Media Soap 'Avenue' Setting Idea photos

Our task was to take pictures of our setting ideas, our main idea is a shot of a long street with the characters and the story lines interweaving with each other along the way. Certain characters bumping into each other mainly relying on facial expressions and actions rather than much speech. The title of our soap with decided to be 'Avenue' it is a unique name which fits, suggested by a fellow group member who lives down the street. We will likely use this picture as a main logo for the soap, the sign being rusted with an average brick wall suggests realism along with giving an urban feel which again establishes our younger audience with the love of 'RnB' and 'rap' music in the younger society.

This picture shows a Polish shop which we'll try to include in our trailer  we chose this to connote a larger ethniticty and it also quite representational of today's multi-cultural society. We'll try to film inside however we haven't asked permission yet so we may just have to film outside it.

This shot shows another potential idea for a street where the majority of the soap trailer will be set  however due to the lack of shops etc we will likely not use this street as we want a street that has economical values also as not alot would happen down a street with little of interest down it as conventionally soaps have a range of shops as well as a larger community which this street doesn't appear to provide.

This shot is another potential idea, this street has alot more interesting houses so a bigger sense of community however it still lacks shops etc but we may link the street with another more urban street through editing and camera-work.

Another potential idea which could be combined with the previous picture and another further on, its key because it contains a range of shops like a florist a corner shop and a dry cleaners which relate to a lot of our key stories.

We were planning to use a florist as we want one of the characters from a love triangle to buy  some flowers, he would walk out and try to give them to the girl he loves but sees her with another man, he then drops the bouquet after seeing this tragedy and then the story moves on to the next character. We asked permission to use this shop on the day of filming also so hopefully all goes to plan. We think its a good convention to have shops in soaps which the characters own such as 'Dev' owning the corner shop in Coronation street and Dot being in charge of the launderette in Eastenders.

This shot we chose in particularly to see a confrontation between our drug dealer character and our 'jack-the-lad' character were the jack the lad character holds him against the wall and takes the drugs from him. Stereotypically the 'trouble maker' character of a soap and the 'jack-the-lad' of the soap conventionally have some dealings. It also is in the conventional area for a sort of 'fight' or 'confrontation' to take place being a more secluded area, an alley-way usually connotes danger as well due to being dark as well as secluded.

We chose this shop once again for a conventions but also this shop will be good to reflect our 'buisness type character who will emerge happy with a freshly dry-cleaned suit which will be knocked down to the ground by a 'thug' type character causing annoyance to insure as he'll be running late for a meeting and cares greatly about his appearance which again is quite a conventional repetitive story in soaps, films and dramas alike so the audience should feel 'right at home' with such a story, along with it being a conventional story which would likely occur to this type of character.

This shot is another idea we had for a confrontation scene due to it being an alleyway conventionally it relates to danger.

This park may be an idea for our younger 'rebelious-teen' characters to hang out as stereotypically teenagers often get drunk in parks especially late at night, so this will be realistic representation of society as soaps should be. We chose this as it would be an accurate location for this along with some5thing that the younger generation can relate with quite easily.

This photo and the three below show the market on market day, as we will be filming our trailer on a Thursday we thought we'd try to take advantage of this as it shows a lot of industry,

This picture could be a possible place where some characters of our soap could meet however its liable to change. We chose this location for a similar reason we chose the one below, that there not overly crowded places but crowded enough to make the soap appear realistic.

We haven't decided if we will use this church in the trailer at all, if we do it would represent different religious groups of the soap to make it appear more dynamic but as of yet we don't know if it will fit in to our final project or not.

A more scenic location where characters could meet etc.

We used this picture as just an example of a pub as every soap needs a 'meeting place' which is usually a pub for most soaps and we used this as an example but we will definitely include a pub in our soap as its a conventional necessity for drama, one of our group members Michael has told us that he is friends with the people that own another pub nearby, and we will hopefully be able to film inside the pub, which is very beneficial to our soap indeed.

Primary setting ideas

We knew that the setting for our soap had to have seclusion, it couldn't be in the most crowded area otherwise it would of been impossible to film so we choose low-moderate areas of people to keep the soap realistic but also ensure that we were able to have enough people so realism could be shown. Through editing we would make particular places we used away from 'Avenue Road' to seem closer to it as in a usual soap all the locations would be in walking distance, this is the only way we could include a pub and a nearby park into our main location otherwise I doubt we would find anywhere else with all that we needed in such a close proximity.

'Avenue' character ideas, cast and stories

 

Above is part of our planning for our soap 'Avenue' where as a group we decided on potential characters along with our initial casting ideas, its likely that not all of these ideas will transpire to our trailer but they are key ideas, this is the same for the cast members whom are also liable to change, depending on when people are free and when everyone can make it so this will likely change. We came up with potential storyline such as 'love triangles' as such storyline can be typically found in the soap genre. We also tried to think of a range of different characters to make our soap trailer appear more realistic and age also came into this also. Although the majority of the cast are teenagers as we decided to make it for a younger audience, similar to 'Hollyoaks' and dramas like 'Skins'. We also included some older characters to make sure that the soap would be realistic. Hopefully everyone on this list will be able to feature in our soap but we can always find replacements if some of our friends can't make it.

'Avenue' Voice over and character links

We decided that for our soap trailer we were not going to just have a music track alone, that we are also going to include voice-overs in certain areas, although we are not totally sure on this here are our ideas nevertheless. I tried to picture where each character would meet in the trailer as my inspiration is a chain of stories with certain characters bumping into each other and then seeing where every characters storyline goes from there. These character meetings are liable to change however and so is our voice-over script. We felt like we couldn't solely rely on 'action' and 'expression' alone and that there had to be some dialect. We came up with potential voice overs which would be thoughts or small bits of dialogue throughout the trailer to show the audience more of our characters' personality and the relationships among them.

Media Soap Plan: 'Avenue'

Above is our first plan for our soap 'Avenue' one of the members from our group decided upon the name based on his road and we all decided that it was an appropriate name, the street and a few locations around it would be where our soap is set, this is similar to how the soap 'Coronation street' tells the location of where the soaps set and our soap 'Avenue is no exception. Above we have planned our target audience which we have chosen to be for a younger audience, something that appeals more to our age group, and will follow more of the 'cinematic' style of similar soap dramas such as 'Hollyoaks', being inspired of its uniqueness of focus on action codes and non diegetic music, which we plan to use for the trailer. The track itself is of the 'Dub-step' genre which we feel would be appropriate for our audience as its a popular genre among teenagers and young adults alike, it also fits the trailer very nicely. we also plan to make our trailer a bit more dynamic then an average soap by using shots such as 'dutch tilt' and techniques like the 180 degree rule. Despite this we will make certain that the majority of angle we use will be simple such as mid shots as we don't want to completely break the conventions. Above we have also brainstormed stereotypical soap locations such as 'pubs', 'markets' and 'corner shops' and tried to come up with a range of interesting characters of different classes, age groups, sexual preferences and ethnicity's to try and make our soap as realistic as we can. We have also brainstormed some conventional soap story lines that have worked with other soaps we have seen in the past which we are going to try and reinvent for our own soap. We have also discussed a few shot ideas and schedule times we can film but nothing solid as of yet.

The BBC and why we choose it to broadcast our soap

We choose the BBC as its one of the most popular terrestrial channels around and although channel 4 specializes in a younger audience of teenagers and young adults for the most part, including dramas such as 'Skins'. Soap dramas such as the popular 'Hollyoaks' as well as comedy from 'The inbetweeners' and 'Fresh Meat' all which cater to a younger audience of around 16-25, overall we felt that the BBC was a better choice as our broadcast channel as the BBC lacks a soap aimed at the younger generation. Although the BBC has the drama series 'Waterloo road' it does not have a true soap such as channel 4's 'Hollyoaks'.
We felt there was a gap in the market here for the BBC as it lacks any soaps of this kind and means it can rival channel 4 for this spot. We made sure that our soap  did not clash with any others either as this has known to cause chaos and divide viewing figures significantly. Our soap will likely air Monday to Thursday (8.30) on Mondays (after Eastenders finishes) and (8.00) for the rest of the week to avoid clashes with Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. It won't air on Fridays however as we feel that our target audience for the most part are out of the house on Friday nights. Like other weekly soaps we will also not air the soap on the weekend.

Eastender's Christmas Trailer 2009 'Who Killed Archie Mitchell?' Voiceover Idea

This trailer is quite unique for a soap, non-diegetic voice-overs are usually uncommon. Using voice overs rather than diegetic voices in the trailer is unique and also is an effective way to portray characters thoughts and feelings without them voicing these ideas out load. We choose to use this 'voice-over' idea for our own trailer, this way we could reveal the characters thoughts and feelings on the situations they experience, which allowed the audience insight into their characters. Using voice-overs also would mean we wouldn't ruin the ambiance created by the song we played, it's generally more efficient and using sub headings also would aid in establishing the scene by using a sort of image-text cohesion.

Soap Trailer example: Hollyoaks and Eastenders 'Character/story' trailers

Below are two soap trailers which focus new character(s) joining the soap or a story that revolves round those characters. Soaps often do trailers like this to either advertise the end of a climactic story line or introduce new characters, for the most part their often favourite characters that used to be in the soap and have now returned. I am going to analyse one such trailer for 'Eastenders' and another from 'Hollyoaks'. Both trailers are contemporary so will in turn help me develop my trailer.

Eastenders 'Kat and Alfie' Return Trailer 2010

This trailer is where popular characters 'Kat and Alfie' return to Walford to reclaim the Eastender's pub (The Queen Victoria). The trailer doesn't follow many soap conventions but is simply made for entertainment purposes and to show the audience the personalities of the two recurring characters, as shown in this humorous scene representing a western.The lighting of the scene doesn't seem quite natural and would appear that a slight 'sepia' effect has been added, this may represent 'sand' which relates to the desert where 'western' films are usually set and this is likely used to connote this. The sepia colouration remains through the entire trailer however when both characters stare each other down the colour of their eyes is enhanced.

The mise-en-scene works well in the trailer by using conventional scenes from a western such as people running off or locking their doors. Looking through shutters has been replicated to some peering through blinds as well. The attire of the two characters is also reminiscent of a western. Although the scene is somewhat a western 'parody' camera shots work well to show characters reactions to them and too also show the varying opinions and relationships between cast. Non-diegetic sound is used to emphasise the western music with diegetic sound used only for the character's comments on one another also echoing their relationships.

This trailer compared to Eastender's first is a lot more comical and actually introduces characters. The trailer has helped me to see how action codes such as a character's facial expression have a large effect on representing their character which is addressed in this trailer and which I will put into effect in my own.

The Hollyoaks trailer has a non-diegetic song all the way through and represents a wedding. The lighting is very low key in the trailer which represents the ambiance. Although a wedding which would usually have happy and pleasant connotations here it is shown to be dismal and perhaps evil. The cast is all dressed in black (the usual connotation for a funeral) which may imply that death is going to occur in the soap.

Like the Eastenders trailer (similar to a western) this trailer seems very Gothic and somewhat vampiric which is once again emphasized by the church's Gothic interior and the central character crying blood near the trailers climax. The sound remains non-diegetic throughout  but almost completely fades as the central character looks into the eyes of a man from the crowd, the camera stays fixed on him for a few seconds and the music begins once again. This is the main relationship shown in the scene and implies murder,that this character is evil and scares her. His character shown with black gloves also is a connotation of murder also,he does not wish to be found out perhaps. This trailer is effective in using a full song rather then just a simple melody like a range of other examples, this will help me develop my own trailer and also advise me how to apply music to it.

Soap trailer examples: Eastenders and Hollyoaks first promo trailers

In class we looked at the two original trailers for the soap dramas 'Eastenders' and 'Hollyoaks'. We looked at them to ascertain the key conventions that a soap trailer has however comparing the two trailers it can be seen that both trailers are quite different which is likely down to a range of factors including when the trailer was aired as well as who the trailer is aimed at also.

The first trailer for 'Eastenders' -

The camerawork is quite fast paced seen switching between a moving van with a name on it and a London bus which are both shot from different angles with every cut. The edits follow the classic Eastenders 'dramatic ending music' (non-diegetic) with each shot showing more and more of what the Moving van has written on it. The edits then slow down dramatically with a few second shot on the red bus then on a roundabout with the moving van going by, we get to see a clear shot of the soap's title 'Eastenders' here for several seconds along with its 'river Thames' logo and its opening theme tune. Making sure that the audience can clearly see the name of the new show and hear the theme tune helps it stick in their minds so they'll know when it starts if they hear the theme tune.

The bus establishes where the soap is set also as London is perhaps where the 'moving van' is going as we don't see the two vehicles pass in the trailer itself. The ending voice by the narrator is also received pronunciation as in the 80's this type of voice was what was expected in a lot of TV, especially in news and narration. The line the narrator delivers "The Eastenders are coming soon to BBC1" along with advertise the channel it also has a sort of double meaning that the van is going to he east-end and so are our television screens, "The Eastenders" also makes an audience curious by wondering who exactly are the characters.

The trailer itself is very short lasting less than 20 seconds. Although the length of the trailer may be due to how trailers typically were in the 80's it still seems very short. This may have been done to make audiences more curious and look to see the advert again, we as an audience are given such a small amount of detail about the soap it may make people more likely to tune in, they don't know what to expect besides that its set in the east-end of London, so therefore although it doesn't give much detail into the context or story, it entices a huge range of audiences as a particular target audience isn't stressed.

Although the lighting may be due to the camera's quality,the mid key lighting makes the soap appear more realistic and forebodes that the soap will be filled with a lot of drama and ark moments as well as happy ones, just like real life. A range of cars driving by and extras of average attire whom are also sen in an average neighborhood all show realistic aspects of the soap and a car following the moving van also around the roundabout also shows realism implying that its just a normal van.

Although I can see the techniques the Eastenders trailer has used, I don't think many features will transpire to our trailer as 12 seconds is not long enough for a trailer in my opinion and due to the time of which it was released we'll likely make a trailer with more modern aspects and focus on our target audience more. Although the ending narration is an idea which we will probably customize for our own trailer. I have also learn't from this trailer that the idea of 'realism' is very important in soap drama.

'Hollyoaks' First trailer- 

The Hollyoaks (1995) trailer is vastly different to the 'Eastenders trailer' although it doesn't announce where the soap is set (besides England) it does announce that its target audience is young with the main cast which are shown in the trailer, something the Eastenders trailer doesn't do. The soap is portrayed as a lot more light hearted than that of the Eastenders trailer as seen where the cast 'attempt' to do a 'boring' trailer but think its stupid (a brake of the fourth wall as well as poking fun at older formal trailers.

The camera goes to a long shot and shows studio lights and filming equipment then switches to a playful argument among the 'cast' filled with sexual innuendo and a big focus on relationships. This clearly shows the soap's target audience are teens and young adults, the trailer makes it more appealing to this audience showing the casts rebellious side by not wanting to do a 'proper' trailer, this appeals to a younger audience as often teenagers are thought to be rebellious by misbehaving, underage drinking etc. The innuendo and happy relationships between the cast also promote the idea that the soap is 'light-hearted' and 'funny'. The trailer is also shown to be 'warm' and give a happy ambiance with the high key lighting, the brightness making the trailer seem 'less dull' then perhaps the Eastenders soap. The cast are meant to be seen in stylish and casual attire, making them again appeal to their age group and also appear attractive which again appeals to the audience.

The cast wanting to advertise in a more simplistic fashion also compliments the personality of teenagers wanting things to be more straight forward and simple in life. The characters personalities shine through in the trailer showing how they interact with each other, the title of the soap is addressed at the end and is also in a bright colourful font, again appeal to the target audience a  non diegetic voice over is given at the end just after the characters' diegetic Eastender's trailer narrator and states simply "Hollyoaks starts 23rd of October channel 4. The soaps theme music is also played just as the 'real' trailer crumbles suggesting these are what the characters of Hollyoaks are really like and in the same way is recognizable too the ear as soon as its heard.

I think the Hollyoaks trailer applies much further to our soap then the Eastenders one with how it addresses its audience. I think the ideas i can take of from this trailer is perhaps not to make our trailer completely serious, adding some humour in also and also focus a lot on the characters of our soap and their relationships with each other and that characters are the most important thing to a soap. These trailers have also shown me how important the right music is and lighting makes a large difference to how a scene is portrayed and understood by the audience.

My inspiration for the direction of 'Avenue'

'Eddie Moon'  Eastenders introduction trailer

We were told to make a soap trailer about the time I saw the trailer above. I thought it was cleverly done as it showed a new main character's personality with non-digetic music and varying camera angles as the new character 'Eddie Moon' walked down the main market street of the soap. We see other characters reactions to him also through quick camera shots we also see past characters relationships with him from glances and reflections in mirrors, we also see this with his family Michael Moon and Alfie Moon, Alfie happy to see him and Michael angry at him, the reasons to these different relationships with him act as foreboding to whats to come in later episodes.I really liked the idea of the trailer setting being a street where a group etc walk down  and also I liked how the trailer uses such clear character representation which i wanted to include in my own trailer. I did find however that as this trailer is just introducing one new character it be hard to apply this idea for the first trailer for a 'new' soap.

Strictly Come Dancing new series 2011 trailer

Although this trailer is seemingly unconventional I resolved my initial problems with the first trailer when applying it to my own. My initial problem was how to inter grate more than one 'main' character to my narrative. It showed how I could use more than one character successfully with interlinking story lines such as a character walking past another then the camera switching to their story and a range of camera shots.this idea I transpired to my storyboard. The 'Strictly' trailer uses a range of nearby streets and switches to different characters very well so really it just expanded my initial inspiration from the 'Eddie Moon' trailer. My inspiration will likely expand from these trailers but I feel they epitomize my current idea for my soap structure,story and narrative.

The Soundtrack of 'Avenue'

The soundtrack to our soap we decide on early on, our first original idea for it which I discussed in my previous post upon the creation of our slogan and first primary idea. The song was put thought by 'Josh' from our group whom suggested that the song would be perfect for our trailer. The song itself is apparently not copyrighted so we could use it for our trailer, the song itself fits our trailer very well as the mood and tone to the song matches the dramatic sequences nicely. the song itself matches a range of both serious moments in our trailer as seen when 'Johny' (the jack-the lad) steals drugs of the rebellious male drug-dealer 'Harry' the music rises and becomes faster which we used at this point to heighten the drama of the scene. The trailer also is slow at times to match the sad moments of our trailer such as our thug character 'David' looking at a picture of his baby daughter and missing her, the lyrics "Sooth your pain" from the song match this moment aswell as he is drinking alcohol at the time.  I think we linked the song nicely with relevant moments in our soap to bring out sadness anger and action throughout the trailer. The song also being dubstep appeals to our younger audience with the 'dubstep genre' being popular among our younger teenage target audience.

Title sequence examples: 'Eastenders' and 'Hollyoaks'

The opening sequence to a soap is very important, it needs to memorable and be semantically linked to the soap, the tune has to reflect the soaps environment for example.The soap 'Eastenders' has had the same theme for almost 25 years, the images only updating with higher resolution technology. The public enjoy the theme tunes and like the 'familiarity' they bring when the audience begins to watch,there was outrage when Eastenders tried to change its theme for example. The Eastenders theme begins with its drums which are so familiar it allows people to notice the soap has started, linking to Althusser's theory of interpellation,signaling it has begun. The tune/phrases of music are very simplistic and memorable,the tune is often repeated through the opening also, the camera spins round until its straight,the title shows then the music fades.The title itself is somewhat serif and has traditional font/title aspects which perhaps makes it more 'neutral' and shows it can accepts a range of audiences,young and old alike.

unlike Eastender's short 40 second theme, the soap Hollyoaks has over a minute opening. Channel 4's soap is aimed at a younger audience of young adults and teens, making it a direct contrast from Eastender's opening. The soap begins with a 'last time' section to remind the audience, or inform new members what has previously happened in the soap. The title sequence has a theme tune which suits the 'pop/rock' genre better and introduces each character through the opening. The soap opening is a lot more colourful as backgrounds change to represent every main cast member. The title's font also appears more modern again attracting a younger audience. When the show begins the music remains Non-digetic with a current and popular song. The cinematography is also different to the average soap, it relies on movement and actions more then dialogue,this reflects Barthe's action and enigma codes. Relying so heavily on action codes is also unusual in soap drama as they are more often dialogue driven and use more enigma codes.

Both soaps are aimed at different audiences it would seem,this is easily portrayed in both title sequences and theme tunes.

Soap Uses and Gratifications Theory

It is very important to how an auidience recieve a soap and i will take this on board for my own trailer. people use media all for different purposes, for  both entertainment (a drama) and infomation (the news/documentary). People use soaps for a few reasons I believe, to be entertained (diversion) and also to maintian persoanl relationships through making conversation, as they are very popular it means that it is likely the person you are talking to has seen it. The public can relate to what a particular family/character is going through also, as it may of happened to them or someone they knew so along with entertainment the aspect of soaps realism may in fact relate to someone personally, so this may be another appeal of soaps, this also means its key that stories remain realistic in soap drama. People may also use soaps for 'infomation', likely more by historians though as many believe that a soap can be read as a social document.

Soaps 'Dumbing Down' ? Coronation Street Extract Analysis

There is a theory that soaps are dumbing down to appeal to the lowest audience so it can incorporate them and all audience's above, its suggested the audience watch soap as it's 'mind-numbing TV' and people watch not for the drama but simply something to relax to after work. We studied a Coronation Street extract as an example to see if elements are dumbing down, although the extract shows realism there did seem to be elements such as:

A typical family relationship can be seen in the shop with a teenager talking to her dad like he's old and inferior a stereotypical view of teenager and parent relationship. She mentions 'matchmaking ideas'  along with common easy-to-get jokes which could show signs of 'dumbing-down'  along with reference to real life daytime telly such as 'Lorraine' and the character 'Dev' not knowing who 'The Saturday's' are and the teen making easy to laugh to jokes about this fact.

There is also no overlapping in these extracts which is unrealistic for real life however this helps the audience understand whats being said. The girl also uses a range of cliche's such as "Call of true love" along with "Welcome to my world." The audience are accustomed to these sorts of phrases so find them easy to digest, they expect these sort of phrases so it emphasises this 'dumbing down' with such stereotypical behavior and cliches leaving little space for thought making it easy to watch, supporting the theory. There is also no product placement in this scene which is surprising as there in a shop, this would be impossible to avoid in real life so its unrealistic that its not here.

There are also 'comical characters' put into soap for humour again emphasising the 'light-hearted' viewing and making it easier to watch.

Below are a few soap characters along with the ones Ive mentioned above, who although aren't in the programme purely for comic relief and such, they do still provide it.

.Arthur 'Fat-boy' Chubb - Eastenders (talks in a very 'urban' and common way and many characters do not understand him due to this adding to the comic appeal of his character.)

.Kirk Sutherland - Coronation Street (Is very dim-witted which gives him comic appeal in the show as characters often laugh at his misfortune.

There are other characters in soaps who use cliche's a lot also but aren't necessarily 'comic relief'.



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The BBC

The BBC is a channel which is renowned for its drama,the channel follows its mission statement to the best of its ability "to educate,inform and entertain". The channel is also a mass channel which allows it to furfill its agreement with aspects including news,drama and documentaries. The BBC began on the radio and later converted to television,it exists by royal charter and is funded by a televison license fee rather than adverts because of this. The channel is known for its dramas including soaps like Eastenders which is just over 25 years old.