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.