Filming Progress

We have currently filmed half the scenes for our soap trailer, we were able to get the gay couple, but we have had to adjust the casting and pair Anthony with team member Ed, as one of our characters was unable to attend due to work commitments, this scene went better than expected and we used an additional long shot, low angle shot from a bridge, looking down on the gay couple hugging on a bench. We felt this added to the stereotype and displayed the characters persona's which it what we wanted to grasp in our initial trailer.


We also filmed the druggie/ Jack the Lad scene, this was very successful and we stuck to teh initial storyboard, which is a sign of good planning, the only difficulty we had with this scene was continuity with passing vehicles and some laughter from cast members, we countered this by using the alleyway entrance to a minimum and many takes for the grappling scene.

Camerawork Focus Point: The Spire's Music Video

In the initial planning stages, I wanted to find as many inspirations and focus point as possible to ensure my soap trailer had as many realistic filming conventions, without being too clique, some of the establishing shots and cross cutting with the focus upon a single characters were really interesting and had a strong link to my initial plans for my production. For example, the video starts with a tracking shot from behind the antagonist of the story, we plan to use a similar establishing shot in our production, this allowed me to see how this camera angle would appeal and if it has an instant impact on the audience and sparks an interest, we opted to use a standard mid shot/ close up of the drunken character as it is a soap trailer so each character has to be introduced as quickly as possible, this establishing shot could be used in another trailer where a new 'Bad guy' is introduced into the soap, it could show a tracking shot from behind of him walking through all the stock settings and passing the stock characters which have already been established through the initial trailer and the episodes of the soap which have been broadcasted.

At around 3.18 in the music video, there is also a chase scene which then leads to the antagonist being stopped by another character, we were planning to use a similar shot towards the end of our trailer with the drunken character, however, we opted not to use this as we wanted to establish the stock character's persona as opposed to storyline progression.

 

Focus Point: McDonald's 2011 Ad:

I saw this McDonald's advert on television this weekend and was inspired by the camerawork and storytelling which was displayed through this. I the camera shot I was particularly intrigued by were the long shot of him walking down the street from within a store, this also showed a woman filling up a washing machine, this shows community interaction and also the main character, this could be a very effective shot for our film when we are tracking a character, we have permission from several shops in the town where we could have someone purchasing an item at a till with a character walking -past, this would link to pour plan of character interaction having a catalyst effect.

There was also a good example of an over the shoulder shot which then cuts to a panning shot on the other side of the street, I would love to have a similar style in my soap trailer, however with a more varied focus upon other characters. For example, in this advert when the man looks at the attractive girl on the market, the camera then follows her, then she interacts with another key character who has a unique role in the story.

Location Photos

Today (17th November 2011) we took photos of our planned location, we also gained permission from several local businesses to allow use in the film.

This street was the inspiration for or soap title 'Avenue' our tagline also came from this 'There's two sides to every story' as avenues always have two entrances.

Possible local busiensses, Polish restaurant (ethnic diversity) and a hairdressers for the women in the town.We have used this store as a background for an extras scene, however, this scene is unlikely to make it into the final cut as it slows the fluidity and pace of the trailer, howevere this store would be a focal point of the soap, with many female characters using it as their hairdressers.  

Possible pub for the older characters, have the alpha male and/ or the drunk being kicked out for disorderly behaviour. We also have other option for pubs, We have used the Pig N Falcon as opposes to this pub as we gained permission from the landlord to use their establishment.

Avenue road, residential area where majority of characters live, contrast of characters on each side of the road, left hand side is middle class people, right hand side is flats for working class characters although both sets of characters interact.  

Main street connected to Avenue road, tracking/ establishing shots are planned for this area, we hope to have extras to add to the realism and ambiance of the set. The car in the center is roughly the location of the love triangle boy with the flowers, he looks through the window of a car and sees his lover and another man on a bench to left which is out of shot in this image.

Permission gained for use of this flower shop, shot used to establish character, in particular the boy involved in the love triangle who is buying flowers for the girl he loves, the shot will show a mid shot of him leaving the store. 

This image shows a back alley from the town, this is behind the barber shop which is shown in the above image, I want to use this area for either a drug deal and/ or a fight with some of the juveniles in our soap.  

This alleyway is a focal point and setting for our 'Jack The Lad' and druggie scene, the druggie character is leaning against the wall on the left hand side and the Jack The Lad character enters from the left, walks up to the stereotypically shifty character, grabs him by the neck and demands his cocaine. The final shot of this scene shows the Jack The Lad character exiting the shot in a similar way to that of myself (centre). 

This dry cleaners is also a main location within our soap, this will be a place where everyone meets up, in a similar fashion to the dry cleaners in EastEnders. In the trailer however, a businessman leaves with a newly cleaned suit

The below images are purely concepts for additional scenes, the market square is showcased in the bottom two images, this would be a set scene every thursday and storylines would be integrated around this, with many of the characters shown in the trailer working on it. The park and alleyway (Images 1 and 2 respectively) also show areas where the youths will 'hang out' when doing illegal and contemporary activities such as binge drinking and drug abuse.

Soap Trailer Planning: Characters

This is our initial plan of characters, we wanted to hit every age group/ stereotype which is featured in modern day soaps such as Eastenders and Corrie with a key focus on teenage stereotypes as the 16-15 age bracket is our TA, so we have included the 'geek' the alpha male and Jack the lad characters for the typical schoolyard characters, but with the darker, more rebellious side of teenage life with drunks (binge drinkers), Drug addicts and junkies looking for their next fix. We want to make these stereotypes clear and show how to either avoid them or simply to raise awareness of the social impacts of these stereotypes and how real life events have a difference effect on each of them, we want to make this apparent in our trailer with the focus upon these stereotypes.

However, our soap is not only about teens, we also have plans to use a wide array of older characters, we aim to use a pub and other businesses/ extras who will have adult interaction and some adults will also have key roles in the storyline, such as the elderly couple who disapprove of the teen 'Jack the lads' swagger and look at their grandson,  

Soap Names

We have concepted several ideas for the name of our soap, we have looked at the names of current soaps such as Corination Street, Eastenders, Neighbours, Hollyoaks etc and have noticed they all relate to a semantic field of location, we had ideas such as 'Two Sides' and 'Changes'. But I had some innovation when walking down my street and saw a sign on a blank brick wall which said 'Avenue Road', I then decided to use 'Avenue' as the title of my soap, this meets the semantic field of location, shows that it is based in a community and the tagline 'There's two sides to every story' relates to both the characters and the fact that Avenues have two enterances.

BBC

BBC's mission statement: To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.

The BBC has lived up to this statement thus far, offering a wide array for informative, educational and entertaining shows and radio broadcasts. the BBC is the largest broadcating organisation in the world, with multiple channels in the United Kingdom and across the globe, including BBC US.

The BBC is funded by TV licensing, it uses the income from this to run eight national TV channels, showing such shows as Strictly Come Dancing to Family Guy. There is also 10 radio stations and a highly developed website, with info about viewing figures, future plans, news and multiple other aspects.

The BBC also shows multiple dramasm but most importantly from my research's perspective, soaps. The most popular soap that is still running on the BBC is Eastenders, I have writen previously about this soap and it has been a huge sucess since hitting our screens in 1984. They also have a popular day time soap called 'Doctors' which unsurprisingly, focuses around a doctors surgery.

Characters+ Story early planning

The above image showcases our first plans for the soap characters. We want to establish around six stock characters within the soap of diverse age, gender and ethnicity ranges. We have planned to use four male characters and two female characters within this, this will fit in with our sequential story, where each storyline aspect weaves into another and has a catalytic effect. Next to the character ideas, we have names of people who could possibly play this role, we will choose these characters careful to find the person who fits the bio of each character well, for example, with the alpha male, we will look for a male character who is muscular.

Soap Trailer planning: Characters & Story ideas.

This is our initial planning for our soap trailer. We have an idea for the setting and have based the storyline and characters around this, we feel our characters diversity matches that of an everyday soap, the choice of story lines related to these characters will be showcased in the trailer, with each character exemplifying their stereotype; for example the Alpha male is pushing others around and the love triangle shows emotional pain. When planning, we came to a unanimous conclusion that each characters action will lead to another story, so the alpha male pushes the boy involved in the love triangle, then he drops and object which another character then interacts with. We felt this would showcase the tight-knit community which is frequent in soap operas and will allow us to show each characters persona.

Soap Trailer Song:

Learning from my mistakes last year, we decided as a group to pick a song as the first step, then work the filming upon this song and allow the story of the lyrics to match what is occurring on screen, this paired with diagetic dialogue to link in with the lyrics, the bass drops and rhythm of this particular song will fit ideally with the eerie atmosphere and the secrecy each character holds.

We are still looking for a song to match Althusser theory of intelpellation (Discussed in a prior post) as a theme tune for our soap, we will use the inital draw at the end of our trailer when our title sequence occurs.

Eyes on Fire- Blue Foundation (Zeds Dead remix):

Camera Angle ideas

I have been watching several soap trailers and have envisaged some camera angles to use for my soap trailer. Sme of the abstract shots I want to use are:

Dutch Tilt

- Dutch Tilt/ Oblited/ Canted Angle
I plan to use this shot at least once in my filming process, this is one of my favourite shots to use in productions, I feel it adds an abstract angle which is very effective. This shot type is ofetn handheld, but I feel it can also be effective in a steady shot with the use of a tripod.


-Over The Shoulder 
I want to use several over the shoulder shots, some concepts we have storyboarded as a team are to use this for the love triangle scene and the drug dealer/ Jack The Lad scene.

- Eye Level
This will be very effective in a soap trailer as it will portray the emotion of the characters and have this emotion at an equal level to the viewer as opposed to a high/ low angle shot, this will be paired with a close up or an Extreme close-up for further effect. 


Another shot we would love to use, but is almost impossible to conduct is a birds eye view of the scene, a concept I came up with was for the final scene to zoom out to a birds eye view of the street 'Avenue' and the town to show the location of the soap, unfortunately, without investment, we are unable to afford a helicopter. 

Shot List:

Thursday: Film pub scene and the Homosexual couple scene, film these at around 3pm. Shot types used: Long shit, Tracking shot, Close-ups, Mid shots. Bring Tri-Pod. Film during fair weather and lighting, ensure next filming date is within similar lighting and identical weather conditions, possibly after rain for picture scene. Next film date estimated to be the corresponding Sunday when all cast are free.

Sunday: Love Triangle scene, Nerd scene, Dry-cleaners jack the lad/ drug dealer scene. Shots Used: Shot reverse shot, mid shots, close up, panning camera angles, dutch tilt, close-ups. Filming locations: alleyway, main road, Tudor Rose Club. All cast members are available for the Sunday, this will allow us to complete all of our footage, once filmed, we will edit a chronological sequence for the trailer, if the lighting is an issue, I will conduct some colour correction and adjust the brightness/ contrast if there are lighting issues. 

Chronological shot list: 

Alpha-Male: Pub scene, use of over the shoulder shot, close up, mid shot and long shot. 

Homosexual Couple- Location: Town Bridge. Shots used: Mid Shot, Panning shot and Long shot. 

Dry-Cleaners: Establishing shot, mid shot 

Jack The Lad/ Drug Dealer: Location: Alleyway. Shots used: Mid shot, over the shoulder, long shot 

Love Triangle: Location: Main Road: Shots used: Over The Shoulder, Long Shot, close-up, tracking shot

Nerd-Scene: Location: Main Road: Shots used: Shot-Reverse-Shot, mid-shot.

Final Scene: Avenue Road: Mid-Shot

Soap Theme Tunes

Althussers Theory of Interpellation

Althussers theopry was first based upon church bella and the way church goers reacted to these, when the church bell was rung, they would go to the church. This theory has been related to theme tunes of popular shows such as Estenders and Hollyoaks.

The 'Duff duff' of the theme tune for eastenders is an iconic sound of modern television, in the 80's, the shows producers tried to change this theme tune, this resulted in outrage from fans and the tune was turned backl after a few days. The theme has stayed the same since, when producing my soap trailer, I will ensure the song choice is both repetitive and catchy! The current idea we are considering would meet the theory of interpillation.


Also, the intro of Eatsenders shows a circling outward zoom of the setting, this is effective as people instantly relate the view of the thames as the intro to this soap, with the music, this intro has stayed similar for many decades, with a recent update to the scenery adding icionic new build to the London landscpae such as the 02 arena (formerly Millenium Dome)

Hollyoaks' theme tune has also stayed similar, witjh the inital guitar riff meeting the theory of interpellation. However, as this soap is made for a different and younger demographic, the style of the intro (instruments used) has changed, with a more 'rocky' tone from past years. the intro compared to that of EastEnders, is very heavily edited, with special effects being used in each section. When a new character is added, the intro changes for every character, this keeps the intro interesting as opposed to EastEnders which shows the same setting every episode, this is why the main focus is on the song, when the inital 'duff duffds' play, the viewer knows they have 30 seconds before the show starts, allowing them to make a cup of tea and enjoy the show.  

Plotline Ideas

We have planned several plot lines for our characters in the soap, these being:

- Drunken man, drinking away his sorrows after losing custody of his daughter.

- Gay couple who feel they are mistreated in society.

- Man with dry cleaning, knocked over by hooded teen, contrast of ages.

- Jack The Lad buying drugs 

- Love Triangle

I want my soap to meet contemporary social issues such as a rise in drug abuse in teens, controversy over gay couples and the treatment of gays, youths having a lack of respect for their elders and also meeting some stereotypical conventions of soaps such as romance, drinking and family disputes and issues. 
With each of these storylines, I want to showcase the two sides of each character, this will be shown via camera angles, contrast, colour correction, editing and voice overs. The concept of the trailer is 'There's two sides to every story' we want the viewer to decide how they see each character, for example, when the Jack The Lad buys the drugs, they may disapprove of his abuse of disapprove of the dealer supplying to a teen.

Storyboard

These are my storyboards for my soap trailer, I have detailed the shot types, planned dialogue and also showcases the film in a chronological sequence, as oppose to the filming order, the storyboard showcases the original plan of the soap, the shot choices and editing tools are subject to change due to constraints or other innovation within the group.  



Soap conventions

Some stereotypical soap conventions are: 

- Dramatic Irony 

- Long-Running story lines

   - All main storylines in soaps usually span over 6-8 months to keep the audience atching, especially if they are particuarly interested in one of the characters.

- Deaths around Christmas

   - Every soap usually incorporates some form of death or tragedy around Christmas, this is used in soaps all year round as it makes the viewer feel better about their own lives.

- Unsuccessful marriages 

   - All marriages in soaps usually end in either divorce or a contraversial story i.e. A murder of huisband/ wife, very few relationships with older cast members last longer than five years.

- Close Encounters

   - Ronnie and Michelle from Eastenders, storyline ran for 6 months without Ronnie finding out Michelle was her daughter, eventually finds out then Michelle gets run over. 

- Contemporary issues 

  -Eastenders Referenced the death of Michael Jackson days after his death, filmed new scene to include this in a short time period.

Are soaps 'dumbing down'?

There is currently a debate as to whether soap operas such as Coronation Street and EastEnders are 'dumbing down'. Soaps are viewed by millions of people on a daily basis, some people are so engrossed in the story lines they see them as real life scenarios, but do soaps give a fair reflection on real life? Are audiences being fed mindless junk or realistic documents into the average day of people from Manchester and East London? I will discuss both social realism and argue for and against my hypothesis. 

Corrie.

For a fair reflection, I watched a 10 minute extract of Coronation Street, a soap set in rural Manchester.

All British soaps try to reflect social realism, they usually focus on the negative issues such as abortion, affairs and even extreme circumstances such as domestic violence. Soaps rarely focus on the positive aspects of social realism, however when they do focus on such aspects such as 'The joys of christmas' or weddings, the outcome is usually far from positive, this makes the show more interesting for the public, this is an example of where soaps do not meet social realism.

Soaps also try to reflect contemporary social issues which are effecting their viewers, say for instance when Michael Jackson dies, there was a mention in an episode of EastEnders. 

Soaps are supposedly following a trend of realism, this started with films such as Saturday night and Sunday morning in the 60's, people like looking on onto other people lives, usually those in a worse situation than they are, this is known as voyeurism; Looking at people with bigger issues will also make the viewer feel better about themselves.

Soaps are referred to as 'social-aesthetic' which means they show working class life in a dramatic fashion. 

The extract of 'Corrie' that I watched showcased social realism, however in a hyperbolic fashion. It showed extravagant relationship scenes in a 'love triangle' fashion whilst another lover was in prison, a possible scenario which is rather unlikely in modern society, the man who was the interest of many of these women was accused of GBH, this is yet again another extravagant aspect to the story. 

From a grammatical and lexical standpoint, the language used in the soap was simple, with basic, simple Lexis being used. The Mancunian accent was also prominent within all of the characters, adding to the realism of the setting. During an argument between two characters, no overlapping occurred, in a realistic argument 'butting in' is a common feature, however each character was allowed to finish their point without disruption, this was done by the scriptwriters so the dialogue was easily audible for the viewers, this is a possible example of dumbing down.

I will now look at the positive and negative discourse regarding soap operas:

Soaps are easy viewing which take no demand of intellect to watch and do not stimulate the brain.

Soaps trivialise social issues (Love triangle example above) 

Soaps encourage people to see life in a very simple way (No overlaps in argument) 

Encourage TV addiction (engrossed in storyline) 

People lose distinction between real life and soaps. 

Now some positive discourse towards soaps:

Soaps encourage us to reflect on our lives 

People understand that soaps are social documents (majority understand this) 

Early soaps can be used as a historical document (Coronation Street in the 1960's gave a realistic showcase of that time period with the setting and contemporary fashion of that time period) 

Soaps reflect social issues in a tasteful and responsible way. 

In conclusion, I feel as though soaps should be looked upon as social documents, not true reflection of real life. I also feel that soaps are still as intellectually stimulating as they have been since they began in the 1960's, a majority watch them for simple entertainment, this meets the uses and gratifications theory as people watch them for enjoyment and for social reasons 'did you see Corrie last night? God that GBH bloke with all those women.'

Levi Strauss: Binary Opposites

Levi Strauss created a theory that every aspect of a show has a binary opposite, an easy way to remember this is to use jeans, the left leg may resemble one aspect, the other leg will resemble the other aspect. Some common binary opposites are: Light/ Dark, Cold/ Warm, Hot/ Cold, Est/ West, Good/ Bad etc.




To relate this to soaps, we can look at binary opposites, as I mentioned in my previous posts, the binary opposite of Hero/ Villain. However, this theory could relate to may aspects of soaps. A transition from Rich/ Poor, Unemployed/ employed, even simple opposites such as men/ women.

Media Theorist: Vladamir Propp

Vladamir Propp was a Russian theorist who analysed old Russian folk stories. His theory pondered that there is 8 possible character roles in each story: I will look at each of these character roles and relate them to a soap character.

1. The Villain

Archie Mitchell

Archie Mitchell (right) is regarded as one of 'Eastenders best baddies' he bullied his daughters, threatened his wife and caused outrage amongst soap viewers, Eastenders always has a villain and each running storyline usually features a character similar to Archie.











2. The Hero

Peggy Mitchell

This is traditionally a male character in old folk films, however in a world of androgyny it is now just a brave and courageous person, all soaps will have a hero who usually smites the villiain and ususally end their run in the show, the polar oppisite to Archie Mitchell would be Peggy Mitchell, the wife of Archie who kicks him out of the square.


3. The Donor

The donor is the supplier of an essential object in the story, depending on the storyline in a soap this could be any character they are usually close to the hero (either a relative or have a link between the hero and the villain) they usually know a secret, making the essential object verbal rather than a physical object. 


4. The Helper. 

In The Act: Den and wife+ 'The Helper'

A character who aids the hero, like a sidekick in superhero films, they may also be the donor who supplies vital information, a certain storyline which springs to mind when thinking of a helper is the demise of previous EastEnders villain dirty den, Cat and Den's wife murdered him and buried him in the 'Vic'.




5. The Princess. 

Again, this is not a literal meaning, it could be the object that the hero is trying to protect, or the object of the villains deeds, in a literal sense, this could be Princess Peach from Mario or Maid Marian from Robin Hood. The princess of soap storyline could be a child that a couple is trying to earn custody of, a house in the same circumstance or even something as simple as respect from other members of the soap community.








6. The Father Of The Princess.


This would be the person who gives the object to the hero/ villain, the villain will very rarely win in the long run, however they may have short term gains as most soap villains are manipulative and anger the viewers as they make other cast members look stupid as they are aware that the villain is evil, however the other people in the soap are not aware of this. 


7. The dispatcher. 


This is the character who sends the message or the 'gossip' on the soap, every soap has a cast member who will tell secrets to others, they are usually older women such as Dot from EastEnders who get joy from telling secret to their friends. 

8. The False Hero. 

The False Heroes

False heroes are common in soaps, they are usually working with the villain in some way and look to 'aid' a character in need, in EastEnders Dotty Cotton and her Father were looking after Dot (above) but were actually trying to kill her as she had left them money in her will and they were trying to exploit her trust, they were looking like heroes as they were looking after their old relative. However, they initially had no good intentions. 

Casting

When we had decided on roles of characters, we immediately began the casting. For the majority of the characters, we were looking for teenagers aged between 16-20, this will relate to the demographic as they will be of a similar age to the characters. However, we also want a mixture of adults and show how each age group intergrates in a community. We aim to have around 10 characters in the trailer, 7 teenagers and 3 people between the ages of 30-50.

We hope to have a conclusive cast selected in the next few days.

Soap Trailer examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNeTwF8aA-c

This teaser trailer shows fast paced editing paired with powerful, gripping music, this is a feature I would like have in my trailer, but on a longer time span, for example, the drug scene may have this high pace ad will be in sync with the fast drumbeats up-tempo bass, for the slower scenes, I will have more emotional and slower editing, for example the drunk scene where the man is looking at a picture of his child, this will emphasise the emotion within the trailer. Paired with this will be drawn out, extensive shots to set the initial scene of the trailer.

Media Theories: Cultivation theory

On October 30th 1938, an American radio show broadcasted a radio episode entitled 'War of the worlds' a Halloween special radio broadcast in the style of a 60 minute news bulletin claiming that aliens were coming to earth and the 'end was nye'. Thousands upon thousands of listeners tuned in for the faux apocalyptic story, many people fled their homes into bunkers, anxiety and panic was rive amongst the american population, many claiming they could smell poison gas and see flashes of lightning in the distance. The listeners had missed the initial part of the story claiming it was fictional, as a more popular radio broadcast was occurring simultaneously, it was reported that 1.2 million people were 'genuinely frightened' by the broadcast. This is a prime example of the cultivation theory, showing that audiences are vastly influenced by the media, however not always to this extent, this example showed the extremities it can have on the general public.

Media Theories: Hypodermic theory: Bulger Murder influenced by Childs Play 3?

In one of the most horrific news storys of the 20th century, a two year old boy was murdered by Jon Venables and Robert thomas (top left) both of whom were aged 10 at the time of the killing. They were thought to be from a bad upbringing, with alcohol, drugs and abuse riddling their home lives, they were allowed to do what they want, go where they want and watch what they want. It is thought that before they killed Two year old Bulger they had watched Childs Play 3 and were influenced by a particular scene in a fairground, in which a rollercoaster was a constant threat to both the protagonist and antagonist. In the end, Chucky is badly burnt and disfigured before he falls onto the roller-coaster tracks, James Bulger has beaten, burnt with battery acid, punched before being left on a train track, it is thought that he was dead before any trains had used the track, from this, it is clear to see that the two ten year old boys had severe mental issues and were possibly influenced by this film.

Media Theories

This year, we will be focusing on 6 media theories, these being:


1.The Hypodermic Model

'Media injects ideas/ thoughts into the viewers mind' I will make a separate post discussing this theory with an example, this being the Bulger murder case, this will be paired with copycat theory with the same example.


2. Cultivation theory


Shows that the audience gain a lot of knowledge from the media. I will make a separate post with a prime example of this theory. This could also bee seen as brainwashing/ manipulation. As the media has such a large impact on society this theory could be abused as it was with old radio broadcasts, I will discussi this in further detail in a later post.


3. Desensitisation


Where audiences have been exposed to excessive violence/ gore/ sexual content and become less sensitive to the topics in the film/ video game industry. This has been much more prominent in recent years, for example in the 70's/ 80's many more films were being cut for violence and excessive gore than today, this is due to audience change.


4. Copycat Theory


Where audiences 'copy' what they see, with such violent/ graphic films as Human Centipede 2 and Crash, if they were to be imitated it is extremely important that they are banned as it could have catastrophic circumstances. This theory suggests that people will do what they see, this would be a huge concern for parents if their children watch a horror/ psychological thriller.


5. Uses and gratifications


The uses and gratification theory discusses what the audience gain from the media, I show the 4 sub categories and a few examples below.


 Information:
-Finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the     world.
-Seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices.
-Satisfying curiosity and general interest.
-Learning; self-education.
-Gaining a sense of security through knowledge.
 
 Personal Identity:
-Finding reinforcement for personal values.Finding models of behaviour.
-Identifying with characters. 
-Gaining insight.
 
Integration and Social Interaction:
-Empathy.
-Identifying with others.
-Looking for topics to converse with friends about.

-Helping to carry out social roles.

 
 Entertainment:
-Escaping, or being diverted, from problems.
-Relaxing.
-Getting enjoyment.
-Emotional release.
-Sexual arousal.



6. Reception analysis and ethnography


Media audiences are seen as active producers of meaning as opposed to passive viewers are the hypodermic model suggests, this theories shows that different people take different aspects from a film due to their race, social class, upbringing etc.  This means that the viewers will have a unique/individual response to a media text as opposed to a one minded passive view. Life experiences of the viewer will also impact this, for example, a girl who was raped will have a stronger view against rape being glorified in films such as 'Last house on the left' as opposed to a viewer with no experiences of such occurrences.

Eastenders Extract

I have analysed an extract of Eastenders, I have mostly focus on the soap stereotypes and conventions, this will help me with my soap trailer as I have not watched soaps for several years, I have started to watch shows such as Hollyoaks and Eastenders occasionally, I have been looking at the stereotypes/camerawork in these, the extract was around 10 minutes long.

-          A common feature in Eastenders is the diagetic music in the café, they usually represent a change in scene, a non diagetic ‘train’ sound occurs then a cheery song plays in the café, usually a popular song at the date of the show being filmed.

-          Shot reverse shot is also a common camera shot within soaps as the majority of the content is conversations between characters; this was most prevalent with Bianca and Whitneys conversations.

-          Whitney and Bianca are discussing a continuous storyline which has been ongoing for around 2 months, however I was able to pick up on the storyline very quickly, this is key for soaps as some people drift in and out and don’t watch them every day, the family conflict is also stereotypical of their lower status.    

-          There is a wide array of ages in the Eastenders, from a 4 year old girl who did not meet the stereotypical character for her age, she was plotting the death of her grandmother for money with her father, however she did show some child like qualities when she saw a picture she drew for her father scrunched up into a ball, she was then seen crying later in the extract and her father lied to her about it. This scene also shows the 80 year old Dot, this is a great example of the age range within the show.

-          There was also no preference on race, with a a Muslim and Nigerian family being key to the show, this scenario is common in real East London, with many immigrants living in the city, this adds to the realism of the show, religious issues are also prominent with a current storyline being the gay marriage of a Muslim boy, however his parents are disowning him as he is against his religion.

-          Natuiralistic and simple editing is also a convention within the show, jump cuts were used frequently. Fades/ dissolves and transition would take away from the realism of a soap, this is why non-diagetic music is rarely used, however in soaps such as neighbors and Home & Away, non diagetic music is used. In my opinion, this takes away from the ambience and realism of the show. Naturalistic lighting is also common,  this also adds to the realism. 

Tv Magazine Annotation 1: TV Choice

TV Magazine Research

As an initial task, I have looked at TV magazine front covers, I have annotated some of them in great detail to find the stereotypical conventions of the magazines, such as the use of pugs, bold colouring and the use of language to entice the reader.

I will first publish a copy of TV Choice from the 18-24th June 2011.

Introduction

I have completed my AS media course, which I achieved a B garde in overall.. Last year I produced a Horror film introduction as well as completing tasks relating to the horror film, which I published on my blog; This blog can be found here:

This year will follow a similar format, however I am producing a soap trailer as well as two promotional pieces.


My initial plan is the create a poster and a promotional magazine front cover regarding the soap, I will also conduct extensive research, some of which I have already conducted and will be posted on the blog over the year. 


I hope this is the first of many posts, I will publish my initial magazine front cover research.