1. A2 Media Coursework OCR G324- Advanced production soap opera Eleanor Boocock Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2. Evaluation In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of existing media products? Q1 How effective is the combination of your MAIN PRODUCT and ANCILLARY text? Q2 What have you have learned from AUDIENCE FEEDBACK? Q3 How did you use MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES in the CONSTRUCTION and RESEARCH, PLANNING and evaluation stages? Q4
3. Q1) In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of existing media products? Q1
4. Q1) In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP and CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media products? They are often set in a small setting eg Eastenders square. Camera shots are very basic and point of view and high shots are rarely used. Lighting is basic and in some cases they use filters to create a more duller feel. This is so the audience believe its real. The soap runs on tv, week in week out. SOAP CONVENTIONS AND FORMS It features continuous storylines (narratives) that normally deal with family issues. Non diagetic music is rarely used except for the opening sequence. This is to create realism. Has the same theme tune or opening sequence to when it first started. There is more than one narrative in each episode. As one is resolved another one is underway. Scenes are very short as they don't want to bore the audience because camera shots are very similar. British soaps aim to be realistic to make the audience feel like they can relate to the characters. Q1
5. To find out how I USED, DEVELOPED and CHALLENGED soap conventions and forms I will evaluate existing soap operas. Most episodes are set on the same street. This is so it can create a real atmosphere and familiarity with the audience. It helps the audience believe that the life’s of the character are real, making the episodes more interesting. Over the shoulder shots helps create a third person (the audience) they feel apart of the scene and experiencing it. Q1
6. Evaluating an existing soap The forth wall in soap operas can never be broken, where there is a communication with the audience. The audience need to feel like they are watching the lives of the characters and not being apart of it. Children's paintings, pictures help create a family atmosphere and a sense of realism. Outfits are simple and minimalistic to create an everyday to day character. Little makeup is used. Filters are used over cameras to make every scene look duller. This is meant to make the audience feel good about themselves or they could relate to the characters lives. Q1 Emotional storylines are used so they audience feel like they can relate to the character. Filters also help create regional identity of where the soap is set, London
7. How have I USED conventions and forms? We used a road that is well known to lots of people. Also even though we didn't have a filter to make it look duller, it does anyway. This helps the audience relate to the surroundings. The forth wall Costumes are simple so create realism. Q1 We used close up shots which are a convention of a soap as it can help the audience understand how the character is feeling. Minimalistic makeup makes the character look more natural and unthreatening to the audience.
8. How have I USED conventions and forms? The use of an emotional storyline. This is a chance for the audience to relate, and understand how the characters are feeling. Making the viewing experience alot more interesting. We decided that we would use E4 as our channel to show our soap on. We studied a Hollyoaks later trailer. We used title cards between scene sin our trailer to engage the audience and to create an enigma. Using a recognisable logo and colour to help attract the right audience Q1
9. How have I CHALLENGEDconventions and forms? It is unusual to see a point of view shot in a soap because it could be seen as breaking the forth wall. Also this shot was filmed handheld and not with a tripod which is uncommon in soap because it is more expensive to do these types of shots rather than simple still ones. Another way we challenged the conventions were that we showed blood, blood is rarely shown on soaps as they are broadcasted at a family viewing time so to make sure they don't upset the audience they tend not to show upsetting scenes that involve blood. However because of our target audience age of 16-24 it wouldn't be as shocking for them. Q1
10. How have I CHALLENGEDconventions and forms? At the start of a soap there is a theme tune, or opening sequence. For our soap we created a title sequence introducing the characters and setting the scene. We challenged the normal conventions as soaps such as Coronation street and Eastenders don't introduce the actors at the start. We had 3 narratives that all combine to make one story. Q1
11. How have I CHALLENGEDconventions and forms? In soaps they don’t use flash backs as it may become to confusing for the viewing public if they watch them 3 to 4 times a week. Also if they sue them often they can lose the effect they originally have. I chose to use a flash back in my edit of the trailer to make it more interesting and to make the audience ask questions about my soap. To make the flash back work effectively I used a different effect on the flash back scenes. This way they wouldn't al merge into one and it would be easier for the audience to understand. Q4 Q1
12. Q2) How effective is the combination of your MAIN PRODUCT and ANCILLARY text? Q2
13. Existing Front cover Date and price Website Mast head in top third of page Colour of the masthead is the same each week Slang for the name of the soap to help connect the reader. Capitals to incise the reader No particular colour theme. Brighter colours attract the readers. Enigma, so the reader will read the story inside Plugs Q2 Barcode
14. My front cover Website Masthead in top third of the page Cover stars eyes in top third to connect with the reader. Price No colour scheme or house style Plugs Tabs so the reader can flick to a page easily Q2 Enigma to incise the reader Barcode
15. Existing Billboard My Billboard Main characters Eye contact to connect with audience Different narratives Same genre runs throughout the poster and series Time and date of when it will be shown E4 Logo to create brand identity Q2
16. How is brand created? To be able to create a brand we had to do research on existing E4 shows. We stuck to the same colour theme of purple and white so it would be a recognisable logo. We chose E4 because we thought our target audience would watch E4 over other channels such as ITV or BBC. Even though E4 don’t show soaps we still thought it was suitable because our target audience are ages between 16-24 and this is the age group that attract E4 the most. We found out from E4 style guide what fonts to use. This is so the audience will recognised the brand of E4 and watch the new soap because they trust the brand. Q2
17. How I used Channel 4 style guide to create a house brand. Because we chose E4 as our channel, any products we made had to fit the E4 style guide. This is our screen shots of the information we found and what we used to make our product apart of E4 the brand. Q2
18. How I used Channel 4 style guide to create a house brand. The institution is clearly visible through all our products. Q2
28. Representing age and genre through my products By using young woman characters it appeals to our demographic. We used big wigs all which were different colours to represent youth. All the stars on the front cover of my magazine are young, again targeting our audience. We used fur coats and leggings to represent the current trends and to show the age of our demographic. The characters facial expressions highlight the genre is that of a drama/soap opera. Also the big fake hair and body language are representative of parody. Q2
30. How did we find our target audience? When it came to deciding on a target audience we looked at some programmes that had different genres to the ones we are used to normally. We also looked at similar genre groups, and because our soap is full of young people we decided to study programmes such as Hollyoaks who's target age group is the same as ours. We also looked at other such as Misfits and Skins. How did the audience research and response influence the construction of your products? As a group we decided to make a questionnaire which I asked my friends. Family and other groups on the class. We all gathered our results at the end to decide on a certain group of people who to aim our soap at. I put all of out results in graphs. Q3
31. These are the questions and results from our group questionnaire What is your gender? What is your current employment What is your age? What is your marriage status? Q3
32. These are the questions and results from our group questionnaire Do you watch soaps? How often do you watch the soaps? If so which ones? How do you watch soaps? Q3
40. Some of the reaction shots need to be a little longer to be more effectiveAfter reading my audience feedback I made one change which was the lyrics change. My original version is in my blog along with my new version.
41. Q3) How did you use MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES in the CONSTRUCTION and RESEARCH, PLANNING and evaluating stages? Q4
42. Media technologies were important in the research, planning and making of our product. Each played a role which made the trailer look more professional. Construction. We used a number of different technologies to create our trailer such as the use of hd cameras, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe premiere elements. When I first used the camera in the prelimary task I found it difficult to work it effectively, I am glad I got the chance to practise before shooting our real trailer as I feel I benefited from it greatly. It also made me more confident around the camera and I experimented with different shots. We also used a still camera to take our photos for our ancillary products. A lot of thought had to go into lighting and positioning when taking the photos. Q4
43. Adobe Photoshop For the ending of my soap, i found out of E4 style guide that the title, time and date all appear at the bottom corner. To make it look effective I copied the skins version of this from the style guide. I used these tools at the side to delete the writing but make sure the creases in in logo were still there so it looked effective. Then I used the colour tool at the bottom to make sure whole logo was the same colour. After editing it turned out liked this and I was then able to enter my own text. Q4
44. Continued After getting the right text of E4 Style guide i was able to copy and paste it into my logo. I found using Photoshop fairly easy as i had used it previously in my AS work. However a few stages that I was unsure about was how to make sure all the logo was the same colour. I feel more confident with using Photoshop now and I feel it made my work look more professional. Q4
45. Adobe Premiere Elements When we first started with elements we had to upload our video clips. To do this you click on get media, then on the yellow folder. I found this it be fairly simple to do. To add effects or transitions to make the clips flow together you click on the icons in to top right hand corner. Then drag it down onto the clip. To shorten the clips, i double clicked on the video clip and used the tools provided to make it the length I wanted it. . Q4
46. This is where I put my music, you can also alter the volume at different stages by using the audio button at the side. Once I had finished editing you can upload it straight to YouTube from Adobe elements. I found this easier than doing it through YouTube's website. I found Adobe premiere elements tricky to start but I started to gain confidence by using different tools everything became easier. Problems I found was that sometimes it would freeze and shut down, and I would lose any work hat wasn't saved. Q4
47. Research For my research we used YouTube to look at existing products. YouTube is a really good way of researching as it is easy to use, it gives you suggestions on what you might like to watch. Also because we made an account we can subscribe to other accounts who might have a videos of similar soap trailers. We had to upload our final piece to YouTube and then put it on our blog. Through doing research on YouTube we found that we could do this easily by pressing the embed button and copying the hyperlink onto our blogs. I also found YouTube useful when looking for existing products like the Hollyoaks later trailer, who killed Archie and the Coronation street 50th Anniversary crash. All of these trailers are the ones we liked and set our trailer around. . Q4
48. Research When doing our research we found 3 video clips on YouTube that all had factors we liked. The 3 links are below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zVAmtUmkNE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTklMmflKOg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcVoNEhhICU We took factors from all 3 of these trailers to produce our new trailer. We found YouTube very useful when researching Q4
49. Planning After the comic strip task we filmed a trailer in our college. This was so we could get used to writing a script, using different angles, making sure lighting was good and other aspects like sound. This task really showed us at how much we needed to prepare for our real trailer. When we first found out our brief we edited a short film from using comic strips. This was so we could get used to using the cameras. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_di-NDFsdR0&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yygJaPzQTQU&feature=player_embedded Q4 We were able to get used to using zoom and fades. Doing this task made me more confident with using the camera.
50. While we were researching and constructing our trailer we set up a blogger account on blog spot. This is so we could upload anything we found that would help us in making our trailer. All our script ideas, costume and existing products are all on our blogs. I found this useful as if I wanted to refer back to something I had recently found I could easily do that by just going on my blog. I problem I found was that I didn't keep up to track with it as I would have liked to have done. It also makes my planning work look allot more interesting as I used websites such as slide share to present my work Slideshare was very easy to use and it made my PowerPoint more interesting to watch. Also it expanded my knowledge of different technologies available. Q4
51. Evaluation I chose to use PowerPoint for my evaluation as I think it makes looking at lots of work more interesting. Also i think you can present work nicer by colour coding different sections. I used screen shots from my other work to show how I had achieved different things and I have also included YouTube links to show work when i have spoke about it. I used tabs at the bottom of each question to make it easier to understand which question i am talking about. I think it worked effectively as I was able to refer to other questions with this method rather than repeating myself.
