This is our poster for Westbourne Way

This is our poster the shape of it is unconventinal as we are thinking that it would be viewed on the side of a bus.

Poster

This is the pencil sketch for the poster!

Music

We have customized and edited our music using the program Soundtrack pro. This program is very useful as it allowed us to shorten and length various sections of the music to fit in with our trailer sequence.

1st Draft of TV Listings Magazine

Here is the first draft of the TV Listings Magazine (created on Photoshop CS3).

Filming

Our main actress Hannah at the train station filming location!

Over the half term the group has been busy filming footage for our Soap Opera Trailer. Communication was a huge aspect of this part of the project as we had to discuss with one another where we had to be, who had to be there, what time we had to be there....and the list goes on! Also we had to contact other groups to arrange who needed to use the filming equipment when and how we would transport it between us.

Our group was fortunate enough to be able to work with an actress from our school; Hannah Howgill. Hannah is very good at drama so it made the process of filming ten times easier as she responded to our instructions very well and produced some really good footage.

We gained permission to film in a local train station which provided a very good setting for our trailer, the overall atmosphere on the day was brilliant. Also at this location we were able to capture still images for the poster and TV listings magazine.

Me (Sophie) using the camera and tri-pod!

Holly, Rachel and I all participated in operating the camera and capturing scenes. We each remembered the codes and conventions of Soap Opera trailers used a variety of different shots in various angles.

When we return back to school after half term we will be editing the footage to create our trailer!

Pencil draft of the TV listings magazine

When are we filming?

We have designed a filming schedule to know exactly what when and where we are filming! This has been devised  by the whole group!

Drink and drugs.

Due to the storyline for our trailer being based a lot on drug use and alcohol consumption it is important we do research as to what the facts are in relation to our target audience.

An article produced by the BBC 14^th December 2004 stated that  a survey of 15 and 16 year-olds found 26% of boys and 29% of girls in the UK had indulged in binge drinking at least three times in the previous month.

With relation to drug use it stated 42% of boys and 35% of girls admitted they had tried illegal drugs at least once.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4094183.stm

Obviously we have taken into account when this article was written (6 years ago) but drug and alcohol consumption by teenagers has continued to grow, therefore this indicates to us that this is a highly significant topic. Including this topic within our soap opera will mean that young people have a better understanding of drugs and alcohol, and encourage them to not use them.

Change of plan..

After reviewing the written storyboard, the group and I decided the story lines would not be interesting enough for our target audience. Our target audience probably wouldn't be interested in a young girl going missing and running away to the woods. Therefore, we have changed the story line slightly with more teenage antics involved, for example; drugs, drink and violence. I have written a new story board:

• Begins with a close up of a computer screen of a status being written on Facebook. Teenage girl (about 18) typing it is reading it out as she writes it - can only hear her not see her at this point - angry tone, talking as if she has gritted teeth and hitting the keys on the key board with some force. 

• Jump cut shot of the proposal - girls father down on one knee. The girls voice reading the status over the proposal. 

• Camera jumps back to close up of the computer screen. As she 'Posts' the status the camera jumps to her face - she squints her eyes as if she is thinking then breaths in deeply with anger.
• Shot of boy walking into the village (about 19/20) - new boy in town, has a map, is good looking. He stops to look around, smiles and nods to himself. 
• Back to the teenage girl standing infront of the window - beginning to get dark outside, she is putting her coat on and gets a bottle of wine out of the cupboard.
• She then gets some drugs out of a pocket of a pocket of a jumper in her cupboard, close of up drugs, then a close up of her face as she thinks about it. Then close up of her shoving them in her coat pocket.
• Shot of her Father and Step-mother-to-be cuddled up on the sofa.
• Teenage girl quietly shuts the front door behind her. 
• Jump cut to a man and woman (about mid 20s) looking at a pregnancy test with happy faces. 

• Teenage girl swaying down the road drinking out of the bottle, camera pans as she walks past the new boy looking at his map. 
• Camera whoosh to her sitting at the train station on the floor drinking out of the bottle, drunk, talking to herself about how much she dislikes her Fathers Fiancé. 

• Teenage girl's phone bleeps, close up of her pocket as she tries to get her phone out.
• Close up of phone screen - 'You're going to be an Auntie!!!'
• Close up of girl's face as she shakes her head and has another drink. 
• Long shot of her as people walk past and blur the screen. 
• close up of her putting her phone back in her pocket and looking at the drugs. 
• The new boy speaks, 'Alright luv?' and she quickly puts the drugs back in her pocket and the camera pans up to the boys face. 

• Girl gets up and tells him to leave him alone and starts shouting, he tries to calm her down, she goes to push him and as he goes to defend himself she falls over and hits her head.
• Ends with a close up of his face of fear as he has pushed her over, then a close up of her face, unconscious.  

Written story board..

As a group, having analysed the questionnaire results and collating the ideas of what our target audience are looking for in a soap opera, we discussed the story lines. We eventually came up with a written storyboard and decided that between each clip we are going to have text (one powerful word) to create more of a tense atmosphere.

Reader and Viewer Profile

We created a reader profile for our target audience who would be reading the TV listings magazine. It is usual for the older generation to read TV listings magazines; for example, mothers who work part time, which made it easier to decide our target audience. We have also created a viewer profile which is for those in which we aim to target that will watch the soap opera. We aimed this at younger adults as we believed, because we are of the same age, that our opinion and what we look for in soaps would help us out in what we are creating. This way, we can use our own expectations as well as our audience's.

Print Production Questionnaire

We created a print production questionnaire for our target audience to ascertain information of what they would like in order for us to create the perfect TV listings magazine front cover and poster!

After distributing the questionnaires I have analysed the results and here are the findings:

• The majority of our target audience don't purchase TV listings magazines, and wouldn't buy one if there was one to be produced at their age group. This therefore indicates to our previous research from the National Readership Survey was correct and this means we will be producing a TV listings magazine that is aimed for an older target audience.
• The most popular TV listings magazine design was one that featured gender neutral colours. The comments as to why they choose that cover were, "Less busy, good layout, one main story'.
• The majority of people wanted to characters to appear on the front cover, and it was the characters who attracted people to the front cover of a TV listings magazine.
• The majority didn't want the poster and the TV listings magazine to be related.
• The most popular soap opera poster was one which featured the male cast from Hollyoaks which was edited with layers to add depth.
• The target audience want the image of the poster to be shot in the location of filming.
• The thing that most interested people about a poster was; the main focal point and the text on the poster.

• The majority of people choose for the poster to not feature any characters but to feature another aspect of the soap.

Rachel Kellers

I have joined the group now which is really exciting and I am enjoying it alot and I am growing to really like the task!!

I have correlated the scores that I have got from handing out the soap questionnaire that Holly made. I have found that the storylines that most people wanted to see in our trailer was wedding propsal, arguments and missing persons.The things that people like about soaps is their connection to real life and also that there is some characters that the people can relate to. And the things that people do not like is that they try to do to many things and storylines at once and also that the things that are going on are sometimes too extreme. I also found that most people watched soap on their own and on the internet.
The most common areas that are wanted are a woodland area and also a housing estate or a street. The characters that are wanted to be seen are the Heros, Joker, Gossip, Troubled Teen and also an attractive male/female. In the trailer they wanted to see a couple of storylines references but not too many. Also the music should be brash and noisy. They would like too see the soap on a Tuesday, Thursday and a Sunday at 9 till 9.30. And the name should be a reference to where the place is set.

Based on the findings of the questionnaires we have decided on the narrative. We have decided that it will start with a missing person poster and then flash to a proposal and before this a word will flash up like Sadness and we will have different emotive words before the different scenes. The person who has just propsed is the dad to a 14 year old girl who has run away and he goes into her room and  starts to cry and a close up is then on a picture in the background of the girl and her mum who have split up. We then decided there would be a couple with a pregnancy test and it is positive and they are relly happy as they have been trying for ages. There is then the missing girl is first introduced and she is walking through a wooded area with a bag and her bedding. There is then an attractive person who walks down the street of where the drama is set. The second to last scene is of a search party looking for the missing girl and then last is the missing who looks behind her and then the screen goes black and you hear a scream. As we had the lesson off on Monday a drew out the storyboard as my task.

Who reads it?

Following our last post of analysing the codes and conventions of a TV Listings magazine front cover, we conducted further research into who reads TV Listings magazines.

The national readership survey websites gives statistics of who reads these magazines, here are our findings:

The majority of people who read TV magazines are:

• 
  
  Aged 45 or over
• 
  
  Female
• 
  
  Classified in the C2DE social grade

The C2DE Social Grade are those who are skilled working class, working class and those who are the lowest level of subsistence. From these results we now have to consider aiming our TV Listings Magazine to a different target audience to our soap opera (target audience 17-27 years old). We have issued questionnaires asking questions in relation to this issue, so when we receive the results we will then be able to discover the target audience for our TV Listings magazine!

Research part 1..

To begin our research, Sophie and I (Holly) have looked at some current TV listings magazines in order to look at the codes and conventions. We have analysed these magazines and written up our findings:

Codes and conventions for TV listings magazine


We Love Telly

• Main image of characters which takes up majority of the page making eye contact. The costumes they are wearing are similar colour to the background, keeping house style consistent.

• Three similar font styles were used on the front page which, these were simple and clear to read.

TV Choice

• 3D layering effect of images and text – image overlapping the masthead making the image more important and eye catching.

• Bold explosion puff containing the price situated on two areas of the page.

TV Easy

• Table down the side containing days of the week and an image from the best soap of that day.

• Consistent house style in fonts and background colour.

Summary

After collecting codes and conventions from all of the above magazines these are the overall conventions of a TV listings magazine:

• Shots of character.

• Thumbnail images of soap scenes.

• The language is teasing, emotive, and dramatic.

• Bright primary colours are used.

• Several TV dramas are being promoted.

• The characters are not always identified.

• Several layers add depth to the page.

• Familiar format of fashion, glamour magazines – non glossy.

• The cost of the magazine is shown in puffs.

• The image is a studio shot with eye contact and is generally a mid shot.

• One or two characters.

• The lead story = the biggest font which is displayed across the main image.

A new beginning

This is the start of mine and Holly's A2 Media Production. Throughout the course of the production we will be updating this blog to feature all the different stages of our project.
This will include:

• Research
• Planning
• Production
• Evaluation

Before we have even got into much depth in our project changes have already been made. I (Sophie) was originally in a group with another student but felt due to timetable clashes that we would not be suitable to working with eachother as it would have been difficult arranging meeting times to produce our Soap Opera trailer. Therefore the decision was made to move into another group where Holly and I will be working together, due to having similar timetables and living close to oneanother therefore allowing us to communicate in a much better way! I am pleased with this decision and am looking forward to working with Holly on this production!

Sophie