1. Around the Block trailer, poster and TV listing front cover
results and analysis

2. For our audience feedback we got together a focus group of 20. We have created the
final piece of audience as partners however we used the fact there was two of us to
our advantage. We decided the best way to find results would be to split the 20
people between us so we could look more in depth to our results then collaborate
together to create an audience feedback overview. Together we asked a number of
questions:
1) How effective to you find our trailer?
2) Criticisms of our trailer
3) What did you think of the music we used within our trailer?
4) How effective do you find our soap opera poster?
5) How effective do you find out TV listings magazine front cover?
We believe that from these questions we would get a true understanding of how
people felt when they watched our trailers and looked at our ancillary tasks.
This way we would get a snippet of whether or not the soap opera would be a
success or not.

4. We got together a selection of teenagers ranging in ages within our Sixth Form to
watch our trailer and look at our ancillary tasks. From this we then asked our focus
group to individually answer the questions we had asked them to answer and the
come together as a group of 10 to discuss what the rest of the group thought. This
way individually we would be able to notice any patterns from the focus group in
relation to similar features they liked and what they thought needed improving. It
was important for us to initially focus on surveying teenagers as they are our target
audience and their initial opinions we felt mattered the most.
We felt we received a range of answers that benefitted us as creators of the soap
opera and it was interesting to acknowledge some of the focus groups opinions
individually and then as a group
These were the results we received...

5. Question 1)
These are the various
answers we received..
How effective do you find our trailer?
“I found strange how
there was not speech
throughout the trailer.
However the girl only
speaking at the end
ended up being
extremely effective
and I felt that the
suspense and build up
was worth the cliff
hanger ending.”
“I feel that the quick jump shots
fit in well with the music..”
“Very effective, it is
clear to see what
“You could tell from the
roles the characters
trailer exactly what the soap
play and that they
is going to be about... I like
are the main
the fact there is s build up of
characters also.”
suspense and then faster
action throughout until it
reaches the cliff hanger.”
“I think the trailer effectively
portrays modern teenage life
within urban surrounding.”
It is effective in the sense that
you never know what’s about
to happen.. I love the various
camera shots.. Id definitely be
hooked if I watched this.”

6. These were just some of the results we got for question one, we used these snippets
as we felt they gave an overall view of what the majority thought of the trailer. It
was clear to see that the majority liked and thought it was effective that we left the
trailer on a cliff hanger leaving the audience wanting more. Most respondents also
felt that they can see the relation between modern teenage life and the world we
are living in now. It is clear that we are not portraying 21st century in a positive way
to get the true understanding of how the minority live.
For teenagers watching this it will also make many teenagers feel more positive
about their own lives, this is a way in which we have followed typical codes and
conventions of a soap opera as their main objective is to make audiences shut off
from the problems they may be facing in their lives and show what could possibly
be happening in others. This is why soap operas are so exaggerated yet follow
typical ideologies of a UK society.

7. Our focus group also picked up on various camera shots we used
within the trailer. The following ones they noticed and they
described why they thought they were effective.
They liked the medium shot to show her
emotions, the camera looking up at her they
thought showed clearly how the audience
may see her as a powerful figure when really
she is portrayed as helpless
They also liked the
close up shot to show
the exchange of a
business card. They felt
that this showed an
important moment
between the characters
and that this was
potentially a scene that
needed to be focused
on.
They thought that this over the shoulder shot perhaps
showed a conversation between the characters. It also
showed that from the males expression that he holds a
level of power over the girl.
Our focus group liked that in
this shot the audience could
clearly see the girls expression
and then you can see the
males figure in the
background. They thought
that this scene connoted
danger and there is also a
sense of dramatic irony as the
audience knows something
that the character may not.

8. The focus group thought that this was
a clever was to show what was going
on and linking the characters
together showing that the male
character was after the girl. They also
thought it created realism to the
situation using typical props that a
teenager would have. The blue phone
case also connotes masculinity.
The focus group when it came to this
part of the trailer liked the fact the
when the music changed in beat there
was a jump shot to show the girl
knocking on the door and that it was
an important part in the trailer as it
came to the conclusion of the intense
build up.
This was the only part of the trailer where there
was diagetic sounds, the focus group liked the
fact that the story was left on a cliff hanger, this
made them want to carry on watching what was
going to happen.

9. These were our
various results...
“My only criticism is
that the first half of the
trailer was quite slow
and I didn’t know when
the build up was going
to occur”
Question 2)
Criticisms of our trailer
“I thought it was unusual
that there was barely any
speech within the trailer.”
“I thought the trailer revolved
primarily around just two
characters, it would have been
better if more characters were
introduced.”
“I wasn’t too sure where the
story was going in the
beginning.”

10. As you can see there were very little criticisms and the ones we did receive were all
along the same lines. After analysing the results as a group and speaking to our
focus group we explained to them why we did the things that they did not
necessarily like. We thought it was essential to show our focus group the trailer
without any added background information so they gave us their honest opinions
of what they thought of it.
We then as a group watched the trailer again, this time we made them aware of
why we had done the things we did and they agreed that it does in fact make the
trailer more effective. For example the reason why the trailer mostly involved two
characters is because they would be seen as the ‘main characters’ and that we
wanted to show from the start that their story would be a big one.
We understand that for our soap opera we are not going to be able to explain to
everyone the reasoning behind how we created aspects, in a way this leaves it up
to the audience to interpret the soap however they want. We also understand that
not everyone is going to necessarily like it however we hope that we have captured
the needs of our desired target audience and they will go on to want to watch it.
We may have got the answers we got because we focused on a particular type of
group. Although they do not have the same backgrounds they all revolved around
similar friendship groups maybe suggesting their answers were bias to the way the
feel. If we were to survey again I believe it will be more beneficial to us to sample a
random selection for more precise results.

11. Also we made our focus group aware of the longer build up in the
beginning. We were not creating a trailer for an already existing soap opera
so we could not make it appear as if we were showing a well known
storyline where the audience will know already what is going on. We had
the more difficult task of creating something completely knew that no one
would have seen before. We needed to clearly state at the beginning of our
trailer the main outline of what the soap would be about and who the
main characters would be. We had created mock trailers on a range of
software's to discover how long our trailer could be. We had many ideas
with various scenes included that lasted over 5 minutes. Our final trailer
we managed to get down to under a minute and a half cutting out
unnecessary scenes and cutting shots. Within this more suitable length of
time we managed to fit in two storylines where it is clear to the audience
what exactly is going on and a brief outline of the characters and their
status. We did this effectively through use of camera angles, camera
shots, props and costumes to give a sense of realism throughout.

12. Question 3
What did you think of the music we used within our trailer?
These were
our various
results...
“I love the way the
music links in with
the action happening
and the camera
shots.”
“The soundtrack gives
the trailer a more
professional look, I
love it!.”
“The song isn’t too well known
meaning it doesn’t take the
glory away from the filming.”
“I feel you have
fitted the footage
well to the music.”
“Perfect song choice, fits
in with the genre.”
“I feel that I am involved
with the characters
listening to this song.”

13. We got a lot of positive results in relation to the soundtrack, our focus group felt
that it fit in perfectly with the footage and created bigger suspense through the
trailer. Music was definitely an important aspect for us to focus on as it brings the
whole trailer together. Music is a very powerful thing and can make an audience
feel a mix of emotions. We really appreciated that the whole focus group were in
agreement that it was the perfect song choice for the image we were going for and
they can relate it with the ‘urban’ image that we wanted to portray. They ideas they
came up with as a group were also very helpful for us. Some of the focus group felt
that the music brought everything together and without it we would not have been
able to create such an important message. From the beat within the song they felt
they got the true understanding of less economically developed societies as rap
songs normally involve a lot of emotions and peoples feelings meaning the song
had power to make the audience feel sympathy for the characters.

14. Question 4 and 5
How effective do you find our soap opera poster?
and How effective do you find out TV listings
magazine front cover?
When creating our ancillary tasks it was important for us to be able to make a link between them and
our trailer so that the audience can connect with them all. We also wanted to use effective, bold
images so that all three final outcomes would compliment each other and send out a powerful
message.
In terms of our poster we used one bold image to represent our soap opera to connote the genre we
were aiming for. Whilst at the same time for our magazine we followed similar norms of a TV listings
magazine.
Whilst surveying our focus group we wanted to find out from them whether they could make the link
between the ancillary tasks and also the trailer. A main focus point for us was for our target audience
to start to gain an interest in the soap.
We left question 4 and 5 quite open so that our focus group could interpret it in their own way. We
wanted to spot trends within the results we got so that we knew we were catering for the right market
and we had used all the skills and tools we had so that our target audience would build an interest.
We put together two groups of ten to discuss what they thought of our soap opera poster, this way
each individual could then build on others ideas to get a true understanding of what they thought.
These were some of the results we got…

15. This is a copy of our soap opera poster..
Our focus group said that they also liked the fact that we used on bold image
on our poster as this does not take any attraction away from the name of the
soap. As our soap is newly launched onto the market we wanted the word
captions to be noticed just as much as the image itself. They also said that it
was alluring as they were attracted to the unusual image making them want
to discover more. We felt it was important for us to focus on the
advertisement side of the project as this is what would get people interested.
The focus group also
commented on our minimal
use of colour, they said that
they liked the fact there were
very few colours. This made in
look professional and
appealing to the teenage
market. We felt that colours
would be important within the
production of our poster as
they send out powerful images.
We used yellow and purple on
our poster as they are clashing
colours, this connotes that our
soap may seem out of the
ordinary and different from
anything else., this could
possibly suggest that I-AM-ME
people would be attracted to
our soap opera. This group of
people are overall a minority in
the population and they like to
break the boundaries.
Linking in with the bold
text, the focus group also
picked up on the fact we
had used the same font
on the poster and also the
magazine front cover
suggesting that our
audience are picking up
the basic norms we have
used within and also
recognising the soap as a
‘brand’.
One group commented on the rigid
edge around the recognised E4 logo
saying how it gave the poster an edge to
it. We did actually not cut around the
logo image ‘neatly’ on purpose. We
connote distress through multiple ways
on our poster. Never before has this
distorted logo been created on an E4
promotion poster showing that we are
breaking the boundaries and going
against the ‘norms’. This is one way that
we challenged the codes and
conventions of an ordinary soap opera
p0ster.

16. This is a copy of our TV listings magazine front cover..
We showed our focus group a range of already existing TV listing magazine front
covers so that they could see why we followed some similar codes and
conventions.
Also that we have made
‘Around the Block’ a main
feature on the page, alerting
new audiences. We wanted to
make the soap appear available
to all audiences as it could
potentially attract anyone. They
also liked the positioning of the
caption ‘Around the Block’ as it
looks unique. We felt that it
allured mystery that would be
recognised by readers of the
magazine.
This was one of the front
covers we showed our focus
group as this was one of the
inspirations for our own.
They also recognised the subtle use of
frames around the images, this thought
this in a way made things look neat and
organised on the page as there is a lot of
space to fill and these individual frames
looked effective. They thought that it also
made the images easier to look at and they
were able to focus on the various storylines.
Our focus group also said that they
liked the way the colours of the
logo liked in with the overall
predominant colours of the
magazine front cover. Also that
much like soap life, the logo acted
as a brand image and would be
recognisable to many audiences.
We did not want the TV listings
front cover to only seem as if it was
being aimed at the audience our
soap is aimed at as it is much more
of a niche market. TV listings
magazines contain many genres of
soap so that is why we followed very
similar codes and conventions.
Our focus group picked up on the use
of predominant colours which for us
our blue, red and white. They said
that these colours reminded them of
being ‘British’ (colours of the flag)
and they worked well together. Also
the bold black text complimented
against the lighter background
colours.