Group Planning: Pitch

Left: Seb Hall, Centre Left: David Maddy, Centre Right: Myself - Dalian White, Right: Philip Gatward

In order to obtain feedback on our goups ideas for a new soap and trailer, we had to plan and deliver a pitch to the class.

Our roles which we assigned within our group for the pitch were and a description of each section:

Seb: Name and Channel, Roles.

As we was undecided on a name for our soap we did not have a title for our soap in time for the pitch.

The chanel we chose to air our soap on was BBC 1; the main aim for this was to be the channels equivalent to Channel 4's Hollyoaks, we felt this would be new for the channel and attract younger audiences to watch.

David: Location Photos, Music.

For our group planning we needed location photos in order to find locations where we would be able to film our footage. After taking photos for our planning we used them in our pitch, the key locations within our pitch was the Pig and Falcon (Pub/Communal Area), and an Alley (for drug scene). We was also still undecided on the music for our soap as we was still planning our storyboards for the soap, a website which we had been using to look for music was Sound Cloud.

Myself: Target Audience, Editing Specification.

As we wanted to be the equivalent to channels 4's Hollyoaks on BBC 1 because we wanted to attract a younger audience, we decided to target the age group of 16-24. We had a very brief outline of the editing that we wanted to use within our soap which was based on the story board. As many soaps are used to create realism we did not want to include a lot of editing within our trailer, so we aimed to use as much raw footage as possible, as a group we decided we would use basic dissolves, and title screens within our trailer.

Philip: Characters

Finally we mentioned the characters within our soap trailer that we wanted to introduce, these where mainly teenaged males, we planned to use two males for the drug deal, a male losing a bet, and a pair of males getting ready to go out, and a coouple (one male/one female) which would be used to exploit the theme of family issues as we wanted an argument to occur within the trialer.

Pitch Feedback

The key feedback we recieved in order to help us with the planning of our soap, was to come up with a title by using local location or something which can relate to the characters of the soap we have created. The class suggested that we also involve more female roles within the soap as they are matriarchs within soaps so it was important to have females within a soap. The final piece of feedback which we recieved from our pitch was based on the music and to have a more specific target audience and valid reason as to why we have chosen to target them.

Settings: British Soap Operas

 Many British soap operas use common/public areas for their settings. Most sets used for soaps contain houses where the local characters reside and a communal area such as a pub. The use of these communal areas helps to create a multi-strand narrative as well as interlink characters and storyline of a single episode.  We see many times where a vast amount of characters within one episode, are all in one communal area.  A good example of this would be Eastenders where characters meet at the Queen Vic.

Another key reason for having these types of settings is in order to create a sense of realism. This is because they are places which we; the viewers can relate to, and is where we also go for family or friend gatherings.  Examples from British soaps of these types of settings include; Eastenders (Queen Victoria), Hollyoaks (Dog in the Pond), and Coronation Street (The Rovers Return). Below are images of these settings.

 Eastenders: The Queen Victoria

 Hollyoaks: The Dog in the Pond

 Coronation Street: The Rovers Return

Other settings within soaps usually include profession; an example may be a corner shop, salon, restaurant or a club. These also add to the realism of soaps, as they gives us more information on the characters and what they do for a living, which makes their personality and lifestyles more believable.

Group Meeting 2 Soap Discussion

For our groups second meeting, in our lesson we finalised our job roles within our group. Once we had finished assigning our roles we began to think about what to do for our soap.

Storyline ideas:
As leader of the storyline I led a group discussion, the initial idea David had was to have a drug scene or a chase. As we was struggling to create a storyline for a new soap I suggested we come up with narratives which we could use. Below is a list of the narratives we thought of to include:
- Crime (chase, drugs)
- Relationship (issue, friendship)
- Cafe (community area)
- Market (dodgy dealer)

Locations:
Town bridge
Pub

Group Meeting 1 Soap Discussion

For creating our own soap, we decided to be in the groups which we was in for our AS Media Studies group whilst creating our horror, this is because we worked well in order to create our footage.
For our first group discussion we (being myself, seb, David and Philip) had a discussion and brainstormed ideas of what to base our soap around.
As I am interested in law I was keen to somehow relate it with a soap as the main theme.

Job roles:
Seb - story boards, film.
Dalian - storylines, lead editor.
David - location photos, music.
Philip - project manager, director.

Television Soap Analysis Homework

First 10 Minutes of Eastenders:

From analyzing the first ten minutes of the television soap ‘Eastenders’, I was able to identify various aspects from the scenes which linked to the narrative theory of Barthés. The extract I viewed began in Janine’s home where she and Michael are having an argument, the subject matter of the argument is love and money, and this is significant to the scene as Janine questions if Michael loves her or just wants her for the money. This is empowered by the use of mise-en-scéne as Janine’s money is laid out on the table in order to test Michael as she says he can take it and leave.

The camera work within the scene is also very important as there is a main focus on Michael which shows his power of Janine, this is also seen through an over the shoulder shot which shows Janine is vulnerable to Michael which reflects their relationship, the lighting within the scene is also very dim which gives a sense of realism as well as empower the mood of the scene which is darkened and depressing for the couple.

The link to the Barthés theory is introduced through the use of sound and editing as there is use of a sound bridge before the cut from Michael and Janine to Alfie and Cat who are also arguing over the subject matter of love. This is a representation of the enigma code as it is a clue because Alfie discovers that Cat has been having an affair for three months but won’t say who with which makes the viewer’s think who the mystery man is in the affair. This strengthens the clue made by the sound bridge and cuts between the two couples.

The mise-en-scéne is also very similar to the scene of Michael and Janine as again the room is dim lit which may be another indication to the enigma code. Both scenes also use fast shot and reverse shots and close ups in order to show the emotions of the characters within the scene, this not only creates realism of the conflict between the two couples but creates a representation of relationship issues which couples may have within their personal lives.

Last 10 Minutes of Coronation Street

For the final part of the homework task I chose to analyse the last ten minutes of the television soap ‘Coronation Street’, it was hard to analyse what was happening throughout the entire episode as the episode began from a cliff hanger, however I was able to identify the narrative as a multi-strand narrative. The last ten minutes began with Lloyd, Jenna and Mandy in a living room which was dim lit, this created realism and tension as there is a subject matter and dispute about Lloyd being Jenna’s real father where he is then told to leave and that he should have stayed away by Mandy, Jenna’s mother.

The multi-strand narrative of the episode is then introduced as the scene cuts to a new story where Tina and Tommy where the scene begins with a panning show in order to show the mise-en- scéne of their new home which links to the subject matter of money and commitment, Owen is then introduced to the scene and empowers the subject matter by giving the couple a large sum of money which is to help the couple pay their rent and outstanding debts.

The multi-strand narrative is then also extended as there is a new scene which introduce the pub owners, who are entering a pub competition and the mother of the pub owner is filling out their own customer comments in order to win the competition, this scene helps the transition from where Lloyd is speaking to Ilene and Paul as he reveals to them that he’s Jenna’s father which he’s his work placement, the local taxi office.

The scene then transitions through a cut to the pub, linking back to the pub owners where we see Jenna storm into the pub and approach Lloyd, Ilene and Paul’s table in order to confront Lloyd where they then argue in the street on the subject matter of family and relationships. The use of this scene creates realism as they are in local locations and there is a realistic representation of family issues and problems which some viewers may be able to relate to.

Introduction to Television Soaps

Media Blogger TV Soaps.

In the first lesson our class had to analyse television soaps (serial drama). I began by listing all of the soaps which I knew, the television I knew have been listed below:

-          Eastenders

-          Corrination Street

-          Hollyoaks

-          Emmerdale

-          Doctors

I decided that the list above are all television soaps as they all have a continuous plots which run throughout numerous episodes and they are not televised in seasons as they continuously run throughout the year on weekdays and scheduled at the same time.

We then had to give our opinion on soaps and what effect they have on the public, like many I had a positive outlook on soap operas although I don’t follow any of the soaps mentioned previously. I believe that soaps are good as they create gossip which people can talk about amongst their peers, create a family time as they appeal to a non-niche audience and they use of realism which people may relate to; which can been seen when viewers also engage with the characters on the screen.

We then watched a passage of the soap opera ‘Eastenders’ in order to see how they are filmed and have an analytical view using media terminology. I focused on the way Eastenders helps the audience catch up with the story of the soap; there were numerous ways which this was done in the episode which were;

-          Charlie listing historical events.

-          Personalities shown.

-          Frequent use of names.

-          Display of relationships.

The list above is typical of soap operas, they enable new/catch up viewers to understand and know needed information about characters of the soap within the episode that are relevant to the story line. There was also a few media techniques used which all contributed to the realism to the soap which are listed below.

CAMERA:

-          Close Up (CU): to show the expressions of characters and reflect their emotion.

-          Point of View (POV): focuses on important element (usually a prop or mise en scene) from the characters view.

EDITING:

-          Shot Reverse Shot: show characters talking within a conversation, usually fast paced.

-          Cuts: to add realism as it’s how the audience would see the transition if it was real rather than other transitions such as screen dissolves or swipes.

-          Sound Bridge: adds continuity as the sound overlaps what is on screen in order to make a more understandable cut transition to the next scene.

LOCATIONS:

In the episode there were uses of a house and church, this added realism to the episode as they are places which characters reside and a community area which people visit in real day to day life making the story more believable from use of realistic settings.

Magazine Cover Design

Below is an image of the Magazine cover which I have created using Microsoft Publisher, the images used of the soap characters are original images, the images were taken in our media lesson and I edited them using Adobe Photoshop before inserting them onto my cover design.

Annotated TV Listings Magazine

For the start of my A2 Media Studies we was given an introduction task which was to annotate a front cover by using technical terms withing our analysis of the front cover, the image above is my annotation which I made on the TV listing magazine 'What's on TV'.