OCR G324 Advanced Production

Frankie WrightCandidate Number: 4970Aquinas College: 33435

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH2MlHH-nZo&context=C2dcd4ADOEgsToPDskKCgTn6dpE4dAlawqutex4L

In what ways does your product USE,

DEVELOP or CHALLENGE

existing codes and conventions?

Question 1

•It is a

serialised

drama that

usually runs

week-in, week-

out, all year

round.

•It features continuous

storylines (or

'narratives') dealing

with domestic

themes and personal

or family relationships.

•It generally has a

well-known

theme tune and

intro sequence

which has

changed little

over

the years.

•There is a limit to the

number of characters

available at any one time.

This allows the soap to

focus on a smaller number

of characters, so that the

audience knows them

better and the storylines

can be more detailed

and involved, as well as

being more numerous over

time.

•The plots are open-

ended and usually many

storylines are featured or

even interlinked in an

episode. Often they

follow the same issue,

with, for example, two

characters dealing with

the break-up of a

relationship. The

storylines

in these cases run

parallel.

•They are often set around a small, central area such as a square or a cul-de-sac.

A British soap opera almost always features the following conventions:

Conventions of a British Soap Opera Question 1

•Soaps often

have special

episodes for

•British soaps most often feature common, ordinary,

working class characters, in stark contrast to American

soaps, which tend to

deal with richer,

•As a rule,

British soaps

are realistic

•Soap episodes often begin with a 'hook' in which one or more of the narratives from a previous episode are

•Lots of storylines

will be in progress

during any one

episode, with the

action switching

between them. As

one narrative is

Conventions of a British Soap Opera Question 1

flashier, more fantasy-inspired characters, reflecting the preferences of their

respective target audiences.

events in the

real world

such as

Christmas.

or, at least,

aim for

realism.

resolved, another

completely

different one with

different characters

will already be

underway.

continued. The episode will undoubtedly end with a 'cliff-hanger‘.

While we were planning our soap opera we looked at other soap operas for idea of codes and conventions. This was useful because we could use ideas from these for our own product.Our soap opera was based on coronation street so we looked at episodes of this so we could see their conventions.

Question 1 Question 1

Use of Music

We used the instrumental of the song so they wouldn't distract from the drama in the trailer. The song starts building up as the drama in our trailer builds. As the song drops one of the characters walks in on his cheating girlfriend. This creates tension within the trailer. After the drop the fight between the drug dealer and user begins which goes well with the fast paced music.

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

For our trailer we decided to use the song Delphic - Clarion Call

Question 1

We also used a heartbeat over the first part of the trailer to build up the tension and the feeling of the characters. We used it over the flashbacks as well to show that they were a happy couple together before he died.

Question 1

Camera ShotsOver the shoulder shot

The over the shoulder shot lets the audience feel like they are watching over the character. They can see what the character is seeing without being from their point of view.

Long shot

•We decided to use this shot because you can see all the way down the passage which creates tension because you assume something is going to appear down the passage.

•The character is in the middle of the shot so that you can see the whole of his body and his clothes. This lets the audience make a judgement of this character before anything happens.

•We have put an edit on this shot that darkens the corners (vignette). This creates mise en scene. It makes the shot look dark and dodgy even though it was shot in the day. It makes the audience assume something bad is going to happen.

Own Trailer – The Grove One Tree Hill

Two shot

Own Trailer – The Grove One Tree Hill

This shot is of the drug dealing scene. It is close enough to see the emotions on the characters faces but far away enough to fit them both in the same shot. The characters are standing close so this represents that something is going on and they have something in common but they also have a gap between them to show that they don't really know each other. Their eyes are in the middle 3rd of the screen this is eye level of the audience which helps them to connect.

High Angle

We used a high angle shot of the part where the character says ‘crap 50’. He is pretending the police have come so this shot represents the police being above the characters.

Close up

Close ups are used a lot in soap operas to show the emotions of the characters. When the camera is close up on the face of the actor you can see all their emotions and it makes the audience feel more involved in the scene. We used a close up on the character in the car crash. We slowly zoomed into the characters face so that it makes the audience feel sad that he has died.

Our Trailer – The Grove One Tree Hill

Title CardsOwn Trailer - The Grove One Tree Hill

End Title Cards