This document contains a student's production log for their A2 Media Studies coursework. It includes planning and research conducted for a trailer they created for a new soap opera. The log outlines the student's aims, objectives, chosen brief, textual analysis of existing soaps, research on trailers and promotion, production schedule, and roles of key crew such as the director and producer. It also includes research on the target channel, BBC Two, including its programming, audiences, and history.

1. 1
St. Paul’s Catholic College
Center Number: 64770
Candidate Number: 6377
Candidate Name: Chloe Bonner
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –
Production Log
Evidence of Planning & Research

2. 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 at 8:30pm (after Eastenders)
that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.

3. 3
Contents
Textual Analysis
 Eastenders
- Soap Opera Codes & Conventions
- Multi Strand Narrative
 Coronation Street
“..the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as
such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
Research
 Purpose of a Trailer
 Multi-Platform promotion
 Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks
Deadlines – Production Work
Filming Dates: October-November
Edited Trailer – Complete:
Promotional Poster – Complete:
Promotional Magazine Cover – Complete:
Evaluation– Complete:
Production Work
 Director – Roles & Responsibilities?
 Producer – Roles & Responsibilities?
 Institution research – BBC Two
SoapOpera Codes & Conventions – Lesson2
1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?

4. 4
YOU MUST demonstrate what youalready know by completing a
“Spider Diagram” ofwhat you know about OR expect from this genre:
2) Codes & Conventions of the SoapOpera Genre
The Soap Operagenre can be categorizedby the ‘repeated’
Soap Opera
Setting: Utopian and Domestic.
Soap operashave utopian settings
because the setting is familiar to the
audienceas it’s filmed in houses, which
also makes it domestic.
Narrative: Alwaysa destructive
narrative, for example: a serious illness,
somebody dyingor an affair.
Character roles: ‘Princess’ (Propp)
‘Villain’ (Propp)
Appealto female viewers(Rebecca Feasey)
Controversial storylineswhich make the
programmeentertainingand increase
ratings.
Cliffhangersto keep the audience
thinking and will make them wantto
watch the next episode.

5. 5
(Steve Neale ) elements of:
1. Romance
2. Family Relationships/Conflict
3. Focus on working class communities
4. Antagonism and conflict within the community
5. Built around social issues;sexuality,drug abuse, bullying etc
6. Strong regional identity
Eastenders (1985 – Present)
Key informationregarding this text:
 Exhibited on BBC1 and repeated on BBC3
 One of the UKs highest rated programmes (It averages 6million
views per episode)
 Set in the ‘kitchen sink’ setting of fictional Walford, East London
Textual Analysis Task
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -
In your opinion, accordingto Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, whatis the
target audiencefor Eastenders?
Age 18-30year olds
Gender Females
Nationality English
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?

6. 6
The name of the trailer is called ‘Lies’, therefore it is focused on the lies which the
characters in the show tell.
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Phil and Shirley – she
tells him she loves him
Helps to build a ‘personal relationship’
(Katz) with the audience because they will
love the relationship which Phil and Shirley
have, and will therefore make them want to
watch it more, which can help to create a
wider audience for the TV show and to help
it be more successful. Also can help the
audience to ‘personally identify’ (Katz) with
them because they may have had a
relationship like that with someone else
before, so they will want to know how it
turns out.
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Sharon’s bar is raided
and she is in danger
This can affect ‘caregivers’ (Maslow) because
they will sympathise with Sharon as she is
hurt and will want to know whether she
survives or not, so they will want to watch
the show to find out. Therefore, it will help
the show to gain more viewers and to be
more successful.
Focus on
working class
communities
Women working in a
shop.
Phil and Shirley are in a
pub.
This can help the audience to ‘personally
identify’ (Katz) with the characters in this
show because they will stereotypically be
able to relate to the characters due to the
places that they’re in. They can also relate to
the situations/problems that the characters
are having as they are stereotypically also
working class people.
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
Multiple storylines:
The bar robbery
Shirley and Phil
Ian’s affair
It can keep the audience engaged because
they will want to know what goes on in all of
the different storylines. It also gives the
audience a variety of different drama which
stereotypically, the audience enjoy watching.
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
N/A N/A

7. 7
Trailer 2)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Alfie and Roxy’s wedding – Who’s heart will be broken?
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Roxy and Alfies
wedding
The main audience that they will attract
from this is women (Hartley) because they
will want to watch the wedding as they are
‘social climbers’ (Maslow) and enjoy
watching this as most women always dream
of their wedding day, therefore they would
want to see how this wedding day goes and
how it’s set out.
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Conflict between two
women.
Kat wearing red.
Through Kat wearing red, this connotes that
she is dangerous. Therefore, the audience
can see that she’s a strong and dominant
character and will expect her to cause some
drama in the show.
Focus on
working class
communities
N/A N/A
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
Wedding.
Alfie has to chose
between Roxy or Kat.
The audience will be wondering who Alfie is
going to choose, so will then tune into the TV
show to see what happens.
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
N/A N/A
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrative can 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 for
example.
 Multi-stranded narrative
 Family relationships and/or conflict
 Focus on working class communities
 ‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
 Romance
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
 Multi-stranded Cuts from: They can see lots of

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narrative Johnny and Sharon
Phil and Shirley
Ian and Rainey
different storylines
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Shirley upset about her
son
They can feel emotional
and sympathise with her
 Focus on working
class communities
Colloquial Language ‘OI’ The audience can
‘personally identify’
(Katz) with the characters
in the show.
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Sirens
Low Key Lighting
Makes them think that it’s
a dodgy community
 Romance Phil and Shirley having
chemistry through them
being very close and
having deep
conversations with
eachother
They will want to know
what the relationship is
between these two
characters and whether
something actually
happens between them.
SoapOpera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson3
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”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY (First 5 minutes)
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology:
1. Women head of the table
2. Women wants to run a business
3. Women is very demanding, authoritive.
4. Mother shouting at daughter, authoritive.

9. 9
“Multi-Stranded Narrative” The Barlows
Rita and Norris in the shop
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Tracey wanting to take over the factory
Funeral
Deirdre – Dominant female
 Focus on working
class communities
“Do ya wanna eat ya breakfast in the yard?”
Everybody sticking together
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Shouting up the stairs at the kids
“Keep ya mouth shut”
 Romance N/A
 Other Themes &
Issues represented:
N/A
SoapOpera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
A series of extracts for a film or broadcast, used for advanced publicity. It is a
marketing product, which informs the audience and potential viewers.
2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
 More convenient for the users
 Can appeal to a wider audience
Ultimately, some form of Convergence is important when promoting a text to the
target audience.
Textual Analysis –
 Multi-stranded narrative
 Character dilemmas
 ‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od
The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.

10. 10
1. What are the connotations of the ident for the popular Channel Four Teen
Soap Opera Hollyoaks (1995 – Present)?
The blue and pink colours and the male and female signs connote that it is boy v girl
and could be about relationships with boys and girls. There could also be
promiscuity in this show
Next Page - Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4
 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
Production Work
 Wedding
 Tension between Steve’s mum and Jason
 Eileen crossing her fingers
 Hayley sighing at the wedding cake
Personal Identification (Katz):
 Getting married in a pub – working class community
Black connotes danger/bad luck/evil
“White wedding” – non diegetic music, the binary opposite to what is happening in
the trailer as it uses contrapuntal music
“Shotgun” – the representation of pregnancy:
They’re just getting married because she’s pregnant
Non verbal code of the tear:
She is dark inside aswell because she’s crying black tears. She’s upset and broken
about what is happening.
Dropping of the baby:
A broken baby
The other characters in the scene are very judgemental
Low key lighting – dark setting – horror

11. 11
1) What is the role of a Producer?
Oversee all aspects of the production across the 3 stages:
Pre production, production and post-production.
Manage everyone and ensure everything is in it’s place in order for the text to look
fit for purpose.
2) What is the role of a Director?
Oversee the creative aspects of the production
Direct the people in front and behind the camera
3) Institution research –
YOU MUST research the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on.
Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.
 The majority of the programmes on BBC2 are documentaries. However, there
are some other programmes like: TopGear and The Culture Show
 Their target audience is young, between 25-40 year old males
 The weekly reach for BBC2 is 30,982 viewers and the daily reach is 11,320
viewers
 Opened in 1964 and was launched to deliver content which wasn’t so
mainstream. Mainly showed arts, film, comedy, documentaries and current
affairs.