This document contains a production log and research for a student named Charlene Fernandes who is creating a trailer for a new soap opera. It includes research on existing soap operas like EastEnders and Coronation Street to understand codes and conventions of the genre. It also contains details of the student's roles as director and producer, research on BBC Three as the exhibition platform, and deadlines for completing production work and evaluations.

1. St. Paul’s Catholic College
Center Number:
64770
Candidate Number:
6346
Candidate Name: Charlene Fernandes
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –
Production Log
Evidence of Planning & Research
1

2. Aims and Objectives
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.
2

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
Deadlines – Production Work
Filming Dates: 23rd October 2013 12:45- 16:45
Edited Trailer – Complete: 14th February 2014
Promotional Poster – Complete:14th February 2014
Promotional Magazine Cover – Complete:14th February 2014
Evaluation – Complete:14th February 2014
Production Work
Director
Producer
Institution research – BBC Three
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4. 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:










Romance
Family Relationships
Tragedy
Wedding
Funerals/Death
Pregnancy/Teenage mums
Community
Working class characters
Conflict
Adultery
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.
Multi-stranded Narrative
2.
Family Relationships/conflict
3.
4.
Working Class Characters
Romance
5.
Disequilibrium
Eastenders(1985 – Present)
Key information regarding this text:
 Exhibited on BBC1 and repeated on BBC 3
 One of the UKs highest rated programmer- 8 million viewers per
week
 Set in the ‘kitchen sink’ setting of fictional Walford east London
Textual Analysis Task
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -
5

6. In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the target audience for
Eastenders?
Age
30+
Gender
Females
Nationality
UK
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Adultery ------ Family ------ Secrets
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Code
&
Convention
Romance
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Focus on
working class
communities
Evidence
Impact on the Audience
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
“Love You” Verbal code
Kiss- Non verbal
Middle class characters – Class- Hartley
Kissing a public display of affection is a
normal part of every day life and establishes
a relationship between the characters.
Like father like son- Family- Hartley
This shows the common idea held by society
that family are all the same, and that
children are copies of their parents. This can
either be taken positively or negatively by
the audience who agree or disagree with the
statement, which causes a reaction within
the viewers.
Class- working class- audience can
personally identify with these characters Katz
“Does she know
something?”- Conflict,
as characters are
scared their secrets
may come out and
create problems
“I know you’re dirty
little secret”
Stacey working at a
stall
Girl and Guy in love
“Multi-Stranded The cheating couple
Narrative”
Secret
And the oncoming fight
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Hartley- Gender- a battle of the sexes as
sides are taken.
KATZ-Diversion? And to ‘entertain’ - John
Reith
6

7. Trailer 2)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Death---Adultery---Hate
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Code
&
Convention
Romance
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Focus on
working class
communities
Evidence
Impact on the Audience
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
The maid and Max
share a look at the
elevator – Non-verbal –
facial expressions.
‘Diversion’- Katz- an affair though normal in
everyday life is much more exaggerated in
soaps with it becoming more dramatical
and more serious to enhance the
entertainment factor.
‘Personal relationship’- Katz- the audience
will chose a character to back up- perhaps
Max or the woman and the physical actions
aid the audience in their thoughts on their
characters.
The Womans nails
digging into the table at
the morgue- showing
hate to max – Non
verbal - Conflict
Security guy
Max- Judgment day- the
“Multi-Stranded trailer shows the
Narrative”
different views on max
by different characters.
Morgue setting – a
death?
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
Audience can ‘Personally identify’ with these
characters- Katz
More ‘informative’ (Katz) of all the
characters views and the audience can make
a good decision on whose side their own and
will often create a ‘personal relationship’
(Katz) with them or at least become their
caregiver.
Katz- to divert people from their day to day
life by adding a bit of suspense and mystery
that doesn’t occur often from them.
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrativecan be defined as…..
Telling a story from more than one persons point of view
Telling multiple stories, about multiple characters in an open narrative episode.
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8. You MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastendersand 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
Focus on working
class communities
Evidence
Fast paced cuts
Similar setting
Alice-> in love
“special little girl”
“meaning to call you” –
Jack
“stop pretending you
care”- Sharon
Waitress
Accent
“got a make a livin”
market scenes
Ambient diegetic musictrains
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) “she’s staying with me”father preparing to fight
for his daughter.
“I really thought he liked
Romance
me”- Alice
Alice+Mike
Maz+Tanya
Jack+Sharon
Impact on the audience
‘Personally identify’- Katz,
with our lives being filled
with many issues, not just
one big focus. Also the
being in love aspect is also
very big because the
audience must of all been
through something
similar.
‘Personally identify’,
especially with the 1st
comment, since it is a very
cliché phrase used by
fathers.
‘Personally identify’- the
target audience is the
working class
communities so the
portrayal of theses
characters will make the
audience close to them
and perhaps make them
caregivers as they
develop close
relationships with these
characters.
‘Personal relationship’Katz
Diversion – Katz, the
audience members are
diverted from their
normal day life to focus on
the petty problems of a
girl who made a mistake
and assumed that he loved
her, which I’m sure many
of the female audiences
8

9. Code & Convention
Evidence
Impact on the audience
might even personally
identify with.
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 view.”
1) – Do you agree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY(First 5 minutes)
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.
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10. Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology:
1. Home: Openingscene focuses on houses of the characters, making it clear that the
setting of the scenes will most likely be inside or around someone’s home.
2.Family; Mum, father and son partaking in a familial activity; the dropping off of
the son to school, and giving the lunch when they have forgotten it,
3. Domestic tribulations: Issue of going to work when a loved one is ill, but knowing
that a living has to be made.
4.Strog women; Red coat- Hayley- resilient and strong/independent, also the
mother who gives her so the forgotten lunch is almost seen as the provider or the
dominant one, in opposition (Levi Strauss) to the alpha male figure the father is
meant to be, considering she is the only one who seems to be remembering the
important things.
Multi-stranded
narrative
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Focus on working
class communities
Story between the family
of 3
Story of Max +Tanya’s
family
The guy in shop who is
seeing ghosts
Some sort of conflict
between the father
( fromfam of 3) and an
outsider who knows more
than he wife.
People working in a shop
Accents
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Hayley is Asked to spy on
someone, and feels it is
immoral and could cause
problems
Mum and Dad
Romance
Hartley- ‘Family’‘Personally identify’
(Katz) as all audience
members will have family
problems.
‘Diversion’- Too many
problems occur at once in
the soap operas which will
divert the audience
members
The local accents give
away a sense of unity and
community - Hartley
‘Diversion’ – Very
different to normal lifespying on other
characters is not a norm.
Everyday life- a happiness
that people expect when
associated to romance‘Family’-Hartley.
10

11. Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
Promote and advertise a new series or season before its release to inform the
audience on what it is about, without giving too much away. It generates interest by
showing the plot points and having a point of call on display.
2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
To be able to access a large group of viewers/Mass audience
New e-media-> allows viewers to gain information in different formats- in
whatever format they prefer.
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)
Good luck-Repetition
“this is my lucky day”- Non diegetic lyrics
11

12. Friday the 13th – ironic as is the opposite of a lucky day
Cake makers facial expressions ( Non-verbal ) denotes her unhappiness
over this wedding, which may imply that there is something wrong with
them getting married.
Close ups of cake decoration show perfection
Crossed fingers non-verbal code for luck
Becky getting prepared on self for wedding showing that perhaps no
one supports her or this wedding.
Marriage Personal identification with members of the audience.
Multi-stranded narrative tension between Steve’s mum and a young
boy Jason
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)?
It is aimed at both genders with pink representing girls ad blue representing
boys, the symbols also represent how both genders will be in this show or how
both may be inclined to watch this show. Also if looking at the word Hollyoaks it
can be split in to 2, Holly- a girl’s name, and Oak- a relatively manly name.
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
12

13. Baby Bump Fake as is too big, as if the marriage is fake.
Black tear Makeup is fake, too much ,
Black dress  represents death/ funeral
– “Betray”
Broken doll Threat to the baby/ Prediction of future
“Nice day for a white wedding”
Dying flowers
Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
Oversee pre-production, production and post-production
Manage everyone and ensure everything is in place.
2) What is the role of a Director?
Oversee the creative aspects of the production, direct 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.
Broadcast on free view
Starts of new shows e.g. Eastenders
9ths Feb 2003 launch Stuart Murphy
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