I have selected nine screen shots from my film which I feel justify the ways in which my soap trailer uses, develops and challenges the conventions of a real soap trailer.
- In the first image, we used a long shot to showcase a summary of the key characters in the cast, this shot also showed the name of the soap on the street sign for authenticity and realism. Paired with this shot was a stereotypical non-diagetic voiceover saying the name of the soap 'Avenue' as well as the tagline 'There's two sides to every story'. This image was also used for the billboard poster for synergy of the product and for instant recognition of this shot in a similar way that Eastenders use London from a birds eye view. I felt this shot could also be used within the soaps title sequence with the next shot being the first scene of the episode, when key characters leave/ join, this shot can be re-filmed and can be a continual aspect of the soap and can develop and the cast progresses.
- The second image shows a young man in a pub looking at a picture of his daughter, the text on screen quotes 'Drink away your sorrows' this storyline is one of the key plotlines for the soap, we only hinted upon certain aspects such as who the mother was and why he was drinking in the first place, I felt this would bring intrigue from the audience and encourage them to watch the soap to discover the story behind his sorrow. This challenges current soap trailers as they already have backstories implemented for the characters and have established plots/ families, with a new soap, having a back story for the characters is not possible so we had to film shots which highlighted the key aspects of their characters persona's.
- The third image shows a mid shot of two of the soaps younger characters; these characters are engaged in an illegal act, this is a conventional characteristic of young soap characters who are usually 'anti-social' or 'rebellious', I emphasised this by adding the text 'Rebellious' at the beginning of their scene. We wanted to meet the conventional stereotype in Soaps that most young men and 'Jack The Lad' Esq characters are mischievous, I feel this was showcased in the trailer.
- The fourth image shows the introduction of the gay couple, we wanted to make this storyline controversial where the gay couple are excluded and made to feel like outsiders, we conducted some research and saw that must gay couples are treated equally, but in reality (especially amongst youngsters) homosexuality it not as easily accepted, we wanted to make gay couples relate to this, later in the show we would eventually resolve the issue in a realistic way to act as guidance to homosexuals. So with this scene we are meeting, challenging and developing the convention as we are highlighting a contemporary issue, showing the darker side (Exodus from peers) and developing their relationship as a key storyline. Another soap which has had a similar storyline recently is Eastenders, with a gay couple, this also links ethnicity as being homosexual is not allowed in Sayeed's religion. Image 9 also shows the gay couple, this time it's paired with the text 'never accepted' and Edward (Left) crying onto Anthony (Right) this shows that both of the characters are in touch with their emotions and care for each other, the Never Accepted highlights the points I made earlier in this post.
- The fifth image shows a contrast of our soap and highlights our tag line 'there's two sides to every story'. It showcases one of the older characters in the soap leaving the dry cleaners with a suit, which shows he is a man working in the business world, he is then confronted and nudged by a hooded teen, who knocks his jacket to the ground. We then see the reaction of the adult to the hooded boys action. We used the conventional mid shots and long shots to establish this scene and a mid shot, dutch tilt when he picks up the suit, this shot is uncommon in soaps, especially in trailers, we felt that variety in shot types on one of the slower paced scenes would add more interest and appeal to the trailer, so we used a tilted shot as opposed to a standard low angle.
- The sixth shot shows a stereotypical and conventional storyline a 'love traingle' between one girl and two men. The shot in the image is an over the shoulder from the character who is trying to woo the female, but his heart is broken when he sees her kissing another man, he throws the flowers to the ground whilst looking over at them, the love triangle is a common storyline for soaps, especially amongst youngsters, this storyline has many possibilities to develop, with the introduction of new love interests and characters to keep the story flowing, however, in the trailer we wanted to meet the stereotypical convention of this storyline. This scene is also shown in the eight shot where the male character is shown doing his hair in a car reflection window, showing he cares about his appearence and wants to impress the girl, we used this shot to identify the character and show his personality (confident, romantic) we also highlighted that he doesn't have much money as he has purchased £ flowers.
- The seventh image shows one of the stranger aspects of our soap, we wanted to have a character who met the 'geek' stereotype. We met this with his attire (white shirt, pocket protector, black trousers and big glasses) but we wanted him to be more unusual and abstract, so we gave him an obsession with flowers, he sees the love triangle character drop the flowers and this is shown through cross cuts, he then runs over to the flowers and picks them up, a close-up shows a big smile on his face as he walks away with the flowers in his hand, this scene ends with him kicking his feet together in a comical fashion. This leads to the final shot of the trailer.
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