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)

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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