4. Traditional woman: need man- ‘He’s only gone for 5 days’ & ‘I miss ya’ in response
to him going- stereotypical women’s weakness in men.
5. Woman having a stereotypical family daily life as a mother- eating together in a
dining room.
“Multi-Stranded Narrative” -Two Families in both of family there are relationships of scenes.
-Marriages and it’s issues.

11. 1
1
· Family relationships
and/or conflict
-Old woman dominant over everyone: about the red carpet etc.
-family daily life presented.
· Focus on working
class communities
-Women doing housework
-setting in small rooms, conventional to the class.
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
-The introduction of the grandmother changes what was constant
inside the family’s life.
· Romance -Old & Young couple being presented.
· Other Themes &
Issues represented:
-authority depending on age, theme of separation or distance.
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
To promote and to gain interest for mass audiences of a media product by: informative
cliffhangers, using multi-stranded narratives, clashing/exaggerated imageries/clips, to
keep previous audiences going with the product (if it’s a series), social audiences can
spread the words.
2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
· Maximizing audiences- getting more views on the text
· Can reach those who doesn’t use certain platforms (Radio, TV, magazines,
internet...etc.
Ultimately, some form of Convergence is important when promoting a text to
the target audience.

12. 1
2
3) Textual Analysis –
Next Page - YOU MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing
this sequence from Coronation Street:
· Multi-stranded narrative
· Character dilemmas
· ‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBQ7yzCM3Bk
Multi-stranded narrative
-There are little sequences of different groups of people.
-1: outside the street, 9 different characters
-2: in a room with a TV, a couple discussing about something: presenting their relationship.
-3: a family discussing about something, a lot of characters with different ages are in the
scene. The older looking woman with towel around her head signifies comfort and has lots of
screening times, so she may have the most authority.
-4: in a bar, they are talking about the same thing that people in scene 4 was talking about.
Conclusion: the same narrative, but spoken in different perspectives from different characters.
-5: In a restaurant, three people resting from work- then a woman telling them to work despite
one of them being ill. (Not relevant to the overarching narrative): disequilibrium.
Character dilemmas
-Some of the problems occurring in the clip includes: A wedding plan which concerns
everyone, and characters talking about their own roles, and gossiping about the hardships of
requirements set by the bride. In a scene where workers are resting and a woman convinces
them to work, the resting workers seemed to be struggling in the authority of the woman- she is
not being trusted by the workers?
Personal Identification
-There are lots of kinds of relationships: friendships and relationships that people can relate
(Katz). Eg: one couple has a male who is good with technology and a woman who doesn’t
know anything about it. Another sort of role in a community include : working early in the
morning in a café, being socially awkward where saying hello can bring un-ease to the
atmosphere. Conflict within a family- relatable in terms of different roles within a conflict:
teenaged / 20’s audiences may relate to the offending side of the conflict. A woman in a bar
planning a wedding can reflect a gossiping personality, which many audiences can relate to.

13. 1
3
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od
The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.
1. What are the connotations of the ident for the popular Channel Four Teen
Soap Opera Hollyoaks (1995 – Present)?
the soap appeals to both genders, shown in the colours (Pink = female, blue = male),
and the gender symbols in the O’s which are non-verbal codes. These also connote
that there are stereotypical gender issues involved in this soap.
Next Page - Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4
2. YOU MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this
sequence from Hollyoaks:
· Binary opposition of the non-diegetic music
· Symbolism of the non-verbal code of the tear
· Representation of Pregnancy
· Any other examples that would impact the audience
Music: - Not the sort of music that would appeal to women in wedding. It was a dark,
mellow music. The lyrics denote: ‘White wedding’, but the setting is all black themed.
Telling the audiences that the story is going to be about a sad / unhappy wedding. ‘It’s
a nice day to start again’ in this situation, connotes that the wedding is a new beginning
to a character, which means that something else has ended in the narrative.
The Tear: - represents unhappiness, pain- however because the tear is reddish black,
it may represent fake emotions within the soap.
Pregnancy: - who’s the father? Situation: The doll being smashed on the floor
representing troubles involving children/babies (Abortion etc).
Women with the vail: personally identifiable with people who are already married.
Black vail representing the dark married life ahead of her.

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Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
The Decision making: Productions/logistic side.
Overseeing production: consideration of target audience, profits etc.
Build up contracts, financing, budgeting.
2) What is the role of a Director?
Decide the ideas / visualisation of stories
See what everything is like through the eyes of the audiences
A leader, calm, focused, decisive.
3) Institution research –
YOU MUST research the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on.
Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.
· Home of ‘serious’ television. It delivers content that is not so main stream.
· Targets everyday working class people with national average incomes.
· Average audience figures: 5.7% share, 53% weekly reach, 19.7% daily reach.
· Founding part of BBC2 was to provide educational and community programming
to the UK public.