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.

Soap Opera Planning

As a pair, hannah and I researched many Soap Opera TV trailers so we could get inspiration in creating our own. We found many creative trailers so we were inspired by making our own very creative and interesting. We came up with an idea of basing our TV trailer on five themes. We chose themes that would target our target audience and even a wider audience due to the way we are going to produce our trailer. We have decided to only show a small glimpse of each theme we are going to include so it really teases the audience.
The themes we have decided to include are:

• Love
• Betrayal
• Hate
• Mistakes
• Death

throughout the trailer, we have decided to only capture a few moments of the themes so we don't give too much away to our audience. By doing this, hopefully we will be able to get a broader audience as no one will know what is going to happen in the TV programme. Each theme will be shown as very eye-catching.
Only showing a small glimpse of the drama that is going to be happening in the programme itself, really shows that we have researched and watched how TV drama trailers are shown. Watching TV trailers of TV dramas has really helped us as they tease the audience a lot and really leave the audience wanting to know more. Therefore, the dramas will be gain more of an audience during the week.

We wrote down in note form some brief ideas of what we would like to for each theme in the trailer.

• Love- We have decided to involve a male and female holding hands in public or sharing a affectionate kiss in public on the cheek.
• Betrayal- Will feature a character walking into a bedroom seeing their friend with her boyfriend/partner. We decided to add certain camera shots in this theme to create more of a dramatic affect. We decided to create a close-up of the character's hand opening to door of the bedroom and then a zoom onto the piles of clothes on the floor. As the theme we have chosen is a bit 'too close for comfort' we figured we could use any figures in the bed, as If we were to add a male and female in a bed together and show faces, it would be hard to find people who would want to act this out for us, so we decided to just put anyone in the bed as long as it shows clearly two figures and show no faces. We have planned to shoot this at my house as we are going to take it in turns at each other's houses.
• Hate- Even though many dramas include violence, we have decided not to do this so we are going to film Hannah's sister Gemma throwing a photograph of her best friend or boyfriend into a fireplace. We decided to add another close up in this theme on the photographs burning in the fire. We have planned to do this at Hannah's house as we are using her sister for this theme. 
• Mistakes- We thought it would be hard to come up with an idea for this theme as we can't really film a mistake. So we have decided to keep it simple and film a girl sitting on a toilet looking upset, distraught and angry with herself.
• Death-For this final theme, again we didn't want to show anything violent so we have decided to film two characters (possibly siblings) to stand in front of a grave stone in a graveyard staring blankly and showing a little saddness.

Research and analysis for a soap opera poster

What is a poster?The point of having posters is to mainly advertise something like a product. This is a good way to make the product look better than it actually is to gain more of an audience. For example, cosmetics or clothing. A poster could also be created to maybe get a point across, an example of this would be a stop bullying poster/campaign so people can relate to these posters and seek help. In this case we will be creating a poster which will be advertising a new TV programme which is going to be a soap opera. Posters are cheap to produce and easy to present as they can just be stuck in shop windows or can easily be given to volunteers to hand out for you. Posters can vary in different sizes depending on what location or where they're going to be shown, so that's an advantage for producing posters.
Different types of promotional posters are:
- Flyers and brochures- may be seen as a type of a promotional poster even though it may not hang up on a wall, it is still an advertisement.
-Promotional banners/billboards- Large posters are more likely to be expensive, but the advantage would be that they are very eye-catching. Towns and Cities are most likely to use these as they are very large and can be any size. They are very popular to advertise something temporary for a new film, cosmetic or a community festival. You would see these on the sides of buildings. For example, supermarkets, fitness centers or local colleges/universities etc.. To sum this up, they are more than likely to be seen on a community area where most people will see them.
-Motivational poster-it is a wall hanging decorative poster which is designed to inspire and motivate people in a certain setting. They are common in work places as well as in a school/college/university to inspire young people.They contain positive texts and images which help send off a good message to young students. It is known that the two most common imagery on motivational posters are athletes and animals for young children. An example of this would be a message saying "hang in there" with a picture of a cat holding onto a tree to motivate, images like this are also commin in a classroom of children at a young age. The athlete image is most likely to be used for older students or in work places. This is to encourage people to work hard or to keep trying. The athletes which are included are usually a professional or maybe an athlete with a challenge or disability so that these images can inspire the people who are having a difficult time. These posters usually include nice quotes or a religious phrase but could also have a made up quote by the person who creates the poster.

Soap Opera poster analysis:

These three posters all contain many similarities. They don't all contain a lot of detail and don't give any clues to what is going to happen in the programmes/films apart from maybe the poster on the top left. This is because of the image shown and the tag line "every parent's nightmare". This being the tag line shows that some stress is going to happen in the programme and the girl in the poster is going to go 'off the rails'. The top right poster doesn't give us any clue on what is going to happen in the fllm. The only clue we get is that it is a comedy due to the quote being "Flat-out funny". The imagery on the poster represents the funny side due to the facial expressions of the man and the image altogether being quite surreal and abnormal. It is a picture that you cannot take seriously.
The bottom poster gives off different impressions but still doesn't give us as the audience any clue of what is going to happen in this programme/film. The first impressions I got were that it is going to be a horror. As me and my partner have decided to create a billboard, we gathered that they have to be very striking and eye catching. Researching different types of posters has helped us come up with an idea for our own. By research, it is shown that the image is the most eye catching on the posters so the image has to be very interesting. As for the rest of the poster itself, hardly any text is added and when there is, the text is very persuading. The reason for this is because the billboards are mostly viewed by people travelling by cars so won't have time to read text on the posters, so most billboard posters only show a tag line or the if the programme/film has been advertised a lot else where, the poster will only contain the title of the programme/film as people would automatically know what the programme/film is about because it has been advertised well.

Channel 4.We found that Channel four are very good at advertising their new up and coming TV programmes. They have a good use of colour scheme and only little text and each billboardposter are very interesting and eye-catching. Having a bright color scheme like this billboard shows us as the audience a hint of what is going to happen in the next few series of Hollyoaks. The tag line also gives us a massive hint as by including fire in the image and saying "A week that will change Hollyoaks forever" clearly shows that something bad is going to happen as fire is a symbol of danger and warning. That is why it will be very eye-catching for its audience. Having a plain black background really brings out the imagery as it is a contrast colour to the orange and yellows.

Using this as inspiration, made us want to create our billboard poster like this as it clearly states some hints of what is going to happen in the up and coming series.

Analysis of Hollyoaks

The first broadcast of Hollyoaks was on Channel 4 on the 23rd of October 1995 in a fictional area of Chester. It is now still continuing through 2013. Due to research, back in 1995, the characters were a lot different to how they are now as a lot of adults were actors. Nowadays, Hollyoaks represent young adults or just young people who are students. This makes the audience for Hollyoaks young people as the majority of the cast are aged around mid-20s. The soap opera like to contain a lot of drama due to it being a TV drama but the programme itself can come across as a comedy to critics due to how fictional it really is. In the beginning of 1995, the programme only had 7 cast members but today it has around 50 main cast members. This shows how much things have changed throughout the years and how much they have gained profit. It has gained critical attention in papers such as The Guardian, and at several award shows, and was praised for its portrayal of the gay relationship between characters John Paul and Craig.
In this trailer, having all of the characters together on set shows that there is going to be a close bond between the characters as there are only a small amount, which could mean a lot of drama. Having the little clips of the characters in black and white gives us a little idea of how the characters are going to act or give us an idea of what their personalities are like.
Today in the TV drama, every issue that seems to happen is slightly over-reacted and isn't so much to do with social realism. In my own opinion, it has changed a lot as the acting that is involved seems to come across as quite cringey and it is hard to take serious. I can imagine that it would be hard for some of the audience to relate. Even though a lot of problems occur in the series, The producers seem to make everything in a brighter light so the issues aren't so negative all of the time. I believe this is to do with the drama nowadays being revolved around a younger cast.

Analysis of Eastenders.

• The beginning of Eastenders shows us that it is set in London because of this picture and because of the name being 'EASTenders' shows us that it is set in the East of London.
• The BBC logo shows us who supports the TV Drama.
• When the theme tune plays at the beginning of the programme, this picture is shown. If we didn't see the Eastenders title, we would automatically know that it will be Eastenders due to the distinctive theme tune created. The theme tune is created in quite a depressing way with instruments of drums and piano which will give the audience an idea that the episodes aren't going to be so happy as drama will happen like it does in every episode.

Eastenders first trailer.

Eastenders first trailer straight away proves to us that it was created a very long time ago. It was released in 1985 which is obvious because of the screening put together as it looks very old. This is also because of how short it is and the little used in the trailer. It is very interesting to watch as the trailer doesn't involve any shots or any characters from the soap opera. It doesn't show any complication, it is just kept short and simple. The only thing that is kept the same today is the non-diegetic theme tune which is played in the background. This can be used to create a certain mood and as the theme tune has a use of depressing instruments like drums and a piano, we know that the episode will probably include something depressing. This trailer shows us exactly how times have changed and how much money they have earned from then until now as you can tell by how short the trailer is, it looks as if  Eastenders started on little money, therefore, this trailer was probably created on a low budget. Nowadays in the trailers, they contain the theme tune as well as some characters acting and maybe even some non-diegetic tunes, the logo and the name of the soap opera. But in this trailer, it is amazing how it has contained two clips of ttransport, the name of the soap, theme tune and logo within just twelve seconds. The only problem with this trailer would be as it doesn't contain any clips of the soap opera or characters, no one would actually know what Eastenders is as it doesn't give out any clues of what could happen in the programme. If that was shown nowadays, people may believe that the soap opera is revolved aroumd transport. This proves that if housewives didn't start to watch it in the daytime, it would have been difficult to get a popular audience.

In comparison to both of these trailers, this one is the complete opposite as the trailer this time involves characters from the soap opera. One of the key selling points to this trailer would be that it relies on the audience's knowledge. By involving the characters in the trailer, the trailer straight away appeals to the everyday audience and won't appeal to people who don't watch the soap opera as they won't know who the characters are in the trailer. Nowadays in the modern society, the trailers for Eastenders are very dramatic and a tense mood is created in every trailer. By this being created, it creates a specific mood for the audience when they see this tailer on TV. The trailers are shown to be quite serious even though if you watch the programme, you will know it isn't serious at all. People that do not watch Eastenders but seen this trailer, would think that Eastenders is slightly strange, but to the regular audience's, the trailer would probably make you as shocked as the viewers that don't watch Eastenders, as this trailer is showing that Kat and Alfie are back. The trailers that are created to advertise the up and coming storyline in the programme don't at all include any shots or clips from the programme, a scene has been specifically created just to advertise whats going to happen in the programme during the week coming. This also makes the trailer rely on the viewers of Eastenders knowledge as if they didn't know who the characters are that has been shown in the trailer, they won't understand the dramatic affect. People that watch Eastenders will know that Kat as a character with a lot of drama, therefore this trailer will imply that within the next couple of episodes, the programme will be revolved around Kat and Alfie which means that it is most likely that Kat will be causing some sort of trouble with her return. There is an advantage for people that don't watch eastenders, as by watching the next few episodes, it will show what happened in Kat's past, therefore, new viewers will know what has been going on in Eastenders and watch the rest of the episodes as the stories and dramas develop.

Mise-En-SceneEastenders has been created to be as realistic as possible so that the audience can relate to the problems some of the characters have in the soap opera. That is a reason for it being a TV 'drama'. So to make the programme realistic, in all of the homes, the decor is quite simple and in the homes of the elderly, there are no latest gadgets or no update of decor in their houses. Everything in the homes stay the same and it is very unlikely that they will change it. Even though there are some characters that are represented as weathly, they still don't have the latest gadgets in their households or live in big houses. This shows that the majority of the characters are just represented as a working class/lower class society. As nothing changes within Eastenders, it shows that in some way it isn't realistic as it shows a small world stuck in it's own ways.