1. 
In what ways does your media use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?

2. Soaps
There are several different types of sub genres within soap operas to suit different
audiences: Scripted Reality, Realism, Melodrama, Australian Soaps and American Fantasy.
These are the conventions structured in most soaps but vary to the type of soap it is. Most
of them are easy to identify in popular soap operas: Central Location, Dramatic stories,
Theme Tune, Multi strand narratives , Repeating characters, Named after a location, Diegetic
audio, Shot reverse shot, Regional, stereotypes.
Mise En Scene
Location: Represents where the characters are from. Could give information on there
backgrounds. Reflects who they mirror and relate to.
Costumes: Reflects the mood of the characters. Connote what they are feeling e.g. Re oat
could connote love or danger depending on what is happening in the scene. Reflect the
characters lifestyle, whether they are wealthy or poor.
Lighting
Reflects the mood of the characters or of the current setting. High key or low key lighting
depending on the soap and it’s background/location.
Sound
Combination of Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sounds to represent what’s happening in the
scene and to suit the storyline.

3. Scripted Reality
Includes real people who speak naturally but are put in pre-planned situations for audiences
entertainment. Not professional actors and actresses, they are real people not characters.
Target audience: younger people aged 16 – 30, mixed gender, this age can relate with the characters and
situations.
Mise En Scene
Costume: designer clothes, connotes that they all have rich lifestyles. All characters are extremely well
groomed, care about there appearance more than they would in real life.
Location: set in common places such as houses, cafes, restaurants, pubs and nightclubs. Show the
wealth and that they can afford things we wouldn’t normally be able to. Also shoes that that can do
normal stuff like us so we can relate to them.
Sound
Non diegetic sound is used a lot in scripted realities such as current chart songs to reflect the mood and
so the audience can relate to them. Diegetic sound is throughout to create the feeling of realism.
Shot types
Close ups: to see characters facial expressions and emotions.
Lighting
High key lighting which connotes riches and glamour. Also makes the shots look clean and crisp. Lighting
also reflects the mood and what is happening in the scene.
Choosing Sub -genre
I decided to focus on scripted reality as it was something I watched more often then realism or
melodrama which were the more popular choices.

4. When researching into scripted reality programmes already out there, there wasn’t one
which focused on an all Manchester cast set in Manchester. This made me think that there
was a target audience out there for a scripted realty based in Manchester. In are research
we found that we wanted to base are scripted reality on the lines of Geordie shore, The
Valleys and Beauty School Copout.
I thought that to connect it into a students life would be appropriate considering
Manchester has two big Universities in the town centre and could some how revolve around
the lifestyle of a student but glamour it up with money and rules.

5. My trailer fits into the genre of this category perfectly. In some way I've made it a long
teaser trailer showing clips from all over the ‘series’. From the screen shot below you can see
how I have given it the same feel as to it being an MTV programme which are unique in
there own way as you can tell when a programme is from MTV. It has the same fount, same
arrangement and a website and social media connection.
From the screen shot you can also see what I have called my scripted reality ‘The Mancunian
Way’. As most scripted realities relate there title to the place or the people it is set in, we
went with that initiative to try and incorporate both into the title of the show. This is when
we found out that there was a road running through Manchester called Mancunian Way,
very close the University which was perfect to fit are scripted reality with involves students
which is how we came up with the name.

6. From the screen shots on the left you can see what we have
done similar in are trailer to one which is in Geordie Shore,
with the interview set out for the characters to
communicate with the audience and how they narrate
themselves. This is a great way to inform the audience on
what is going on in the trailer, and give them teasers as well.
We also tried to dress them in the same sorts of stuff , with
them showing expensive brands and looking well groomed
making the conventions of a scripted reality also included.
Form the screens shots on the right you
can also see how I have tried to get
similar the logo which is featured at the
end of the trailer where I have included
the whole cast instead of just one and
writing which again is in the same sort
of style as MTV have it as you can
compare with the both of them.

7. From the screen shots on the left you can see what we have
done similar in are trailer, which is in Geordie Shore, with
dramatic story lines even though it is hard to incorporate
one into a trailer, we still managed to do it. The two main
characters of the shown Lucy played by Niamh and JJ played
by Chris have a small story in the trailer after they have
developed some sort of relationship which obviously goes
wrong as shown. As they are the two main characters the
audience would want to know more after seeing the trailer.
From the screen shots on the right you can see Gary and
Charlotte from Geordie Shore which is where we have got
the idea from for the dramatic story line which is something
that is in the Geordie Shore trailers, where various bits of
story lines are shown. As you can see some parts they are
friends in them and in some there are ‘incidents’. This is
actually a good technique for the audience to be enticed as
they assume something goes wrong and makes them want
to watch the episode/series to find out what happens.

8. From the screen shot below you can see what we have done to
make it a bit different by trying to include the whole cast at the
end so the audience can get a good peak at the cast whilst
being told what the programme is called and only being told
that it is coming soon making them want to see as much as
they can of the characters as possible. Also I have tried to make
it less cluttered by not having boxes and to much colours
involved in the text as the audience don’t want to be feeling
that there reading to much as they will prefer to be watching.
Form the screens shots on the right you can
also see how the first frame of the trailer is
the location of where the programme it is
set and makes the audience aware,
especially
since they
are well
known
locations in
Manchester.
For the trailer we had to find
Non-Diegetic sounds, which
was hard as we had to use
royalty free music. This also
had to suit the genre for the
show which is normally very
happy and clubby music most
common chart music. I did find
some in the end which worked
effectively for the trailer.

9. From the screen shots on the left you can see that we tried to
explore into a vehicle for filming and incorporate that into the
scripted reality. As you can see Geordie shore attempted this
with a plane but as more of a one off and as you don't normally
see them travel somewhere, its just normally snap shots. We
were trying to make his more interactive to the audience to
make them get a feel for what the characters might actually get
up to while in the car and make it more fun with audience. The
challenges faced were shooting angles, safety and dimensions.
From the screen shot on the right you can see we have attempted
to do some different camera angles which wouldn’t normally be
in a scripted reality. With this shot you can see all the characters
and where there going form a high angle shot. This makes the
audience more aware of what the characters are doing.
From the screen shot on the left you can see we have attempted
to do another different camera angle which would normally be in
a scripted reality, a birds eye view. We felt that we wanted to
explore more with the camera to see what would work for this
genre of soap compared to the regular shots in a scripted reality.

10. My billboard is very similar to a current MTV billboard. It has all the conventions a billboard
should have, the institutional logo MTV, an enigma code, title The Mancunian Way,
Characters, and the layout. My billboard uses the same bold colours, follows the MTV style,
and is very simple but effective making suitable to be used for MTV.
This billboard however challenges what a billboard does for MTV as it doesn’t really
promote a lot about the programme, it only really promotes MTV. This is because it is a
coming soon billboard and wants to hide as much as possible from the audience and I
personally think this has worked more effective with this scripted reality. The main
differences with this billboard is that it doesn’t have an air time, the characters are covered
so you don’t know what they look like and there isn’t much of a style it’s just simple.

11. My magazine is very similar to a current Soap magazine. It has all
the conventions a magazine should have, a masthead Reality TV,
bleed, weekly publication, enigma, cover story, colour scheme,
secondary images, bold text, main image, tag line and secondary
cover story. My magazine uses the same sort of layout and is a very
simple but effective design.
This magazine is different as I feel I have tried to lower down the
bold and extreme colours used and make them a little bit more
softer on eyes, this makes the reader feel more welcome to the
magazine with a softer colour scheme. I have taken a lot of red out
of the cover and made it a eye catching colours which focuses more
on exclusives to the magazine, compared to everything being cover
in red. I have used less secondary images to make the page feel less
cramped but still made the page feel busy as there's always a lot
going on in any kind of soaps.
The challenges I faced with this magazine were to make a scripted
reality show relevant on a magazine cover as they aren't really on
magazine covers. This was to associate things on the next episode
and things associated with the characters and to the audience.