Evaluation Task 4

Facebook:
We used facebook as an easy way of communicating ideas with other members of our group, it saved us much time and also gave us the opportunity to notify the other members of the group when something new had been added to the group or individual blogs.

Youtube:
We used the website Youtube to post and annotate our final cut of our soap opera trailer 'The Street'. Youtube is also easily accesible to anyone who has internet and is the most premier video website on the world wide web.

Blogger:
Blogger.com is where i created both my AS and A2 projects. It helped all of us to document are planning and reseach for our project and is very useful yet so easy to use and access. It was the most used website and helps show my progression and work throughout this project.

Windows Movie Maker:
This is the programme my group used to edit most of the soap trailer on as it is simplistic and easy to use but gave us all the tools we needed to create a suitable trailer.

iMovie:
We used iMovie for some of the editing but realised that Windows Movide Maker was much more useful and we had access to it at our homes unlike iMovie, which is also slightly more complex.

Adobe Photoshop:
Photoshop was used for making our magazine covers. It was complex to use but the group worked as a team to all give eachother ideas and pointers on how to manipulate the tools within Photoshop.

iTunes:
We used iTunes to store our music and edit it into our soap opera trailer video.

This picture shows the standard Apple Mac in which we used to make our blog's, edit pictures via photoshop and publisher, edit our soap opera trailer via iMovie (along with Windows Movie Maker) and post our final trailer to Youtube.com. After now using the Apple Mac for a year it was very useful to our group but sometimes was still hard to do the simple things with.


In this picture I am holding the tripod we used for precise still shots in our soap opera trailer, we used this a only a few times but it was very consistent and useful when we did use it.

These pictures show me holding the FlipHD video recorder. It was the main and most useful tool for filming our soap opera trailer, it gave us a high quality of video (resolution: 720p) with great mobility, as it is a compact device and made it very easy to transfer our clips to any computer (via a USB which slides out of the side of the device).
This picture shows myself holding a mono-pod which we used for filming our soap opera trailer. It gave us a steady and precise shot as we attached the FilpHD video recorder to it and used it mainly for panning shots.

Evaluation Task 1

I was tasked to choose 9 images to represent 9 areas of forms and conventions and briefly write about each one:

1. Title

The titile we created is a very simple title and is used to formally and clearly present the name of our soap opera trailer. The basic font, complimented by the boldness of the text makes it clear to the audience to the name of soap opera without giving anything away as the next extreme long shot establishes the setting/location.

2. Setting

This establishing shot from our trailer immediately establishes the setting of our soap opera The Street which is located within a small fictional street in the heart of North London. The road itself consists of a single side of terraced houses which gives the sense of a working class community; which is typical within soap operas. The main road to the right also gives the idea that this soap is set in an urban enviroment, also a convention of many soaps is to be set in these kind of enviroments.

3. Costume

The costume worn by actor Ashley Loblack (Left) represents the image of a black youth shown specifically with the bandana/balaclava around his neck and also the wolly hat; sometimes black youths are portrayed in the media as being somewhat hell raisers, however in our soap we aim to challenge this and one of the ways we did this was by placing Ashley with his friend in the soap, actor Phillip Constantinou (right), who is wearing a polo shirt and jumper. This all helps show the diversity of the community within our soap opera trailer of The Street.

4. Props

We used automobiles within the soap opera trailer as the most significant and important props, the van helps represent a working class community and blue collar jobs within The Street and the car is very important in the trailer; transporting the suprise member of the cast and taking part in many of the shots withihn our trailer.

5. Cinematography

The medium shot shown here of the character Benjamin (played by myself, Jack Fairbank) helps show the media technique of rule of thirds. We can clearly see Benjamin's face only on the left hand side (first third) of the frame which helps gain the audiences attention and communicate the idea of a converstaion. The shot also shows enough of the character to establish his body language but most importantly his facial expressions which are key in communitcating emotion to the audience within soap opears.

6. Narrative

This is a key shot from our trailer, as it establishes all three main characters into the same narrative through a medium over the shoulder shot. This is the scene in which the character Michelle returns to her family, we use this as a cliffhanger for our trailer, which is typically used in soap and could even be said to be a convention of soap operas as its key in keeping the audience hooked and wanting more.

7. Introduction of Characters

The introduction of the character Michelle is a lengthy and longed out proess within the trailer to add a real sense of mystery and antcipation to The Street; shown in these long shots, of the car she is in and from behind her which are two of many shots within the trailer which do not give away her identity. We hope this echoes throughout our audience too as it is key in giving an importance to our characters.

8. Genre

Conventions of the soap opera genre include using issues within other media text such as newspaper and portray them within a narrative. For example Benjamin is on the verge of hitting Hayley, domestic abuse is a prevalent issue within the media and is also very controversial thus appropriate and typical for the soap opera genre.

Storyboard Re-Draft

Risk Assessment

Location

The primary location for filming will be taking place down Steeplestone Close which is a dead end road.

Hazards	Procedures
Vehicles	Prior to filming we must ensure that the road is completely clear, making sure that there are no pedestrians who could be in danger.
Weather	If it starts to rain profusely we must halt production as the equiptment is being borrowed from the school, thus not wanting to damage electricals.

Location

The secondary location we will be filming at will be the interior of the house.

Hazards	Procedures
Fire	If in an emergency where we need to exit the building in case of a fire, we have assigned evacuation points.

Pitch Table

Possible Title	Content	Target Audience	Channel And Time Of Broadcast	Frequency
The Staff	A large group of people working as staff in Las Vegas where they deal with gambling addictions, relationships and everyday problems.	16 years and over, mature issues so mature audience.	Channel 4 9pm	Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Concrete Jungle	A group of employees at a business in the city, following everyday lives.	Broad audience, mostly targeted to young adults, girls, working and middle class	Channel 5 at 8pm	Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
The Streets	A small lower class community living on a road where the characters have dramatic lives.	Broad audience, appeals to all ages.	BBC 1 at 7.30/8pm	Every Weekday

 

Collectively as a group we decided The Street was the best pitch to progress further with, thus making a treatment with a character profile table. 

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary Research

Primary data is collected for a particular purpose and is newly produced information. This can be conducted using some means of questioning usually via a survey or intervews, or the information can be gathered through observation. It is typically more time-consuming and expensive to collect than secondary data, and is often the second stage in a research project, following secondary research.

Our primary reseach for our Soap Opera trailer consited of many things including; questionnaires, interviews and detalied research into how Soaps themselves are constructed. I did this by analysing Neighbours (which you can see on my blog) as well as Eastenders and Coronation Street to help give my grooup a understanding of how we may want to follow in the successful footsteps of these soaps and use some of there key and most important conventions in order to make our Soap trailer succeed.

Secondary Research

Secondary research gathers information which has already been collected. This is a valuable way to start a research project if possible, as it identifies any relevant data before time and money are spent on new primary research, which may result in duplication.

Seondary research which i did for my group consisted of looking at many articles on Soap Operas, including a writer by the name of Charlie Brooker who gives a harsh and comical take on television in genral but loves to rant about Soaps; however this was helpful to view Soaps through his perception as his articles did give me some sort of guidelines in how to make our trailer successful and not simply annoying!

Questionnaire

What is your age?

5-9 [1]                         10-14 [4]                    15-19 [9]                   20-24 [3]                    25-29 [2]     30+ [1]

What is your gender?

Male [6]                   Female [14]

What is your favourite soap opera?

Eastenders [4]                       Coronation Street [2]                           Emmerdale [2]                        Home and Away [6]              Neighbours [4]

What time do you watch soap operas?

3pm-4pm [0]                         4pm-5pm [0]                       5pm-6pm [0]                    6pm-7pm [10]   7pm-8pm [5]                         8pm-9pm [5]

Would you like another soap opera on TV?

Yes [18]                        No [2]

What channel would you prefer a new soap opera to air on?

BBC1 [5]                     BBC2 [1]                     ITV1 [4]                      Channel 4 [4]                               Five [1]                       Other (please specify) [5]

E4 [5]

What issues would you like to see in a new soap opera?

..............................................................................

The feedback gathered from the questionnaire was extremely beneficial as it help me acquire a target audience that want a new soap opera. For example the most prominent age category within our research was the 15 to 19 years of age category, meaning our soap will have significant competition from other soaps such as Hollyoaks (coincidentally the most popular soap amongst the people who filled in the questionnaire) which appeal to a similar audience. Therefore in order to avoid competing with Hollyoaks due to its strong established fan base, the most logical way to solve this problem is schedule our soap opera after Hollyoaks, possibly on the same channel E4 which received joint equal votes with BBC1. However this could be an opportunity to bring a contemporary soap opera aimed towards a younger audience to a very established and widely syndicated channel such as the BBC, although this may become a problem due to Eastenders audiences overlooking our soap due to the overwhelming popularity of Eastenders.  The ratio between men and women is significantly more lenient towards female audience members thus meaning the soap must deal with certain issues such as teenage pregnancy in order to appeal and educate the audience with real life issues which are relatable. Overall this questionairre was very helpful indeed and could potentially determine the outcome of our creative project.

Soap Opera Conventions

 A serialised drama on television, on for most working days that runs week in week out, all year.

· Representation of society

· Cliff hanger

· Continuous narrative

· Narrative has moral messages and values

· Audience ideologies/relation to audience

· Amplifies real life issues for audience attention

· Plots are open ended and feature interlinked narratives through various episodes.

· Storylines run in parallel fashion

· Recognisable title sequence and theme tune.

· Red herrings

· Never really reaches a resolution

· Comical stereotypes

· Dominant/controversial views

· Follows factual time/Reflects on real time events

· Social Class Representation

· Melodramatic/Sensationalised

· Sense of realism

· Regional accents

· Gender role representation

· Representation of sexuality and ethnicity

· Drama based genre