The document summarizes the process of creating media products for a soap opera assignment. It discusses researching conventions of soap opera trailers, magazines, and posters. It describes choosing a genre and developing ideas for a trailer incorporating camera work, music, and editing. Feedback on the trailer suggested it effectively teased the audience. The combination of the trailer, magazine cover, and poster was deemed an effective promotional package. Lessons learned included needing more practice with software and seeking more diverse feedback.

1. A2 Media-Evaluation.
‘Soap Opera’
Matilda Cook
2013

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

3. • Once I had chose the brief ‘Soap Operas’, I straight away got into researching and
understanding exactly what a Soap Opera TV trailer looks like, what a magazine front cover
looks like and what a Soap Opera poster/billboard looks like. After I had a clear understanding
by researching and analysing Soap Opera TV trailers, Soap Opera magazine front covers and
Soap Opera Posters/Billboards, I straight away had ideas on what I wanted to create.
Watching TV trailers on different storylines gave me an idea of what sort of genre I would like
to include in my own Soap Opera TV trailer. I figured through personal opinion that the more
‘soppy’, dull, emotional and drab the TV trailers are, the more interesting and suspicious the
TV dramas look. Therefore, I had in mind what I wanted to create.
Watching TV most days gave me a wider insight of what different TV trailers include and the
many different genres on different TV channels. I also searched for a lot of Soap teasers on
YouTube, as it is a web 2.0 that is very broad.
Whilst watching these TV trailers, I noted and analysed the camera work, editing, mise-en-
scene, lighting and music so I knew exactly how I would create my own. I also looked in great
depth a lot of attention to the editing. Even though the ones I had watched were editing a
huge amount and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to create the same myself, I still wanted
some idea on how I could create my own TV trailer and get inspiration.
When it came to editing, we had an idea of putting our audience on edge, so we wanted to
come up with a unique way on how to create our TV trailer so that we could really tease our
audience.

4. Music.
• When it came to music in our TV trailer, we had to link the music with the genre we had
chosen to create. As our trailer was very emotional, we had to be careful with what music we
chose. As our TV drama is advertised as a meaningful, down to earth TV programme, the
music was decided as a steady beat all the way through. Having thought broader, it was
decided that we would link the soundtrack with the certain scenes in the trailer. An example
of this would be on the scene ‘escape’ as when the door gets slammed, the music becomes
more intense and becomes more than just steady. I felt that this really mixed well with the
emotions of the characters. Another scene this happens in is ‘betrayal’, as there is a faster
beat when it comes to viewing the clothing on the floor and the view of the figures in the
bed. As the camera shoots the figures in the bed, the music then calms down as it creates an
atmosphere, tension and the mysteriousness of what is coming next on the trailer.
We decided to make the soundtrack louder at the end when it shows when the Soap is going
to start as it creates excitement.

5. Camera.
• The TV trailer can become very effective straight away when it comes to different camera
angles. We didn’t want to do anything too extreme with the camera angles as we didn’t want
a lot of attention on the camera angles, just what is happening in the Soap Opera.
Here we have created an
establishing shot in the scene
‘betrayal’. This is to create a
react and effect to what is
going to be happening in the
bedroom.
We have also created the same shot for both of
these scenes so that our audience can view the
environment and see things in great depth.

6. Here, we had the camera panning the
bedroom, so we can show the audience
exactly what has happened in this
situation and to really tease and make
the audience think. It is also giving the
audience an idea of us ‘spying’.

7. Lighting.
• We didn’t focus too much on lighting, although we did try and make the lighting dull in the
scenes we created. This was to create an eerie affect and a certain atmosphere due to our
trailer being quite depressing. We figured that this would create a certain mood with our
audience. As TV Soap Operas are showing social realism, we decided that we wanted to really
keep a natural light. This is shown on our ‘Death’ scene. The reason for this is because we
want our audience to relate to an everyday lifestyle, and everyday problems and issues. If we
edited the lighting and made it different, the TV trailer wouldn’t be advertising a Soap
Opera, just a TV Drama.

8. Mise-En-Scene
• It was important to take mise-en-scene into consideration, due to it including scenery and
costumes. Our clothing was very simple when it came to viewing the characters. This is
because of the Soap Opera creating an everyday lifestyle for viewers to watch and relate to.
So therefore, we dressed our characters very casual in everyday jeans, plain t-shirt and any
shoe except heels. There is even a scene ‘Mistakes’ which included the character Amy
wearing nightwear. This is because of the key word ‘mistake’. Therefore, she must look upset
and angry and not care about her appearance. Another reason for this would be because of
the characters only being young teenagers.
The TV trailer takes part in a family home due to the Soap Opera revolving life around family
problems and everyday issues with friends and general teenage problems. It was best to be
set in a family household environment so our audience could relate.

9. Conventions of real media products.
• Short TV trailer which is 1:06 minutes long
• Advertisement of where the Soap Opera is going to be shown
• Title of Soap Opera
• Doesn’t give too much away of what is going to happen in the Soap Opera
• Teases the audience
• The flow of themes which are happening, keeps the video continuous and mysterious
• Soundtrack
• Different camera angles
• Date of realise
• Hash tag-web 2.0

10. Was your production an effective
piece?
• Vanessa Lane- “Really good, I like how the trailer involves younger people which makes it
different, as it doesn’t mainly relate to adults like Eastenders.”
This shows that my audience has already related to the Soap Opera and shown that the TV
trailer is shown in a unique way.
• Kelsey James- “I really liked it. The titles at the beginning of each scene are really effective as
not many TV adverts do that so it makes your trailer a lot more interesting.”
This shows that the titles I added makes the audience think more about the TV programme
and creates more of a mystery as it teases the audience.
• James Hardiman- “excellent. It was all very effective and even the camera shots create
suspicion and makes you want to carry on viewing all the drama. Really good, well done.”
This to me shows how effective the camera angles are on a TV trailer. Hearing this comment
makes me think that we should have involved more different camera shots.

11. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?

12. • I thought that the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks were very effective.
The reason I think this is because all three pieces all create a good promotional package on
how to grasp an audience into watching our new Soap Opera ‘Behind Closed Doors’. I believe
that we achieved well because all of our work came from inspiration of real media products.
I think that with our final magazine front cover, the genre was shown clearly and well due to
our contrasting of colours and foreshadowing what will be happening in the up and coming
episodes. This front cover also shows the personalities of our characters as we have a close-
up that show of both of their faces. The tag lines on the front cover also helps to pursue this.
The poster sets the mood of our
up and coming Soap Opera
because of the contrast of colours
and the use of wording which is
‘coming soon’. This makes our
audience want to know more
information of when it is going to
come out.
Our TV trailer is the best way to promote our Soap Opera as it
gives the audience great detail of what will happen throughout
the whole series. This will make the audience want to know what
is going to happen in the next series once this one is over.

13. How the three texts would work
together as a marketing strategy
• Advertising is the best and the only way of getting a product across to the audience. A good
marketing strategy is the key thing to help get across to your audience in an affective way. I
think that the ‘teaser’ poster is successful due to the striking black and white image which
causes the billboard poster to be eye-catching. I think this would be because of the dark
image. The TV trailer creates mysteriousness due to it being depressing and not giving any
clues on what more it could be about other than the 4 themes shown.
The front cover of the magazine may not get as much as an audience as the other two might
as only certain audience like to read those magazines because they want to know more.
Whereas, there could be a certain audience that like the surprise and want to wait for more
of the drama.
I believe that all three show a certain genre as they are stylized that way.

14. What have you learned from your
audience feedback?
• My audience feedback has gave me positive thoughts about my work as I feel that it affected
the right audience in the right way. I’m happy that my audience have seen the success in my
editing, mise-en-scene, lighting and camera shots.
• Although I asked the majority of friends, I think that we needed a little more criticism so we
know for sure what we can do to help gain more of an audience or what we can do better to
impress them. This is key for production companies as they can have an insight of their
audience’s opinions so they can change things for the future. We didn’t get any feedback
from comments that were posted on our blogs, we decided to ask people in person so that
we could see through facial expressions and reactions.
• I feel that we have achieved everything that we wanted to achieve. The only criticism I would
give myself would be to take more of a variety of photographs and make use of a better
photographed camera as the images didn’t come out as expected. If we had taken more, we
would have had more of a choice of photographs to use on our billboard poster and
magazine front cover.

15. How did you use new media
technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation
stages?

16. Construction.
• I have never been able to use the equipment so throughout the process I was learning. Once
we had got into filming, it was easier than expected.
• For filming, we used a basic video camera with a camera stand that we had borrowed from
school.
• Our sounds for our TV trailer were non-diegetic so we didn’t need to use the sound detector
and recorded because it wasn’t needed.

17. • Editing: Editing was the biggest challenge for us as we found the programme ‘Adobe Première
Pro’ to edit on very difficult to use. At this point we had never been taught to use it so we
had to learn along the way how to use the software. Finding the right effects and edits was a
struggle so we decided to try and keep to basics and in the end the trailer had came out the
way we expected in the first place.
• The main problem we probably had was converting the video once we had finished.
• When it came to editing my ancillary tasks, editing was a bit more smoother as I had actually
used Photoshop a lot before due to our AS Media. Even though I had used it, I had only
learned how to do the basics, so when it came to creating the poster, I knew basically what I
had to do, but as I didn’t know a lot, I taught myself by using the internet or teaching myself.
So to conclude, I am pleased with the outcome of my ancillary task. I managed to blend
objects in with the background, clone a colour, magic wand things out that weren’t
needed, spot removal tool, contrast and make the lighting more affective.
• When it came to adding the soundtrack, we had to use YouTube Video Converter which
changed the clip into a MP3.

18. Research.
• Whilst researching, YouTube became the most useful. This was because our main product we
were focusing on was our Soap Opera TV trailer. Watching lots of teaser trailers helped us get
a great insight of how our own should be.
• We also used Google, so we could click onto Google Images and research what posters and
billboards look like and many magazine front covers of TV listings.
• We did also look at magazines in the supermarket to see which ones looked the most
effective and which were most eye-catching to ourselves. Then we had more of an idea of
how to create our own.

19. Planning.
• All of my planning and research has been stored on My Blogger along with all of my
analysis’s. This made the process of creating very simple. It made everything easier by
keeping it all in one place so you could easily go back and look at what and when you last
planned or researched. It is a very organised way in keeping up to date with your planning
and research.
• Having our blogs public is a helpful thing as my media group and I can look at each others
blogs for inspiration and ideas.

20. Evaluation.
• I decided to use Microsoft PowerPoint to create my evaluation on. This is because I find it
very easy to work with and because I can fit a lot of information on one page. Not only this, I
can easily copy evidence on my work onto here easily without any problems and having to
upload through files, I can simply copy and paste my images.
• After I finish my PowerPoint, I will simply upload it to ‘Slideshare’ which is a website that
converts my PowerPoint Presentation onto my blog by copy and pasting a link which will
make it easy to share.

21. Conclusion.
• In conclusion, creating this coursework has been a huge challenge for Hannah and I, but it
has also been very enjoyable. I have enjoyed learning new things, by discovering and
researching a lot of new information.
• I am happy with how our final products came out but if I were to change anything it would
have to be the photography. As it came to the end, we realised that the images were not the
best and is the downside to our products.
• If I were to do it again, I would make sure I don’t waste any time creating my products and
ask for more help on being taught how to use certain softwares, although, I did enjoy the
challenge.
• As it has came the end I have now appreciated the amount of effort that needs to go into
production.