This document provides a production log and planning materials for a student named Joshua Davey completing an A2 Media Studies course. It includes aims and objectives for a trailer the student is creating for a new soap opera. Research materials are provided on existing soap operas like EastEnders and Coronation Street to analyze codes and conventions. The document also includes lesson plans on soap opera genres, with activities for students to identify codes and conventions in sample episodes. Analysis is also done of the target audiences for soap operas and how certain techniques may appeal to or impact audiences.

1. St. Paul’s Catholic College
Center Number:64770
Candidate Number:5892
Candidate Name: Joshua Davey
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –
Production Log
Evidence of Planning & Research
Aims and Objectives
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2. AO2– Assess candidates’ application of knowledge and
understanding in evaluating their own work, showing
how meanings and responses are created.
AO3– Assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct
media products using appropriate technical and creative
skills.
AO4– Assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and
present appropriate research.
Brief Chosen
A 45 second – 1 minute 30 second trailer for a NEW Soap Opera
that will be exhibited on BBC 3 at 8:30pm (after Eastenders)
that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.
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3. Contents
Textual Analysis
Eastenders
-
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions
Multi Strand Narrative
Coronation Street
“..the home, the family, domestic tribulationsand the strong woman, and as
such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
‘Masculinity and Popular television’ – Rebecca Feasey (2007)
-
Is this evident and how is this presented to the audience?
Research
Purpose of a Trailer
Multi-Platform promotion
Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks
Production Work
Director
Producer
Institution research – BBC Three
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions – Lesson 2
1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?
You MUST demonstrate what you already know by completing a “Spider
Diagram” of what you know about OR expect from this genre:
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4. 4

5. 2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre
The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’
(Steve Neale ) elements of:
1.
Romance
2.
Family relationships and/or conflict
3.
Focus on working class communties
4.
Antagonism and conflict within the community
5.
Verisimilitude
Eastenders (1985 – Present)
Key information regarding this text:
Exhibited on BBC One and repeated on BBC Three
One of the UK’s highest rated programmes (average 8 million)
Set in the ‘kitchen sink’ setting of fiction Walford, East London
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6. Textual Analysis Task
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -
You MUST complete the Table below whilst watching the TWO promotional
trailers for the BBC Soap Opera Eastenders.
You SHOULD aim to identify key examples (Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical)
from each trailer that demonstrates your understanding.
You COULD apply relevant audience theory to explain what impact these key
examples would have on the target demographic.
In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the target
audience for Eastenders?
Age
15-50
Gender
Women
Nationality
British
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Betrayal
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Code
&
Convention
Romance
Evidence
Impact on the Audience
(Verbal,
NonVerbal,
Technical)
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Verbal “I
love you”
Personal identification(Katz)– There is the
identification of the love between both characters
through both verbal and non-verbal codes.
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7. Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Focus on
working class
communities
Verbal
“Likes
Father”
“Likes Son”
Non-verbal Character appearance – The characters are dressed in
attire that makes their appearance seem smart and
Suits and
casual and easily indicates to the audience that they
Ties worn
are of the middle to upper class of social status.
by
mid/upper Setting – The setting connotes to the audience that it is
class
east London and is within a small working community
characters made up of all different backgrounds and status.
Technical
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
Different
camera
angles and
shots used
to focus on
the
characters
Narrative
Personal relationship(Katz)– This connotes that there
is differentiation between the father and son but
StacEy cannot or will not choose between them.
Technical
Close-ups – The close-ups help to establish the
characters facial expressions to the audience to bring
deeper meanings to the multi-stranded narrative.
Mid-shots – The mid shots help to establish the body
language and the characters place in the narrative.
Establishing shot – The establishing shot will help to
display the setting to the audience and the key areas of
the main part of the multi-stranded narrative.
Mid shot&Close-ups – These together make up the
main shots used within the soap opera genre as to
establish the different aspects of the narrative, mainly
in terms of the different characters presented.
The
different
camera
shots that
are used to
portray the
narrative.
‘Disequilibrium’ Verbal
Personal identification (Katz)with family conflict
(Todorov)
within the narrative. This is representative of typical
“I know
family life where families have arguments and keep
your dirty secrets from each other. The audience can also relate
little
to this on a personal level.
secret”
Trailer 2)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Judgement
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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8. Code
&
Convention
Romance
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Focus on
working class
communities
Evidence
Impact on the Audience
(Verbal, NonVerbal,
Technical)
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Non-verbal
Costume that
Stacy is wearing is
a maid’s outfit.
Technical
All of the camera
shots that are
used to show the
prominence of the
family.
Non-verbal
The appearance
and the costumes
of each the
characters within
the trailer
Multi –Stranded Technical
Narrative
The camera angles
and shots used
show the
perspectives
Narrative
Technical
The downfall of
Max Branning
‘Disequilibrium’ Technical/Non(Todorov)
verbal
Personal relationship(Katz)– This
connotes the personal
relationship between the
characters and the audience.
Close-up&Mid shot – These
camera shots connote to the
audience of the importance of
family but also the conflict that is
shared not only between the
direct family but to the complete
family.
Costumes – The characters
appearance and the costumes
they wear are typical of the
working class and are true to the
theme of the soap opera genre.
From 4 different character
perspectives. This connotes to the
audience that there is a different
side to each story and in
particular from the 4 perspectives
of the family.
The personal identification (Katz)
of the audience with the conflict in
the narrative. Also the aspect of
judgment.
Tania clenching the Morgue bed
and Jack holding the tag for Max
for when he dies. Shows they
show anger towards him and will
show no remorse when he dies.
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrativecan be defined as…..
Telling a story from more than one person’s point. Telling multiple stories about
multiple characters in an open narrative episode for example.
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9. You MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastenders and identify where
the following elements are presented to the audience:
Multi-stranded narrative
Family relationships and/or conflict
Focus on working class communities
‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Romance
You SHOULD write down x1-2 examples for EACH of the elements above that are
presented.
Code & Convention
Multi-stranded
narrative
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Evidence
Technical – Close-ups
Impact on the audience
Immersion in to the
narrative
Technical/ Verbal
Close-ups
Conflict between the
Branning’s
Personal Identification
Focus on working
class communities
Non –verbal
The costumes of the
characters within the
narrative are both formal
and informal
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) A lot of talk about Lauren
Setting and appearance of
the characters
Romance
“She’s on a slippery slope”
She is going downhill into
depression
Tension
Jack and Sharon arguing.
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 3
Textual Analysis
According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the Soap
Opera genre tends to focus on:
The home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman and as such, it
has long been said to appeal to the female viewer
1) – Do you agree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY(First 5 minutes)
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10. You MUST deconstruct the opening 5 minutes of a sequence from the popular ITV
Soap Opera Coronation Street (1960 – Present) to identify examples of where this
ideology is presented to the target audience.
You SHOULD also try and identify, to demonstrate your knowledge and
understanding of the genre, any Codes & Conventions associated to the Soap Opera
genre.
Code & Convention
Evidence
Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology:
1. The Family – There are multiple families shown in the extract which helps to
conform to the ideology.
2. The home – This is prominent through the clip as the episode starts off with
everyone in their homes as the day begins. This is where the families are also
situated throughout the clip.
3. Domestic tribulations – There are domestic tribulations as is seen then the
Rovers Return as Stella is making one of her daughter’s tea. An argument
starts between them and this is typical as families fight but usually resolve
their differences.
4. Appealing to the female viewer – There is a lot to appeal to the female viewer
in this as it revolves around family life and also the domestic tribulations that
are associated with it daily. It mainly allows them to create a diversion from
their daily lives to relax and ‘personally identify’ and ‘relate’ to the narrative.
5. The strong woman – Throughout the extract there are strong women
presented to the audience and these are the women that the female part of
the audience build that ‘personal relationship’ with as they seem to make the
will of others bend around their own and get things the way they want them
to be.
Multi-stranded
Technical
Establishing shots portray
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11. narrative
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Focus on working
class communities
The camera shots to
portray the multistranded narrative
Verbal
Leanne arguing with her
mum and her sister
Non-verbal/Technical
The camera angles and
shots used to display the
working class community
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Verbal
Sean and Marcus argue
because Sean thinks he
has lost him and he is
having an affair
Romance
Technical
The camera shots and
angles to show the
distance between the
characters is very little
the different families and
their narratives.
The families talk to each
other in only ways that
families would address
each other and also there
is conflict between them.
The characters and their
costumes help establish
that the focus is on the
working class community
and also the mid shot and
long shot establish the
appearance of each
character.
There is ‘disequilibrium’
(Todorov)between Sean
and Marcus because Sean
thinks that Marcus has
lost interest in him so they
have an argument and
Marcus storms off
creating the enigma clue
what is going to happen
next.
The audience is presented
with Romance between
Mary and Norris as she
dances around the shop
and then begins to smile
and laugh when she talks
to him.
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
The purpose of a trailer is to attract/promote a programme to a specific target
audience to entice them into watching.
2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
Attract a larger target audience
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12. Cheap and easy to get to the audience
Ultimately, some form of Convergence is important when promoting a text to the
target audience.
3)
Textual Analysis –
You MUSTmake notes on the following areas when deconstructing this sequence
from Coronation Street:
Multi-stranded narrative
Character dilemmas
‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)
Multi-stranded narrative –Becky and Steve, Roy and Hayley, Liz and Jason
Focuses on multiple characters and their lives that they lead in the narrative
Character dilemmas – Becky drinking down the champagne extremely quickly
showing she has a drink problem. This connotes to the audience that it may not all
be plain sailing for her and Steve.
Personal Identification – The wedding and the big build up, people rushing about to
get things down and to make sure everything is perfect for the big day.
Personal Relationship – The relationship the audience and the characters share, to
strengthen the verisimilitude of the narrative to keep the audience captivated and
continue watching.
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13. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od
The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.
1. What are the connotations of the Ident for the popular Channel Four Teen
Soap Opera Hollyoaks (1995 – Present)?
There is a gender divide and that because the female punk is first they are the
important or most focused on.
Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sWr9Vb4
2. You MUSTmake notes on the following areas when deconstructing this
sequence from Hollyoaks:
Binary opposition of the non-diegetic music
Symbolism of the non-verbal code of the tear
Representation of Pregnancy
Any other examples that would impact the audience
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14. “A nice day for a white wedding”, binary opposite when the church and everyone is
wearing black.
Symbolism of the tear is betrayal or guilt
Pregnancy is seen as unwanted
Multi-stranded narrative of the different characters
A broken relationship or the death of a relationship due to black being worn and it
seeming as though a funeral service is about to take place.
Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
The role of a producer is to oversee all aspects of the production across preproduction, production and post-production.
2) What is the role of a Director?
The role of a director is to oversee the creative aspects of the production and to
direct the people in front and behind the camera.
3) Institution research –
You MUSTresearch the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on.
Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.
1.4 % audience share
Target audience is 16 -34 years old
Launched February 2003
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