adam martin - g324 advanced production - evaluation:

Q3Q2Q1 Q4

Evaluation questions are in this presentation:

http://adam091938.blogspot.com/Planning, research, final soap trailer and ancillaries are in this blog:

Adam Martin Candidate number: 3511 OCR G324 – Advanced Production:Soap logo – ‘Friends and foes’:

Link to soap trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOepI-2IFBc

http://adam091938.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOepI-2IFBc



Question 1:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Soap conventions:

Camera shots: Over the shoulder shots. Close ups. Two shots.

Parallel narratives – multiple storylines at the same time.

Realism – e.g. Storylines containing family and friendship issues.

Lighting reflects the mood.

Usually run all – year round.

Colour filters, e.g. Blue filter, to reflect the mood.

Usually represent a region – e.g. Coronation Street represents the North West.

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 1 – ‘Loan scene’ – comparison to ‘Hollyoaks’:

• Whilst planning this scene, we looked at a recent episode of Hollyoaks. We found that in soaps, over the shoulder shots, and a point of view shot of the other character talking are used during conversations. • After finding this, we decided that during scene 1 – a scene with a conversation, we would use over the shoulder shots, like the one in the screenshot, from a recent Hollyoaks episode.

Point of view, over the shoulder shot of other character speaking.

Character who is speaking is shown from the point of view of the other character.

My trailer: Existing soap:

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 1 – ‘Loan scene’ – Over the shoulder shot example:

Over the shoulder shot of speaking character.

There is then a cut to an over the shoulder shot of the other character in the conversation.

I found this type of shot to be very conventional

of the soap genre, when I looked at existing products.

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 1 – ‘Loan scene’ – comparison to ‘EastEnders’:

Existing soap:My trailer:

Over the shoulder shot.

In order to further reinforce the ‘over the shoulder shot’ convention, we looked at an episode of EastEnders, and found this convention being used.

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 1 – ‘Loan scene’ – comparison to ‘Waterloo Road’:


Whilst planning this scene, we looked at an episode of Waterloo Road. We found that this soap also used the convention of ‘over the shoulder’ shots.

Over the shoulder shot. Over the shoulder shot.

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 2 – ‘College scene’ – comparison to ‘Hollyoaks’:

• Whilst planning this scene, we looked at a scene from a recent episode of Hollyoaks. We found that in soaps, locations, such as schools and colleges are used to make the soap look gritty, and have a sense of realism. (realism being a convention of the soap genre), and to add to the realism. • We found that this sort of shot of characters of school or college age, outside a college, would be appropriate.

Fairly gritty location – outside a college – realism.

Characters of school or college age, to make the scene look realistic.


Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 2 – ‘College scene’ – comparison to ‘Hollyoaks’:


2 shot. Mise en scene of location – college.

In this shot, we used a slow zoom, so that when the characters walked forward, they didn’t get too near to the camera.

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 2 – ‘College scene’ – comparison to ‘EastEnders’:


Whilst planning, one of the soaps that we looked at, was ‘EastEnders’. We found, from looking at this soap and others, that two shots are a convention of the soap genre. Because of this, we decided to try and include two shots, whilst we were filming the clips for our trailers.

2 shot. 2 shot.


Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 2 – ‘College scene’ – comparison to ‘Waterloo Road’:

Whilst planning, we looked at an episode from Waterloo Road. We found two shots so be conventional of the soap genre, as shown below, with a two shot from my soap trailer, and a two shot from Waterloo Road.

2 shot. 2 shot.

Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 3 – ‘Office scene’ – comparison to ‘Hollyoaks’:

Character - In medium close up

Mise en scene of the location – We wanted to make this room look as much like an office as possible.

• We decided to base a scene of our trailers on this scene from a recent Hollyoaks episode. • We did this because in one of our scenes, we wanted to show a rocky relationship between an employer and an employee.


Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 3 – ‘Office scene’ – comparison to ‘EastEnders’:


Big close up. Medium close up – big close up.

Whilst planning, we looked at EastEnders. We found that big close ups and medium close ups are used, to show the emotion on the faces of characters. We wanted to use this convention in our trailers.


Comparison to existing soaps – Scene 3 – ‘Office scene’ – comparison to ‘Waterloo Road’:

Here is a comparison between a shot from my trailer, and a shot from Waterloo Road. We looked at this for conventions, and found that this type of shot –medium close up, was widely used in soaps.

Medium close up. Medium close up.

3 comparative existing trailers:Here are YouTube links to 3 trailers that I believe I can compare my trailer to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkvIHll0bU&feature=player_embedded

Here is a trailer from the soap, ‘Neighbours’. I Looked at this for the use of text, when deciding whether or not to use title cards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0_EF3sLbm8&feature=player_embedded

Here is a trailer from the soap ‘Hollyoaks’. I wanted to use montage type editing, similar to that in this trailer. I also saw that this trailer had a voiceover. This trailer was useful, because it introduced me to the conventions of trailers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baC5IPP9f5g&feature=player_embedded

I have compared this trailer from the soap ‘Waterloo Road’ to my trailer, because of its editing. Firstly, I wanted to implement montage type editing into my trailer, similar to that in this trailer. Also, this trailer looks to include a ‘dissolve’ or ‘cross dissolve’ transition editing effect, similar to the effect that I wanted to use. This trailer is useful for looking at editing.







Mise en scene - locations:

Scene 1 – Meant to be set in an office, mise en scene is ok, but could have used a real office.

Scene 2 – Meant to be set outside a college. I think the mise en scene in this scene is good, as we have the college building in the background, and railings around it.

Scene 3 – Meant to be set in an office. We used a garage as the location for this scene. Mise en scene is ok, but does not particularly look like an office. Also, the natural light shows that there is no corridor outside, which was a problem.

Mise en scene - costume:Costume was an important factor when we were filming the scenes for our soap trailers. Because soap is generally a gritty genre, which has a lot of realism. We had to try and achieve this in our trailers. If the characters were, for example, dressed smartly, there would have been a danger of our trailers looking like TV drama, rather than our genre, soap.

These screenshots from my soap trailer show that the character’s costumes are conventional of the soap genre.

Mise en scene – props:The props that we used had to fit in with the mise en scene of our trailers:

Prop 1 – Wallet, Scene 1:

Prop 2 – Money, Scene 1:

The wallet was used to show how desperate the character of Steven was for money. He looked into his empty wallet, and then angrily threw it across the desk.

The money was used to show the character of Brendan giving the character of Steven a loan. We did not have a large amount of money, so took a single £10 note, and wrapped it around a roll of plain paper, to show it as a ‘wad’ of bank notes.

Mise en scene – props:The props that we used had to fit in with the mise en scene of our trailers:

Prop 3 – Bag, Scene 2:

Prop 4 – Mobile Phone, Scene 3:

The character of Michael stole a bag off the character of Anthony. We used a real bag to represent this.

The mobile phone was used so that we could show the character of Brendan having an angry phone conversation. A member of the group consented to having their old mobile phone thrown across the room.

Editing:I used 2 types of edits in my trailer. These were: • Simple cuts. • Cross dissolves.

Simple cut.

Cross dissolve.

Used during each storyline to link the clips together. They helped the trailer to flow.

I used these, because I saw that they were widely used in real products, and are therefore conventional.

Used in between title cards and clips, to show a new storyline.

Sound – use of dialogue – diegetic sound:

• My trailer contains a lot of dialogue.

• This is because I wanted to show two, clear, separate storylines in my trailer.

• I found that the best way to do this, was to use a large amount of dialogue, to show the separation of the storylines.

Sound – use of a soundtrack – non - diegetic sound:

My audience feedback told me that I needed to include an instrumental soundtrack in my soap trailer. I was told that it was rare for soap trailers to not have instrumental soundtracks. As a result of this, I went back to my soap trailer, and added a soundtrack.

The soundtrack I used was ‘The Bravery – Honest Mistake (superdiscount remix). This was found on YouTube. I inserted it into my Adobe Premiere Elements soap trailer project, and adjusted the volume accordingly.

I found that including an instrumental soundtrack in my soap trailer improved it a lot. I found that it added to the tension, and definitely made my soap trailer look a lot more conventional of the soap genre.

Camera techniques – pan:Here, a pan was used, as a character ran into the shot. This helped to set the scene, and is a convention of soaps.

Camera techniques – slow zoom:Here, a slow zoom was used. This was used so that the characters could walk along the pavement without walking too close to the camera. Also, it is conventional of the soap genre.

Lighting:Lighting was important whilst we were filming the scenes for our trailers. We found that in soaps, the lighting usually reflects the mood of the scene. We wanted to achieve this in our trailers.

Scene 1 – This scene showed someone who needed money, and was fed up. The lighting needed to be fairly low, to reflect the gloomy nature of the subject matter. I believe that the lighting here was maybe slightly too bright.

Scene 2 – This scene showed a confrontation between two college students. This was also quite a gloomy subject matter. I think the lighting worked well on this scene, as we filmed on a fairly dull day, in terms of weather.

Scene 3 – This scene showed a boss in an angry telephone conversation, and then shouting at his employee. Lighting in this scene was a problem, as the room was simply too dark. Another member of the group had to shine a lamp on the character’s face, in order to give the scene light. I believe the lighting in this scene reflects the mood.

Narrative – type of narrative:I believe that my soap trailer runs a fairly linear narrative. By this, I mean, there is somewhat of a beginning, middle and an end. This makes my trailer fairly easy to understand.

• My trailer contains 3 scenes. • Scene 1 and scene 3 contain the same characters, so there is a clear narrative between them. • Scene 2 contains unrelated characters this represents a different storyline. I did this, because multiple storylines within the narrative is a convention of soaps.

Narrative coherence: Whilst creating the soap trailer, I found that narrative coherence was important – My trailer had to make sense.

My trailer follows two storylines:

Scene 1 – ‘Loan scene’ – Employer gives his employee a loan. Scene 2 – ‘College scene’ – Pupil steals a bag off another pupil, pupil retrieves his bag. Scene 3 – ‘Office scene’ - (same characters as in scene 1) – Employee walks in employer’s office, interrupting a telephone conversation, employer shouts at employee.

Narrative coherence: I believe that my trailer does have narrative coherence.

This is because, it starts off with an employer giving an employee a loan. There is then a cut to a parallel narrative, where some unrelated characters argue about a bag outside a college. The final scene involves the same characters as in the first, and shows the somewhat ‘bad’ side of the employer character.

This means that the storyline from scene 1 is returned to in scene 3. This means the trailer flows and isn’t difficult to understand. I used a fairly unrelated scene in the middle, because I found it to be conventional of soap trailers to have multiple storylines running at the same time.

Storyboard of soap trailer:

Camera shot: N/A. Shot duration: 3-4 seconds.

Camera shot: Medium close up, crane shot.Shot duration: 3 seconds. Sound: Diegetic – wallet across desk.

Camera shot: Two shot.Shot duration: 2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic dialogue.

Camera shot: Medium close up.Shot duration: 2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Over the shoulder shot.Shot duration: 3-4 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Over the shoulder shot.Shot duration: 4 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.


Camera shot: Over the shoulder shot.Shot duration: 3 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Two shot.Shot duration: 3 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.



Camera shot: Establishing shot, camera pans across.Shot duration: 3-4 seconds. Sound: None.

Camera shot: Two shot.Shot duration: 1 seconds. Sound: None.

Camera shot: Two shot.Shot duration: 2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.


Camera shot: Medium shot.Shot duration: 4 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Medium shot.Shot duration: 2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Two shot, with a slow zoom.Shot duration: 8 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.



Camera shot: Medium close up, camera pans across. Shot duration: 1-2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Medium close up. Shot duration: 2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.


Camera shot: Medium close up. Shot duration: 5 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Medium close up, with a medium long shot of character coming through the door. Shot duration: 1-2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.

Camera shot: Close up.Shot duration: 1-2 seconds. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.


Camera shot: Close up.Shot duration: 1 second. Sound: Diegetic, dialogue.




Question 2:

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary

texts?

Ancillary 1 – Front cover for a T.V listings magazine:

Ancillary 2: Promotional billboard for my soap trailer:

Billboard – Genre:

Clear channel and time.

Characters are dressed fairly casually – represents grittiness and realism.

Title of soap is conventional – ‘Friends and foes’ – opposites.

Storyline clue to draw the viewer in – ‘Things could get ugly’.

Here are the factors of my billboard that I believe show that it is of the soap genre:

Colour scheme and fonts are similar to those of the institution – BBC One.

T.V listings magazine front cover – genre:

Large, relevant masthead.

Button feature – price. ‘Only’ used to entice the reader.

Relevant features, such as interviews, competitions and soap news. Words such as ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Win’ stand out, to entice the reader.

Here are the factors of my front cover that I believe show that it is of the TV and soap genre:

Secondary feature, to show the reader that they are getting a lot of features.

Main feature that is relevant to my soap trailer.

Photo in medium close up, with good lighting and focus.

Strap containing a phrase to entice the reader.

Tabs containing the days of the week. These are evenly spaced, colourful, and conventional of the TV and soap genre.

Front cover – comparison to real products:

Rather than create a soap-specific magazine front cover, I decided to create a general TV magazine front cover. This was because I liked the layout of this particular type of front cover, and the conventions are very consistent. When looking for conventions, I mainly looked at the ‘TV and Satellite Week’ magazine, and the ‘Radio Times’ magazine, as I liked the style of the front covers. Above, are examples of front covers that I looked at, during planning.

Billboard – comparisons to real products:

Channel logo.

Title of soap.

Time – when it is broadcasted.

Neighbours billboard.

Doctor Who billboard – T.V drama, not a soap. Still useful for conventions of billboards.

Channel logo.

Image of characters.

Title of T.V drama.

Time – when it is broadcasted.

Image of characters.

Brand:Friends and foes

I have used the ‘Friends and foes’ brand throughout my 3 products.

On my final title card on my trailer, I used the same brand, but with the font in white. This was because I believed that the black background was effective.

I believe that my trailer is suited to BBC One.

Audience – already an audience for soaps – EastEnders, Waterloo Road.

Time aired – 8pm – audience (fairly young people) would be able to watch at that time, although a time such as 6.30 would have been more appropriate.

Brand – How the billboard poster links to the institution – BBC One:

Here, I am showing how my billboard poster fits into the conventions of the institution – BBC One, in terms of font and colour scheme. The BBC One trailer end title card contains a red background and a white font. I looked at this when creating my billboard poster, as I had to make sure that it fit in with the institution – BBC One.

The BBC One trailer end title card.My billboard poster.

Consistency of channel:

Soap trailer.

Billboard.

• Here, I am displaying that I used the same channel (BBC One) throughout my project. The time (8pm) is also consistent. • I did this because a soap is usually only aired on one channel, so I had to make sure this happened for my soap trailer.

Consistency of title and title font:

BillboardSoap trailer Front cover

• This shows that I have used the same title for my soap – ‘Friends and foes’ on my trailer, front cover and billboard. I have also used it in the same font.• I believe that this consistency is important, as it makes the products look like they are related to the same soap, and therefore, makes them flow well.

Consistency of channel – end title card:My trailer: Existing soap:

• Here is a comparison between the end title card on my soap trailer, and a title card from an existing BBC One soap trailer.

• This shows that I should have paid more attention to BBC One’s conventions, in terms of the end title card, with the name of the soap, day and time.

• If I was doing this again, I could use a red background and looked at the logo in more detail.

Consistency of storylines:

The main storyline of my trailer (the storyline between Brendan and Steven, the boss and employee) has featured in my billboard poster and soap trailer.

Representation of stars:• I wanted the stars to be represented in the same way, in all 3 of my products. • I wanted them to be represented as gritty, as grittiness is a convention of the soap genre.

Casual costume.

Casual costume.Casual costume.Low lighting

reflects mood.

Codes and connotations:

Similar facial expressions – conflict.

• Codes and connotations stay the same throughout my 3 products.

• The front cover headline – ‘trouble ahead?’ links to the main text on the billboard, which states ‘Things could get ugly’. These link because they both foreshadow a turbulent future for the 2 main characters.

• In the trailer, they are represented in the same way as in the ancillary products – the character of Brendan gives the character of Steven a loan – this loan could be dodgy, so also signals a turbulent future for them.

Audience:• I believe that all 3 of my products are aimed at the same audience. This is because they follow the narrative of my soap, and use the same characters. • In my opinion, the audience for my products is probably fairly young people, aged 16-25. This is because I believe that this age bracket can relate to the storylines, and characters who are of a similar age to them.

Ancillary progression – TV Listings magazine front cover – draft 1:

Here is my first draft of a TV Listings magazine front cover. At first, I wanted to create a soap-specific front cover. However, later in the process, I decided that the final front cover would be more of a general TV magazine front cover.

There are a number of aspects of this front cover that I would change:

• The day tabs on the right hand side need to go all the way down the page, as this is conventional. • More secondary features are needed. • The main feature – ‘Trouble ahead’ needs to be further down the page. • The masthead needs to be larger.

Ancillary progression – TV Listings magazine front cover – draft 2:

Here is my second draft of a TV Listings magazine front cover. With this draft, I decided to create a more general TV listings magazine front cover, rather than a soap-specific magazine front cover.

There are a number of aspects of this front cover that I would change:

• The masthead and price button do not need an outline, as this is not conventional. • The main feature and subheading (Friends and foes, Adam talks about his new role) need to be lower down the page, as this is conventional. • The secondary feature and photo could be moved to the bottom left of the page, and the secondary features could be moved to the left of the page.

Ancillary progression – TV Listings magazine front cover – final front cover:

Here is my final TV Listings magazine front cover. I feel that I dealt with the errors that I came across in the drafts, by:

• Moving the main feature nearer to the bottom of the page. • Moving the secondary feature and photo to the bottom left of the page. • Moving the other secondary features to the left of the page. • Deleting the outlines on the masthead and the price button.

Ancillary progression – Billboard poster – draft 1:

Here is my first draft of a billboard poster. There area number of aspects of this billboard poster that I would change: • The font for ‘Things could get ugly’ needs to be changed, so it fits in with the institution – BBC One. • The colour scheme, i.e. The background needs to be changed to red, so it fits in with the institution – BBC one. • The information about when the soap is on, and what channel it is on needs to be made larger. This is a roadside billboard, so people going past need to see clearly what channel it is on, at what time, and on what day.

Ancillary progression – Billboard poster – final billboard poster:

Here is my final billboard poster. I feel that I dealt with the errors that I came across in the draft by: • Changing the font of ‘Things could get ugly’ to a font that is similar to the one that the institution (BBC one) use. • Changing the colour scheme – I changed the background to a red fill, so that the billboard fit in with the institution. • I made the text showing when the soap is on, and what channel it is on, larger, because it is a roadside billboard, and people going past need to see this information clearly.

Question 3:

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Planning – how I found my audience:The method I used to find my audience, was a questionnaire. The questionnaire was aimed at finding out who watched soaps, and more specifically, which particular soaps males and females watched. This helped me to find my audience, because I was able to see who watched soaps, and which soaps they watched. We, as a class, individually asked people the questionnaire, and then we collated our results together, in order to obtain a large number of results. Here are some examples of the results:

49

21

1418

Do you watch soaps?

Yes Female

No Female

Yes Male

No Male

14

11

10

5

2

9

Soap and TV viewing - MALE:

Coronation StreetEastendersEmmerdaleNoneOtherGleeDoctor Who

Questionnaire results continued:

18

15

24

419

7

12

6

14

Soap and TV viewing - FEMALE:

Coronation StreetEastendersHolby CityEmmerdaleNeighboursNoneWaterloo RoadDr.WhoGleeOther

8

24

9

5

When did you start watching soaps? - MALE:

< 1213-2021-4242+

13

32

62 4

When did you start watching soaps? - FEMALE:

< 1213-2021-4242+Never

Questionnaire results summary:From the collated results of the questionnaire, I found that:

49

21

14

18

Do you watch soaps?

Yes Fe-maleNo Fe-maleYes Male

No Male

• 49 females said they watched soaps, compared to 14 males.

• 21 females said they didn’t watch soaps, compared to 18 males.

14

11

10

5

2

9

Soap and TV viewing - MALE:

Coronation StreetEastendersEmmerdaleNoneOtherGleeDoctor Who

• The most viewed soap or T.V programme by males was coronation street.

18

15

24

419

7

12

6

14

Soap and TV viewing - FEMALE:

Coronation StreetEastendersHolby CityEmmerdaleNeighboursNoneWaterloo RoadDr.WhoGleeOther

• The most viewed soap or T.V programme by females was coronation street.

Questionnaire results summary:From the collated results of the questionnaire, I found that:

8

24

9

5

When did you start watch-ing soaps? - MALE:

< 1213-2021-4242+

13

32

62 4

When did you start watching soaps? - FEMALE:

< 1213-2021-4242+Never

• The most common age for females to start watching soaps was 13-20.

• The most common age for males to start watching soaps was 13-20.

Post production - audience feedback:After constructing my soap trailer, I wanted to get some audience feedback. I obtained audience feedback by showing my trailer to someone. They then made some points about my trailer, which are listed below.

I received the following audience feedback:

• Title cards on screen for too long. • Needs instrumental soundtrack – soundtracks help to build genre.• Voice over on title cards not necessary, and the sound quality on the voice over is poor. • All male cast – male audience? • Narrative clear.

Post production – what I learnt from my audience feedback:

• One of the main points of my audience feedback was that my soap trailer did not have an instrumental soundtrack.

• The audience feedback told me that this was a potential problem, as most soap trailers include an instrumental soundtrack in the background, as this is a convention of soap trailers.

• As a result of this, I went back to my soap trailer, and added in a soundtrack. The soundtrack was found on YouTube, and was called ‘The Bravery – Honest Mistake (superdiscount remix).

• This change to my soap trailer shows how important audience feedback was for me, because something that I had not noticed was pointed out to me.

Post production - what I learnt from my audience feedback:

• My audience feedback told me that my title cards were on the screen for too long. • On my soap trailer, the title cards are on screen for around 3-4 seconds. On reflection, this is too long, as a convention of the soap genre is quick editing. • Because of this, the duration that the title cards are on the screen probably appears to slow down my soap trailer. • If I was making a soap trailer again, I would make it so the title cards were on the screen for a very short duration of time – 1-2 seconds each.

Conclusion of audience feedback:

Planning:

• I believe that the questionnaire used in planning was very useful, as it allowed me to gain an insight into who watched soaps, and T.V in general. • Also, it allowed me to think about who the audience was going to be for my soap trailer, which was very important.

Post production:

• I believe that having someone view my soap trailer was very useful, as it allowed me to see what the potential audience for my soap trailer thought of it. • Also, having someone view my soap trailer was useful, because it gave me direct feedback of my soap trailer, with good points, and also bad points, which I could use, if I was to create a soap trailer in the future.

Question 4:

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

Media technologies used

in research:

Audience research – Using Microsoft Word to generate charts for audience research.

Comic strip trailer – generating a comic strip trailer, uploading it to YouTube, and then to my blog.

YouTube, to look at similar, existing products, and to upload work to my blog, using HTML codes.

Use of YouTube:During research, I used YouTube quite frequently.

The main purpose of me using YouTube during research, was to search for existing products – soap trailers, so that I could look at the conventions of soap trailers. I often embedded relevant videos into my blog, so that I could look at them at a later date, and include them in planning.

Audience research:Before constructing our products, we generated a questionnaire, in order to create an audience profile of who watches soaps. This was first written on paper, and then the data was collated into different types of charts, using Microsoft Word.

How I generated the charts.

Example of a chart.


in construction:

Soap trailer:

An HD, memory card camcorder to film our scenes.

Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 to edit the trailer.

Adobe Photoshop, to create title cards.

Ancillaries:

A digital stills camera to capture still images for the magazine and billboard.

Microsoft Publisher to create the front cover and billboard.

Adobe Photoshop to edit images (we cut the background out of our billboard image).

During construction, many media

technologies were used:

Soap trailer – use of the camcorder and filming:

Use of the camcorder: • Me, and the group that I filmed in found the camcorder fairly simple to use. • We also found uploading from the camcorder to the external hard drive fairly simple, as the camcorder used a memory card for storage. • However, it was sometimes difficult to locate clips, as we filmed over a number of days. Despite this, we never lost any clips, so work was not impacted upon.

Soap trailer – editing, using Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0:

After we had filmed the scenes for the trailer in a group, we had to each edit our own individual soap trailer.

• Here, I am inserting the ‘cross dissolve’ transition into my soap trailer. • I did this by going to ‘edit’, ‘transitions’, and then finding the individual transition. • I used the ‘cross dissolve’ transition throughout the editing process, because it is conventional of the soap genre.

Inserting transitions into my soap trailer:

Soap trailer – editing, using Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0:

After we had filmed the scenes for the trailer in a group, we had to each edit our own individual soap trailer.

• Here, I am uploading my trailer to YouTube. • I am doing this so that I can embed my soap trailer into my blog. • I am doing this by going to ‘share’, ‘online’, and then following the on-screen instructions to upload to YouTube.

Uploading my soap trailer to YouTube:

Soap trailer – creating title cards for my soap trailer, using Adobe Photoshop:

During editing, I decided that I wanted to insert title cards into my soap trailer. I did this because it is a convention of the soap genre, and because it would help to tell a story. I used Adobe Photoshop to create the title cards.

Here, I am creating the base for my title card, making sure it is the right size, and the background colour is set.

Here, I am choosing the background colour for my title card. I chose for the background to be black, as it looked effective, and the white text would look good on it.


After creating the base for my title card, I then added text. I added text, by going to the text tool on the left hand side, and drawing a text box. After this, I typed the text in. Next, I chose a font. In the end, I chose the ‘Aerohop Black’ font, as it is easy to read and looks like it could appear in a soap.

When I had finished creating my title card, I saved it. I saved each of my title cards as ‘JPEG’ image files, so that they could easily be inserted into my trailer. I did this by going to ‘save’ and then choosing an appropriate file format and location for my title card.


Here is an example of one of my finished title cards.

Ancillaries – Using a digital stills camera to capture still images for the magazine and billboard.

• To capture images for the ancillaries – T.V listings front cover and billboard, a digital stills camera, similar to the one above, was used. • As a group, we found the camera simple to use. We did not use the flash setting, as we captured images in a very well – lit area. • For the billboard, we used the landscape setting on the camera, as we wanted the picture to fit well on a landscape page. We found this fairly simple, as the menus were quite simple to navigate.

Ancillaries – Using Microsoft Publisher to create the front cover and billboard.

Here, I am inserting an image onto the front cover document. This was done by going to insert, photo. I then located the file. Images were needed for the main front cover picture and secondary features.

Here, I am formatting the word art masthead, in order to change the colour and outline of the masthead. I am doing this by right – clicking the masthead, clicking format word art, and then changing it accordingly.

Ancillaries – Using Microsoft Publisher to create the front cover and billboard.

Here, I am formatting a picture. This was done by right clicking on the picture, and then going to format picture. Certain pictures needed to be formatted because the images needed to have borders, so that they stood out on the page.

Here, I am inserting an auto shape into the front cover document. This was done by going to format, picture, and then auto shapes. An ‘oval’ auto shape was needed for the price button in the top right hand side of the front cover.

Comic strip trailer:Our first task, was to create a soap trailer, using an existing comic strip. This activity was done in pairs, and introduced us to the conventions of the soap genre.

Technology used:

• Microsoft Publisher, to display the comic strip. • A video camera, to film the comic strip – we recorded a voiceover whilst filming. • Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 to edit the comic strip trailer. • YouTube, in order to embed the comic strip trailer in our blogs.

Screenshot from our comic strip trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuWOSOGe92Y

Media technologies

used in planning:

Blogging:

Regularly updating a blog.

Using HTML codes to insert relevant videos into my blog.

Using word processing software to type evaluations, then pasting them to my blog.

Using the internet, to look at soap products, for conventions.

Filming and editing:

Using memory card video cameras to film a relevant preliminary task.

Using Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 to edit my preliminary task.

Uploading my preliminary task to YouTube, directly from Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0.

During planning, many media

technologies were used:

Using ‘Slideshare’.

Digital storyboarding:• One of the first planning tasks I did, was to create a simple digital storyboard of a soap. To do this, I opened BBC iplayer, and selected a recent episode of ‘Waterloo Road’.• I then took 15 print screens from the first 10-15 minutes of the episode, and pasted them into a Microsoft PowerPoint document.• Although this digital storyboard is rather short, and only included the print screens themselves, it still helped me to gain an understanding of the conventions of the soap genre.

An example of a slide from my digital storyboard.

If I did this again, I could include camera angle, duration of shot, and details of any diegetic or non-diegetic sound.

Blogging:Creating a blog, using ‘Blogspot’:

The first step was to create a ‘Google account’.

I then named my blog, giving it a suitable title.

Next, I chose a starter template for my blog.

The process was completed by clicking ‘start blogging’.

Blogging:

Pasting a HTML code from YouTube, to show a video in my blog.

Typing in a description of the above video. Could be pasted from word processing software, or typed straight in.

Title of blog post. This depended on what I posted.

Posting to my blog:

To post the item to my blog, I clicked on ‘Publish Post’.

Blogging:

This is what the video and description from the previous slide look like in my blog.

Date of posting.

HTML video.

Description.

Title of blog post.

Soap Preliminary Task• In groups, we had to film a soap preliminary task. This was to familiarise us with the conventions of the soap genre. • Our group based our soap preliminary task on an extract from an EastEnders episode.

We used:

• A tripod, so that we could get steady shots, and pan smoothly.

• An HD, memory card camcorder, so that we could film in a high quality, and upload clips to a computer quickly.

• Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0, to edit the Soap Preliminary task, and upload it to YouTube.

Editing the soap preliminary task:We then had to individually edit our own version of the soap preliminary task, using Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0. Here is how I did it:

1. Firstly, I went to ‘get media’. I then located the memory card, which was in a card reader. After this, I imported the clips from the memory card, to the software.

2. The next task was to edit my soap preliminary task. I did this by putting the clips in order, and adding in transitions (mainly ‘cross dissolve’ because it is conventional). I also added a music soundtrack at the start, and some text, which stated ‘previously’ at the start.

3. My final task was to upload my soap preliminary task to YouTube, to an account that I had previously created. I did this by going to the ‘share’ tab, clicking ‘online’, and then following the instructions to upload the video to my YouTube account. I uploaded this video to YouTube so that I could embed it in my blog.

Uploading to YouTube:Clicking on the ‘share’ tab.

Clicking on ‘online’.

Selecting ‘upload video to YouTube’, and clicking ‘next’.

Signing into YouTube with my account, clicking ‘next’, and then following the instructions to upload my video.

Using ‘Slideshare’:Whilst planning, I used ‘slideshare’. Slideshare allowed me to upload my PowerPoint presentations to the internet, and embed them in my blog. This was useful when I was displaying my planning documents in my blog.

Here is an example of how one of my presentations looked, when it was embedded in my blog:

Ability to scroll through the slides of the presentation, within my blog. There is also an option to view the presentation in full screen.


in evaluation:

Using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Using PowerPoint:• To display my evaluation, I used Microsoft PowerPoint. • This allowed me to display screenshots and text. I also used auto shapes, such as arrows, to point to relevant screenshots and images.

Main PowerPoint screen.

Using PowerPoint:I used the ‘insert picture from file’ function to add pictures to my evaluation. I used this to add my finished ancillaries into my evaluation, as I had saved them in the ‘JPEG’ file format. I also inserted pictures by using the ‘print screen’ function on the keyboard. This was useful for adding screenshots from my blog, my soap trailer, Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 and Microsoft Publisher.

I also used the ‘insert shapes’ function, in order to add shapes to my evaluation. I mainly used the ‘arrow’ shape, as it allowed me to point to relevant parts of the images.

adam martin - g324 advanced production - evaluation:

Documents

existing soaps scene

scene lookrealism

shoulder shots

shoulder shot convention

shoulder shot example

speakingthe shoulder

soap genre

final soap trailer