LIAM BARNES

AQ092234

Aquinas College 33435

OCR G324-Advanced Production

http://liamaq092234.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g31D-QxmIk

Evaluation Media A2 Trailer

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1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

ENIGMAS AND PARALLEL NARRATIVES

The narrative clearly

shows two stories to keep

the audience engaged

with two storylines to look

for.

I also ensured the two stories converged with each

other meaning the audience could relate

to them both.

I also incorporated an

enigma to leave the

audience puzzled and

to create a cliff-

hanger.

The narrative is clearly

from a certain point of

view to enable the

audience to relate to the

characters I want them

to.

Here is a screenshot of the enigma. This gives leaves the audience with an element of confusion.

The type narrative I

used in my soap is

often found in most

soaps therefore

implying that I used

the forms and

conventions of real

media products

INTRODUCTION TO TRAILER

Many soaps include a sequence at the start of a trailer to immediately grab the attention of the audience and to provoke debate. Soaps as shown below do this and is something I emulated in my trailer also.

CONTINUED...

In this shot from Eastenders there is a clear cause for debate with the bordered up pub which appears to have been set on fire. This would shock the audience and would make the audience question this shot.

This shot from Waterloo Road at the start of the trailer suggests conflict and this is maintained throughout the trailer.

Due to the inspiration I gathered from these two trailer I implemented this idea into my own trailer.

PROPS

The selection and use of props played a massive part of our trailer and I felt we put them to good use.

The bag was an integral part of this scene. Without the bag, the audience would have been left confused and we also took into consideration the type of bag as it was carrying clothes in it

The inclusion of the phone was also a fundamental part of this scene. Again, we took into consideration the type of phone we used as it had to be one we could throw hard on the floor

Representation of time

My trailer is predominantly conducted in chronological order.To emphasise this I ensured that cut to each scene was done quickly and effectively to make it seem like an obvious sequence of events.I felt a soap trailer should be kept short snappy and easy to follow and certain edits were not necessary in terms of keeping the continuity of a trailer.

HOW MY TRAILER CREATES GENRE AND MEANING

While deciding the storylines of the soap I came to the conclusion that plots relating to every day life would look more appealing to the reader i.e. arguments wit a boss and schoolmates

The use of camera work, sound and lighting also influenced my trailer greatly. We ensured the lighting for the final scene was dark to generate a grim and sinister environment.

This was a storyline I found in Hollyoaks and we included a very similar narrative and I feel it is the type that would appeal to audiences as this is a ‘problem’ that occurs in everyday life

FURTHER MEDIA LANGUAGES In terms of camerawork it was important we took into

consideration the positioning and angle in order to emphasise the narrative point of view from which it is told.

For example an ‘over the shoulder’ shot was used to amplify who is the ‘subject’ of a particular scene. This is a shot commonly used in soaps particularly Hollyoaks as it allows you to project a conversation clearly.

To add to the threatening appearance of the final scene we made sure the boss wore something which emphasised this. The dark jumper Adam wore personified his character perfectly.

NARRATIVE COHERENCE

My narrative definitely makes sense. I ensured there was a link in two of the three sequences to give the audience just two things to think about rather than three which may confuse and put them off. The fact that the story appears happy and content at the start, followed by a sequence suggesting conflict and trouble would attract the audience.

INCLUSION OF NON-DIEGETIC SOUND In my trailer I included music. However I had to

guarantee it was appealing and unthreatening towards the audience. I felt my song choice of the instrumental of The Arctic Monkeys Teddy Picker exemplifies this theory.

It creates a beat that builds tension and compliments the trailer particularly the last sequence well due to the anger involved.

Arctic_Monkeys_-_Teddy_Picker_Instrumental.mp3

CAMERA WORKThe panning shoot allows us to identify who is taking place in the conversation and is common in most soaps.

An over the shoulder shot is also frequent in soaps, allowing us to portray a conversation or object. This two shot combined with

the slow zooming out is challenging the conventions of soaps as in trailers it is generally short and snappy.

To improve my trailer I could have incorporated an establishing shot as this shows where the scene is taking place and gives a clear signal to the audience.

FURTHER MISE EN SCENEWe ensured our setting and location was appropriate in terms of emphasising the characters education/employment status. Furthermore, we ensured that all characters were dressed suitably in order to convey this.

Here, what appears to be a school/college is clearly visible in the background, giving the reader a further impression that the three characters are students.

Here I feel we could have made the lighting darker therefore creating a darker, gloomier atmosphere. It would have complimented his jumper as well implying he is some sort of manager/boss

HOW MY SOAP PORTRAYS EQUILIBRIUM OR DISEQUILIBRIUM

My soap trailer consistently shows a constant state of disequilibrium.

This is common in most soaps and it was something I felt would work well in my own trailer. For example in the Waterloo Road Trailer...

Here there is clear signs of conflict/trouble throughout the video and this is something I included in my soap trailer

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

PROGRESSION OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS-FRONT COVER 1This is the first complete draft of a soap magazine. Despite its diversity in terms of soap magazines, it is not a good representation of what a soap is about. The font, colour and logo of the masthead do not exemplify the usual conventions of a soap magazine as seen in the example below.

In future drafts I will attempt to emulate the conventions shown in the Radio times example

PROGRESSION OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS-FRONT COVER 2

While this is an improvement of our original design, the tabs to the right of the front cover should stretch all the way down the page. Furthermore, most examples we have found have just the one cover star and so our third and final design should have just the one cover star.

PROGRESSION OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS-FRONT COVER 3

This is my final design for my front cover. There are clear similarities between a real TV&Sattellite magazine and my own. There are clear similarities in the masthead font and the seriousness of the picture. Furthermore, the convention of the Monday- Sunday tabs also apply and I felt this was a good inclusion.

PROGRESSION OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS-BILLBOARD

While this is a solid first attempt of our Billboard, there are certain conventions lacking on it. For example we should have took into consideration the BBC ‘house style’ i.e the red background as seen below. In addition, the BBC logo should have been bigger.

PROGRESSION OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS-BILLBOARD

In our final billboard design there are clear similarities between this and a common BBC billboard or a form of advertisement. We adopted the fading red background, therefore, giving the billboard more professionalism and it is now much more realistic. The use of the font for ‘friends and foes’ gives us our identity or brand. The font of the BBC is also consistent throughout.

Our brand identity was conveyed in three main forms; a trailer, a front cover and a billboard. While making them we ensured our distinct personal style was demonstrated.

HOW OUR PRODUCTS SHOW GENRE The Genre of our brand is clear; Soap Opera. All three of our products imply conflict and

trouble through a number of different ways. We felt it was important to make this clear to

ensure we can attract and maintain our target audience.

Here there are clear similarities with our soap magazine and ‘TV choices’ particularly with facial expressions.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Similar costumes in each form. This shows consistency in my mise en scene and is a common stereotype of teenagers with them wearing jeans and a hoody/jumper

Arms folded and hands in pockets suggests cocky/arrogant impression of characters therefore giving further identity to our brand, clearly relating to our target audience of teenagers

CODES AND CONNOTATIONS - FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

•Throughout all of my products there is clear comparatives that can be made in terms of facial expressions.•They all portray seriousness with the angry and irritated faces they show•This connotation is reinforced through the body language of the characters. We decided a back-to-back shot would be a good idea as it suggests conflict•This is also applied in the billboard where their arms are crossed and they are facing each other.

CHANNEL CONSISTENCY

•Branding our product also involved choosing one of the television channels. We felt BBC ONE was a good choice as the BBC has a very successful show called Waterloo Road which in itself is similar to ours.

COLOUR AND FONTWe felt the use of red to highlight words suggesting danger would have a good effect. We decided to use this idea in the billboard and I decided to continue this in my trailer. I feel it works really well against the bland black and white and reinforces our aim of making Friends and Foes a brand.

Our font of ‘destroy’, I think works extremely well. We felt it necessary to maintain this font in all of our products as this is integral with regards creating your own identity.

HOW MY DEMOGRAPHIC IS ATTRACTED I thought it was fundamental that the demographic we were

attracting had to be similar to the characters involved

Here is a shot from our trailer and an example of the demographic we are looking to attract. There are clear the two pairs of males clearly resemble each other with the hoody and jeans.

MOOD BOARD

REGIONAL REPRESENTATION We conveyed a clear regional representation through the use of

slang and common sayings heard in the Manchester area in our trailer such as ‘I’m not gonna hit you, you muppet!’ and ‘Who d’ya think you are?’ By portraying this regional identity the audience is able to relate to the soap more if they’re from a similar area or make it more interesting for an audience outside the area as they may be curious as to what it’s like in Manchester.

The use of the hoodys also shows regional representation as hoody’s are common in the area we’re portraying.

REALITY REPRESENTATION

The reality in our soap is a crucial aspect. It allows our demographic to relate to our trailer as situations in our trailer often happen in real life

The reality concept of our trailer is reinforced through our ancillaries. Here there is clear signs of a fall out due to the serious faces and body language.

Here are examples of conflict in my trailer. Not only is it entertaining but it could be educating people in how to deal with these real life situations.

3. What have you learnt from audience feedback?

GOOD SOUNDTRACK

From my feedback it was clear that my opinion was shared in terms of the sound. The soundtrack matches the action extremely well because they both imply conflict or danger.

Also because its a well known song, it makes it more attractive for my target demographic. Even if they don’t like the trailer the song will put it in good stead.

AUDIENCE AND INSTITUTION The audience of my soap is clearly male due to the

soundtrack and all of the cast in the trailer are all boys. Regrettably I did not include the official logo of the BBC in

my trailer therefore it possibly did not gain the professionalism it could have in the latter stages of my trailer.

The genre of it is clear also. With it being a soap a lot of conflict is involved.

MORE ON THE INSTITUTION It was argued that the BBC was not

appropiate in relation to my soap. It was also suggested that some better alternatives would include BBC3 or E4 as they are channels that are more likely to attract our demographic of males.

However I feel that with BBC ones Waterloo Road, there are clear similarities and I believe the BBC are now trying to broaden their target demographic.

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

CAMERAWORKI further improved my camerawork in this task with the use of ‘over the shoulder shot’.

I also incorporated a panning shot. This allowed me to establish the fact that the camera acted best when positioned in high key lighting.

USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

I incorporated title cards into my trailer using adobe Photoshop. I used this application to introduce my trailer and then at the end remind the audience of the name, which channel and the time it is broadcasted.

Because of this application we were able to experiment with different fonts and colours enabling us to be able to choose from a selection of title cards. We decided the best one was on the far right as it suggests conflict.

USING ADOBE PREMIERE

We were also able to add music to our sequence and we carried this out through ripping a song of YouTube

We were able to put our trailer up onto YouTube using Adobe Premiere, then allowing us to put it on our blog.

It was very easy to edit using Adobe Premiere. It was a case of clicking and dragging each clip to where we wanted it on the timeline.

AUDIENCE RESEARCHDo you watch

soaps?Yes FemaleNo FemaleYes MaleNo Male

Soap and TV Viewing: Male

Cornation StreetEastendersEmmerdaleNoneOtherGleeDr. Who

Soap and TV Viewing: Female

Coronation Street EastendersEmmerdale Holby CityNeighbours NoneWaterloo Road Dr. WhoGlee Other

When did you first start to watch soaps? Male <12

13-2021-3142+

CONTINUED...When did you first

start to watch soaps? Female

<1213-2021-3131+

What influences the type of TV soaps you watch?

MaleSocial GroupStarRegionGenreTime Scheduled

What influences the type of TV soaps you watch? Fe-

male Social groupStarRegionGenreTime Scheduled

How do you watch soaps? Male

OnlineOn your mobileLive TV

CONTINUEDHow do you watch

soaps? Female

OnlineOn your mobileLive TV

Do you think you learn anything from soap

operas? MaleYesNo

Do you think you learn anything from soap

operas? FemaleYesNo

How do you follow soaps? Male

ContinuouslyCatch-Up

CONTINUEDHow do you follow

soaps? Female

ContinuouslyCatch-up

What is your favourite moment in a particular

soap? Male

When Grant drove into the riverNone

What is your favourite moment in a particular

soap? FemaleWho killed Archie Mitchel?None

RESEARCH-YOUTUBE We conducted our

research largely through YouTube.

We found trailers from East enders and Waterloo Road and they helped us greatly in preparation for our trailer

DIGITAL STORYBOARDING

We uploaded a storyboard similar to the trailer we were going to do to our blogs and slideshare made this very easy to do.