St Andrews Catholic School

1. OCR Media Studies – A2 Level
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio
Mind Map and
Research
Name: Jonathan Sheehan
Candidate Number: 2127
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Generation of Ideas for Ancillary Product 2) –
Poster

2. Theme
ideas
Death
Mystery
Conflict
Multi
Stranded
Narrative
Lies
Death is an extremely powerful subject to feature and can be manipulated in a variety of ways with the poster. Black is the very darkest colour owing
to the absence of or complete absorption of light; the opposite of white and is also related to death. Combining this colour with red as well will
influence blood And suffering which is extremely common in soap operas. Featuring a specific character featured on the poster will be used to highlight
a specific message along with the emotional language used I the text; a powerful message can be conveyed about someone dying
There are many different ways of symbolizing conflict in a poster. It is in one way very different to death but
similar I the respect that conflict can lead to death. Usually included would be angry facial expressions ad the
inclusion of weapons such as knifes. Anger is normally demonstrated with colors such as orange, red and eve
grey. This can be seen in the ‘Hollyoaks’ poster where all of the main characters are highlighted and
surrounded by fire. The hotheaded tagline also highlights that there is ager within the plot of the story.
Everyone knows that liars get
sourced out in the end, which is
why it makes such an interesting
story plot. When a character tells
lies in creates tension for the
audience as we now that this leads
to an intensified drama. This will
be hard to paint to a poster
however secrecy is normally
displayed in the form of colours:
white ad grey. Very cold colours.
Within my trailer, one of my sub
plots may be kidnapping which is a
great form of mystery as the
audience will not know who
kidnaped the person. For this, an
interesting phrase will have to be
used which will cause the viewer
confusion, wanting to find out more
ad creating a personal relationship
(Katz). EastEnders had used a plot
similar however with a murder and
had multiple characters that could
have been the killer, I may replicate
this for my poster ad is a good way of
including each and every character.
A multi stranded narrative is an
extremely powerful way in producing
an interesting soap as it reflects that
many stories are included. This is far
more interesting that just one story
as we as audience members are
given the opportunity to see a
perspective of two characters from
the same soap. These stories can
intertwine with each other to create
an even further interesting
approach.

3. Propp’s Character Roles
• Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic and was interested in the narratives of folk
tales.
• He identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions.
• Characters have a narrative function which provides the structure for the text.
This is relevant to my soap opera production as I have constructed the story around
this theory, making sure that each character has a different role and responsibility in
making sure the soap is professional and interesting, for example the ‘villain’ which
would be Adam, the antagonistic female and the ‘peacemaker’. Without the addition
of characters which hold different stories and personality traits, the multi stranded
narrative feature would not be present.

4. Tagline
Techniques
PositioningConcepts
Alliteration & Sibilance: These two techniques are used a lot in Taglines as they make the sentence ‘Catchy’ and interesting, especially with the use of
sibilance which for example would be ‘Simon the Snake.’ Catching the attention of the viewers is extremely important and repetition can also be used in
conjunction to be even more bold. When repeating words they do however have to be one syllable and easy to say.
Rhetorical Question?: Extremely common in all types of media this forces the reader to think about the story and involve their own opinion to how they feel
about the character. Although they are not actually answering the question a rhetorical one involves even more thinking. This again is creating a personal
relationship with the reader (Katz).
Emotive Language: This is used in order to make the reader feel a certain emotion, this can be hate, love or envy for the specific person within the poster.
These words can influence the viewer to watch the soap and change their opinions to characters, for example ‘Lovely Lutum tries to save everyone around
him.’
‘Walton Exposed’ - This type of tagline influences the
viewer into thinking that there is a large group of
interesting people in the village and that each one has a
different side to them that will soon become apparent.
The audience will immerse themselves, wanting to
discover why and what will be exposed.
‘Small Town, large secrets’ - Short and sweet, this
tagline is simple but says a lot, creating misery for the
reader as their intention should be to find out what
these secrets are and to why they are so large. As it is a
soap opera this is a good tagline as soap operas are
profound for being dramatic and outrageous. Sibilance is
also used here which is a great form of alliteration, the
high amount of ’s’ sounds create an effect of a snake and
snaked are represented as liars and cheats.
‘Each door holds a different secret’ - Like the previous
tagline, this one is slightly different, not in terms of
terminology but with wording. This tagline demonstrates
that each house in Walton has a secret and is so large
that their front doors can’t even keep it in. Immersing
themselves into the soap and wanting to find out each
character and what makes the text so rip-roaring.
Directing the theme of my
soap opera to lies, death
and tragedy I will use dark
colors and within Adobe
Photoshop and position
the tagline within the
middle area of the poster.
I will use a range of
techniques to make the
text seem dark and
sinister such as the bevel
and stroke tool. The bevel
tool will allow my to make
the text seem in a 3D
format and will bring it
more to life whereas the
stroke tool will allow me
to have a different routine
to the rest of the color, I
will pick complementing
dark colors such as
maroon and dark grey.

5. Images
Setting
CharactersManipulation
With experience from taking photos
for my magazine last year, I will be
taking my photos in front of a white
photography background. This makes
it much easier to use the quick
selection tool in Adobe Photoshop
and insert a suitable background. I
will feature each character over a
faded picture of Walton on the hill
which will give recognition to the
viewer. Including the soaps logo and
channel name (BBC 2) will give extra
information to where the viewer can
watch the soap.
Image adjustments - There are many basic
adjustments that can be made to an image for
example the contrast and exposure to alter the
amount of light present in the photo, shadows
and fade for death to the photo and lastly skin
tone. These adjustments can alter the first
impression people have on these characters.
Because they are all new characters, viewers
would not have made an impression on them yet
and this poster could influence how they are
perceived.
Spot removal tool - This is an extremely useful
tool for not only removing spots but all
imperfections. With previous experience I used
this tool to take away moles and scares that were
not necessary on the face. For my picture I want
all of the characters to appear as perfect, with all
imperfections removed. EastEnders used this
type of edit in one of their ‘Who Killed Lucy’
posters and it looks extremely professional. It is
also makes the soap opera seem ironic, in a good
way, as deep down the characters are not perfect
and only appear as so.
Brush tool - Selecting and cropping people out of
their original photos is extremely useful when
manipulating a photo, the brush tool selects the
object/person and the clear tool removes the
background, making it suitable to be placed onto
another image. This is extremely useful as the
background image can be captured without the
necessary people or even created on Photoshop.
I will also use the hair masking tool which I
learned last year to make sure that the person
looks natural and that their hair is removed
professionally as hair can be tricky to remove and
can leave with patches.
I will display on the poster all of the characters who are featured in the
trailer. Because this is a new soap opera, the viewers will not yet know
of any story lines so there won’t have to be a main protagonist yet. By
displaying each character on the poster evenly, this will allow the views
to meet each one in a fashion that will not give any clues away as to
story plots. I will have the characters lined up next to each other with
he text overlapping them. Each character will be looking directly into
the camera so that they in a sense stare into the goals of the viewers.
This will create confrontation and will look interesting, making the
characters seem guilty at the same time.

6. Synergy
/Social
Media
Institution
Logo
Social
Media
My main form of social media
inclusion will be the use of
hash tags for Twitter as I feel
this is an extremely powerful
way of publicity. Many soaps
always feature their hashtags
during the actual text to try
and influence people to tweet
about the text. When this
happens the program starts
trending on Twitter and more
people see it at a rapid pace.
I may include Facebook as well
however this is not as
important as twitter. Including
Facebook will however allow
me to upload any interesting
pictures I find viewers may
enjoy.
By doing this I am appealing
and connecting with my
audience (Katz).
I will be including the BBC 2
logo onto the Walton Hill
poster as this will be the
chancel the soap will be
featured on. Because BBC 2 is a
popular and well known TV
channel, viewers of the soap
should be influenced to
proceed with watching it as
they will understand that BBC
feature good quality programs
most of the time. Also being
added is the time and dates in
which the views will be able to
watch the text, stating dates
and times, however this will be
in a much smaller print and will
be in the bottom right corner
in white to contrast the dark
background.
#WALTONHILL

7. Mind Map - Conclusion
Name: Jonathan Sheehan
Candidate Number: 2127
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
In order to capture my photos for the poster I will need to obtain a high quality DSLR camera which will allow me to
take perfect photos. The photography department at my school has a large supply of equipment which will allow me to
d this. I myself have a Nikon DSLR camera which I will most likely use. However the equipment I defiantly need is
professional lighting and a white photography background which my school has, making the procedure of taking photos
much easier.
A rage of suitable props will need to be gathered for the shoot for example, clothing and any make up that will enhance
the loo of the characters.
November 3rd is the date I hope to take my photos, any later would be risky towards my coursework and will be using
Adobe Photoshop in order to edit these photos. Photoshop is an extremely great software for manipulation and can
change an average photo into a stunning one, also there are many other tools apart from the photos which will allow
me to make a magazine template. I have left 4 weeks before the Christmas break so that I have time to edit these
photos and implement them onto my poster.
I already have I mind who will use as the models for the poster, however I will have to decide in more detail and
shortlist as I do not want to many characters of the sop o my poster, keeping it simplistic is my aim.