Ancillary texts and 'Avenue' soap trailer

Although I have posted these pieces previously in my blog in more detail, here they are again in case they are difficult to find:

'Avenue' Soap trailer

TV Listings Magazine front cover

Soap billboard/poster

Media A2 level conclusion

My A2 posts have now ended, in conclusion I feel I have researched the conventions of soap dramas,trailers and tv-listings magazines to produce an effective conventional trailer and ancillary texts. I have learnt a lot through my research about editing,camerawork etc and can apply them in later life to a range of different media topics/products.

Evaluation 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages ?

To make my soap trailer and ancillary texts as good as possible I had to use a range of technology including both a range of hardware and software.

Last year we used 'Windows XP' computers running adobe premiere which we used to edit our horror film openings. For our soap trailers however we used IMac's which were vastly superior and easier to use. The editing program we used on the IMac is 'Final cut pro'. This software allowed us to edit our trailer and thus improve it immensely. The software was far less temperamental compared to Adobe Premiere which would often break or loose saved data. Final cut pro was a lot simpler to use meaning we could add effects and transitions with ease. 'Final cut' allowed us to cut unwanted footage of the trailer allowed us to put in title sequences such as the BBC style closing scene as well as head smaller sub headings effortlessly.

Using Final cut meant our footage had a clear structure and was short and sweet like trailers should be, we were able to mute any background sound we had recorded also and add our music bought from ITunes and add our voice overs through voice recorders. Using voice overs meant that the footage wouldn't be interrupted with unnecessary noise and instead was easily applied throughout. We also used a voice recorder to complete our second evaluation activity which required us to do a commentary on our trailer and how it synergised with our ancillary texts.

We could not use 'Final Cut Pro' for our ancillary texts however, for that I used 'Adobe Premiere' which I used the year before to create my horror film production logo. This time however my skills with Photoshop had improved. Photoshop allowed me to create a TV listings magazine and poster for my media product Avenue, I used the conventions I had learnt about TV listings magazines and posters and applied my knowledge in creating my own. Adobe allowed me to follow the correct conventions and use a range of effects on my trailer to emphasise it's legitimacy/realism.

To take the pictures needed for my magazine and for setting ideas we needed a camera. Specifically we used a digital camera which was simple to used and helped us plan the setting of our soap by taking location shots and it also allowed us to take necessary pictures for the ancillary texts as I previously mentioned.

. To film the trailer we used a Panasonic HDC60 which allowed us to capture high quality footage with both great audio and visual quality. Instead of a tape we used an SD card which eliminated the threat of recording of our own or someone else' work. The camera was very easy to use which we benefited from, juxtaposed with my AS horror movie opening the quality gained for my media trailer is obvious. The tripod we used also helped a great deal in keeping out footage straight and professional looking.

I used Facebook to gain feedback on the trailer which helped to improve it as well as being essential for the third evaluation task. 


Youtube was effective in giving me feedback from users also, youtube allowed me to upload the video to my blog as well so everyone can see it as it is an important part of my coursework.

Paint was an effective program in regards to editing images to put on my blogs and this in turn helped me improve my evaluations to great effect. 


Finally Blogger allowed me to display all my media coursework dynamically whether it be video,audio,picture or plain texts. It has allowed me to display my coursework in a effective easy to understand manner and edit or improve posts whenever I feel the need arises.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback.

An audience is one the most important things in television and cinema, so it is important that their opinions are listened to or at least taken on board. We created the trailer 'Avenue' aiming at a target audience of 16-25 year old's with a mixed gender. For case studies we used popular teen dramas such as 'Skins' as well as teenage soaps like Hollyoaks which also targets a similar audience to Avenue. We made the trailer as contemporary as we could to emphasize this by using younger cast for the majority as well as a homosexual couple, and contemporary problems of the stereotypical teen also such as young parents,alcoholism,drugs and the general love lives of teenagers as well.

As our trailer is aimed so heavily on teenagers it was important to find out what they thought of it so after making the trailer we published it to youtube, face book and made questionnaires for our fellow media classmates. This way we could ask a 16-25 year old audience if they would watch it and generally get their opinions on it, whether they thought it was good or bad etc. By asking media students also we can get to different audience opinions, an educated one with media studies knowledge and more plain and simple opinions.

Gathering our data in a variety of ways will also prove validity. Our questionnaires will provide quantitative data and Facebook and YouTube should provide more qualitative data. Web2.0 has been very effective in allowing us to gain feedback from our audience quickly, it has allowed us to attain clear feedback from our friends with minimal effort, rating systems like Facebook's 'like' button or YouTube's 'thumbs up' button have also been effective in giving us accurate easy to analyse findings.

Our first feedback came from friends and family, My mother and sister watched mine and they said they enjoyed it and was very realistic but of course this feedback is somewhat bias so we posted it on YouTube which allows comments from anyone viewing the video. We

Youtube Feedback:

Comments from YouTube users:

• "thaaats goooooood ;D"
• "Really good. It looks like skins or something :L"
• "Nice."
  
  Although not the most detailed or formal feedback it was still helpful as we saw these people from our age range enjoyed it and that we seem to have matched what we originally aimed for as dramas like 'skins' and soaps like 'Hollyoaks' are what we got our inspiration for in terms of characters and story- lines. The video itself also received 8 'thumbs up' which is YouTube's new rating system and acts as effective quantitative data.
  
  Facebook feedback:
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  This is the feedback we received from our Facebook friends (with irrelevant comments blacked out)  The feedback is very positive indeed with little criticism  in the slightest. The feedback suggests that the characters are well developed,the trailer has a fluid structure and overall positive feedback.

  
  

  Questionaire results

  
  

  

  
  

  We got a more mixed bag of feedback with our questionnaires to other media students but this was expected. We learned from the reactions of our teacher and the survey itself that the trailer (1 minute 57 was too long for a trailer and would begin to get boring. We were told that due to the music being quite dark we should again think about the timing as it may drag on and bore viewers. Another comment suggested channel 4 would of been more suitable for our soap. We disagreed stating that channel 4 has a lot of teenage dramas and the BBC needs something to rival soaps like Hollyoaks (like Avenue). The BBC have already been seen to do this with dramas such as 'Waterloo road' and other teen dramas such as 'The Fades' and 'Pramface' so there is evidence for our claim. It was also noted that some scenes dragged on too long. The main issue has been our longevity of the trailer, feedback for our narratives,characters,editing effects,music and camerawork have all been met with praise however, general opinion is that it is a conventional,realistic trailer with stereotypical characters and good camerawork.

  
  

  For the second draft we took the feedback on board and cut over 20 seconds of the trailer and made it more fluid. We felt that doing this will be enough to keep people's interest in the trailer and not to tire over the music as we felt that a 1 minute 30 second trailer was far more appropriate to be broadcast. The trailer itself could be shortened for TV however much like a film trailer which is usually 2 minutes is sometimes shortened to 20-40 seconds for television advertising.

  
  

  Overall audience feedback is very important as they are whom we are making the production for so we should take on board their critiques as much as possible, in this case we made the structure of the trailer swifter and shortened it's length while still incorporating the right amount of character development and everything else they liked about it.

  
  
  

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts ?

This is commentary I did with Josh Spoelstra, as we worked together on editing the trailer. In this commentary we talk about the synergy of the trailer compared to either of our ancillary texts. Below is a link to this video evaluation as it wouldn't upload to blogger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT-nzLZIvs4

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

From the beginning I wanted my soap trailer to have a fluid fast-paced structure but still introducing enough characters and show their personalities for just enough time to entertain and intrigue the audience making them want to watch on to discover the characters and learn their stories. I aimed for my soap trailer to be as conventional as possible, remaining realistic, dramatic and entertaining. I looked at other soap trailers and soap dramas including Coronation Street, Eastenders and Hollyoaks. I am going to discuss how I used conventions throughout my trailer, keeping a focus on the nine screenshots I have listed above.

The first shot I'm going to discuss is one in the first scene set in a bar. Luckily one of my group members (Michael Walters) had got permission from a pub to allow us to film inside before opening hours. Filming in a pub was essential if we wanted the trailer to remain conventional to the soap genre, in all the soaps we studied all had a local pub or bar where the cast would often meet and socialise such as Coronation street's 'Rovers Return'. The 'pub' is often where secrets are revealed, because of this it is known as the soap's heart, seen with pubs  In Eastenders for example the owner of the pub often connotes the main characters or king of the soap which is seen with famous characters such as 'Peggie Mitchell'.

We also got an older barmaid to be in this scene as an extra and also show more age variation. Along with the pub being conventional it also gave more dynamics to our trailer as the rest of it is set outside.

This scene focuses on our 'thug' character, he is down on his luck and lost his child as seen with the picture. We chose to include this to show depth to his character,showing the audience his back-story and why he behaves the way he does as seen further on. His character can be compared to characters such as Phil Mitchell from Eastenders, although on a younger scale to fit with our target audience, we didn't want a duplicate character either. Both have lost their children, and behave as 'thugs' because of it. The 'thug' character is often portrayed to be a powerful/fearsome character stereotypical to every soap.

Our thug character (David Bangs) also appeals to our target audience and remains realistic as well by incorporating teenage dilemmas such as teen pregnancy, alcoholism and 'thuggish behaviour, although stereotypical views on a teenager they are also seen in dramas like skins and Hollyoaks so we felt they fitted appropriately in our trailer.

When I started to write the story for the trailer I wasn't sure how to include a range of characters but then after being inspired by the 'Eddie Moon introduction trailer' and the 'Strictly Come Dancing trailer' (found earlier on in my blog) I thought of ways to interlink them all. This scene is the first where two different characters meet, having already been briefly introduced to the homosexual couple and the scene with our 'thug' character we see them meet here. I felt characters from different scenes interacting with each other was a good way to emphasise each character's personality to the audience by putting them in awkward situations. Although I haven't seen this structure done with a soap before I wanted to be somewhat original also. Despite my inspiration coming from a Strictly Come Dancing trailer which maybe argued unconventional I thought it suited my soap and was the most efficient way of having the cast interact.

In this seen we see our homosexual couple being walked into by the 'Thug' character, we see the 'thug' being angry and one of the couple beginning to be upset by the situation (both stereotypical reactions). We used a long-shot in this scene  despite this not being quite conventional to Soap drama I've learnt that Soap trailers have a small list of conventions which can be seen with the great differences between Hollyoaks and Eastender's premiering trailers. We felt using this shot was a good option as it was more original much like what soap trailers are today, seen with Alfie and Kat's return also shown on my blog.

We used sub-headings to summarise each scene of our soap, here for example we have the line "never accepted" which is what one is crying about, this is also emphasised when Anthony questions if their relationship is worth the abuse. We used voice overs as we felt they worked well and didn't disrupt our background music. We don't here any more about these characters after Anthony delivers this line which supports my idea that leaving story lines on cliffhangers like this encourage an audience to watch, in relation to Todorov i've begun each story given it a problem but haven't resolved it which should encourage an audience to watch and see what happens next to their favourite character.

The homosexual couple are contemporary characters which is why they were included into the trailer. In teen dramas such as Skins there are often characters struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, and it isn't even aimed at teenagers always, soaps today often always have a homosexual couple, this is seen with Eastender's Syed and Christian, Coronation street's Sian and Sophie and Emmerdale's Aaron. So including such a couple is both conventional and contemporary. In terms of the mise-en-scene the characters dress codes are quite stylish and flamboingant as seen with my shirt and blazer and Anthony's high-key pink colours. We did this to connote homesexuality and to be as stereotypical as possible for the trailer.
The lighting like all the way through the trailer is naturalistic to connote realism which is a general soap convention.

Here I used a dutch tilt to once again show variation in our trailer, also aiding it's contemporay values. We used a buisnnes man here being shoved by an inconsiderate teen whom knocks his freshly cleaned suit onto the pavement. We used this character to show a range of age groups, that our soap is not purely aimed at teenagers but an older audience as well. His character also shows a range of class, being the richest character established so far. This scene also represents the contemporary issue of uncivil teenagers to their elders, the teenager being hooded again a stereotype. To shoot this scene we had to get permission from the dry-cleaners to shoot him coming out of the door and also be using one of their covers. We thought we needed a place of business in the soap and this was it, much like the laundrette in Eastenders the dry cleaners would be one of the many small businesses often featured in soap drama.

 We set this scene to be in an alleyway as it's conventional to a scene where 'dodgy dealings' occur. In the scene one character steals drugs from another holding him against a wall, we dressed his character in a 'hoody' as it is stereotypical for a drug dealer or 'no-good' teenager.

Although the scene may appear darker it is simply natural darkness as we did not want to ruin the realism of the soap. As forebode by the sub-heading the ambiance of the trailer begins to become darker and more threatening as shown by the physical violence where Jonathon's character holds the dealer up against the wall choking him. We used a close up to show the characters fear as well.

The music of the trailer also begins to develop to show the anger in the scene as it increase in speed. Our trailer is clearly non-diegetic and so are the voice-overs, although it's unconventional to have non-diegetic music in a soap we thought otherwise for our trailer. Hollyoaks for example often uses music in their trailers allowing them to be contemporary and attract their similar savvy audience. We wanted our music to be contemporary so we choose dub-step as it is popular with our savvy audience so will appreciate it in our trailer. The music often matches certain scenes also such as where the 'thug' character is drinking our trailer says "sooth your pain".

This is another scene where we see two characters interact (Josh Spoelstra from the love-triangle scene) and Michael Walters portraying the 'nerd'. The Bouquet acted like a catalyst for this scene by being the focus of two character's storylines much like the football I used in my AS horror opening.

I thought a nerd character was a good choice as there is often one in a soap such as Tamwar in Eastenders but despite this soaps do not often focus on this type of character so I wanted to change this and develop a character like this. I also wanted to show that just because he may not have a superb social life (stereotypically as connoted for his love of flowers) he does have problems shown by the voice-over "You're such a freak!" which establishes society's opinions on him. I also used a range of unusual camerawork for his scene to subconsciously imply his 'geekish' attributes' which such a variety of shot types.

I used this as the final shot to show the main cast all together although not all of them could make it we still managed to accumulate the majority. I felt this scene to be important as it brings all the cast together standing in particular poses and wearing certain attire to emphasise their personality,sexuality etc as well as their class, how their standing also shows their relationships with respective members. The street sign 'Avenue Road' is also shown and much like Coronation Street's it will act as a important piece in the soap and feature in it's theme tune. I also felt having the name on the sign was also effective in installing realism. Having the cast standing together also summaries the events of the trailer once again for any whom forgot.

We choose this screenshot with an overplaying voiceover as it looks very similar to the BBC's title sequence (our broadcast channel) Although being told to avoid the "coming soon" and instead put a date we ignored this as The BBC rarely puts dates for new shows and simply says "coming soon" so this is why we stayed with it.

Overall I feel like our soap is conventional while still being somewhat original through narrative and camerawork.

Avenue Billboard/Poster

This is my billboard poster for our new soap 'Avenue' which is an edited screen shot from our soap. I chose this shot as the primary image as it shows the name of soap's setting in a sign. It also shows all of the main characters around it in certain poses which show there personalities, relationships with others as well as their sexual orientation. Michael (on the left) is reading with glasses (a stereotypical nerd) and Harry is in a 'hoodie' and trailers sitting down showing his rebellious attitude (a stereotypical male teenager.) I think the wall and sign also look rustic and urban again connoting realism. I have also put a tinted lighting on our poster to make it darker appealing to the drama/ realism of the soap once more. I included the website down below if people want to find out more and I also used a contemporary font for my main title again to appeal to a younger and more modern audience. I used the modern and current logo of the BBC again to make it seem as modern and as realistic as possible. I have not specified a date for release because i watch a lot of BBC programmes and when they advertise a new series they rarely say a date unless its on a holiday. Most of the time BBC trailers conventionally only say "coming soon" this is why I have replicated this on my own advertisement and trailer also.