Date: 16th December 2011
Evaluation
Engayne Avenue
1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To begin with we brain stormed the possible storylines (considering the results from the questionnaire) that the audience would find entertaining. In the end we opted for the most popular and most well known themes that were relationships and bullying. We decided not to over exaggerate any of the storylines, as we wanted the audience to relate and to feel as though it was real.
One feature that did come to mind is a help line for people who may be affected by the content shown. The number is always shown after a real TV Soap. However, we all decided in that it was necessary as our product was only a trailer and not the full episode.
When filming the bullied character we originally planned to effectively use the lighting down the corridor (where the bullying takes place) so that the gang would be walking in the dark, making them look threatening. The lack of light also indicates that something bad is going to happen, just like real soaps would show that. On the other hand, we have the bullied student walking in the light to show that he is innocent and oblivious to what is about to happen. These clever yet simple effects would usually be used in existing soaps.
Additionally, we noticed from our research that original Soaps use more basic camera shots; however, we challenged this by using more interesting angles to add affect. For example we used a ‘Dutch tilt’ in the scene where the bullied student is sitting down with his head in his hands. By doing this we were able to create the feeling of tension and that the character is not thinking straight.
We developed our soap by using characters of a similar age to the target audience. This will then allow them to relate to the situation/ storyline and the characters feelings. We also formed the characters by making sure that they were in the correct and consistent clothing. For example the gang are all dressed in quite ‘fashionable’ and up to date clothes. Whereas, the student who is getting bullied is constantly wearing baggy and dull clothing.
Due to some information we came across from a well known website ‘ChildLine’, we found that the gender who is most likely to commit suicide by cutting their wrists are women. However, we challenged and changed this idea by using a male character instead.
2. How effective is the combination of your real product ancillary texts?
Both the poster and the magazine are effective ways to help to advertise our Soap. The images alone will draw the public in simply from the emotions displayed on the characters face. Simple emotions like anger and worry are common in Soaps; therefore, people will be expecting lots of drama. Use of bold lettering and bright colours helps to make these two products more appealing and interesting. Furthermore, a poster which is far away should be bright and bold enough to see from whatever distance, therefore, this is hopefully what we have achieved. Presenting our trailer on a magazine is a great way to spread the word of a new Soap. A great percentage of people read and buy magazines every day. Moreover, people- especially women like to gossip and share news. Therefore, they will want to spread the word about the new soap.
Trailer- Our trailer consists of a number of emotions and life like situations.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We asked 15 people to answer feedback forms after watching our trailer. From these results we found out that most people found that the titles were gripping therefore we decided to leave the titles in the trailer as the titles generally attracted most people to continue watching the trailer. Secondly, everybody we asked agreed that the camera angles added effect therefore we did not make any changes to the camera angles as they were successful to the audience. Thirdly we asked the audience if they found our storylines easy to understand, everyone one of the audience we asked agreed that they were simple to understand therefore we didn’t make any adjustments to the storylines as they were not over complicated. We then asked the audience if they thought the storylines were suited to the location, only one person did not think that they were suited to the location and therefore we did not change this aspect as it was a large aspect to change especially when most people agreed that it was suited to the location. We then asked if the audience thought the music suited the location, a few people did not think that it did but as it was large factor to change and due to lack of time we were unable to change this however a large percentage thought that it did suit the trailer. We then asked them if they thought it was appropriate for young adults, everyone agreed that it did which is very successful for us as it shows we have created a soap that meets our target audience. Most of our audience thought it seemed realistic therefore we hope this can encourage people to watch the actual soap and finally we asked them if our magazine front and poster was successful and nearly everyone thought it was so therefore we have advertised our trailer successfully.
4. How did you use new technologies in the construction and the research, planning and evaluation stages?
The main use of technology we used was the internet where we created and editing the Blog. Additionally, by using the internet we were able to gain the knowledge of the concepts and origins of soaps and what is needed to create a successful soap. We used such websites such as Wikipedia and Digital Spy to do so.
Some of the research for our soap came from watching and analysing existing soaps from the TV. This was used in the planning where we could also gain inspiration from the storylines and camera effects. We also looked up posters and used a camera to take pictures of a bus advertisement to analyse. The filming camera equipment was also used to actually film our Soap trailer.
Finally, we used Windows 7 Movie Maker Software to upload and edit our trailer. We gained an understanding of this software and we were able to add titles, music and visual effects to make our trailer more interesting and effective.
By Hannah Jeffs and Laura Perry
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Magazine Design
Date: 15th December 2011
When I created this poster I firstly made sure that I considered the research that we all had carried out. When I looked at existing magazine covers I had noticed that they had professionally combined a range of colours, images and fonts. Colour is one of the main features which make a magazine noticeable and sellable. In my design I made sure that I too used a range of bright colours so that it would make the cover look attractive. The logo (another feature used on magazine covers) I designed is simple yet bold. I also incorporated images from our trailer along with images of real soaps. Images are also an important to make the design look interesting and worth buying. Additionally, I included extra features such as competitions and horoscopes which you would usually find on the front of a TV magazine. Improvements I would choose to make are I would change the layout slightly, i think at the moment it looks too over crowded and confusing. I would also change some of the colours as some may work better than others.
By Laura Perry
When I created this poster I firstly made sure that I considered the research that we all had carried out. When I looked at existing magazine covers I had noticed that they had professionally combined a range of colours, images and fonts. Colour is one of the main features which make a magazine noticeable and sellable. In my design I made sure that I too used a range of bright colours so that it would make the cover look attractive. The logo (another feature used on magazine covers) I designed is simple yet bold. I also incorporated images from our trailer along with images of real soaps. Images are also an important to make the design look interesting and worth buying. Additionally, I included extra features such as competitions and horoscopes which you would usually find on the front of a TV magazine. Improvements I would choose to make are I would change the layout slightly, i think at the moment it looks too over crowded and confusing. I would also change some of the colours as some may work better than others.
By Laura Perry
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Filming Logs
11/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Katie smith
• Caroline store
• Emma
Location:
• Café (DA)
What we filmed:
We filmed a few shots for our first scene ‘gossip’ including the tracking shot to the seating area and the group shot of the conversation about the student and teacher rumours. This scene is also the introduction to one of the main characters who are having the affair with the teacher. We also filmed a close up of this character who is played by Katie, through the use of this camera shot we are able to show her facial expressions and her tone of her voice.
Problems faced:
Since we were filming in the school café, which is available to anyone in the school, there were other people around. This meant that there was a lot of unwanted background noise such as coughing and shouting. These sounds were too loud and inappropriate to be suitable for diegetic sound. The cameras height had to be adjusted frequently to get the shots at the right angles, to make the most of the location and to avoid obstructing the furniture. The other problem we faced was just the actresses struggling to get into their characters, getting their lines and timings correct and overcoming the ‘giggles’. These problems just subsided eventually and we managed to film the rest of the scene successfully within our time frame.
Filming log
14/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Katie Smith
• Przemek Grabowski
Location:
• 207
What we filmed:
We filmed the ‘flashback scene’, where the teacher Mr Berly, played by Przemek, and student, played by Katie, meet for the first time, for this we filmed a long shot of the teacher sitting at her desk marking some papers and the student being shown into the room by another teacher. We also filmed close ups of both the teacher and students faces to show their happiness and interest in each other. We also filmed a few extra shots which were not previously planned such as a close up on the teacher’s eye’s to show how his eyes are drawn from his work and towards this new student, which emphasises the interest he has in her and also gives a clue almost to later events where he has to choose between his career or the girl the girl ultimately winning.
Problems faced:
We did not encounter many problems while filming this scene, however there was a few things which did not go to plan such as the actors/actresses had to get into their characters which took a few moments although this was not a major problem and was sorted out within a few minutes. The only other problem encountered was the camera was loosely attached to the tripod meaning the camera struggled to get into a flat angle and also tilted itself down every time we got it to correct angle however we managed to fix this problem by figuring out how to tighten it correctly enabling us to finish the scene with the planned and appropriate shots.
19/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
There were no actors required for this scene.
Location:
• Outside main school entrance and café
What we filmed:
Today we filmed an establishing shot of the school/café starting with a close up of the school sign continuing slowly and steadily zooming out, once we reached full zoom out we then panned the camera till we were facing the café. We did this shot just to emphasise the location of where our soap is set which is within a school. This shot will most likely be used at the start of the trailer then followed by the ‘gossip’ scene.
Problems we faced:
There were only two problems we had while filming which we overcame easily. The first problem we had was just getting the camera to zoom out slowly and at a steady pace but we soon managed to get it right after a few trial runs and a few changes of pace. The only other problem we had was people walking past and entering our shot once again we overcame this very simply by just using common sense and filming when we were sure that no one was going to enter the frame since we could not stop people from walking past due to the fact it is the entrance to the school.
03/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Przemek Grabowski
• Katie smith
Location:
• 207
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the final teacher Mr Berly, played by Przemek, and the student, played by Katie (teacher and student relationship). This scene is where the student confronts the teacher about people knowing, the teacher then asks her to run away with him. For this scene we used a long shot for when we had Katie walking into the room and we also used a mid-shot/group-shot for when the important ‘run away with me’ dialogue occurs.
Problems we faced:
Once again we encountered the problem of actors struggling to get into character. In the end they were able to stop laughing and were able to play their roles. In our ‘Flashback’ scene we had arranged the classroom in a certain way, however, when we came back it was arranged differently, therefore continuity was then an issue.. We also had a problem with the tripod which we had in the earlier scenes, which is the inability to get the camera to stay at the. However, in the end we were able to get it right and happy with the outcome. Sometimes we were also quite unorganised with things like making sure we had the script us. On a couple of occasions we had to disrupt the filming process, find it and teach the actors it. This meant we wasted some time.
10/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors Present:
None were present due to the inability to film
Location:
Planned on filming in the science corridor however were unable to do so.
What we filmed:
We planned on filming the ‘bullying’ scene however due to time constraints we were unable to film on this occasion. However we plan on filming it as soon as we can get all the actors and the location ready.
Problems we faced:
As stated in the earlier paragraph we ran out of time, therefore it was the only problem that we faced which has stopped us from being able to film on this date. We will then try to be more efficient with our time so that we can film again.
16/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex
Location:
• Science toilets
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the ‘breakdown’ scene where the bullied boy, played by Alex, finally has an emotional break down after years of abuse and bullying by a group of lads. In this scene we filmed a variety of shots at a variety of angles, such as a ‘Dutch’ tilt to emphasis his emotions. We film him performing a range of violent and crazy actions such as pacing up and down the toilets, punching the walls and sitting in a vulnerable position crying. For this we filmed each action in a few different angles since we plan on jump cutting a lot of the clips together at a very fast pace to create a more edgy feel as well as emphasising the fact that his mind is broken and he is going crazy because this method keeps the viewer from being able to focus for so long they cannot focus completely on one thing before it changes so it seems more busy and then this also mirrors what is happening in the characters mind since so many things are going through his head.
Problems we faced:
We faced a major issue in the filming of this scene and one of which we could not completely overcome. This problem occurred because we had filmed a few of the clips for this scene a few weeks prior to this session and Alex was in the process of growing some facial hair for charity. When we did film, we were careful not focus to carefully on the face. The only other problem we faced was expected. People kept entering the room and since it was a toilet which is open to the entire. Thankfully, we were able to film without too many people coming in since the shots were all quite short.
Filming Log
18/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex Ewen
Location:
• By the lockers in the science area
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the scene where the bullied person, Alex, gets attacked by the lockers. This attack leads to the student having an emotional breakdown and then committing suicide. In this scene we used a group of people for the gang of bullies. We used a variety of shots for this including low angles, high angles and close ups and group shots.
Problems we faced:
During the filming of this scene we encountered a few problems the biggest of which was the fact, for health and safety reasons, we had to choreograph the hitting and pushing in such a way that it looks realistic as well as preventing the actors from getting injured in the process. Also since the scene is very quick and fast paced we could not pre-plan our shots since we had no idea how it would end up being like so we filmed the whole scene from a variety of angles and therefore we have to pick then edit the shots together that we want by doing this however it took longer than we had originally hoped but since the outcome will be more professional we believe it was worth it. Once again background noise and people passing in the corridor had to be told to be quiet or politely wait until we had finished.
24/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex Ewen
• Hayley Poppleton
Location:
• Girls toilets in the science area
What we filmed:
Today, we were able to film the final scene which was the ‘suicide’ scene where the bullied student (Alex) takes a turn for the worse and commits suicide. In this scene we were able to create some fake blood and spread it around the floor and his wrist. By doing this we were able to create a life like situation as well as shocking the audience. This scene is planned to be the second to last scene in our trailer and is also the main feature for the cliff-hanger. The reason we had him ‘commit suicide’ is because not only does it make an interesting ending, it also shows how bullying can actually affect people so therefore it has real-life situations woven into it. Therefore, reflects the audience’s answers when we carried out the questionnaire. We also tried to put across the idea of how bullying can end up turning into the worst situations.
Problems we faced:
Fortunately we were lucky not to encounter any serious problems, however the minor problems that did occur were easy to overcome. The first problem that we faced while filming numerous times were people entering the area where we were filming. Since the toilets are public we couldn’t tell people to go away, therefore, we had to wait for the right opportunity which was during lesson times. The second small issue was making the blood. It proved to be more difficult than we previously thought, however we managed to create a liquid that looked realistic. Furthermore, we then had to consider that we cleaned up all the fake blood since it created a lot of mess and could potentially stain the floors. Luckily it didn’t stain and didn’t take too long. If we had left it, it would have caused a health risk and so we were ensuring that all was cleaned up properly.
By Dale Stacy and Laura Perry
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Katie smith
• Caroline store
• Emma
Location:
• Café (DA)
What we filmed:
We filmed a few shots for our first scene ‘gossip’ including the tracking shot to the seating area and the group shot of the conversation about the student and teacher rumours. This scene is also the introduction to one of the main characters who are having the affair with the teacher. We also filmed a close up of this character who is played by Katie, through the use of this camera shot we are able to show her facial expressions and her tone of her voice.
Problems faced:
Since we were filming in the school café, which is available to anyone in the school, there were other people around. This meant that there was a lot of unwanted background noise such as coughing and shouting. These sounds were too loud and inappropriate to be suitable for diegetic sound. The cameras height had to be adjusted frequently to get the shots at the right angles, to make the most of the location and to avoid obstructing the furniture. The other problem we faced was just the actresses struggling to get into their characters, getting their lines and timings correct and overcoming the ‘giggles’. These problems just subsided eventually and we managed to film the rest of the scene successfully within our time frame.
Filming log
14/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Katie Smith
• Przemek Grabowski
Location:
• 207
What we filmed:
We filmed the ‘flashback scene’, where the teacher Mr Berly, played by Przemek, and student, played by Katie, meet for the first time, for this we filmed a long shot of the teacher sitting at her desk marking some papers and the student being shown into the room by another teacher. We also filmed close ups of both the teacher and students faces to show their happiness and interest in each other. We also filmed a few extra shots which were not previously planned such as a close up on the teacher’s eye’s to show how his eyes are drawn from his work and towards this new student, which emphasises the interest he has in her and also gives a clue almost to later events where he has to choose between his career or the girl the girl ultimately winning.
Problems faced:
We did not encounter many problems while filming this scene, however there was a few things which did not go to plan such as the actors/actresses had to get into their characters which took a few moments although this was not a major problem and was sorted out within a few minutes. The only other problem encountered was the camera was loosely attached to the tripod meaning the camera struggled to get into a flat angle and also tilted itself down every time we got it to correct angle however we managed to fix this problem by figuring out how to tighten it correctly enabling us to finish the scene with the planned and appropriate shots.
19/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
There were no actors required for this scene.
Location:
• Outside main school entrance and café
What we filmed:
Today we filmed an establishing shot of the school/café starting with a close up of the school sign continuing slowly and steadily zooming out, once we reached full zoom out we then panned the camera till we were facing the café. We did this shot just to emphasise the location of where our soap is set which is within a school. This shot will most likely be used at the start of the trailer then followed by the ‘gossip’ scene.
Problems we faced:
There were only two problems we had while filming which we overcame easily. The first problem we had was just getting the camera to zoom out slowly and at a steady pace but we soon managed to get it right after a few trial runs and a few changes of pace. The only other problem we had was people walking past and entering our shot once again we overcame this very simply by just using common sense and filming when we were sure that no one was going to enter the frame since we could not stop people from walking past due to the fact it is the entrance to the school.
03/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Przemek Grabowski
• Katie smith
Location:
• 207
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the final teacher Mr Berly, played by Przemek, and the student, played by Katie (teacher and student relationship). This scene is where the student confronts the teacher about people knowing, the teacher then asks her to run away with him. For this scene we used a long shot for when we had Katie walking into the room and we also used a mid-shot/group-shot for when the important ‘run away with me’ dialogue occurs.
Problems we faced:
Once again we encountered the problem of actors struggling to get into character. In the end they were able to stop laughing and were able to play their roles. In our ‘Flashback’ scene we had arranged the classroom in a certain way, however, when we came back it was arranged differently, therefore continuity was then an issue.. We also had a problem with the tripod which we had in the earlier scenes, which is the inability to get the camera to stay at the. However, in the end we were able to get it right and happy with the outcome. Sometimes we were also quite unorganised with things like making sure we had the script us. On a couple of occasions we had to disrupt the filming process, find it and teach the actors it. This meant we wasted some time.
10/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors Present:
None were present due to the inability to film
Location:
Planned on filming in the science corridor however were unable to do so.
What we filmed:
We planned on filming the ‘bullying’ scene however due to time constraints we were unable to film on this occasion. However we plan on filming it as soon as we can get all the actors and the location ready.
Problems we faced:
As stated in the earlier paragraph we ran out of time, therefore it was the only problem that we faced which has stopped us from being able to film on this date. We will then try to be more efficient with our time so that we can film again.
16/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex
Location:
• Science toilets
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the ‘breakdown’ scene where the bullied boy, played by Alex, finally has an emotional break down after years of abuse and bullying by a group of lads. In this scene we filmed a variety of shots at a variety of angles, such as a ‘Dutch’ tilt to emphasis his emotions. We film him performing a range of violent and crazy actions such as pacing up and down the toilets, punching the walls and sitting in a vulnerable position crying. For this we filmed each action in a few different angles since we plan on jump cutting a lot of the clips together at a very fast pace to create a more edgy feel as well as emphasising the fact that his mind is broken and he is going crazy because this method keeps the viewer from being able to focus for so long they cannot focus completely on one thing before it changes so it seems more busy and then this also mirrors what is happening in the characters mind since so many things are going through his head.
Problems we faced:
We faced a major issue in the filming of this scene and one of which we could not completely overcome. This problem occurred because we had filmed a few of the clips for this scene a few weeks prior to this session and Alex was in the process of growing some facial hair for charity. When we did film, we were careful not focus to carefully on the face. The only other problem we faced was expected. People kept entering the room and since it was a toilet which is open to the entire. Thankfully, we were able to film without too many people coming in since the shots were all quite short.
Filming Log
18/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex Ewen
Location:
• By the lockers in the science area
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the scene where the bullied person, Alex, gets attacked by the lockers. This attack leads to the student having an emotional breakdown and then committing suicide. In this scene we used a group of people for the gang of bullies. We used a variety of shots for this including low angles, high angles and close ups and group shots.
Problems we faced:
During the filming of this scene we encountered a few problems the biggest of which was the fact, for health and safety reasons, we had to choreograph the hitting and pushing in such a way that it looks realistic as well as preventing the actors from getting injured in the process. Also since the scene is very quick and fast paced we could not pre-plan our shots since we had no idea how it would end up being like so we filmed the whole scene from a variety of angles and therefore we have to pick then edit the shots together that we want by doing this however it took longer than we had originally hoped but since the outcome will be more professional we believe it was worth it. Once again background noise and people passing in the corridor had to be told to be quiet or politely wait until we had finished.
24/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex Ewen
• Hayley Poppleton
Location:
• Girls toilets in the science area
What we filmed:
Today, we were able to film the final scene which was the ‘suicide’ scene where the bullied student (Alex) takes a turn for the worse and commits suicide. In this scene we were able to create some fake blood and spread it around the floor and his wrist. By doing this we were able to create a life like situation as well as shocking the audience. This scene is planned to be the second to last scene in our trailer and is also the main feature for the cliff-hanger. The reason we had him ‘commit suicide’ is because not only does it make an interesting ending, it also shows how bullying can actually affect people so therefore it has real-life situations woven into it. Therefore, reflects the audience’s answers when we carried out the questionnaire. We also tried to put across the idea of how bullying can end up turning into the worst situations.
Problems we faced:
Fortunately we were lucky not to encounter any serious problems, however the minor problems that did occur were easy to overcome. The first problem that we faced while filming numerous times were people entering the area where we were filming. Since the toilets are public we couldn’t tell people to go away, therefore, we had to wait for the right opportunity which was during lesson times. The second small issue was making the blood. It proved to be more difficult than we previously thought, however we managed to create a liquid that looked realistic. Furthermore, we then had to consider that we cleaned up all the fake blood since it created a lot of mess and could potentially stain the floors. Luckily it didn’t stain and didn’t take too long. If we had left it, it would have caused a health risk and so we were ensuring that all was cleaned up properly.
By Dale Stacy and Laura Perry
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