Evaluation Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

My answer as a voice over:
 

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My Answer:

An audience feedback video we made about rough cut two of our trailer:


Different social groups and their reactions:




For points about how audience feedback has influenced our trailer, below are all three of the rough cuts, and our final cut you can reference to:

Trailer rough cut 1:


Trailer rough cut 2:



Trailer rough cut 3:



Final Cut of trailer:

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary tasks?

My Answer:

My Soap Opera Magazine:

My Soap Opera Poster:

My Soap Opera Trailer:

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When we started this project, the research and planning stages were vital to gain an understanding into the conventions we needed to follow in order for our soap opera trailer, magazine cover and poster to be of a good standard and to match existing media products.

Trailer

Soap opera trailer conventions include:

Titles

Real media product titles

My product titles

Our soap trailer advertising 'Cherry Gardens' follows the common convention of displaying the important facts about the soap right at the end of the trailer. The title screen shows the audience all the information they need to know where and when to find the soap. In our case we display the soap name 'Cherry Gardens', when it is on, what channel its on and the fact it is a new soap.
Soap opera trailers put their titles at the end to round off the trailer in a professional way and to distinguish its end so its not confused with the following advert. If they were to put them at the start, people might not want to watch the rest of the trailer as they already know what its advertising, and they may have initial judgements upon the show which would put them off. Putting titles at the end, means the soap name isn't revealed until then, so for those who are not familiar with the soap, it could draw them into watching it.

Channel 5 title screen, we based ours upon

From my research into the purpose of a trailer, I found that there are two types of soap trailer, one is to attract new audiences to watch the soap, the other is to inform current audiences of a prominent up coming episode. Our trailer is advertising a brand new soap, meaning ours has to attract audiences from scratch. Because it is new, no one would have any previous perceptions about it, this made us want to make a really gripping and exciting trailer, which ends with the reveal of the soaps name at the end.
We modelled our title screen on the real title screen used by Channel 5 at the end of their TV show adverts. We wanted to do this rather than create our own original title screen, so it would add to the overall realism of the trailer.

Sound

Sound plays a large part in setting a tone and gaining audience attention within soap opera trailers. Common sound conventions include, the use of no diegetic speech, a non-diegetic soundtrack throughout and a non-diegetic voice over at the end. Within our trailer we followed these, but challenged the voice over convention at the end, when we finally decided on not having a voice over at all.

For our first rough cut, we used a voice over above our titles screen, stating a slogan, the soaps name and when its on. We struggled recording the voice over, as we were unsure on what tone to speak in and how fast the words should be said, so it took a few attempts to have something which was suitable for our rough cut.  When we came to collect feedback from our target audience, we found that when we asked what they thought of our voice over, most said they would prefer it without. This is because when the trailer ends, they felt the voice over detracted from the dramatic scenes they have just seen, and didn't flow on from them in an effective enough way. We then decided to remove the voice over completely, meaning that by following the no diegetic speech convention, throughout our whole trailer, there is no speech at all, but by doing this, our trailer then flowed more smoothly and ended in the correct tone.

In our trailer we have a main soundtrack that runs over our visual clips. By following this common convention and using a suitable music track, we hoped to make our trailer memorable and outstanding among other TV adverts along side it. Although most soap trailers use only one sound track and that is all, we've decided to start our trailer with two sound effects before our main music track begins. The reasons behind these were well thought over. We open our trailer with the sound of Church bells, this is to lure our audience into a false sense of security, making them think that the rest of the trailer will be pleasant and undramatic, when in fact it soon turns out not to be. After the opening bells, we then break conventions by having a piece of sound when could be diegetic, this impacting noise is to co-inside with the violent punch clip we see on screen. We did this because from feedback we found that it shocked the audience, as they didn't see it coming, they also said it drew them into watching the rest of the trailer. So by doing this and challenging conventions, I believe our soap would gain more viewer, from the thrill of the trailer.  

Camera Angles and Editing

Close up from our trailer

Mid shot from our trailer

Within many soap opera trailers, the use of close up and mid shots are very prominent, they seem to be used more often than in actual soap episodes. By using these shots on characters, it helps introduce them to the audience and to convey their emotions in an effective way. As our trailer is advertising a new soap, introducing the characters is something that needed to be done, so we followed this convention of using these shots. We also hoped that by using close ups and mid shots that the audience would be able to make opinions on the characters.

Close up from an Eastenders trailer

Mid two shot from an Eastenders trailer

As well as having many mid and close up shots, trailers also tend to use many over the shoulder shots. By having this editing technique included, you get the personal feel that a close up gives of of a character, but you can see who they are reacting to, allowing the audience to evaluate the relationship between those characters. Within our trailer, we used an over the shoulder shot to follow this convention and to make our product realistic to real media products.

Over the shoulder shot from an Eastenders trailer

Over the shoulder shot from our trailer

In terms of editing within our soap trailer, we used quite fast paced editing, with very short clips. Many real soap trailers also follow this convention, as it keeps the trailer exciting, yet each clip within it, is not long enough to give too much away.
Something that we used a lot of in our trailer, is the use of transitions between scenes. Many soap opera trailers use these to add drama and mystery to their product, and to distinguish that its a trailer and not the full episode, soap episodes don't use transitions as they want to keep it as verisimilitude as possible. In our case we use transitions to emphasize the point that our main trailer character, Marris is experiencing flash backs of his day. We hoped the use of transitions such as fades, would convey this point to the audience.

Narrative

Full soap opera episodes are edited continuously in order for it to be understandable for the audience and to gain a verisimilitude effect. Whereas the same doesn't have to apply for soap opera trailers, our trailer has a fractured narrative, and is quite hard to understand. By doing this, as a group we hoped it would catch the interest of the audience, and they would want to see the story behind our trailer, and therefore watch the whole soap.

Todorov's theory of equilibrium suggest that all stories start with equilibrium, which is then disrupted, recognized and overcome to once again display equilibrium. Many full soap opera episodes follow this theory, usually so do soap trailers, but trailers don't tend to follow all stages of this theory. In our trailer we followed Todorov's theory as we feel it is a convention that had to be followed. We display stages one and two of this theory, leaving the audience at the disrupted stage, and therefore ending the trailer on a climax and cliffhanger.

Within soap opera Propp's narrative theory of character types is very prominent. Within our trailer, like other soap trailer we followed the connotation of only really displaying the villain and victim characters, leaving the audience with unanswered questions and wanting to know more about the story line involved.

Mise en scene

Emmerdale has a rural village setting

In terms of setting, we decided to set our soap in a rural village, similar to that of British soap opera, Emmerdale. Many soap opera are based on the outskirts of towns or city centres but the village setting has been a success with ITVs Emmerdale, so we thought we would also take it on. We hoped by setting it in a small, close-knit community it would make the whole show more personal for the audience. We also thought it seemed like an unsuspecting place for dramatic soap story lines to take place, making the audience more shocked when they do. By being set in this location, we make the overall soap a juxtaposition.

'Rovers Return Inn' is Coronation Streets Pub

Within soaps, the aim for verisimilitude is very important; as that is what makes them unique from other TV shows, therefore having realistic locations and buildings within our chosen location is vital. From research we found that a Pub is usually the centre of the community in British soap operas, and the Pub name, is an iconic part of the soaps. To follow this convention we have also included a pub within our own trailer, by using a pub in the trailer, we hint to the audience that we are advertising a soap.



Houses shown within our trailer for Cherry Gardens

Houses from the soap Coronation Street

The interior and exterior of houses and flats appears regularly in soap opera. This is to once again reinstate verisimilitude and to remind the audience that these are ordinary  everyday people. Within our soap we included clips of houses and and clip inside a house to support this convention. We thought this was a good idea because our soap is brand new, it will familiarize the audience with the setting and will also show them where most of the action will take place.  



Poster and Magazine

Poster

These days with the takeover of new media, soap opera posters are rarely seen, but they are still a traditional, effective way of advertising a soap opera through print media, especially a new soap opera, of which ours is.

Soap opera poster conventions:

Information conveyed

Soap opera posters can convey information about the soap in a visual way, verbal way or both. Many successful posters have a good combination of pictures and words, therefore displaying their information in both these ways. This is something we felt we would do to give our poster the best chance of thriving and making people want to watch the soap. By following the convention of  having both visual and verbal information, we hoped that the pictures we used grab our audiences attention, then our text would tell them all they need to know about where and when to find the soap. We also decided to use a tagline to increase the verbal information conveyed, we felt that it added to the poster, and made the audience question the story line and made them interested to know what it involves. 

Colours

Many colours are used to add emphasis to this Neighbours poster.

The effective use of colours, in particular vibrant, striking colours within soap opera posters is a common convention. Without the use of colours, it would be quite hard to make your poster noticeable and eye-catching. On our poster, we didn’t want to make the page too busy with loads of colours, instead we decided to use the colour red as our only really brightly coloured part of the poster, and this colour would be used for the title of the soap. By having the only striking colour as the colour for the soap title, it will make it stand out among the page, and hopefully make it memorable for the audience. By highlighting our title in this way, we go against conventions of soap opera posters, as usually the title of the soap is quite discreet compared to the pictures on the page, whereas on our poster they are equal.

Poster advertising Hollyoaks, where upon the title is quite reserved

What is promised?

To attract your audience to watch the soap you are advertising, your poster has got to promise something that they would be interested in. A common convention of soap opera posters would be to promise exciting and dramatic storylines, but to enable your poster to promise such things, it needs to include symbols that the audience and understand and read.

Our soap opera poster advertising 'Cherry Gardens'

In our poster we wanted to promise to our audience a gripping yet dark storyline. To convey this point to our audience we mainly relied upon the connotations of the colours we’ve used as symbols. We used the colours of red and black to display our text, red has strong connotations of violence, while black can usually represents death. We also used pathetic fallacy within the poster in the respect that the background, which is prominent on most of the poster, is storm clouds. By displaying a dark, eerie sky above, we would like our audience to assume that a storm is coming to the village.

This poster advertising Channel 4s Hollyoaks, have used fire to display their characters, symbolising a fiery storyline, much like the storm clouds used within my product.

Magazine

Soap opera magazines are a useful way for committed soap opera fans to catch up and find out what it to

My final magazine cover

come in their favourite soaps. These magazines usually display many stories, pictures and updates from a variety of soaps. While creating our own magazine front cover, we had to make sure we were following conventions by relating our product to existing media products, to make it as convincing as possible.

Conventions of soap opera magazine front covers:

First third

The left third of all magazine front covers has become a vital part of making your magazine successful. Making the first third of your magazine appealing and eye-catching originates from traditional news agents, where upon they would display magazines in a staggered way, therefore only revealing the left third of the cover. This means that the first third of magazine covers are conventionally the busiest part, as they tend to show a substantial amount of important information in this area. With our magazine cover we’ve made, we have followed this left third rule, by following this convention we hope it would make our magazine stand out among others if it were on a shop shelf. On our left third you can see the majority of the magazine name, its price, the date and the barcode. In this area you can also see a small part of some of the stories, including the main story that is being advertised, giving the audience a taster as to what’s inside.

Font

Conventionally, soap opera magazines only tend to use a small number of clear, basic and readable fonts on their front covers. By doing this they avoid making their cover confusing and unprofessional. Using simple and plain fonts to annotate pictures on a cover, means it tends to be left to the audience to make their own opinion upon the soap new, rather than being confronted with fonts that specifically have their own connotations linked to them. From research, I've found that this is a good point to follow, as if you were to use different fonts to match every picture, your cover would become very busy and complicated. On my magazine cover I've only used a couple of very comprehensible fonts, therefore following this convention to add to the realism of my product.  

Real media product showing effective use of space

Appearance and pictures

All pictures on soap opera magazines are of soap characters. Conventionally, there is one big, main story that is being advertised on the cover. The picture advertising this story usually involves 2, sometimes 3 characters, and the pictures for this main story are a different type of picture to those of the smaller stories being advertised. The main story tends to have a posed mid shot or close up picture of the actors, exclusively taken for the magazine, emphasising on their facial expressions. In contrast the smaller stories usually look as if they are screen shots taken from the particular soap episode itself.  On our magazine cover we've followed this convention, and have a styled and posed picture for our main story, whereas the other stories we advertise has a more natural picture linked to them.

In terms of appearance, a convention of soap opera magazines it that they leave very little white space on the page, this is because the publishers want their magazine to stand out against others, look exciting, appealing and action packed with gripping stories. This is something once again we have tried our best to do. 

Colours

Real media product using red as the colour for its title

On soap opera magazine covers, colours play a key part in the effectiveness of the cover, as they add the impact that is needed to catch a potential buyer’s eye. Conventions include using very bright and striking colours for the words on the page, something that is common is the use of reds and yellows. Many magazine covers tend to have the brightest colours they have on the page, as the colour for the magazine name, presenting it importance.
In our front cover we have used yellow to present our main title, going against conventions. We done this because we prefer of overall look it gives, and we also thought the the sunny connotations that go with this colour would attract a large audience. 

Words
On soap magazine front covers, each picture has it's own annotation linked to it, but these are usually very short and to the point. These annotations should only be a taster of whats inside, although only a few words, they have to be exciting and dramatic to make something want to buy the magazine so they can read the full story. On my magazine, I've followed this convention with snappy short sentences, for some of my pictures we only used one word to describe them, hopefully making the audience want to know more.
Something else you notice when you study these magazines is the effective use of punctuation. Exclamation marks are regularly used to add shock and enthusiasm. The use of question marks is also prominent, making the magazine seem more personal by posing questions to the audience, these questions they would probably have to read to magazine to find out, once again drawing them in.
On my magazine we have also used punctuation to our advantage, even using questions marks directly followed by an exclamation mark to increase the impact of the cover and to make it more captivating for the audience.



Real media product showing extensive use of punctuation







Magazine Ideas

Idea 2

Idea 1

As part of our soap opera project, we have to create a front cover for a soap news magazine.
These are two initial layout ideas for this product. We designed them by following the conventions of real soap opera magazines which we have researched into.  We created more than one to explore the different shots we could use and the way we could display them.
They are both quite similar as on each of them we have tried to follow soap magazine conventions as much as we can. These include an effective first third so the audience can identify the magazine and see the most important parts of the cover while its still on the shelf.
When designing the plans, we tried to follow conventions by leaving no room for empty white spaces, which would make our magazine seem unprofessional and unrealistic to real media products. We have not coloured them, as we wanted to leave this until the developing stages on the computer where upon we would be able to experiment more freely with colours. The types of colours we plan to use include red, yellow and blue, these primary colours will make our magazine eye catching and appealing.
As these rough ideas have been hand drawn, we could not test out which fonts we wanted to use, once again leaving it to when we have a final idea and start putting it all together on a computer software. The reason for doing this is when we do make our final product, we don't want to just have one font idea in mind and just settle for it, we want to try out many different styles, so we can see what suits what words.
We  have decided that we will have pictures advertising many different soap operas not just the one we have created a trailer for. This will add to the realism of the magazine as actual soap magazine covers do have pieces from a variety of different soaps. Meaning for the purposes of this project we will make up some soap operas for our smaller stories on the page, which surround the main story, about our trailer soap opera 'Cherry Gardens', by doing this we hope to make it seem more professional and similar to existing products.
When we came to decide which idea to use, we thought it would be good to have a mix of both the rough ideas, as we couldn't just decide on one. We preferred the layout of idea 1 because it seems inventive, fun and original. We like the way it looks modern and fresh, and we think it would attract younger audiences members, along with those that usually buy these magazines. From idea 2, we will take the main story picture idea of just the two boys, rather than having three people. By doing this it will make our cover more realistic as most soap opera magazines only show two people in their main story picture.