OCR G324 Advanced ProductionTUCKER, Fiona3816Aquinas College: 33435

EVALUATION

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Final Billboard

Final Magazine Front Cover

Planning:

http://prezi.com/h1tgl8xnik8c/media-a2-soap-coursework-planning-fiona-tucker/

Question 1

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85EEdnfG-z4

Similar Existing Soap Trailer

I chose to take inspiration from a 90210 trailer as the issues raised in the programme and highlighted in the trailer due to it being set in a high school, were very relevant to teenagers in high school (our soap was also set in a high school).

Question 1

Our soap trailer for ‘Borderline’. Existing soap trailer ‘90210’.

Question 1

Establishing Shot

Difference:The mise en scene is made more obvious in the 90210 establishing shot as the in our soap we used a bedroom rather than a recognisable landmark.

Difference:The 90210 trailer uses places to show the mise en scene whereas in our original trailer the establishing shot is used more to introduce the narrative and characters.

Our soap trailer for ‘Borderline’. Existing soap trailer ‘90210’.

Existing soap trailer ‘90210’.Our soap trailer for ‘Borderline’.

Question 1

Similarity:Both trailers use fast paced editing such as quick cuts in the short dramatic scenes.Also similar issues are raised in both narratives for the trailers such as fights and possible tragedy.

Difference:The mise en scene is very more developed in the 90210 trailer as they make the California lifestyle very obvious with the costume and settings.However in our trailer, although the mise en scene is obviously teenagers in a school or college, an enigma is still achieved through the very transferable settings (could be set in any average British town).

Our soap trailer for ‘Borderline’.

Our soap trailer for ‘Borderline’.

Existing soap trailer ‘90210’.

Existing soap trailer ‘90210’.

Question 1

Difference:The 90210 trailer uses the occasional small section of speech in certain clips to show a point of view from a character, whereas our original soap uses purely music introduce the narrative.

Similarity:Our original soap and the 90210 trailer both use fast paced cutting in the editing, for example close ups of characters showing emotion and long shots of interaction between characters are used as dramatic effects.

Subversion:The 90210 challenges the conventions of soap operas as the audience would expect a soap to have gritty, realistic narratives and wouldn’t necessarily want to have the lifestyle the characters have. Whereas the 90210 trailer shows wealth and seemingly prosperous lifestyles although this is tainted with the issues raised in the soap.

Existing soap trailer ‘90210’.Our soap trailer for ‘Borderline’.

Question 1

Difference:The 90210 trailer uses another shot which further emphasises the mise en scene as a closing shot through the landscape tracking shot.

Similarity:The E4 logo used with the white text and purple background is the same, also the information including the name of the soap, time and channel are included in both.

Similarities:-Both use shapes such as buttons to put important features and information in e.g price.- Both use lower case text to show the informality of the magazine.- Both use bright/primary colours for text, borders to pictures and in shapes.- Both have bright red used in the masthead as it is an eye catching primary colour.- Both use issues that you would expect to be raised in soaps, for example pregnancy and disputes between characters.

Differences:-The positioning of the masthead is slightly different as in my magazine it is positioned at the very top left hand corner, and in ‘Soaplife’ it is further down and more central.- Soaplife magazine doesn’t actually use any soap logos whereas my magazine, ‘tv weekly’ does.

Similarities:-Both use the E4 white and purple colour scheme for the font and logo.

Differences:-The positioning of the E4 logo is slightly different as well as the interpretation of the logo. - The positioning of the information regarding the airing date and time and is in a different place on the Skins billboard.- The background colour is different behind the information text as well as the texture of the background for the text.-The text colour is purple rather than white on the Skins billboard.- There are three characters in the Skins billboard, also they look quite happy whereas there are only two characters on my Borderline billboard and they both look quite distressed.

Question 2

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

Question 2

We created our brand through: - - Using a font that looked as if it was handwritten on a blackboard for the trailer to relate to our teenage audience.- Checking the E4 style guide to see what font/ colours could be used for our logo on the billboard. This meant using the American Typewriter font for our billboard to meet with the regulations.- Using the E4 brand colours (white and purple) so it was clearly relatable to the brand.- I used a slightly different font in my trailer than is used in the magazine as I felt it was still recognisable as it used the same handwritten style, but I felt the more informal font worked better with the blackboard background.

Also to fit in with the E4 style guide I had to change the font used for the billboard which although it was in keeping with the brand identity it wasn’t the same text I used for the magazine or trailer.

Brand

Question 2

I created my genre by:--The time and channel I decided that my soap would be aired. Through choosing prime time 7pm on E4 I could target my specific audience of teenagers. -This is a popular time for teenagers to sit and watch television after school or college and they were quite likely to choose to watch a programme on E4 over other channels. Examples of this are Hollyoaks and Waterloo road as they are both at prime time with a high percentage of teenage viewers.- Another way I created my genre is through the issues raised in my soap as they are problems that many teenagers are likely to face during this period of their life. These issues are gritty/realistic and so also suit the narrative conventions of soaps.- My genre was also created through the setting, the characters, the issues raised, the way we styled our characters and used the props and the lifestyle we created for the characters.

Genre and Brand identity:

-Brand identity was created through the logo being presented in the handwritten font that was shown on the trailer. This meant that I had created a code that the audience would be able to relate to the soap. This was used on the magazine front cover and the trailer.-We made it obvious to the audience that the soap was being aired on E4 in particular on the billboard as we used the colours, E4 font, and positioning on the billboard.

Institution: - In my opinion E4 was the best channel to decide to air our soap on as it suits the teenage audience the soap is aimed at. The way the soap presents teenage based issues such as friends, bullying, pregnancy and sexuality is similar to other series shown on E4 for example Skins and 90210.-We used the E4 colours which are a code that the audience would immediately relate to the E4 channel. This meant looking in the E4 style guide to help keep the designs for the billboard in line with their regulations.

Question 2

Audience: - To help me keep in mind the audience that would be interested in the soap I created a mood board which is included in my prezi as part of my planning. This allowed me to plan the music I would use in my trailer as well as the costume and pictures in the ancillary products.

Question 3 What have you learned from audience feedback?

Question 3

-I found my audience through watching similar existing products – teenage based soaps such as 90210 and Hollyoaks. Through doing this I found a particular age group that I felt I could base and aim my soap at.

-Through carrying out research into demographic last year in media I felt I had already gained an understanding of how institutions can appeal to certain people through understanding exactly what it is that they want.

- To further help understand my audience I carried out audience research in the form of a questionnaire, the results of which are presented as part of my planning on my prezi. The data collected helped me to understand people’s opinion on soaps and how I could interest as many people as possible and make them watch my soap.

Audience Feedback

Question 3

The audience feedback I got once I’d finished and shown the final product would help me to further edit and improve the soap to make it even more accessible to an even wider audience. “I didn’t understand the

title card that said ‘worth it’. How did it tie in with the rest?”

“Without any speech whatsoever it was quite difficult to relate to then characters.”

“The title cards should be before the scene to introduce it.”

“The genre is clear and the style creates the genre and therefore audience.”

“The music suits the trailer and the lyrics create the narrative. The audience would perhaps watch the trailer because they recognise the song.”

Through the audience feedback I received I decided to improve the trailer I would need to:-Move the title cards so the word relating to the scene was put before it, not after it.- use a small amount of speech/dialogue to help the audience understand the narratives and be able to relate to the characters.- Make sure every single wordor phrase relates to thescene specifically.

Question 4

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

Question 4

Adobe premiere elements helped me to edit and create my trailers. On adobe you can:CutPut clips togetherAdd musicCreate transitions between scenesAdd picturesCreate fade out/dissolvesEither slow motion or speed up the paceChange the order of clipsDelete or add audio

Also you can share the video you have created via youtube as I did for my trailers. This is done by clicking share media – online – youtube and then uploading your video onto youtube.

CONSTRUCTION: Adobe Premiere Elements 8

To create my soap I used three different video cameras. Using three cameras as opposed to one helped as it allowed a range of different shots to be filmed such as over the shoulder shots. This meant that when it came to editing the shots there was plenty of varying shots of the same sequence to use. This did pose problems later on however as once the edited video was uploaded onto youtube I realised the black bars around the edge of the shot were slightly different sizes for each camera which affected the neatness of the completed video. If I was to do this again I’d make sure I used the exact same type of camera or try and edit out the black bars around the screen.

Video and Stills Cameras

To help with planning and continuity in relation to hair and make up as well as costuming I used a still camera. This meant that for example one of the main characters needed pictures taken of her each time she was in a scene so if we needed to so a re – shoot or film another scene that was related to that one in particular, it was possible to re-create her look.

Question 4

Location shot, using still camera.

Make up continuity for scene 4, using still camera.

CONSTRUCTION:

Question 4

Adobe Photoshop

I used the brush tool to create a yellow halo/glowing effect around the two characters on my magazine front cover.

I created the yellow effect by using the round brush tool to trace around the characters heads and then overlapped the image with the same picture so that the yellow trace was behind their heads.

I used the yellow colour as I felt it made the image stand out the most.

I used the magic erase tool so that I could remove the background around the image. This made it easier to add the features to the magazine later on as well as allowing me to create the background I wanted.

I used adobe photoshop to help me create my magazine front cover. Using this programme allowed to create as professional finish as was possible to the front cover through the use of certain tools.

CONSTRUCTION:

Question 4

Microsoft Publisher

I used Microsoft publisher to create my billboard and magazine front cover. This programme allowed me to create features for the magazine as well as to create a professional feel to both my front cover and billboard.

Through using publisher I was able to create soap logos.

I was able to create the masthead.

I was able to create features as well as the price and other shapes.

I was able to add important pictures and text such as the barcode.

I created the masthead by finding a shape that I thought was suitable as well as a colour. Next I added the text i.e the name of the magazine, the date and the issue number individually so I could get the font size perfect for the shape.

Once I’d finished the magazine front cover I saved it as a jpeg so that I could upload it onto my blog and evaluation.

CONSTRUCTION:

Question 4

I used youtube in my research as I looked up and viewed soap trailers and other similar existing products to help give me inspiration for my own trailer.

Youtube

Using youtube allowed me to see how other soaps use the codes and conventions to create an effective trailer. To help me with my research I watched trailers on youtube from :Eastenders,90210,Emmerdale,HollyoaksAnd Waterloo Road.

This is the text box where you type in the name of the video you want to view.

This tool allowed me to upload my video onto my blogger account as well as allowing me to upload similar existing trailers onto my blogger account as part of the planning

Another useful feature when researching trailers on youtube is the strip of suggested similar videos down the side of the page.

RESEARCH:

Blog Question 4

To help with the research and planning I created a blog using blogger.com (http://fiona091520.blogspot.com/). This allowed me to upload videos, type up any useful information and upload my ancillaries. It was easy to pick and move around information as I needed to help keep tabs on my progress in the coursework.

You can add videos, text and pictures onto your bog by clicking new post – a screen will come up with a text box and tool bar where you can decide what you want to post whether it be text, a video or a picture. Once you have uploaded your content you click ‘publish post’ and it automatically appears on your blog.

If you upload content from other internet sites onto your blogger account this can be done using a HTML code which is entered into the text box, you can also edit this HTML code.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

Blog Question 4

I uploaded videos onto youtube using both the embedded codes and through clicking the share tool. The share tool allows you to very easily just add the video onto your blog straight from youtube without making any changes to it in terms of size or positioning on the page.You simply click share – blogger- a box appears and you click publish post.

The other method to upload videos is to add the embedded code onto a new post on your blog. This allows you to change the positioning and height of the video on your blog. You click embedded – the text is already highlighted automatically so you copy and paste it onto a new post on your blog and then finally click publish post.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

Question 4

Prezi

To help with the planning I also used prezi. This allowed me to keep together all the relevant information I needed as well as to help me track my progress with the coursework, in the form of an online presentation.

The zoom allows you to zoom in to any particular area you want to edit or zoom out for an overview of the whole presentation.

You can create a path which allows you to present your work in the order you want. You do this by clicking the path button and placing arrows between the work you want to link in order.

You can insert pictures and videos from the internet and your own files by clicking either ‘load file’ or ‘youtube’.

PLANNING:

Question 4

Powerpoint Presentation

To create my evaluation I used a powerpoint presentation. By using a powerpoint presentation I was able to add pictures, use shapes e.g arrows to annotate work, choose the colour size and type of font used in text boxes and present work neatly on pages together with relevant information.

This tool allows you to paste images into your powerpoint.

This tool allows you to add new slides to your presentation.

These tools allows you to change the size, font type, colour, boldness, effects etc of your text.

These tools allow you to add bullet points and change the positioning of text.

These tools allow you to add shapes and text boxes onto your slide.

These tools allow you to add colours and patterns to shapes.

EVALUATION:

Question 4

Powerpoint Presentation

The tab with the question number in in at the top of each page allows you to see what question I am answering o each slide, I’ve also used the tabs on my prezi so I can link together my evaluation and planning.

These tools allow you to add pictures either from your computer files or the internet. This tool allows

you to add shapes.

This tool allows you to add charts or graphs.

This tool allows you to add a text box.

This tool allows you to add specific word art to text.

This tool allows you to add video material to slides.

This tool allows you to add sound to slides.

EVALUATION: