Candidate Details

CANDIDATE NAME: RACHAEL SILVESTER

CANDIDATE NUMBER: 6839
CENTRE NAME: AQUINAS COLLEGE
CENTRE NUMBER: 33435

Brief

SOAP BRIEF: 

A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer, together with two of the following three options: 

-       a listings magazine front cover featuring the new soap; 
-       two hyperlinked web pages (with video extract) for the soap’s website; 
-       a poster for the soap.

FINAL CUT - TIB STREET SOAP TRAILER

Billboards

Here is my main Billboard poster:

 

 

 

These two posters are supplementary and part of the same campaign:

 

Magazine Cover

QUESTION ONE

How did you use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media products?

Basic codes and conventions of soap operas within my genre REALISM are features such as

 Locations  - usually gritty streets, pubs, and small middle/lower class houses

CLICK HERE    TO SEE BLOG POST ON LOCATIONS AND CONVENTIONS OF REALIST SOAP

 Costumes  - which are important for character development and building stereotypes

CLICK HERE   TO SEE POST ABOUT HOW COSTUME IS USED WITHIN REALIST SOAPS


 Engaging  - and connecting with the viewers and the public - building relationships with characters and using controversial topics bringing the soap into real life and helping people to relate to the narratives that are covered

CLICK HERE    TO SEE A DETAILED POST SHOWING MY RESEARCH INTO HOW REALIST SOAPS ENGAGE WITH THE PUBLIC


In addition, soap trailers use conventions such as big close ups of facial expressions showing emotion, action shots and tense scenes which are also realistic to our lives, appropriate and recognisable music in the background and also beat matching.
Beat matching is used in many trailers to make it look professional and interesting, tense or exciting to watch. I have done a detailed post about techniques such as beat matching which can be seen at this link:






Below is a link to a post where I have deconstructed a Dallas trailer showing my understanding of editing techniques used in the media and why they are used:


http://rachaelsilvestermedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/this-is-trailer-for-return-or-american.html




A short powerpoint I made about Realism soaps (click) (click)

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 SOAPS USING SUBVERSIONS / CHALLENGING TYPICAL CONVENTIONS 



This is an example of a trailer for BBC1's Eastenders that challenges soap conventions. It is more of a fantasy or dream style soap used often as a metaphor or exaggeration of the current storyline in the soap.
I feel these types of trailer are really effective as they:

• shock people by not showing their expectations of a trailer
• are usually very interesting, exciting or scary
• use unusual or extravagant props, costume and location
• often use special effects to enhance the trailer and make it more exciting
• bring something new and different to challenge the typical expected trailers to draw people in

When planning and creating my soap, I considered producing a more challenging trailer rather than the typical ones, however several factors such as budget, locations and time were barriers for me and I decided I would produce a better typical trailer with the resources available to me. I also feel that subversions can be very restricting in terms of the amount of characters used and can sometimes not demonstrate full potential of camerawork and use of showing narratives successfully. I am pleased that I chose to create the typical trailer as it allowed me to build tension using lots of action shots (supposedly taken from the actual soap episodes) which I could cut and put together. The low budget I had was not a barrier for my soap trailer, however if I had attempted a subversion style soap this could have made it look cheap as I could not have used the special effects of the extravagant costumes that are used, for example in the clip above and in others, for example the Made In Chelsea trailer which uses a merry-go-round.

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 ANCILLORIES 

Here is my magazine front cover and an existing TV & Satellite cover which is of the same genre and similar style and layout to my soap magazine. I ensured that I closely followed the conventions of this media product by using and developing the features that existing covers possess. I named my brand teleVISION because like TV & Satellite the title is related to the content of the magazine. I made the masthead white because it stands out and many magazines have white brand titles. I also used photoshop to create a faint shadow behind the letters which gives the masthead a more professional look.

 BANNER 

My banner, like the TV & Satellite  one uses black text on a coloured background which is easy to read and graSps attention quickly

 MASTHEAD 

I feel that my masthead matches codes and conventions of soap magazines very well. I have used white text which stands out, it is bold and has a back shadow which are both features shown in the TV & Satellite  magazine cover. I have also incorporsated the date in a small gap just like the existing magazine to the left.

I have challenged the conventions, however, by using an outer glow on part of my masthead, as I felt it would be a good brand identity technique and catches the audience's eye, as told by my peers in their feedback.

 BUTTON 

My button demonstrates the common conventions of buttons on covers of most magazines including this TV & Satellite one. Both mine and the existing media product show a single character withing the circle, a coloured outline matching the theme of the cover, a highlighted word to catch audience attention "NEW" and a description below.

 FEATURES 

My features and the TV & Satellite ones show similarities such as the highlighted title and white text description. In addition images are anchored onto the text to show the audience what the text is describing

 PHOTOGRAPHY 

I feel my photography fullfills the conventions of soap magazines. It is similar to the cover of this TV & Satellite magazine, as the main character is anchored onto the main feature text, with other characters behind and of a smaller size.

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 COMPARING MY SOAP TO OTHERS IN THIS GENRE  

My soap is a realist soap, similar to programs such as Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale, and Waterloo Road. Although waterloo road is a seasonal drama I feel it is similar to my soap because of the age range of the characters and the fact that they are still in education (my characters go to college, shown in some of the clips ion my trailer). My soap Tib Street is similar to Coronation Street and others becuase of it's gritty and street style locations and down to earth, middle class characters. The camera work demonstrates the realist style as they are simple yet effective and no special effects are used which would make it more fanasised. The music used in realist soaps is always diegetic however in their trailer soap trailers challenge this by using non diegetic background music to create more of a dramatic atmosphere rather than just silence and dialogue, so that the audience want to watch more of the program. My trailer also shows this audio style by using a backing track, however, I understand that if I was to produce a real soap episode I would not use a backing track and all sound would need to be visible in the mise-en-scene (e.g. music coming from a radio)

 __________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a powerpoint I have made to shows how my trailer used conventions and techniques similar to thise used in existing relsit soaps:

cOMPARING TO REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS from rsilvestermedia

QUESTION TWO

How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary products?


I have created a prezi to demonstrate how I combined my three types of media texts making sure that branding, characters, narratives and colour schemes are linked to create a recognizable soap for audiences which is shown across multiple platforms

QUESTION THREE

What have you learnt about the significance of audience feedback?

Throughout the course I have frequently looked to my friends and peers for advice and feedback on my work to help me change and develop my trailer and designs to be constantly improved.

An easy way to do this was to use blogger to post my work and ask people to comment their thoughts and advice on each of my drafts. This enabled me to display my progress chronologically and use the feedback when producing the next draft.

Here is a powerpoint showing some examples of comments which I used to improve my work

The most frequent comments were

CUTS NEED TO BE SHARPER AND SHORTER TO CREATE MORE TENSION



Here is an example of my draft of the magazine cover and how I used a comment to improve it

As you can see I have used the advice in the comment to develop my work, such as

• Barcode needs to be smaller - It is now smaller
• Date at the top - Now at the top filling the space gaps above masthead
• Use contrasting colours - I have used yellow which stands out to the audience and emphasises certain parts of the page

 HOW I USED PEER FEEDBACK

Comments from rsilvestermedia

I have learned that audience feedback can be extremely useful, especially if you have been working on the same piece of work for a long time, it is important to get an outsider's view rather than your own biased views. A fresh opinion can pick out errors or improvements that I may not notice in my own work, so asking others to review my designs gave valuable feedback which helped me to improve the quality and standard of my work.

QUESTION FOUR

How have you used technologies in the research and planning, construction and evaluation stages of your coursework?

Here are some videos I have made using text and screen recordings to show how I used different technologies during my planning and production


USING KEYNOTE to create title 


USING GARAGEBAND to create a fitting backing track for my tailer


USING iMOVIE to import and trim clips, and edit footage to create my trailer




Other technologies I used include Adobe Photoshop, Blogger, Powerpoint, YouTube, Stills/HD Cameras, DSLR Cameras, Green Screen, Slideshare and Twitter.


HERE IS A PREZI TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION AND DEMONSTRATE HOW I USED EVERY TECHNOLOGY IN MY WORK

My 3 final billboards

RESEACHING AND DESIGNING MY BILLBOARDS 

When designing my billboards I took into consideration what many existing billboards look like and the conventions used. I felt that my soap would not fit into the E4 channel as it is a realist soap rather than a melodrama, so I chose to use Channel 4.

I researched the branding and typical designs of Channel 4 advertising so that my designs were realistic and matched the conventions used in existing Channel 4 billboards. I have also done a blog post deconstructing two Channel 4 billboards, and the features I found, I have used in my own work. Examples of this incluse the simple white text with few words and full stops, and the white "4" logo.

The photography in the Channel 4 billboards also strongly focuses on a particular character which I have replicated in my own work. For example in the third billboard above, the photo was already focused on Tim's face, however I also used a blur tool in Photoshop to make the background even more out of focus to emphasise the sharpness of Tim's face and his expression.

I used photoshop to design all three of these billboards, and will produce a seperate blog posts to go into detail about my methods and techniques of design and editing.

Showing links from the start of the project to the end

These screenshots from one of my power points demonstrate my consistency throughout the course. The story line with Roy and the knife was one of the first pieces of research into soap operas that I did, when I looked into narratives. This has been carried through my entire project, as the camera shot types shown in my initial research into the Coronation Street episode were used in my trailer, and the knife prop was used with the pull focus in the same way as found in the real soap. This shows that I have constantly developed my ideas taken from the start to build and construct my own media texts.

Mag Cover second draft

Audience feedback points that I have now improved:

• Not sure it needs to say JAY in the middle of the page, instead make your first line bigger, then the Tib St line becomes a sub- heading.
• Barcode much too big,
• Date needs to be at the top near masthead so audience can see they are getting up to date information.
• Needs an accent colour to make key info and unique selling points stand out on the shelf.

Using iMovie Detailed Video

USING iMOVIE to import and trim clips, and edit footage to create my trailer

Using Garageband Detailed Video

USING GARAGEBAND to create a fitting backing track for my tailer

Using Keynote Detailed Video

USING KEYNOTE to create channel 4 logo animation

Tib Street Trailer THIRD DRAFT

There are some experimental features in this version such as the tune to "Tib Street" at the start and end which I would like feedback on to decide whether to keep them.

Editing my video

 USING TRANSITIONS 

FADE TO BLACK
This is an example of a realist soap trailer which uses the "fade to black" transition to create and build tension as the narrative is shown in small clips.
I will be using the same transition in my trailer as I like how it makes the viewers feel like they are blinking as they watch the snippets of the tense scenes that are being shown

 USING VIDEO EFFECTS 

VIGNETTE

This clip shows a realist soap trailer that shows some use of  "vignette" effects on several of the clips, which help to build tension and create a dark and scary atmosphere.

I have used this effect throughout my whole trailer as I like how it makes the audience feel the darkness and tension which the narrative holds.

Ancillory Mag cover - FIRST DRAFT

The photo of me and the Doctor Who feature is temporary (copied from my hollyoaks cover) and will be replaced in second draft

Billboards

Choosing appropriate images

 

Research of Channel 4 designs for billboard ancillary

Rejected Shots

Deconstructing AUDIO features of a trailer

This is a trailer for the return or the American soap opera    Dallas 

I will deconstruct parts of it to demonstrate the different editing techniques a soap trailer can use to make it exciting, effectively tell a narrative in a short space of time and also build tension.

BEAT MATCHING

The trailer uses beat matching throughout which is an extremely important and effective way of grasping audience attention and creating a tense or exciting atmosphere. Quick cuts are used to flick between clips from different scenes, ensuring that a story is clearly told. Each cut matches a beat which makes everything fit together. Some clips can change on a beat and then last for several seconds whilst dialogue is spoken, (see 40s) whereas some cuts can be choppy and show short snippets of facial expressions (see 20s)

SOUND BRIDGING

Some clips withing the trailer feature voice over audio that begins as non-diegetic sound and then changes into diegetic. This is due to the trailer playing the audio of one clip, over another clip which then changes back to the original one where the characters mouth is in sync with the dialogue. This anchors certain dialogue or storylines together to make clips easier to understand for the audience. An example of this is shows at (22s) in the Dallas trailer, where a long shot of a building getting closer to the camera is overlapped with the speech that belongs to the next clip.

BACKGROUND MUSIC

The use of background music is important in trailers as it contributes to conveying the narrative of the soap. Important features when choosing a background track include the beat of the song, how fast or frequent they are, the tone and key of the music; major keys can create positive and exciting atmospheres, whereas minor keys can convey tense or negative atmospheres; and also many trailers often use tracks which reach a crescendo which allows the trailer to become more dramatic or tense at the end, leaving a cliff hanger for the audience. Trailers often use songs with lyrics that relate to the plot lines which further increases the audience's understanding of the plot lines, however this particular trailer uses music with no words.

ON-SCREEN TEXT

TV trailers often use text within their clips to convey particular meanings, story lines or emotions which the soap involves. This can help the audience to understand when the following clips are showing. This example of the Dallas trailer uses text effectively as it also fits with the beat of the music, (see 8s) and it also sounds like crashing symbols as the words (such as "MONEY" ""POWER" and "RIVALRY") appear on screen, creating a sense of importance, excitement and urgency.

VOICE OVER

Trailers for soaps and also films, regularly have a voice over. This is often a very deep male voice but can sometimes be female. For example in the Dallas trailer I have posted, the male voice over says phrases such as:

"NEXT SUMMER" 

"TNT INVITES YOU TO COME BACK" 

"TO THE ONE PLACE THAT'S GOT IT ALL" 

"TELEVISIONS LANDMARK DRAMA RETURNS" 

"DALLAS" 

"A NEW SERIES COMING SUMMER 2012"

These phrases are split up and dialogue and clips from the soap are fitted in between. This allows the narratives to be shown in small snippets, with an overlying voice talking about how viewers can watch this soap when it comes out.

PAUSES

When building tension, trailers often use pauses to abruptly stop the music. This can enable a significant piece of dialogue to be emphasised as everything is silent and a few words are spoken. This is shown in the Dallas trailer, (see 18s). This creates minor tense moments where all audio is focused on speech and no background noise. This is usually followed by the music suddenly returning in a loud built up crescendo, typically with lots of faced paced cuts and edits, which creates a contrast between the slow tension and the exciting action.

FLATPLAN OF SOAP MAGAZINE COVER FEATURING MY SOAP "TIB STREET"

 

 

 

Soap Trailer FIRST DRAFT

Below are my audience feedback comments which I will use to evaluate and improve my trailer for my second draft

Specific tools used in iMovie when editing

The speed tool was a frequently used tool when creating my trailer. Not only did I use it to produce slow-motion clips for dramatic effect, I used it to speed up tense chases where I needed the characters to move slightly more quicky. I also used speed to help me make my beat matching more precise by slightly speeding up some clips so that the action occured on the beat of the soundtrack. 



Rejected Clips

Video showing rejected clips, placed into 3 categories:

Above is a video I have put together using iMovie which shows my rejected clips. These are clips we filmed in Manchester, however are somehow flawed. This could be due to camerawork being faulty, for example bad focusing, shaky hand held camera, or wrong camera angles. Other flaws could be found with the audio of some clips, for example background noise being too loud, or dialogue being too quiet or unclear. Other problems with filming can be due to human error, such as one of the cast/crew accidentally being featured in the shot, or a camera being caught in the mise en scene, making the scene unrealistic. Additional problems can be actors laughing, making mistakes with their lines or actions, and also accidentally looking into the camera lens, also making the scene less realistic.



Breakdown of clips on the above video...


CAMERAWORK
In clips 2 and 3, the flaws are due to the focusing of the camera. Clip 2 would have been a nice shot of a couple walking together, however the camera moves in and out of focus which makes the clip confusing and frustracting to watch.
Clip 3 shows my first attempt at a pull focus on the knife. I feel the transition of focus is too slow and therefore I tried a second attempt which I will be using in my final piece.
Clip 1 is too shaky which could suggest that hand held camera work needs more care or a tripod should be used for certain scenes.

AUDIO
All of the clips in the sound category of my video are problematic because of background noise which drowns out the dialogue and can make it difficult to understand the words that are being spoken. It also makes the clip sound less proffessional as real trailers have crisp, professionally recorded dialogue with no background noise which makes it more tense or dramatic. Background noise problems in our videos clips incluse loud sounds from the nearby fountains, wind, crew members talking behind the camera, and general public murmur. This can often not be avoided, however there is one example of a conversation which I decided would be better to film inside where it was quieter, so was able to improve the audio quality.

HUMAN ERROR
All of the clips in the human error category of my video are flawed because members of our crew have accidentally featured in the mise en scene. This also applies to cameras. When attempting to film two different camera angles of the same scene, we often caught glimpses of the other camera in the frame. This was a learning curve as we discovered that filming different angles is effective; however it is better to film the same scene twice from different angles to avoid catching the other camera in shot.

Photos from filming day

Trailer Planning

Planning to film...

I have created a checklist and filming scheduale to use when my goup goes into Manchester on Monday.
We can use this as a script and it will help us know when and what to film throughout the day
I have included speech, stage directions and shot types, as well as locations and time of day to be filmed.

Looking at storylines

Here is a storyboard of a dramatic scene from Coronation Street in which a villain intimidates a victim. I feel the dialogue is tense and creates a threatening and scary atmosphere.
The camerawork and use of close ups shows expressions of fear and anger, especially within the eyes.
I have created this storyboard with the intention of using a similar storyline in my own soap trailer