G324: Advanced Media Portfolio 0139, 0151, 9145: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Main Forms and Genre Conventions - Compare to existing soaps

•Characters,

•Costumes,

•Props,

•Facial expressions,

•Body language,

•Music/soundtrack/voice over,

•Lengths of shots,

•Themes,

•Locations.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

One of the main conventions of a soap opera is the use of characters which falls under the cateogry of mise en scene; these characters can be portrayed through the use of stock characters from the theorist Vladimir Propp and also the costumes that they wear. We decided to develop and challenge the conventions of a soap opera in our A2 Media Soap Opera, we also developed the ideas we used from other soap opera characters.
using these other soap opera characters enabled us to make realistic, noticeable and standing out characteristics which can be easily relatable to the audience.

Starting with our main characters and whether we use, develop or challenged these conventions.

Jeffrey Anderson: Abusive Boss ( Vladamir Propp Stock Character: Super Villain)

Fairfield (Jeffery)

According to Vladimir Propp's stock characters, this character is labelled as a super villain. We used and developed the idea of this character being a super villain as it fits in with the conventional way of the bad boy/business man.

We labelled this character as that as he uses others to get what he wants, he abuses his receptionist and takes advantage of his position. This is the typical stereotype of this character, we used this in our piece to show the original conventions of a soap. However, we developed this idea so it would be a subtle hint that is what he is doing by going up behind her and removing the ribbon from her neck.

Clip from Fairfield

EastEnders (Michael Moon)

We decided to use this conventional character as he plays a big role in soap operas. An example of this is Michael Moon from EastEnders, he uses his position to manipulate Alice into doing what he wants. We wanted to use this which we then further developed into him taking advantage in a sexual way rather than manipulation. We decided on the name Jeffrey as it is an innocent name contrasting with the personality of the character.

Costume:

We also looked at the costume aspect of this character/stock character. After researching we discovered that this type of character was very prone to wearing dark colours with elements of contrasting colours. For example, in the picture Michael Moon is wearing black and is in front of a dark background. This makes his white bright shirt stand out from the picture; we then compared this with our character and his costume. We decided to have a black shirt with white rims and a bright red tie. This tie really stood out as his element of red, which shows his danger as a character.

We developed the idea of having the common costume for a soap opera villain which is a suit, this is shown from EastEnders Michael Moon or Max Branning.We developed this into just having the formal suit and tie to show he is the top of the asylum.

Max (Eastenders)

Lexi Phillips: Abused Receptionist (Vladamir Propp Stock Character: Innocent & The Girl Next Door)

Lexi Phillips (Fairfield)

The innocent and the girl next door stock characters fit in with this character. As she is an innocent person who is getting abused for someone else's pleasure, she is a young victim who can't get out of this situation she is in. This could also be related to Denise (Eastenders) who was locked up by her 'newly wedded husband'. She was an innocent victim who was locked away from her family and friends, kept as a prisoner by someone who was supposed to love her.

Denise (EastEnders)

This character, also fits in with the girl next door stock character. This is because when she first arrived at the asylum to start working she was a flirty, outgoing girl who ended up trusting the wrong people and is now paying the consequences for it.

Not many soap operas shows the strand of rape or sexual abuse very often. Recently shown in EastEnders between Dean and Linda, but also some American Soap Operas show this strand such as Dallas. Some soap opera directors believe it is too hard-hitting for viewers to see such a thing.

In our media product, we decided to look at this strand and develop our ideas into how can we suggest that this is happening to Lexi?We decided to develop the idea that the ribbon around her neck would fall to the floor suggesting he is stripping her of her purity and innocence.

Emma (Dallas)

Costume:

This character's costume was closer to represent that there she has no innocence left. This was portrayed with her from her black dress. This is the pit of darkness that her life brings and how those around her make her feel, not just her emotions, but also her self-confidence and self-esteem.

We developed this idea of Lexi having a security item. We later decided to have the red ribbon around her neck. We chose this because when then neck is exposed which can represent her vulnerability and exposure.

The red ribbon represents her security and as she rebuilds herself it is taken away when Jeffery takes the ribbon off when abusing her, taking away her security and self-confidence.

Clip from Fairfield

Stephen Jones: Mental Patient (Vladamir Propp Stock Character: The Bungler)

Stephen Jones (Fairfield)

This character is classed as the bungler according to Vladamir Propp's stock characters due to how he had been put into a situation where he is in 'Fairfield' mental asylum, when he is not really crazy, he has just been set up to be. Even though Stephen is sane, doctors have reasons to put him in there even though he was set up for this. This shows that Stephen has drawn the short straw and doesn't know how to get out of it, if no one will listen to him as they believe he is crazy and needs to be there. We decided Stephen would be a reflection of Billy Mitchell from EastEnders. This is because Billy has always got the rough end of the deal. He is always left in a bad situation where he had to get the family members to pull him out of debt, divorce, breakdowns or death. This shows that his character can never catch a break and there is always a problem he has to face. We wanted Stephen to be like this. It shows that no matter how well you do in life, something will come around the corner and mess this up for you. This shows that his character can never catch a break and there is always a problem he has to face with.

Billy Mitchell (EastEnders)

Costume:

Stephen's costume is based around the image of a mental patient, some residents would be allowed to wear their own clothing as long as there was no potential hazard involved. Therefore, the string of his hoodie would have been removed. We used the conventions of a soap opera to show the personality of the character. This is why Stephen is in dull dark clothing. An example of when it has been used is to show the innocence of a character; Alice (EastEnders) wearing the pretty, flowing dress, with clean cut hair, looking sweet and innocent and not intimidating.

Clip from Fairfield

Alice (EastEnders)

Ava Banks - (Vladamir Propps Stock Character: The Ultimate Power Couple & The Underdog)

Ava Banks (Fairfield)

Ava's character is classed as one part of the ultimate power couple, this is due to her always going back to her fiancé no matter what happens between them. She will always go back to him and make things work until the next slip up. He is prone to cheating which makes Ava feel very self-conscious about herself and she wonders whether she should trust him or not. The music we used really works well with the fiancé

character as he is 'Toxic', but Ava always goes back because he makes her feel good for a little while. Ava is also known as the underdog as she is in this asylum due to trying to commit suicide because her fiancé treats her in a bad way by cheating on her etc. This makes Ava the underdog as she is constantly thrown things that she may not be able to handle and now she is in this situation because of it. We used this idea of a couple from EastEnders, our very own Kat and Alfie Moon, These two characters have been through so much and are still going through more and they have been broken up, but they always get back together and they are one of viewers favourite couples.

Kat and Alfie Moon (EastEnders)

Costume:

We chose two different costumes for Ava; one to show her in the mental asylum wearing a baggy grey shirt to portray there is just dullness left in her life and then casual wear in her flashbacks to show the contrast of what she was and how she is now. These two contrasts are the development of the conventions of costumes because in normal situations the costumes for a character would be very similar showing their personality off through what they wear.

However, Ava's character changes this as her whole personality is taken away when she is put into the mental asylum. An example of the conventions of costume being the same would be Tina (EastEnders) who always wears similar clothing throughout the episodes.

Tina (EastEnders)

Elsa Regbo - (Vladamir Propp Stock Character: The Vamp)

Elsa Regbo (Fairfield)

This character is known as the Vamp, she is a seductive character who will always get what she wants. Elsa works at asylum as a nurse, but the twist is that she is also a drug addict who is using her position at the asylum to get her hit. This again links so well with the music as it says “too high” when Lauren pours the pills out and takes them. This was commented on when we did the viewing as many audience members commented that Lauren looked pale and spaced out in her next shot which made this more realistic.

We developed this character from a mixture of different characters, Janine (EastEnders) and Lauren (EastEnders).We interpreted and developed Janine’s character as a "putting yourself out there" woman who uses her sexuality to attract the opposite sex and get what she wants. Laurens character was further developed as Lauren has an alcohol addiction rather than a drug addiction.

Lauren (EastEnders)

Janie (EastEnders)

Costume:

Elsa's costume is mainly based on her profession of being a nurse in the asylum. The black and red suggests danger and mystery in the character showing she is a seductive, dangerous woman. This is then backed up by her being the mistress to Ava's fiance. We also had this character as the drug addict as she has access to the pills every day she is at work, therefore, that is where she gets her 'hit' from.

Elsa does wear casual clothing, but it is not often she will be seen like that as she is a professional woman who likes to keep her image that way. However, she does have something to hide and that is her addiction. Therefore, she doesn't like other people getting involved in her business and like to keep to herself as she is the only one she can trust. This follows the conventions of a soap opera with Lauren (Eastenders) who, when having an alcohol addiction, didn't like anyone trying to influence her life and tried to hide away.

Linking in with the theory of the male gaze from Laura Mulvey, the purpose of this theory is to put the view of a heterosexual male. This theory believed that women are an object and therefore, are perceived as this by the use of camera angles and shot. There are two levels in which a woman can be perceived as which are either an erotic object or as a spectator watching.
In our soap opera, we looked at the theory of the male gaze in the characters costume, therefore this was a short dress and a low-cut and revealing top half. This shows the sexiness of her character which is also represented by the colour.

Location

Location was our biggest challenge of conventions in our media product. Whereas many soap operas are located in squares or villages, our media piece is located in an asylum. We wanted our piece to challenge this convention to be original and creative. We chose to do an establishing shot of 'Shuttleworth House' which looks as if it could be an asylum.

The usual location:

Coronation Street

Albert Square

Our Media Location:

Fairfield Asylum

Props

Drugs:

We used the idea of having drugs placed on a tray with the bottle lid filled. This was to show the opportunities for those who need a 'hit' when working in the mental asylum and how easy it is to gain access to these drugs.

From this, we wanted the viewers to see Elsa (Lauren) putting the bottle of pills in her pocket. Later we see her going into the bathroom to take them.

We used music as a key element of this on two occasions; 1. "Too High" as Elsa pours out the pills onto the counter where she later puts them into her mouth as stares at the mirror. 2. "Sip from my Devil's Cup" as Lauren (Elsa) is handing the lid of pills to Annie (Ava) for her to take. We thought these really fitted in and worked well with these two elements because not only did it aid the audience visually but also through audio.

1. 2.

Ring:

We used and developed the idea of the rings, we wanted to put a subtle hint of the ring in our piece to see if viewers would notice. We used similar rings for both Lauren and Annie to show that the fiance gave all of his "lovers" or "girlfriend" the same ring.

This was successful as our viewers did notice this and commented on it in our questionnaires.

Knife:

We wanted to show both the ring and the knife falling into the sink. This was an effective section of our product because it is why Ava (Annie) is in the asylum to begin with and shows the connection between her and Elsa (Lauren).

We decided to do a slow motion action for when the knife falls to create more of an impact on the significance of the knife. This is a challenge of the conventions of a soap opera as they do not use slow motion very often. This could be because they want it to be as realistic as possible.

Red elements:

We used red elements in our piece which were shown in the 'flashbacks' of characters. This was to show the connotation of danger and lust. We found this effective and also a challenge to create, but this challenged the conventions of a soap opera. It did this by having the flashback elements but also having black and white with aspects of colour.

Music (Yaël Naïm - Toxic)

We looked at many different music tracks to see which would fit with our piece the best, from this we came down with two - "Ain't No Sunshine" by Coeur De Pirate and Yaël Naïm - "Toxic".

In the end, we chose: Yaël Naïm - "Toxic".