FINAL PRODUCT: BILLBOARD POSTER:

Link to billboard poster:
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i461/Adam14193/FINISHEDBILLBOARD.jpg

FINAL PRODUCT: TV LISTINGS MAGAZINE FRONT COVER:

DRAFT BILLBOARD:

Above, is a draft of my billboard. I have made a draft so that I can see where I need to improve when I create my final billboard poster.

Aspects to improve:

• The name of the soap – ‘Friends and foes’ needs to be more prominant on the page, and stand out. At the moment, it is fairly small. I could improve this by moving the tag line, ‘Things could get ugly’ to the top of the page, and move the soap name to the middle, and make the font larger.

• The institution branding – BBC one, needs to be bigger. At the moment, it is very small. This is important because this is a roadside billboard, and someone driving past might not be able to see what channel the soap is on, and what time it is on, as this information is very small, at the bottom of the poster.

• The fonts and color scheme need to fit in with the institution – BBC one. At the moment, the fonts are not similar to the fonts that BBC one use. Also, i need to incorporate BBC one’s main color – red. This is because this would help the reader to recognise that the soap is on BBC one. I could do this by making the background red, and making the BBC one logo bigger and more prominent on the page.

DRAFT TV LISTINGS MAGAZINE FRONT COVER:

Above, is a draft of my T.V listings magazine front cover. I have made a draft so that I can see where I need to improve when I create my final front cover.

Aspects to improve:

• Day tabs on the right hand side need to go all the way down the page, as this is conventional.

• More photo features needed.

• The primary feature photo takes up a lot of the page, due to it being of 2 people. In the final front cover, the main photo could be of one person, in medium close up. This would leave more room for features.

• Primary feature – ‘Trouble ahead’ needs to be lower down the page, because at the moment, it seems too near to the masthead.

• There needs to be a clear colour scheme.

• The front cover needs to have a narrative, and somewhat tell a story. At the moment, the features seem somewhat unrelated.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Planning Documents - Analysis of 2 billboard posters:

Planning documents - Analysis of billboard posters:

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Above, is a PowerPoint presentation, containing evaluations of 2 billboard posters. One is a billboard for the soap 'Neighbours' and the other is a billboard. For the T.V drama 'Doctor Who'. Although 'Doctor Who' is a T.V drama, and not a soap, it was interesting to look at whether or not the conventions changed, when comparing the 2 billboards.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Planning Documents - Analysis of 4 T.V Listings Magazine Front Covers:

Planning documents - Analysis of TV listings magazines:

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Above, is a PowerPoint presentation, containing evaluations of 4 existing T.V listings magazine front covers. 2 of them are general T.V magazine front covers, and 2 are soap-specific front covers. From doing this, I have found that soap-specific magazine front covers contain more pictures and features in general. I have found that general TV magazines usually contain less features, and the main feature photo is usually of one person, in medium close up.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Planning Documents - Soap Trailer:

Planning documents - soap trailer:

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Above, is a PowerPoint presentation, which contains planning for shooting our soap trailers. It includes scripting, roles within group, costume and prop preperation, and location.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Research - Institution, Audience, Issues and Debates:

Research:

Institutional research - Which station should broadcast your soap, and why?

I believe that a Television station such as BBC One could broadcast our soap, this is because BBC One already broadcasts many soaps, such as EastEnders and Waterloo Road. This means that BBC One already has an audience for soaps. Also, because our soap contains a fairly young task, there is already somewhat of an audience for a soap like this, because Waterloo Road also contains a fairly young cast.

Audience research:

The audience of my soap can be linked with the institution(s) that I believe could broadcast my soap. This is because, if a soap contains a predominantly young cast, young people are likely to watch it. For example, in my soap trailer, the cast will be aged between 17 and 18, meaning that, in my opinion, the audience for my soap will be 15 – 25 year olds, because it will explore the issues that they face.

Issues and debates:

Catharsis needs to be explored when looking at the issues and debates of a soap. Catharsis means when someone watches certain situations in a soap, and empathising with them, because you are going through the same situation. This makes the viewer feel better. This can be linked to audience, because if a young person watches a character of a similar age, in a soap, going through a situation that they are going through, catharsis may occur because the viewer can empathise with what the character is going through. I will try and achieve this catharsis in my soap trailer.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Existing Trailer 3 - Neighbours Trailer:

Above, is a trailer from the soap, 'Neighbours'.

I have looked at this trailer during planning, because it contains certain conventions of soap trailers that I would like to achieve in my soap trailer, such as:

The use of text - I would like to include title cards in my final trailer, in order to make the narrative easier to understand, and to help create tension.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Existing Trailer 2 - Waterloo Road Trailer:

Above, is a trailer for the soap 'Waterloo Road'. I have included this, because I am interested in the quick, montage editing and use of what looks to be a 'dissolve' or 'cross dissolve' edit. I have found these types of editing to be conventional of the soap genre.

Evaluation of this trailer:

Mise en scene:

'Waterloo Road' is set in and around a school. I believe that this trailer shows this through mise en scene. For example, there are many shots with school buildings in the background. This sense of location - in a school is conventional of the soap genre. Soaps tend to have a set location, for example, 'Coronation Street' is set on a street.

Editing:

This trailer is conventional of the soap genre, in terms of editing. The editing is very quick, so is therefore conventional of trailers, as they need to include a lot of shots in a fairly short space of time. Also, this trailer appears to use a 'dissolve' or 'cross dissolve' transition edit. Both of these transitions are conventional of the soap genre.

Sound:

This trailer contains both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. It includes dialogue - diegetic sound. It also includes music and a voiceover - non-diegetic sound. Voiceovers and music are conventional of the soap genre.

Camera:

This trailer contains shot types such as 'over the shoulder' shots and 'close up' shots. Both of these are conbetional of the soap genre. In soaps, Over the shoulder shots are usually used during conversations, and change their point of view, depending on which character in the conversation is talking. Close ups are also used in order to capture emotion on the faces of characters.

FINAL PRODUCT PLANNING - Existing Trailer 1 - Hollyoaks Trailer:

Above, is a Hollyoaks trailer from December 2008. Although it is shorter than I plan my trailer to be, I believe that it has a number of soap conventions that I would like to include in my soap trailer, such as:

Quick, montage editing.

The use of a voiceover.

PLANNING - Soap Preliminary Task + Evaluation:

A2 Media Studies – Soap Preliminary Task:

Evaluation:

The next task was to film and edit a section of a soap, based on a particular section of a soap of our choice. This task was undertaken in groups.

• Planning:

In my opinion, the planning of our section of a soap went well. Firstly, we chose an existing soap to base our soap on. We chose a café scene from an episode of EastEnders, because the location was realistic, and there wasn’t too many characters. After this, we wrote a script, based on the script in the existing soap. We then allocated roles. The first roles that we allocated, were those of actors. We discussed this, and then allocated 4 people from within our group to act. I played the role of an extra, 2 male characters in our group played the characters of Alfie and Michael, and a female in our group played the character of Cat. After this, we decided on who would be the main director of our scene, although every member of the group had directorial input. We did not need to choose one person to film the scene, as we all had the chance to operate the camera.

The next task was to choose a location for our soap. This was important, because it needed to be realistic, as we were filming within the grounds of our College. Because of this, we chose a café scene, as it was possible to vaguely replicate this at College. We finally decided on using the staff room at our College as our location, which contained some of the mise en scene of a café. In my opinion, the canteen resembled a café more so than the staff room, however, the canteen was always busy, so it would have been impractical to film there.

• Filming:

In my opinion, the filming of our soap went fairly well. We chose to film the scene a few lines at a time, because it would have been unreasonable to expect the actors to learn a lengthy script. We tried to film each section from a variety of different camera angles. However, we did not film each scene from enough camera angles, so when it came to editing the soap, there is not much continuity, as the camera angles change too much from section to section. In my opinion, if we were doing this again, we could film more establishing shots, and use more of a variety of camera angles. So, when it came to editing, the shots would not change too much, from section to section.

Despite some problems, overall, the filming went fairly well. Firstly, we divided roles. We allocated the roles of direcors and actors. Despite this, because of the number of people in the group, we shared some roles. For example, whilst the director was obtaining a master shot, another member of the group would be obtaining a shot from a different angle. Throughout this task, I became more and more familiar with the features of a video camera, which I found helpful.

• Editing:

After planning and filming, we each edited our own version of the soap, using Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0. I encountered some problems whilst completing this task. The first thing that I needed to do, was to download each of the scenes into the editing software. This went well, as I used an external hard drive. Because of this, I bypassed any potential problems with downloading straight onto a computer.

I then edited my own version of the soap. The first problem that I encountered, was with continuity. Because we filmed each section of the scene individually, certain things changed from scene to scene. For example, between scenes, the position of one of the actor’s arms was an issue, because it kept changing from scene to scene. This meant that my edited version of the soap did not flow as I would have liked it to, as the arm positions kept changing. Another continuity issue was with lighting. The lighting was changing from scene to scene, because we were next to a window. This meant that some scenes were in dark lighting, and some were in very bright lighting. If I was to do this again, I would have discussed allocating someone in the group, the role of maintaining continuity. In this instance, I somewhat forgot about it.

The next problem that I had whilst editing the soap, was with title cards. I wanted to edit in a title card for my version of the soap, to set the scene. I had difficulty doing this, because I did not find any of the preset title cards suitable. Further to this, I did not have time to create my own, so I had to settle for a preset title card, which was, in my opinion, unsuitable. If I was to do this task again, I would allocate more time to editing, so that I could have more time to create my own title card, using desktop publishing software.

The problem that I had with title cards was similar to the problem that I had with sound – none of the preset sounds were, in my opinion, suitable, but, because I did not allocate anytime to find my own, I had to settle for a preset sound. Also, in terms of sound, background noise is a problem in my soap. This is unavoidable, but, if I would have allocated myself more time to edit, I could have maybe inserted a soundtrack over the top of my soap, to disguise any background noise.

For details of how I edited the soap preliminary task, and uploaded it to YouTube, please see evaluation question 4.

PLANNING - Soap Preliminary Task Planning:

Our group plan to base the Soap Preliminary Task on a scene from a recent episode of EastEnders. Whilst doing this, we will be able to familiarise ourselves with the conventions of the soap genre.

The scene takes place in a cafe, and involves the characters of Cat, Alfie and Michael.

In terms of roles, our group will have one director, with other members of the group filming from different camera angles, if needs be. Our group will also have three actors, and an extra.

Filming location:

College staff room.

Roles:

One director.
One extra.
Three actors.

Props needed:

Coffee cups - To add to the mise en scene of the cafe. Characters can be shown drinking out of them, and they can also be placed on the table.
Magazines - To add to the mise en scene of the cafe. These can be placed on the table.
Food - To add to the mise en scene of the cafe. This can also be placed on the table.

PLANNING - Comic Strip Soap + Evaluation:

A2 Media Comic Strip Soap – Evaluation:

The first project in the A2 Media Studies coursework project was to create a section of a soap, using a still image comic strip.

• Choosing a comic strip:

I decided to pick one comic strip, as it helped maintain continuity. However, this meant that my video was fairly short. If I was doing this project again, I would probably have chosen more than one comic strip, and found a way of linking them together in a narrative. This would have made the video longer. The comic strip that I chose was titled ‘Betty’. I chose a school corridor scene. I chose this particular scene because there were a lot of characters, so there would be freedom when choosing the dialogue.

• Dialogue and Sound:

I chose to use my own dialogue, so that I could add my own element to the scene. I had to choose this dialogue carefully as it needed to be relevant to the comic strip – a School corridor. I tried to keep the dialogue simple, so that the scene would not seem too over – complicated. I decided to record the dialogue whilst filming, so that it would all be on one file. The problem with this was that there was a lot of background noise, due to the environment – a classroom. This meant that when I uploaded the video to a computer, the background noise was very prominent and I could hardly hear the dialogue. If I was doing this project again, I would have solved this problem by recording the dialogue separately to filming, in a quiet environment, so that the sound would be clear.

• Filming and camera movement:

I encountered quite a lot of problems during the filming process. Firstly, the camera didn’t seem to fit on the top of the tripod. This meant that the camera was at an angle throughout the whole filming process. If I was doing this task again, I would have chosen a different tripod or a different camera so that the camera would be flat. In terms of camera movement, I used a simple pan across the comic strip, as it kept the video steady, and is conventional. If I was doing this task again, with more comic strips, I would probably use some more technical camera movement, as it would make the video more interesting. I found using the camera quite easy, as I had used a video camera before.

• Editing:

The next task was to edit the video, using Adobe Premiere Elements 8. I found the editing process quite difficult, because the actual video was probably too short. This meant that the amount that I could edit was limited. I managed to fit one edit into the video, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t look very natural. I also decided to put a title card in at the front. This is because I think that it is a convention of soaps, and set the scene well.

• Uploading to YouTube, and to my blog:

I then uploaded the video to YouTube, so that I could then upload it to my blog. I had to create a new YouTube account as I did not previously have one. The process of creating a YouTube account was quick, and I found it simple. I found the process of uploading the video to YouTube fairly simple, as I did this directly from Adobe Premiere Elements 8. The menus were simple to navigate, and it did not take long to upload. The next step was to upload the video to my blog. I also found this simple, as I embedded it straight into my blog from YouTube. Despite this, the video seemed fuzzy when it was uploaded to YouTube. To stop this happening in the future, I would probably pay more attention to the settings on the camera that could have stopped this happening.

PLANNING - Storyboard Of A Short Extract From A Soap:

Storyboard of an extract from a soap:

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Above, is a PowerPoint presentation, which contains a short storyboard from the first 10-15 minutes of an episode from 'Waterloo Road.

Although the screenshots are not annotated, I believe that this was useful, as it allowed me to look at the conventions of the soap genre, such as camera shots and mise en scene.

PLANNING - Draft Of A T.V Listings Magazine Front Cover + Mock Up Billboard:

Above, is my first attempt at a TV listings magazine front cover.

Conventions:

I believe that I used the conventions well. There is a main feature, with a photo in medium close up, as well as secondary features. The date of the magazine is clear, and I have included the price, in a button. The masthead is large and bold.

Improvements to be made:

More features are needed, as existing products usually inlcude more than 2 secondary features.

Brand needs looking at - The masthead and brand do not really stand out on the page, so I need to consider branding, when creating my final front cover.

The main photo is somewhat faint, so therefore, it does not show enough realism, compared to existing products. To improve this, I could have taken the photo in a slightly darker setting, rather than in a very light location.




Above, is a mock up of a billboard, using the existing soap name 'Home and Away'. I created this by looking at existing soap billboards, and then making a mock up billboard, using a still image from a soap.

PLANNING - Definition of Soap Opera, Soap Opera Conventions and Mood Board For Soap Opera:

Soap Opera – definition:

A soap opera takes place on television. Soap operas are usually in an ongoing series, and their storylines tend to contain a lot of realism, such as family and friendship issues. Soap operas are usually scheduled for their target audience. Also, soap operas tend to represent a region. For example, ‘Coronation Street’ represents the North West, and ‘EastEnders’ represents an area of London.

Below, is a PowerPoint presenation, which includes the conventions of the soap opera genre, and a mood board for soap opera:

Soap opera conventions and mood board for soap opera

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