I had to write about the main strengths and weaknesses of each individual product including the trailer, magazine cover and website.
The Soap Opera trailers main strength is that it generally conforms to the conventions of the soap opera genre as British soaps attempt to be as realistic as possible without becoming stale as they are often very dramatic in order to entice the viewer. This is extremely prominent within our soap opera as the location/setting is an urban London street, with nothing too out of the ordinary happening. However the drama is prevalent within our trailer and can often seem unrealistic due to the overdramatic performances and narrative (storylines) e.g. Michelle’s return to the street is very dramatic. Our soap opera trailer conveys a sense of community due to the multiple characters featured within the trailer, more specifically six characters in total which include Benjamin, Michelle, Hayley, Dwayne, Cameron, Sally. The main/primary storyline is the return of Michelle to the street, however each individual or group of characters have other storylines which run concurrently although these parallel narratives aren’t as obvious as we would have liked. For example Sally fallen pregnant, Dwayne believes it is his baby but unknowingly the baby is actually Cameron’s. The trailer hints that there is a relationship between Cameron and Dwayne as they are both featured within the same shot, also Sally is seen pregnant. However in terms of establishing the beginnings of other storylines, our trailer lacks this significantly thus focusing too much on our primary storyline and not enough on other narrative, although it could be argued that the sense of community assures the viewer there will be other storylines to come within this large network of people. In addition another weakness within our soap opera trailer is the fact that we broke the 360 degree rule within one of the interior scenes which feature Benjamin and Hayley arguing. Despite this minor hiccup, overall the camera work is reminiscent of other British soap operas and broadly speaking the conventions of the soap opera genre as the camera angles are very basic in order to avoid seeming unrealistic.
The website worked well, based on the tools at our disposal in order to create it as iWeb is very basic ‘website creating’ software. Therefore the layout and design of the website looked presentable and accessible to those who wanted to use the website to find more information on the Soap Opera including character profiles and actor interviews in order to give visitors more information and trivia on The Street. On the other hand the content is still limited in comparison to other soap opera websites such as Eastenders which offers games, news and spoilers. Therefore the contribution of both the lack of time and very limited software resulted in a restricted website which is appropriate for the stage that the soap opera is at, prior to airing the first episode, but once the soap opera begins airing the website needs a necessary upgrade.
The magazine cover I created coincides well with the conventions of a TV listings magazine The colour used within the TV listings magazine are very vibrant in order to attract the attention of potential buyers whilst on sale, also the colours are attractive to the eye thus making the headlines, coverlines and pictures stand out significantly more. The main image on the TV listing magazine includes the characters features within our soap opera thus advertising it significantly more than the other cover lines. Also the characters within the image are looking directly into the lens of the camera thus addressing the reader. The typography/font is extremely bold as the text (masthead) has to be clear in order to convey potential narrative, advertise a new soap, etc. In our case the main coverline introduces the new soap opera, otherwise known as 'The Street'. In addition the text above the picture stating 'She's Back' partially introduces the narrative for the opening episode which attracts potential viewers. The language used on the TV listings magazine cover is very colloquial in order to address all readers in a user friendly way. The layout of the TV listings magazine is asymmetrical, possibly messy, although this is a convention of these particular types of magazines as they are cheap yet presentable in a contradictory way.
Then I had to write an evaluation paragraph to explain how successfully the 3 texts link together as a whole product considering:
· What did I do well?
· What would I change?
The three texts which include the soap opera trailer, magazine cover and website all link extremely well due to the fact they are based on the same content i.e. The Street. The soap opera trailer consists of three central characters within this particular narrative such as Benjamin, Hayley and Michelle as they are featured on the magazine cover and the website thus establishing that they are participating in the central narrative. All three texts went well, however more time could’ve been dedicated to the two ancillary tasks which include the magazine and website. However due to the lack of software, they looked significantly more cheaper or less professional than the soap trailer as we were provided with Flip HD cameras which allowed us to shoot significantly more increasing our filming to throw away ratio by 2x from last year’s production thus being 8:2. Despite the lack of software necessary to improve the quality of the ancillary tasks, Microsoft Publisher allowed us to create a decent looking TV listings magazine cover. Perhaps you could argue that the ‘cheapness’ of the TV listings cover is appropriate as they are supposed to be a cheap production made from cheap materials therefore justifying the quality of the magazine cover. The same applies for the website as the iWeb program on the Macs was foreign to me and my group thus not using it to its full potential. Overall the two things I would change about my advanced production is the quality of the webpage and the magazine cover.
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