Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Evaluation Question 2 - Annie Penn

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


I think the combination of the trailer with the promotional texts was very effective. I feel confident about this effectiveness because as a group we closely studied how producers have created media forms in the past to induce an interest in their product.

The sink scene links well with the blood on the hands because the styles are very similar with a dark theme. Originally we had been torn between two styles of posters, one with the ribbon entangled in the hands and the other being our final idea. The reason we chose the blood on the hands poster is because the bold red contrasts with the hands and the black background and it shows the sinister side of the asylum whilst drawing people in. This poster gives an insight as to what is to come from the soap, hinting towards Ava's back story where she had tried to kill herself. For this scene we were taking into account Barthes' Enigma Code as it creates a sense of mystery due to the audience not knowing whose hands they are in the poster and not knowing who is committing suicide, it is only suggested to the audience, this shows we have been influenced by the Hermeneutic Code.
The logos in each of the bottom corners tell the audience that it is available on both television and online meaning it will appeal to a younger and older demographic. Overall the combination of the poster with this scene is effective as from our audience feedback we were told it is intriguing.





Our TV listings front cover meets the conventions desired and the headline is bold and stands out to the audience while it does not distract their attention from the entire page itself. The palette is filled with primary colours meaning they are appealing to the eye and its not an explosion of colour that would cause a headache. Even though our poster is a dark representation it still works well because it shows both sides of the asylum and will attract a wider audience.

The scene with Lexi and Jeffery is suitably paired with the TV listings front cover, as the storyline covering their relationship is portrayed throughout both types of media with subtle hints towards the dark nature. We chose to display different styles in the poster and magazine cover because they represent two different characters within the soap, the TV listings shows Lexi and Jeffery while the poster shows Ava's attempt at suicide as if her blood is on someone else's hands meaning someone else is to blame.


From our audience feedback it became clear that the hints towards a forced relationship, between the demanding boss and the innocent worker, was not too obscene for showing and that instead it made them want to watch the soap to see what happens. We were also told that it looks like something you would see next to all of the other TV listing magazines, especially with the bold headlines and insights to other shows that would be featured in the magazine itself. This shows it is effective as the magazine cover is inviting to the audience whilst the trailer itself is drawing in their attention to make them want to watch it.



The recurring emphasis on "come on down we're going crazy" throughout both the ancillary texts and the trailer makes it clear to the audience that the soap is set in an asylum which is an unusual and unique setting for a soap opera and this links all three products together even though the colour scheme may be different for each of the ancillary texts.

There are many theories that helped us as a group to develop these products for example Propp's stock characters helped the representations and stereotypes of each of our characters and made it possible to develop a clear aura that would surround them in each of the scenes and ancillary texts, for example Jeffery is our super villain in the soap therefore with our song we chose a specific lyric to play whilst he walked in. Similarly, to show he has a higher authority over Lexi he is always seen as taller than her whether it was from using low angle shots with the two of them, or whether it were for the TV listings where Lexi is looking back on him cautiously while he has lust in his eyes.





This feedback shows how well the audience reacted to our trailer and emphasises the fact that our products were successful and conveyed our initial intentions of setting a soap opera in an asylum.

Even though there are comments telling us how we could have improved in some areas because it is an asylum we felt as a group that increasing the grotesque factor would only prevent our product from being a soap opera, especially seeing as it needs to be realistic and in line with logical verisimilitude.

Overall I feel there is good synergy between our main product and ancillary texts as we have followed the brief to create realistic products compared to existing products and to create what would gain a strong audience for a new soap opera.


Tuesday, 16 December 2014

A2 Media Soap Opera Trailer "Fairfield"


Evaluation Question 4 (Thomas Brown)


How did you use Media Technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
(Question 4 by Thomas Brown)


Blogger- planning and research
Internet- research and construction
Camera- construction and evaluation
Adobe Premier Elements- construction
Adobe Photoshop/Paint- construction
Microsoft Office- research and evaluation


Blogger
As a group we created a Blogger account in order to record our research and work from our A2 Soap Opera Project.
Blogger was especially important in the research and planning stages of the project.
Blogger provided us with a safe and easily accessible place to store our research about the conventions of a soap opera, character studies and case studies. We could also see the work completed by the rest of the group, allowing us to gain lots of information about soap operas. We could easily look back on  our findings which was especially important when it came to planning our soap opera. Our research allowed us to create a soap opera that would be exciting and intriguing but significantly in keeping with the conventions and themes of a soap opera.
Blogger also had its disadvantages however. It was sometimes difficult to upload our research and our own work to the Blog especially if there was an issue with the internet connection. Most of the time this was not an issue though and was safe and easy place to store information.


Blogger Logo




Internet
The internet was a vital tool for our project.
The internet was our main source of information on soap operas. It provided us with vital information that we could use to build up our research and knowledge on the genre of soap operas.
This research was extremely important when it came to creating our own soap operas. The information we gained from the internet helped us to create a soap that was in keeping with the conventions of a soap opera and had themes that were appropriate for the task.
The internet was important in the construction of our trailer. We were able to have access to millions of songs and soundtracks which helped us to select the most effective and appropriate music for our soap opera. We extracted the music piece ‘Toxic’ from YouTube which provided the soundtrack to our trailer.
In order to have the BBC One HD I dent at the end of our trailer we extracted it from YouTube. This allowed us to add vital information to our trailer about the channel the show was on and it made the trailer appear official.





Our soundtrack for our trailer, 'Toxic' by Yael Naim
Camera
The digital camera was one of the most important pieces of technology that we used and was vital for the construction and evaluation stages of our project. The camera we used was the Canon FS100.
The Canon FS100 allowed us to construct the piece. It was used to film the various scenes in our trailer. The camera was easy to carry as it was a handheld device and we could delete and re-record scenes at the site of filming and so we did not have to keep returning to re-film different scenes. The camera was a HD camera and so our film was in high quality which improved the overall outcome of the piece and made it appear professional.
The camera was used to film various camera angles/shots to create different effects on our piece. We used close-up shots on characters and props and used worm's eye view angles in order to create mystery and suspense around our soap. This utilised Barthes' Enigma Code as it provoked questions from the audience and made them want to watch on to find answers to their questions. 
There were limited issues with the camera. The only problems were that the camera needed to be charged before we filmed which was time consuming, and uploading the videos to a computer was also time consuming. However, this did not have a negative impact on the overall outcome of our piece.
The Canon FS100 was also used in the evaluation stages. We filmed an audience that were watching our trailer to see their reactions and we also filmed three interviews about what the audience thought of our trailer. This allowed us to have in-depth feedback that we used to alter and improve our piece.





An Interview with fellow students about our trailer
Adobe Premier Elements
Adobe Premier Elements was another important programme that we used. This technology was mainly used in the construction stage of our project.
Adobe allowed us to edit our different video scenes, piece the scenes together, add music/sound and add various lighting and sound effects. This allowed us to construct our individual scenes into one trailer. An example of an effect that we used was editing lighting in the flashback scenes so that the colour was grey and black which connoted the danger and negativity in these scenes.
We also used different effects to highlight Strauss' Binary Opposites. In the first flashback scene the black and white served to emphasise the white coat of the secretary, which connoted purity and innocence, and the black shirt of the abusive boss, which suggested a dark and evil side to him. In all of our flashbacks we coloured picked the red iconic props that the characters had, e.g. a red ribbon. In this scene the boss wore a red tie and by colour picking this it suggested that he was a danger to the secretary. The effects used here served to emphasise the divide between the characters that represented 'good' and 'evil'.  The way we highlighted the Binary Opposites in our piece reinforced Propp's stock characters to the audience, for example, in this scene the boss is the villain. Another example of a stock character is Eva Banks who is the underdog. During the scene in which she discovers that her husband has been having an affair, the soundtrack is synchronised so that the lyrics "you're toxic" are clearly heard, which mirror the feelings of Eva Banks and this gains sympathy from the audience.
Adobe allowed us to improve certain scenes and edit any mistakes.
However, the programme was very complex and so it was sometimes difficult to add certain effects. One problem we had was inserting the BBC One I dent to our piece. We added the clip from YouTube which slowed the programme as it it had more to process. Because we added this clip we had to alter the soundtrack so that the music was in time but we originally forgot to mute the sound from the YouTube clip and so the sound clashed. We wanted to put a clip in reverse and to do this we had to use the internet to research how to do this.
Despite its issues however, the programme was extremely helpful when constructing our trailer.



Screenshot of the ending of our trailer on Adobe Premier Elements

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop was important in constructing the poster and the T.V. listings magazine.
Adobe was used to edit the picture that we took of bloody hands. We were able to select certain fonts for the text and insert them into the poster as well as add other pictures such as logos. For the poster we used the font ‘Roughwork’ as its strange and grotesque nature mirrors that of the asylum; this has a greater effect than using a default font. We added the BBC One logo and BBC IPlayer logo which made the poster look official.
Adobe was also used successfully in the construction of the T.V. listings cover. The programme allowed us to add captions, titles and other pictures to our original image, making it appear like a T.V. listings magazine and in keeping with the conventions of this genre of magazine. For example, we collected pictures from other soaps and dramas and inserted them around the image with captions and information about the shows.
We found Adobe Photoshop easy to use and we did not encounter any problems with the programme.




Final Poster constructed on Adobe Photoshop
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office was used in the research and evaluation stages of our soap opera project.
Word, PowerPoint and Excel were used in the research stage. Word and PowerPoint were used when researching about the soap opera genre, to record important information and then to upload onto Blogger, allowing to store this information safely, with easy access.
Excel was used in the evaluation process. Information from our audience feedback questionnaires were analysed in Excel and put into different graphs. This allowed us to analyse this information in-depth. This information was then used to help to make any alterations to our trailer in areas that the audience felt could be improved, improving the overall outcome of our trailer.



Tuesday, 2 December 2014

BBC One Idents for our Trailer (Thomas Brown and Annie Penn)

BBC One Idents- We researched into various BBC One idents to include at the end of our trailer and this is the shortlist of our favorites.



We used this clip for our trailer as we wanted to have the famous BBC One red circle ident as it is instantly recognizable and makes the trailer appear more professional. The other idents/trailers included the red circle but had other features that might distract from the information that we have included at the end of our trailer to inform the audience when the show is being aired. An example of this is the hippo ident; although memorable and recognizable there was little space to add text and the background could become distracting to the audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_YjBW5YWvI