Evaluation

A2 media evaluation from MatildaCook

Final Soap TV Trailer.

Soap Opera Poster/Billboard Process/analysis.

 

 

 

Initial Ideas.

For our poster/billboard, we decided to take inspirtation from Channel 4/E4's posters and billboards. The reason for this is because through research, we discovered that Soap Operas do not advertise their TV programme on any poster or billboard. Therefore, we decided to look at other channels that advertise their dramas on posters/billboards. It is shown through research that the advertisements don't let on to the audience too much of what's going to happen in the series of the programme. We figured that the image on the poster/billboard is an image that relates to the episodes.

Camera.For our photography, we decided to take pictures of our two main characters in our Soap Opera. We decided that we wanted our poster to look mysterious, as that is what we saw on some posters/billboards during research. An example of this would have been the skins poster. We decided on having a long/close-up shot of our characters because we wanted to engage our audience and to make them think that there is some mystery behind our characters. The reason for us involving a longish shot, is because we don't want our audience guessing any emotions our characters in our Soap are holding. Therefore, this creates the mystery. Although we had done this, we still want our audience to see some emotion, so we still made sure our audience could still see the details of our character's faces.This is why we got our characters to look straight down the lense of the camera. This gave me the idea that the characters are involving the audience by giving them eye contact.

Mise-En-Scene.
We decided to have our characters laying on the floor, so it gives us a plain background and so we can give off to the audience a little hint on how they're feeling. This is why I decided to put the image in black and white so that the audience can kind of see how they are feeling due to the photography being dark.We made sure that the clothes they wore were dull colours as I knew I was going to put the image in black and white so we can communicate with the audience how the characters are feeling. Having certain parts of the image in blacks really gives off an effect of how the emotions are going to be shown throughout the whole series of our new Soap. I figured that the black and white contrasted well with the purple and white logo on the image as the colours are complete opposites. The logo is added onto the poster/billboard, so that our audience know that the programme will only be shown on Channel 4's channel;E4. This informs the audience with important information, so having this in a bright bold colour means that it will go unseen and will catch the audience's eye.
I wanted to create some sort of affect with the poster/billboard, so I decided on tying different things with the colour tones. I tried to create this by adding shadowing so that the audience have suspicions of the characters and to really try and bring out their personalities as an individual. I decided on trying to make them look contrasted as I decided to make sure that Amy wore a dark top as she has light hair, and she Gemma to wear a lighter top as she has dark hair. I tried to make this obvious by putting the image into black and white and then using a lot of hue and saturation, so that these elements become obvious. I also tried to make their skin look glowing yet dull and drained so that the colours go well with the colour scheme. I wanted their skin colour to be a contrast to their hair, clothing and background, and also wanted them to match the text on the logo and information box.
We decided to produce our poster/billboard as if it is going to be shown on E4, due to this channel mainly advertising their programmes on billboards.
We decided on adding '#behindcloseddoors' onto our poster/billboard as social media is a very mainstream thing. Having added a hash tag for the Web 2.0 Twitter, means that ourselves and our new Soap Opera can interact with our audience personally as Twitter is very personal. This can also give companies feedback on how their programmes are doing, as tweets are always made about programmes. Throughout research and watching TV programmes on TV, it is noticable that the new up and coming TV programmes are creating Twitter and Facebook pages for their programmes so they can take advantage of making their progammes better.
The release date is very common on all posters and billboards so I added that on very simple so that if this image was as a billboard, viewers that drive by in cars etc, will quickly see the information of when it is being viewed. This is why I have kept the information less busy and very simple.

I didn't have any drafts of this poster/billboard as I knew straight away what I was going to create and because it was fairly simple.

Through creating this, I have found many more skills by using photoshop and how to take a certain image that creates certain emotions. I have learned how to use the hue and saturation, contrast and tone, colour balance, magic wand tool, spot mending brush and the clone tool all on photoshop just by creating this poster/billboard. Even though it looks very simple and easy, realistically I had trouble trying to make this look good as I do not know how to use Photoshop that well. 

 

Soap Opera Magazine Front Cover

Here is our final Soap Opera magazine front cover. Research gave us a lot of inspiration on how to design our own. We figured that we wanted to use bright clashy colours and only a couple of images. The reason we decided this was because we saw that on the front cover of 'Whats On TV' magazine, they only involve a couple or one image. We decided to focus on the wording of our magazine front cover as we really want our audience to take in what is going to be happening in the up and coming series of 'Behind Closed Doors'. We used a lot of bold writing which we thought would hopefully engage our audience into wanting to read more. We decided that we didn't really want to make it exactly the same as TV magazines and just wanted to show that they did inspire us.

By using the colour red symbolises 'danger', therefore, creating this will draw our audience in to wanting to read more on the 'juicy gossip' we have to share.

Preperation For Filming Our Advert

My partner Hannah Clark and I have come to the conclusion on what is going to be happening in our trailer. We have decided on the Costume, Location and Music. We planned on filming on the 25th of March as that fit in with our work schedules and school schedule, but unfortunately it didn't happen due to finding people to record. We decided on using our friends Charlotte Gatton, Vanessa Lane and Melissa Penney, but the filming couldn't happen when we needed it to so we ended up just using Hannah's sisters which are Gemma and Amy Clark.

Location.As we decided to keep our trailer linked to social realism, we decided to film our trailer at one household so it wouldn't confuse our audience filming in all different places. We also wanted to make it so families can relate to our problems, that's the reason why we wanted to keep it in a home envirnonment. In each scene, it will show a different problem occuring in a different location of the house. Therefore, it wouldn't bore the audience and it would make the trailer a lot more interesting.

Mise-En-Scene.As Soap Operas show social realism, we have made sure that the mise-en-scene represents this. The way we achieved this was by keeping the clothing very simple and casual. We decided we wanted to base our clothing on the usual casual everyday wear which is jeans, a plain top and just a normal shoe whether its trainers or small dolly shoes. This was mainly only shown in the scene where Gemma is escaping from her house. In other scenes for example the 'mistakes' scene, we decided to dress Amy in her nightwear due to her being stressed and giving the impression that she is really hurting about that mistake she has done, therefore, she wouldn't be caring about her appearance. In the scene 'Death', we wanted to represent someone from the younger generation going through a struggle of losing someone, so the mise-en-scene we wanted to portray would be Amy in her school uniform. By creating the mise-en-scene this way, we thought we would really show the emotions of the characters and our audience can relate to how they are feeling.

Music.For our trailer, we wanted it to be a big tease to our audience so we decided to only use a soundtrack and not any real life action with people speaking. We thought by doing this, it would create suspicion to our audience and would be a good way for them to persuade them into watching our 'Soap Opera'. It was hard to find a soundtrack as we wanted it to be instrumental, but in the end we found a suitable soundtrack which we thought would be appropriate for our trailer. We found 'Radioactive (137 bpm instrumental version)'. We didn't want to add any major or a popular soundtrack in the background of our trailer as we didn't want to take any attention away from the video itself. This is why we have chosen to keep a steady beat throughout.

A Soap Opera Poster/Billboard

Through research, I have gathered that Soap Operas do not have poster's or billboards which advertise their programme. Through research also, more of the TV channels that involve dramas like 'E4 or Channel 4' advertise their programmes. Therefore, I got ideas for the billboard poster I am designing by researching their posters/billboards.

I have gathered that these billboards/posters are very plan and only include the E4 logo, title and the date it will be broadcasted. Even though they are very plain, the images that are used are quite effective due to the type of image used. The images are also very eye-catching due to the actions taking place and even in some the colours. Having a very plain poster like the 'phoneshop' one, really creates suspicion to the audience so it will make them want to watch the programme so they can find out what is going to happen. This is a good way to persuade the audience. Also linking the colour of the poster in with the words, shows the creative side on what the creators are trying to do.

Our inspiration on how to design our Soap Opera magazine front cover

Myself and Hannah decided to do some more research on Soap Opera TV magazine front covers so we could get inspiration on how to design our own. We decided to focus on a specific front cover which is the magazine 'What's On TV'. We were inspired by this specific magazine because it is a very successful magazine and always involve the up and coming storylines. Therefore, we gathered that this would be the most appropriate to relate to our own magazine front cover.


I like how these magazines have a certain layout and genre and are always very eye-catching. This is because of the striking image and clashing of colours.These elements are a good way to really catch the audience eye and make them want to read more of the drama thats going to happen in the series within the next week. The tag line/title is always big and bold to give the audience the 'gossip' of what is going to happen. The text is also a use of persuasive language which draws the audience's attention more along with it being a clashy colour that stands out more than the rest of the text on the cover.