2. Initial Research
When choosing the brief of 'Soap Operas' for my
coursework choice my initial research was
exploring and gaining an understanding of
different Soap Opera trailers for all different genre
of story lines. This research began to give me a
few ideas of what sort of trailer I could potentially
create. I primarily used Youtube as my primary
source of research because of it's broad database
of footage. I also closely monitored TV
advertisements to gain an good understanding of
what Soap trailers are like today.
3. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
4. The initial first big step was to decide on what sort of
mood of storyline I am going to be aiming for. Then I
could start analysing more specific soap trailers in detail
and begin to gather inspiration and brief ideas. I decided
upon the Soap Opera choice because not many people
have attempted it in the past and it seemed like more of a
challenge as there are limited soap trailers available
compared to other types of trailers so it was harder to
determine what we should be aiming for. Soap trailers
are always dramatic and they are always effective
because of it's hooking soundtrack and clever but
natural camera work. We wanted to find a unique,catchy
and dramatic soundtrack in order to hook the audience, a
typical convention of a soap opera trailer.
5. Lighting
Lighting in a trailer is very important as it helps create the
mood and tempo of the storyline and mood. As it's a soap
opera and is created to try and hold a representation of
reality we have tried throughout to keep the lighting very
natural to try and keep the footage looking very realistic.
However the footage where one of my characters is running
out of the house where it is light into the darkness outside
holds connotations of running into more darker problems.
6. Camera Work
As our topic is a soap opera which is trying to
demonstrate and portray real life situations so
in order to make the footage look as realistic as
possible we didn't use any drastic camera shots
and any high technological effects however at
the same time attempt to show our camera
skills which we have developed.
Our trailer begins with the E4 logo and
background screen which leads into a bleak
setting of a blank screen with our title 'Behind
Closed Doors' appearing with the music subtly
just beginning to be brought in.
7. MUSIC
After researching all different kinds of trailers we decided that the most
effective form of soundtrack was definitely ones that were dramatic and
create immense suspension without being scary. After a long time of
deciding We settled with 'Radioactive (137 bpm instrumental version)' for
our first choice as we really feel that it helps portray the moods of the
characters. Throughout the track the pase slowly escalates which holds
connotations with the themes of the storyline slowly progressing and
worsening. The first clip with one of my characters in the toilet looking upset
the music is slower and as then when another character runs to escape out
of the house the music picks up it's pase and the 'drop' of the song begins
when the door slams. The footage of the graveyard is shown to be slower as
its the ending track however the singing in the track begins towards the end
of the clip and is shown throughout the ending title clip. The song slowly
progressing throughout creates tension slowly and also demonstrates the
moods of the characters at the time.
We slowly began to edge the track in while the trailer title was beginning to
start, this was because we wanted to create suspense and also have a
steady beat going on throughout the clip to not distract attention away from
the footage and storyline.
8. Mise En Scene
With any type of productions its essential to take
into serious consideration the clothing and setting
of the trailer. As Soap Operas are trying to create
social realism it's essential we kept the characters
clothing as normal as possible, nothing drastic. As
our characters are in distress and in a bad way in
the starting topic of the soap we decided to keep
them very laid back and casual as if you were
upset and in a bad way as stereotypically in real
life you wouldn't be dressed formally in a suit if in
those situations and at home. Our characters in the
soap starting up at the moment are teenagers. For
Gemma we have a plain burgundy red long
sleeved top and plain legging trousers, this could
be seen as a stereotypical outfit for a teenager in
home surroundings. Amy in here scene of in the
toilet, she is wearing sleepwear signifying her bad
mood and distress as she doesn't want to go out of
the house and get ready. However for the final
footage of in the graveyard she is seen wearing
black trousers and a black school jumper signifying
her age to the audience.
9. Typical Conventions Presented in
my Trailer
● Our trailer is 1 minute six seconds long which
its a stereotypical average for a soap trailer
because the aim is too not give too much of the
storyline away.
● Has a soundtrack that slowly builds up
throughout the footage to increase tension.
● States the theme of the storyline, what channel
it would appear on and when, informing the
consumer.
● Variety of Angles
● Soundtrack matches the footage
10. Conventions
Here My initial title of our
soap opera 'Behind Closed
Doors'. It's a typical
connotation of a trailer for a
television trailer it informs the
audience of when to expect
the programme to be shown.
All channels before starting a
programme put a few second
long bit of footage showing
their logo and colour scheme
informing the consumers who
the programme is screen by
and sometimes produced by.
11. Was your production an effective
piece?
Melissa Penney - “all of it looks really good, in the trailer the use of soundtrack
really makes the trailer what it is because it all fits in really well with each
storyline”
This shows that my audience has picked up well on what we were trying to achieve
with the soundtrack. We really wanted people to notice that the parts of the song
were meant to link in with each section of the storyline.
Georgia Clark - “I love all of it, especially your choice of photograph for your
poster, its really eye catching and the choice of facial expression and
intenseness of eye contact really helps you engage with the characters”
We are really glad that this has been expressed because the choice of looks
and expressions we chose were supposed to be a method of engaging for the
audience.
Georgina Hatchet - “Altogether the three texts all compliment each other really
well, however you could have used a few more photographs on your magazine
front cover in order to achieve an equal text to photograph ratio”
This feedback is one of our most critical but I thought it was important to
include in order to improve on future ventures. We realise now we could have
used a wider variety of photography.
12. How effective is the combination
of your main product and
ancillary texts?
13. Our combination of trailer and ancillary tasks we thought
as a whole complimented each other really well. Each task
helped towards a good promotion package for our up and
coming Soap Opera, Behind Closed Doors. Our Magazine
front cover helps introduce some of the story lines that will
be arising over the season and helps introduce some of
the characters personalities. The Poster helps give a feel
of the mood of the starting soap and also gives us a sneak
peak of who the current primary characters are. Finally the
trailer is the promotional tool that gives the consumer and
potential viewer a good insight to what is in store and
helps introduce everything that the poster and magazine
cover already does. The solum faces of the characters on
the magazine front cover and the poster help create a
signature look for the mood of the soap and helps link the
magazine and the poster together.
14. How the three texts would work together
as a marketing strategy
When it comes to a new product being launched, service or
media text in order for it to be a key success is good a good
marketing strategy. For a programme or film it's thee main
media promotion tools aside from social media platforms are,
posters/billboards, magazine coverage and television trailers.
The poster is effective as it is simple yet eye catching which
makes the consumer want to know more about the programme
however some people may want to know a bit more about a
programme before beginning to watch it, that’s where the
magazine cover and trailer comes in. The magazine cover
manages to give the potential viewer an inside to what possibly
could be in store and the trailer gives you a more personal
introduction to the unraveling's of storyline and characters. All
three texts compliment each other well and all have their own
individual valuable purpose.
15. What have you learned from your
audience feedback?
Constructive criticism is key in when launching a programme as it
gives the production companies an insight into what they could have
done better and what they should be looking to do in the future. Most
of our feedback was given through word of mouth an alternative and
change from using the internet for a source of feedback, this allowed
us to gain knowledge from the reactions and facial expressions.
I have learned that in order for our magazine cover to be more of an
effective success we could have used a broader range of
photography to emphasise the identity of the characters.
Overall we realised that we managed to mostly achieve everything
that we set out to do and all the creative methods and tools we did in
order to attract a specific audience and get them to notice certain
aspects worked.
16. How did you use new media
technologies in the construction
and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
17. Construction
When starting out to begin the
construction production process
we were pretty much out of our
depth. I personally have only
used basic camera equipment
but have never used the more
high market equipment so
admittedly went through some
difficulty getting started and
getting used to the equipment.
For filming we used a
video/camera with the stand
however we didn't use the sound
detector and recorder as it wasn't
necessary for our piece as it was
all non-diegetic sound based.
18. However the biggest challenge yet we were yet to face; editing.
We were told that Adobe Première Pro is the most suitable
software for us to use and we really struggled to get
accustomed to the software as we had never used anything like
it before. We managed to pick up the basis relatively quickly
however some effects that we desired to use we never figured
out how to use them. However we had used Photoshop many
times in the past including in depth experience from our first
year a level media studies so managed complete the task with
ease to a simple standard however we did struggle to take the
magazine front cover to a higher level to meet the standards of
doing media for A2 so we had to learn by watching various
YouTube videos and doing research online to reach our desired
effects. When making our magazine front cover Photoshop
allowed us to create different fonts and effects to a higher
standard.
When it came to downloading our soundtrack for the trailer we
found that the song wasn't available to buy on iTunes and found
that the next safest method to download the track was taking it
off YouTube via YouTube converter.
19. Research
The majority of our research conducted from
our project was through the internet based
platforms. YouTube was an extremely
helpful source of research when gaining
knowledge and looking for inspiration on
soap opera trailers. We also analysed soap
opera trailers when they were being
screened on TV to see when they would be
most manage to reach their target audience.
For our poster and magazine front cover we
primarily used Google images while
conducting most of our research. However
for magazine front covers we did go into
convenience shops and supermarkets and
did take a close look on what ones were
more popular than others and which ones
are placed more prominently
20. Planning
Planning is a important part when it comes to planning
something like this so its key to keep everything all
together in one place. The website 'Blogger' is what we
used to post all of our research too in order to keep
everything together.
A bonus of using a public blogging site in order to post all
of our planning is it allows all my class peers and I to
exchange ideas and inspiration while going through the
project process.
21. Evaluation
We were given the choice of a few options on how to
evaluate our project. However as it is media studies
and it prominently revolves around technology we
decided to conduct our evaluation on Microsoft
PowerPoint and then to upload it onto Slideshare
which is a service that allows you to upload your
presentations online with a suitable internet format and
then I will post it onto my blogger account.
22. In Conclusion..
Although this project has been a massive
challenge for Tilly and Myself we have
thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and
learning new skills and discovering new
software’s. However if I were to make a few
alterations to the project it would be the
magazines images. We realised now that the
photographs weren’t as prominent as they
probably should have been.
We are thoroughly pleased with our product
and is worth what time and effort we put into it.
