Media A2 evaluationMax Dabrowski

“Adolescence” is a Tv soap I have created aimed at teenagers and young adults. I have attempted to make the TV show a cross between the popular teen drama “Skins” and the well-known British soap “Hollyoaks”. From the very start of my project I wanted to follow standard TV soap conventions, the first thing I did was select my two main characters to act out the crucial scene which is the centrepiece of my soap advert. Before creating my soap advert I watched a number of different soap adverts from a variety of soaps and I came up with a focus point for my trailer, as soaps are always evolving it tends to be that the current biggest story line is portrayed in the advert and the sub plots/smaller story lines get little to no focus. I did not wish to confuse my audience by throwing together a lot of different storylines in one advert. I wrote a small scene about an unexpected pregnancy between two characters.

Introduction

Question 1: Conventions of TV soap, learning from real media texts

Filming When it came down to filming the scenes I had organized help of

two friends, one to man the camera for me whilst I acted in the scene with a friend who studies drama. I decided to take the roll of the character Sean in the advert because I knew exactly how I wanted the character to be played and I could find no one who could act the way Sean would. Once we had scouted out an appropriate classroom I showed my cameraman the storyboard and Scripts I had produced prior to this event. The story board clearly showed a use of long shots, 2 over the shoulder shots, medium close ups and extreme close ups. I also went out in to Stockport to get some establishing shots which the majority of are long shots. These are all conventional shots used in soaps across the world. These are just a few key shots I used.

Extreme close up

Medium close up

Long shot

Over the shoulder

Music The song used in the soap advert is called “She just likes to fight” by

an artist called “Four tet” I came across this song a while ago and always thought it would go well as a advert for something on tv. I used the crescendo of the song to build up tension as Kate tells Sean she is pregnant, then when the song drops after the crescendo I have strategically placed flashing clips (aprox 1 second in length) in time with the beat of the song which is a conventional method of editing used in all sorts of video productions to add tension or to show a sort of flash forward in to the future which was what I was trying to achieve so the audience got a glimmer of what was going to come in the coming episodes, leaving the advert on a cliff-hanger enticing the audience to start following the soap.

I studied these sound waves to find each individual beat of the song

The video clips are timed so they last for one beat of the song.

Mise en scene The 2 main characters in the advert are Kate and Sean. I wanted them both to

look as they would on a normal college day. I did not want either characters looking to overlay dressed nor did I want them looking scruffy. So I just told Kate to dress as she would on a normal college day. She chose to where a green hoody and jeans. (acting as Sean) I chose to where some black trousers, a blue zip up hoody and a scarf. I believe we both looked like stereotypical teenagers (which was the aim in the first place).The way the characters dress also has a huge reflection on their class and social group, I was really striving to make these characters appear to have come from a middleclass back ground. I really wanted my audience to feel as if they had common ground with the characters. This would be a crucial selling point. If an audience can relate to a character they are often curious about how they handle situations and are tempted to start following soap. I was really striving to create normal characters that teenagers/young adults could really relate to. Props included: A set of headphones, a mobile phone and a college bag to make it appear that Sean had arrived from a lesson.

Headphones

Mise en scene

Hoodey: typically worn by teenagers.

jeans: suitable college clothing.

Chino trousers: Smart casual, I where these regularly at college.

Bag: A bag I had with me on the day that I realized would act as a good prop. It makes Sean appear as if he has just come or is just going to a lesson.

Hoodey: typically worn by teenagers.

Headphones: A good prop that lets the audience know Sean has an interest in music. It also acts as a good prop to keep his hands busy.

Scarf. Gives the audience an idea of that time of year the scene is set.

Question 2: Effective links between soap trailer and 2 ancillaries.

Brand Identification BRAND IDENTIFICATION! This is the golden rule I stuck by

wen construction my ancillary poster. It is important to synergize the creative media used in the soap advert and the poster. For example using the same style of font is crucial as this set out a strong brand image. This is knows as a repetition of key themes. Having the same text in two products advertising the soap will subconsciously associate the soap poster to the advert and vice versa. By relating things such as the same font, or the same use of characters I am creating a strong brand identity.

Target Audience Obviously you are trying to create a brand identification but It is

important to make sure you have a target audience to identify otherwise you will be hoping you just stumble across an audience. My aim was to target the soap at an audience ranging between the ages of 16 to 26 male and female. Although these are my targets I have intentionally aimed it for an audience that younger teenagers e.g 14/15 years olds want to watch. This sounds a little crazy but when the first series of Skins was broadcast on TV it attracted attention from a young audience who I don’t believe were originally targeted. By producers aiming the TV drama at older teenagers younger ones 14/15 year olds wanted to be a part of the Skins scene following what they saw as cool. I can personally vouch for this as I was part of this number of young teens who would sneak downstairs to watch the drama.

TV channel

The channel I wanted my soap to be aired on was a crucial component to the brand identification. I chose E4 because E4 is a Tv channel which is aimed at a younger audience. I also carried out a small survey at college, where I asked 50 pupils what their favourite TV channel is, the results are pictured on the right.As I am aiming the soap at this age range I took their advice on board.

Question 3: Learning from audience feedback

Feedback from Friends Audience feedback has been so crucial in the development on my soap advert.

Before I set out producing my soap trailer I came up with the idea in my head and presented it to a few of my friends to pitch in their ideas. I told them I wanted to come up with a soap set in college with teenagers our age. They liked the concept and the only negative feedback I got of them was to not make it the same as skins. A close friend of mine quoted “Skins was a unique TV program that can never be replicated, the concept and characters made for a fantastic weekly fix, but it’s been done and no one will be able to hold a candle to it, so don’t bother trying” This indicated to me that I needed to make the storylines more realistic. (the storylines were rather over the top in skins) I focused on British soap, Hollyoaks. This was when I realized I needed to combine a few elements of skins (Characters age, background settings) and elements of hollyoaks (the more realistic story lines, the acting style, the shot type, lighting e.c.t.). Its only thanks to this small audience feedback session that I knew the direction to aim my soap advert.

Cast members feedback

When The day came around to film the main scene between Sean and Kate, the actress who plays Kate (conveniently also called Kate) had had a week to study the script and she had hand wrote in a few alterations, She showed me the scripted and told me she had read it and it would sound more natural with these few minor alterations. I reviewed it and agreed it sounded a better than the original. On the next page is a photocopy of the amended script which was used in the filming of the scene.

This is Kate. Her feedback was given to me before we did any filming, but because she is a drama student and she thought the corrections she made would make the scene flow better I took her advice on board.

Hand written annotations.

Audience feedback My biggest worry was people’s expectations and predictions of what

the audience though the soap advert was going to be like. I think by focusing on my brainstorming session I had an aim, throughout the process I would often ask friends in the same media lesson as me what they thought of it, and I even asked my dad what he thought of

the finished product, his quote: “If I was 30 years younger that would be right up my street” coming from a man who describes “Coronation street”

as “Brain rot” (his words not mine) I think I covered all the bases. I got approval of friends and close family.

Question 4: What has been learnt from media technologies across all aspects of the unit?

Thought the last term I have learnt a huge amount about media technologies, both post-production and pre-production are equally as important.

Pre-Production Post-Production

Ensure the lighting is correct for whatever scene you are filming. Make sure there is no unwanted glare abut there is enough light on the subject you are filming. If you are unsure look through the viewfinder of your camera this is how it should look once uploaded to a computer.

Use a good video editing program; I used Adobe Premiere Elements 8. Make good use of the program don’t use random transitions, use transitions that suite the mood of the scene you are filming.

Make sure your signal to noise ratio is good, this basically means make sure you use your equipment to the fullest. Dramatic scenes can often loose there effect if a car drives past and spoils the audio. Use a quiet room and this should not be a problem.

Make sure your audio suites the mood and if it is necessary to cut out sections of audio be sure to take your time and read the sound waves before cutting or you will end up with a jittery sound which is highly unprofessional. Also an appropriate use of audio automation.

Pre-Production Post-Production

Make sure you have a good storyboard a cameraman will be able to use.

Make good use of the brightness, contrast and saturation/hue tools. These 3 components made me realize how easy it is to make armature footage look professional.

Check you have a charged up camera with a sufficient memory card and a tripod.

Be patient with editing, there are so many affects you can achieve in Adobe Premiere Elements 8 and it can be hard to choose between transitions or a brightness setting, I found that asking friends what they thought looked more professional tended to guide me in the right direction, after all its them you are trying to impress.

Use the highest quality camera you can, the better definition your footage looks the more professional it will look.

Watch your advert a number of times before burning it to DVD, get as many friends and family possible to watch it, trust me there will always be someone with a suggestion.

These photos are of me adding my post production overdubbed voice over to my commentary. This is a great example of synergy combining a number of different computer programs and using them to run together.