The document summarizes the student's media production coursework for creating a soap opera titled "Diamond Street." It discusses how the student used and was influenced by existing media conventions in developing the trailer, magazine cover, billboard, and brand for the soap. Audience feedback was generally positive and suggested some minor edits to the trailer for pacing and sound. The student researched similar soap operas and used various media technologies like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements in constructing, planning, and evaluating the project.

1. A2 Media CourseworkOCR G324 Advanced ProductionPAGE,LyndseyAquinas College:33435

2. 1.In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENEGE forms and conventions of existing media products? My media products can be compared to existing media products because of the quality of the TRAILER, MAGAZINE COVER, BILLBOARD and BRAND. Trailer After RESEARCHING various trailers for SOAPS/programmes we decided what we wanted to achieve; A PARODY. We looked mainly at “Hollyoaks” because we knew we wanted to aim our soap at people our age because we believed we knew what TEENAGERS wanted to see, we chose to put our soap on E4 because the majority of the AUDIENCE was aged 16-24. Our Trailer follows the TRADITIONAL SOAP CONVENTIONS for example; Multiple Main Characters, Conflict, Various shot types, Set and Location created realism but also CHALLENGES and DEFIES others; 3 or 4 storylines per trailer or episode, we decided to have one main storyline in our trailer as we could CONCENTRATE on the idea of a MURDER and it was a BIG STORYLINE in “Diamond Street” and created CONFLICT whereas some trailers we looked at had VARIOUS STORYLINES in them but SMALLER LESS HOSTILE stories as its UNUSUAL to have major stories in a soap. Ancillary Texts We looked at a VARIETY of SOAP MAGAZINES and BILLBOARD POSTERS to get an idea of something we could create. Our Magazine followed the conventions of any magazine e.g. Cover Star, Masthead, Tagline anchoring star, Bright Colours etc. We then SUBVERTED the norms of soap magazines and put only one person on the front of the magazine “Stacey” with the tagline “MURDER ON THE STREET!” so this could imply either the cover star was the murderer or the cover star was murdered. We also used slightly PALER COLOURS which CHALLENGED the CONVENTIONS as usually soap magazines have BRIGHT COLOURS but it still manages to look PROFESSIONAL and stand our from the other magazines. Our Billboard poster was good considering we had never looked at the conventions of billboards before but we had an idea of what we needed to include, a picture of the soap or characters, the channel logo, date, time and name of soap. We included everything we needed to include and didn’t challenge any of the conventions. We had the five main people of the storyline on our billboard which could only suggest one particular story but yet it doesn’t reveal anything. Brand Our BRAND was a product for E4 aimed at the YOUNGER GENERATION, we completed our BRAND IDENTITY by the age of the characters in our soap, the dramatic storylines and the short episodes. 1

5. Ideas

6. Editing1

8. Price in Bubble

9. LARGE TAGLINE ANCHORS SOAP STAR

10. Other storylines from other soaps

11. Barcode

12. WEBSITE for extra information on the magazine

14. “What’s on TV” has brighter colours-ATTRACTS READER

16. “TV TONIGHT” tag line is ANCHORED slanted towards the LEFT whereas “What’s on TV” main tag line is ANCHORED towards the RIGHT which I think is better because it won’t CONFUSE the audience as to which storyline its for.

17. “TV TONIGHT” has COLOURED TABS to make it EASIER for audience to find specific day they want.My “TV TONIGHT” Magazine “What’s On TV” Magazine 1

19. Main character/characters CENTRAL to BILLBOARD, for example “Diamond Street” I am stood CENTRAL and “The Inbetweeners” The FOUR MAIN CHARACTERS are CENTRAL wearing completely DIFFERENT UNIFORM to the rest of teenagers, RELATES back to idea of THE INBETWEENERS crowd.

20. Website for soap/programme

23. E4 LOGO slightly different STYLE

24. “The Inbetweeners” Billboard has more of an ORDER to it in comparison to “Diamond Street”1 The “Inbetweeners” Billboard

26. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS similar CONVEY idea of ANGER and EMOTION in the character.

27. “Hollyoaks” BACKGROUND BLURRED to draw audiences eyes to “Mercedes” face and “Amy’s” face is also CLEARER to show grab the ATTENTION of audience

29. The POSITION of the CHARACTERS “Hollyoaks” she is facing the camera as if she was talking to the audience and “Diamond Street” she is looking away from the camera towards something that's happening or has just happened further away.

31. EDITING is different

32. LOCATION is CLEAR in “Diamond Street”

33. “Mercedes” is placed on LEFT hand side of screen facing the camera, “Amy is placed on RIGHT hand side slanted looking away from camera.“Mercedes-Hollyoaks” 1

35. This is a TWO-SHOT and neither of the characters are FACING the CAMERA.

37. The LIGHTING is BRIGHTER in Hollyoaks

38. “Hollyoaks” has EXTRA CHARACTERS to create a REALISM1 “Hollyoaks”

41. “Diamond Street” screenshot are the COLOURS of E4 BRAND, this conveys the BRAND IDENTITY, (white and purple)

42. Background is different1

43. Character Comparison “Diamond Street” “Hollyoaks” “Stacey” from our soap “Diamond Street” was based around the character “Theresa McQueen” from the programme “Hollyoaks”. I played Stacey and wore a BLONDE wig and PINK lipstick to convey the TYPICAL BLONDE BITCHY TEENAGE GIRL. We did this so the AUDIENCE COULD RELATE to the character through the ways in which she acts and she implies a sense of NAIVETY 1

45. Blondie-Rip her to shreds

46. Just Jack-The day I died

47. Heart-If looks could kill

48. The Runaways-I love playing with fireWe chose La Roux-In for the kill (SKREAM REMIX) because of the ironic idea “In for the kill” and our soap trailer was a PARODY about Stacey getting killed for meaningless reasons, we wanted to EXAGGERATE the narrative. The reasoning for choosing the REMIX version is because of the BASS in the song which fitted in with our murder and helped create the ATMOSPHERE 1

49. 2.How effective is the combination of your MAIN PRODUCT and ANCILLARY texts? Brand Audience Institution Genre Brand Identity 2

50. Ancillary-TV Magazine Cover Our main product was SUCCESFUL and audience feedback was generally very POSITIVE along with our ancillary products. The front cover works well. It gives an IDEA OF THE STORYLINE but DOESN’T REVEAL the whole story. It makes the AUDIENCE want to WATCH the soap because of the TAG LINE “Murder on the street!” ANCHORING the COVER STAR. The feedback on our magazine was good, people commented on how “PROFESSIONAL” looking it was and loved the use of BRIGHT COLOURS, typical soap conventions, BOLD TEXT, pictures and upcoming storylines. I think this product its very REALISTIC in the sense that it FULFILS ITS PURPOSE and is very well put together, It is very SIMALAR to other soap magazines on the market. We felt our soap trailer fitted its PURPOSE and both the TRAILER, MAGAZINE and POSTER ADVERTISED our soap as we stuck to the main SOAP CONVENTIONS and DEFIED OTHERS. 2

51. Ancillary-Billboard As our main product was so SUCCESSFUL our ancillary products helped make our main product better because they ADVERTISED the storyline which made the AUDIENCE want to WATCH THE SOAP. Our Billboard poster which we created using PHOTOSHOP had EXCELLENT FEEDBACK, and it was very impressive. The billboard works well because it DOESN’T REVEAL what Is going to happen in the soap, it just ATTRACTS the AUDIENCES ATTENTION because its so HOSTILE looking and they see five IMPORTANTCHARACTERS never usually associated in the same poster with NO TAG LINE or clue as to what is going to happen, this INTRIGUES VIEWERS If they see the TRAILER or read the MAGAZINE this will make AUDIENCES want to WATCH the SOAP and see what happens, as they know after seeing the MAGAZINE COVER that MURDER is on “Diamond Street” This Billboard also conveys the GENRE of our soap 2

52. 3.What have your learned from AUDIENCE FEEDBACK? Many people that watched my video told me my trailer was professional and unique. We were also told that the track we chose “La Roux- In for the kill (SKREAM REMIX) and shot types was good, one thing that we learnt we many have to change was the song because it overlapped itself part way through our trailer, we also were told we may have to change the speed of our trailer as parts of it were in slow motion and we were told it was too slow and didn’t work. I managed to change the sound to make it smoother and more sinister. Overall we were told our trailer was very good and there was only some minor issues for example the sound and the editing. 3

54. “I really enjoy going out to get drunk”

55. “The point of drinking is to get drunk”

56. “I wear designer clothes”

57. “I cannot resists buying magazines”

58. “I spend a lot of money on clothes”

59. “I am a regular cinema go-er”

60. “I spend a lot on cosmetics”

61. “I like to keep up with the latest fashions”

62. “I like to try new things”The audience we wanted to attract was the younger viewers that E4 attracts , I believe we did this well because the research we did and the trailers we evaluated 2 3 4

63. Target Audience Diamond Street Hollyoaks Weekdays 6.30pm Stories Thursdays 7pm One main storyline Various Characters Varity of storylines Larger audience and is shown on two channels Smaller soap 3

64. Target Audience Continued Social Status-Middle Class “Average Student” Could be from any stereotype Follow trends and Celebrity fashions E4 Loyalist, Social and stylish Predominantly Female (16-24) 3

65. Audience The age of the characters are important because they are similar ages to target audience Appeals mainly to aged (16-24) girls

67. “Branding is clear, audience clear because of stars, narratives, costumes, music and locations”Uploading my trailer to “BlogSpot.com” and “YouTube.com” helped me gain audience feedback. 3

68. 4.How did you use MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES in the CONSTRUCTION and RESEARCH, PLANNING and EVALUATION stages? Construction Research Planning Evaluation 4

69. Construction-Using Technologies Uploading it to “YouTube” “Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0” 4 “You Tube”

70. Construction-Using Technologies The stages of the Transitions used and edited in “Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0” 4

71. Construction-Using Technologies Editing my Trailer on “Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0” Uploading Sound

72. Construction-Using Technologies Billboard Magazine Cover We used “Adobe Photoshop” to create our ANCILLARYTEXTS, our MAGAZINE cover and BILLBOARD poster. We also created our E4 BRAND IDENTITY 4

73. Construction-Using Technologies We used “Blogspot.com” to create our own blog, we uploaded our PLANNING,EVALUATIONand FINAL PRODUCT to our BLOG We created a “Planning Video” because we were using, Fake blood and a rubber knife to create our murder scene, we wanted to show how we filmed this scene We used “Slideshare.com” to create PowerPoint presentations and upload them straight to our blog 4

74. Research-Preliminary Task “Waterloo Road” “Preliminary Task” We wanted to do something set in a school/college we looked at SIMALAR PRODUCTS like “Grange Hill” and “Waterloo Road” We used “YouTube” and “BBC iplayer” This was part of my planning, I uploaded it onto “YouTube” and my blog “Grange Hill” We used “Adobe Premiere Elements 8.o” to edit our footage 4

75. Research-Similar products Again we used “Google” “YouTube” and “E4” Website to Research our similar products 4