Coursework text final drafts

Below are the final drafts of my main text, and ancillary texts.

Soap Trailer Final Draft

Magazine Cover Final Draft

Soap Poster Final Draft

Evaluation Conclusion

In conclusion, through this year's study, I feel as though I have learned a substantial amount about the art of film making, including how to use and manipulate conventions to address multiple audiences, both old and new. I also feel as though I know more about the intricate workings of a range of media, such as TV production, but now also the production process of creating images and utilising synergy to create a marketing campaign - an incredibly useful skill in some areas of work.
In addition to this, I feel as though I have also advanced greatly in my skills across a range of media devices, ranging from editing software, to image editing software, with my skills in Photoshop in particular having advanced. This is also highlighted in the juxtaposition from last year's coursework, which although I was proud of at the time, looking back it seems very stereotypical and contrived in comparison to my work this year.

Evaluation activity: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Technology is evolving at such an incredible rate, each day it seems a newer and fresher program or piece of hardware is created making our lives slightly easier. Even still, the technology we this year has changed rapidly from the technology we used last year for editing, and as of such we were able to use newer hardware too.

Last year we used a simple camcorder with tape and a tripod to film our horror movies, and then edited them together on Adobe Premier. The software was easy enough to use once I came to terms with the tools and how to utilise them properly, but our editing options were still limited to cuts, some fading effects and anything else that we could do manually, thus resulting in an incredibly lengthy editing process in which I'd need to spend up to an hour simply moving a text.

This year, however, we were editing using Apple iMacs, on the program Final Cut Pro X. The tools and process remained the same, but the program allowed us to add so many effects and clips that we were a bit overwhelmed at first. Although trailers usually don't have many effects I felt like there were a few effects I could add, one of which being the earthquake effects, which was used during the the scenes when there was a clash between characters, or if there was something significant happening. A few examples of this effect was during the scene where the father bumps into the homosexual couple, or again when the hooded character bumps into the businessman sending his jacket flying. I tried to make the effect subtle so it only just shook the screen, thus emphasizing significant events in the trailers.

Another significant improvement from last year to the new systems is the use of title effects. Last year, I was dreading having to animate the BBC logo at the end of my Soap trailer on Adobe Premier, as it would require either importing the actual clip from the internet which might pose some ethical issues, or I would have had to have used a simple screengrab, which would look unprofessional and would have ruined the overall effect of the trailer. However there is an entire section of Final Cut Pro X which is dedicated to animated title effects and other similar effects to add to the film. One of which was a red circling effect which looked similar to BBC one's famous rotating circle which appears after trailers and before shows. This also allowed me to avoid ethical issues with the editing as the title effect was an original Mac animation.

Another huge advantage that we had while constructing and editing our film was the ease of access that Final Cut Pro X allowed us, as instead of having to wade through multiple folders and drafts to simply locate the correct film like we did on the PCs, the Macs allowed us to simply open the program, and we'd be able to simply work from there. In addition to this, the Macs also have a tab in the bottom right corner as seen in the screenshot above, which provided fast access to other films we have made, such as multiple drafts, thus saving time getting ready to edit, and it also showed the locations and timings of every clip, sound effect and effect which meant if something was off, we could either use it to correct the timings, or locate and remove that item, again saving us a huge amount of time, whereas Adobe Premier required us to manually scan through the timeline to find the one effect, which with all of the effects we used, would take a long time.

Another useful feature in Final Cut Pro is the timeline and the clip area to the left of the screen. This is another huge advantage over Adobe Premier as all of the effects, pictures, clips and sound effects that I have used making the video is listed there, which means if I accidentally remove anything from the timeline I can quickly locate it once more on the screen and replace it, whereas Premier would require me to locate it again from the files and export it again. This along with most other improvements, made no significant impact on the editing process, except last year when I edited it took a few weeks, whereas this year the editing only took half a week, which I believe had to do with the incredibly time efficient use of effects and the layout on this program as opposed to Premier which took much longer to work with.

Another huge step up the Mac holds over last year's PCs was that the Mac allowed us to process high definition footage from an SD card, whereas the PCs could only handle tapes which left a grainy quality after editing. This in turn meant that we were able to capture all of the important details, such as David holding a photo of the baby, and therefore we were able to tell a more fluent story simply through the visuals as would be possible through the PCs. In addition to this, the HD footage looks much more professional as well having been filmed with digital equipment and also edited on state of the art software, which is what would probably have been used in professional studios such as BBC.
In addition to the availability of Macs for editing, we were able to also use new camera technology, as the Macs were now compatible. As mentioned, these cameras filmed in HD with SD cards to capture more footage:

This camera uses an SD card to capture footage which enables larger save files than last year's tape files. As of such we are able to film in high definition also. However the largest advantage this camera has over last year's cameras is that due to the SD card, we did not have to worry about filming over footage of ruining any files, and that allowed us to just pick up the camera after every scene and film another without having to fast forward the tape. This also means that the transfer between film and the computers was much faster, as it was a simple case of transferring the files between systems, whereas last year required us to transfer tape into the system which took much longer. In addition to this, sometimes I'd find that the tape didn't record properly or the footage was a bit damaged, and would require re-filming. This was not an issue using SD cards as the footage was instantly viewable after without having to rewind or fast forward any tapes, thus saving time.

Another advantage over last year was the use of youtube to upload videos using Web 2.0. Last year I uploaded some videos to youtube, such as the final draft of the horror movie to use for the annotations, but the rest of the videos were uploaded straight to blogger after transferring the file type via Windows Movie Maker. This year however, I uploaded the videos staright to my youtube accounts which not only saved time, but it also allowed us to upload the videos in 1080p - the highest definition, whereas transferring it on windows movie maker would reduce the quality substantially.
In addition to this, uploading the videos to youtube allowed people to make comments  which allowed the possibility for feedback from multiple audiences on whatever may be changed.

Returning from last year is the use of Photoshop. Since starting the course in the Summer of 2010, I have improved substantially on Photoshop. This is also useful as this course requires me to use Photoshop more proficiently than last year. This is due to my only use of Photoshop last year was creating a specific font style for use on the horror movie, and wasn't compulsory.

However, this year we were required to use the technology to create our ancillary texts, and so having improved since last year was incredibly beneficial, as the picture above shows an entirely original piece on created on Photoshop.

Finally, we also used cameras once more for the location shooting. The camera we used to document the filming and do location settings is called a Fujifilm Finepix S5800 Digital Camera with 8.0 megapixels and 10x optical zoom - the camera we used last year also.

These cameras were used primarily to shoot the location photos, however they were also used to document the filming process. The use of digital technology and SD storage, just like the camera, allowed us to quickly store information and upload it on the internet. This is beneficial primarily to the blog as it allows me to quickly and efficiently document important photos of the filming process, which helps highlight the steps taken to create our media product which is one of the main purposes of this blogger account - another use of new technology.

Evaluation Activity: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

An incredibly useful resource in creating any creative piece is the constructive criticism from others. When I had finished my Soap Trailer around Christmas 2011, I thought it was done well and could not be improved much more. However as always, whenever someone makes something, they are likely to be biased towards the work, either consciously or subconsciously.
Therefore the audience feedback session from an audience of year 12 Media Students was necessary to highlight any problems that were present in our media films.
Below is my first draft of my Media film, completed and uploaded to the internet on the fourth of January:

We then had to construct a questionnaire that highlighted any potential problems, and also asked general questions such as whether or not the trailer suited the Soap Genre.

My questionnaire asked 10 questions and was answered by 14 groups:

1. After viewing this trailer, would you say it suits the Soap genre?

2. Would you watch the Soap after viewing this trailer?

3. Is the music appropriate for the trailer/genre?

4. Should there be text to accompany the voiceovers?

5. Is the trailer the right length?

6. Are there enough conventional characters for a Soap?

7. Is there a variety of shots?

8. Is there anything that can be improved?

9. What works well?

10. Is the editing appropriate (lighting, transitions etc.)?

Once the questionnaire was distributed to the AS level class, whom were organised into various groups of fourteen, I learned that my movie was relatively well received by them, with many students complementing the choice of music over many other things.

However, through close analysis of the questionnaires, I learned that although the vast majority of people who viewed the trailer suggested adding text over the voiceover work. This was a good idea, although in the end I decided it would not help the trailer, as the text already added at the introduction to character segments did enough to establish the characters, and adding additional text to the voiceovers too would make the trailer far too cluttered.
I know this as I tried adding voice over texts when I was editing for the first time, and although it would have added more to establish characters, it did indeed make the advert far too cluttered. It also ended up revealing too much about the characters, whereas the text I have in the soap already reveals a small amount of back story through one and two word phrases, but left a majority to a mystery, thereby enticing the customers to watch the show to learn more. An effective use in marketing.

Another suggestion from my questionnaire's feedback is that the song we used was inappropriate. Although I disagree, I can see to an extent why it may not be conventional for a Soap. However, I was unable to change the music by this point because I had timed it to work with the cues on film, and also because although it is unconventional, that was also our objective; to market a show that follows conventions but is also it's own product in order to add something fresh and new to this genre. Therefore, I decided that ultimately, there was not enough people raising an issue with the music (with one of the criticisms saying yes and no) to justify considering changing it around and choosing another song to fit the mood and the film itself.

However, one complaint I learned from the questionnaire that I decided I did think was worth changing, was the point raised by group 6, in that the trailer was too long. This was also raised by group 14, suggesting we make our shots shorter.
Although not many people raised this issue, on hindsight, it was a glaringly obvious one, as the trailer ran for 1:46, which is astonishingly long for a trailer. Therefore, I decided that it was worth going through the trailer and cutting out shots where nothing happens, or shots that simply ran too long.
The end result was a significantly shorter trailer, which actually in my opinion, runs much more fluently than the first draft.

In this version of the film, numerous shots were shortened by around a second, to a few seconds at a time. This made the trailer seem much faster paced. I also used this opportunity to change the song arrangement, as the original version of the song was cut off in the middle and rearranged to start over. Although I made many, many attempts to smooth the transition as much as possible, it was incredibly noticeable and so I changed it to play normally.

However, I didn't just learn criticism from the audience feedback, a large percentage of my feedback results came back positive with many compliments such as good characters and shots, multiple comments about the choice of music being good, the text and voice overs, and one group even said I had the best editing.

Overall, just the same as last year, this questionnaire feedback has been invaluable in our coursework editing process, as it pointed out many good things and bad things about our trailer, which gave us a unique and in depth view from many others' observations, and it gave me much more of an insight in what to change and what to keep in my media trailer in order to improve it. The end result, I believe, was a stronger, better and much more fluent trailer which I think is more likely to look like it belongs on TV than the first draft, and so to the year 12s who have given us this information, I would like to thank you for your participation.

Below are the final results from the questionnaires that were returned to us:
Green (Positive)

Yellow (Criticism)

Black (No Response)

Evaluation Activity: How effective is the combination of your main product and anciallary texts?

The main combination between our main product and ancillary texts is described in the video below:

As described in the video, the main combination between our ancillary texts and the main product is the characters themselves, creating a synergy between the products. This is because the characters are the main feature of both the trailers and the show itself. Therefore, by using them as a marketing tool, besides creating a synergy, it also raises the excitement of the show due to the characters being semi-established already in the trailer.

Below is the script for this video:

[Begin Clip]
The main thing we needed to keep in mind during the planning stage of our media product is the conventions of Soaps and how we’d tailor them to our demographic.
Characters are vastly important to any Soap as they are always the focal point. If the audience does not enjoy the characters, the Soap is bound to fail. Therefore we found that, similar to Hollyoaks, the main appeal our Soap has to our target demographic is the majority of characters being of a teenage demographic also, and therefore the audiences can relate to our characters.
We therefore decided that, despite the troubles of the characters, we need to portray them in a way that showcased their troubles, but also made them sympathetic.
Therefore, as Teens tend to spend their time in social groups, we decided that the final shot should be of all of our characters standing around the signpost to Avenue Road – the sign that provided the inspiration for our soap title. However, I thought this shot also showcased all of the characters and therefore for the purposes of marketing the soap (our ancillary texts), would provide a good source of synergy both for the characters and the show itself, as a recognisable stance. However, despite the shot showcasing the characters, the location for the shot isn’t perfect, as it is bleak and does not showcase the mise-en-scene in an effective manner[go back to image of final shot]
[Show poster] therefore, I changed the positioning of the characters slightly, moved the sign, and changed the setting of the photo, thereby providing a better location for the combination for our characters to the mise-en-scene. This also makes the image look more original, as the characters are not in the same stance as they were in for the for the trailer.
This image also worked well on the cover of my magazine, [show magazine] as the characters are in a compact stance, and therefore, I was able to fit them all in position on the cover of this magazine. Additionally, the position of Harry, the drug dealer from the trailer, also works with the strapline, as he is immediately above it and therefore is instantly relatable to the strapline story.
Therefore, in essence, the characters are the show’s main appeal, and double up for the synergy between our three products - the film, the poster and the magazine cover. Therefore, using the characters as synergy allows an effective link between the film and ancillary texts, by creating an instantly recognisable image for both the characters and the show itself.
Thank you for watching, and listening to this presentation.

Evaluation Activity: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are several conventions present in media products such as Soap Operas that simply define the genre unlike any other. These vary between several things already discussed such as settings and characters, and also the trailers themselves, and as we can see, each Soap follows these conventions perfectly, thus providing the show with a formula to go by when we were planning our film.
Despite our trailer being for a new show on BBC, we decided that it would be a good idea to also consider contemporary trailers for Soaps that follow a similar atmosphere to ours, with teen problems, drugs and all other kinds of factors common in the lives of younger people.
While we were planning our trailer, this trailer for the Hollyoaks wedding was released on Channel 4, being shown almost every day at the time.

In this trailer, there are multiple shots of various members all gathering in the church. There is also a low key lighting throughout casting a dark and sometimes oppressive atmosphere. There is also music playing throughout, giving the impression that despite it being a wedding, there is a sadness involved also.

We decided eventually that our Soap should show similar conventions whilst being slightly lighter toned, as the Hollyoaks trailer works mainly through established characters, whereas we required to portray our characters through the trailer, whilst also establishing them, and not giving away any plot points for the trailer itself.

We decided that, although we don't want our trailer to be as dark or contain as many complicated plot points, we decided to use some of the conventions such as the darker mise-en-scene for the atmosphere, and various slow motion shots and establishing shots to emphasize various scenes and shots as important to establishing characters.

The following 9 screenshots highlight various uses of conventions:

The first screenshot depicts the title of the film. The style of the title is conventional for BBC as it has the contains the famous red circling motions and the title of the Soap, thus establishing an up and coming production.

The title itself is conventional of Soaps, as Soap operas are typically named after the towns or communities in which they are set, as seen in shows such as Coronation Street, and sometimes also referring to the geographical location of the Soap, such as EastEnders, being set in the East of London.

Due to our Soap opera being set in the town of St Neots, we could not go for a geographical name such as EastEnders, as the town is not large enough or significant enough to draw a reference that audiences nationally will understand, so we decided the best avenue to pursue in naming our Soap would be to name it after the name of the street the Soap would focus on, thereby relating to the Coronation Street convention.

The second screenshot highlights the use of settings and locations of the Soap, as the settings will consist not only of larger areas such as the town center, but also thin and narrow streets, thereby challenging the typical convention of Soaps being set mainly in the pub.

In the trailer, the vast majority of the shots are taken in and around the town, with only one brief segment of the trailer taking place in the pub, which is also empty. A large convention in any Soap, as mentioned in the settings post, is the social hub, which is often a pub or bar. However, the vast majority of the goings on in the trailer are all around the town in multiple locations, which, while is not unheard of in Soaps, is still challenging the conventions of Soaps being set in a few key locations (residence, town and social hub).

The third screenshot highlights the costumes and props, and is used in key with the settings to add a tone of realism to the town, a typical convention of Soaps, as they are all set in believable settings with believable characters so that audiences everywhere can find something to relate to in Soaps.

The prop in this image is one of the few we actually used in this trailer, and is a laundry bag containing the gentleman's jacket. As mentioned, this works in key with the settings, as this shot is set directly next to the laundromats, keeping the relation between the settings and the props relevant. Another example of the use of costumes in this shot is my costume, wearing my coat with the hood down. Initially, I was not meant to portray this character, but when some of the actors didn't turn up to the filming, we had to improvise. By keeping my head down and my hood up, I was able to somewhat obscure my face in a way that doesn't distract from the trailer, but at the same time, works with the settings in the contrast between the formal shirt tie and trousers, and the informal hooded top and coat, adding some diversity to the characters in both age, and social class. A convention used in all Soaps to keep their characters fresh, and also offer more opportunity for more plot points and dynamic writing.

The fourth screenshot displays the use of editing, as it shows a fade wipe transition between scenes. This is uncommon in Soaps as all of the transitions are instant, making the show run much more fluently.

 However, this is a trailer, and not an actual episode. The use of similar techniques in an actual episode would be out of place and distracting. However, using the Hollyoaks trailer we used for some inspiration as an example, most of the cuts are still instant without any type of transition. However, despite this, the Hollyoaks trailer is set in a single location, with the events unfolding in real time, and with established characters, whereas this transition is used to display the passing of time, even if a short time, and also offers a good opportunity to reintroduce our first character as an antagonist to the couple.
In all of the trailers we used to study conventions, I have not seen any transitions such as this being used, and so it is likely to be unconventional.

The fifth screenshot is used to display the title font and style. Although this is the same screenshot as the first screenshot (highlighting the use of the title), this screenshot displays the font and style more clearly, as the transition is more complete in this screenshot.

The font used for the title is typical for the BBC, as their show announcements usually are written in a bold white font that is usually very straight and businesslike, with the exception of EastEnders, which keeps the show's original font, which is much more of a rounded font.

From the 2011 New Year's Eve episode trailer

As of such, by keeping a bold text that is relatively businesslike, we are able to keep our trailer font in between the two ends, allowing us to retain the BBC's standards of font, but at the same time creating an original type of font for the show to use outside of the trailer also.

The sixth screenshot details the story and how it is set up. Being a Soap trailer, we had to pursue multiple narratives to convey as many of the main characters as possible, and therefore we didn't have one individual story. However, I consider the character in the intro to be one of the two main characters in the Soap, and so his story is one of the more important ones.

The most important story follows the teenage father shown in the intro of the trailer. The music fits with the visuals as the lyrics say "I will ease your strain", right at the moment as he drinks another shot of alcohol, thereby establishing that he is a troubled character, especially after he looks at a photo of a newborn baby, suggesting his pain comes from the baby. This gives the character a back story as well as giving him the motive to do bad things, such as barging past the couple in the next segment.
However, as mentioned, seeing as the film is a trailer, we need to also focus some attention on the stories of the other characters involved, thereby restricting us to focus the narrative on a single character. This is a convention of Soaps, as each episode would typically shift it's narrative between many characters each episode, thereby making the community feel more dynamic, and also allowing the stories to be conveyed in real-time, as opposed to a film for example, which would focus entirely on one narrative, and therefore, have a main character and supporting cast, as opposed to several main characters. This means that our trailer follows the conventions of Soap storytelling.

This is also true for the seventh screenshot, which is used to identify the genre, and how it is set up.

A common source for writing in a Soap opera comes from the anguish and problems of a character, and therefore establishes a narrative that can run for a while through a Soap, and therefore we figured the best way to open a Soap trailer was to establish an existing problem for a character, and therefore it establishes a convention of Soap operas.
However, this wasn't the only example of this. Each character segment opens as though it has already begun, such as the section where the hooded character knocks into the businessman, thereby suggesting previous tensions with each other, or a bad back story for the hooded character. Each of which could be exploited for  a running narrative in a Soap.

The eighth screenshot details how characters are  introduced. Throughout the trailer, I used small captions to provide a small amount of back story to the characters, whilst still leaving it open to interpretation.

Each character has their own caption, with the homosexual couple having the shunned caption. This also allows us to show how other characters are viewed by the community they're in, with brief summarising statements about their background. However, despite this, we also detail a large amount of back story through the voice overs, with the man with the flowers for example describing his situation by thinking "She'll never love me", implying that he has been attempting to win her over, or at least possess feelings for her, for quite some time. Another example is with one of the homosexual lovers saying "sometimes I wonder whether our love is worth the abuse we get", suggesting they're constantly being abused and shunned for their sexual preferences.

The final screenshot details the special effects. Despite the transition between various scenes and a few overlays, such as the darkened corners in the 8th screenshot, most of our special effects were purely done through the camera work:

This car was parked near the florists, opposite the road where the couple are sitting with each other. Although the original plan was for Josh (the character with the flowers) to look at his hair in the window of a shop, and see the couple's reflection in the window next to him, we figured that, seeing as this car had a highly reflective window, it would be more effective for him to do his hair in the reflection of the car window, and then look up and spot them. This also allows us to show some more of the character, as he notices his own reflection before noticing his love interest and her boyfriend across the street, implying that his is somewhat self absorbed, and may prioritise himself before others.

The use of special effects were limited, aside from the occasional slow motion or filter for effect, deliberately to maintain the reality of the Soap. We decided that, in the end, it would be more effective, and conventional, to only use special effects where there was no other alternative, and therefore by using common items such as the car to create a special effect, we maintain the show's reality - a significant convention of the Soap genre.

Soap Trailer final draft

After receiving plenty of feedback containing both compliments to the original, and also lots of constructive criticisms on what could be improved, it was time to re-edit our trailer tailoring to these new suggestions.

The main changes that have been made consist of timing issues, and some of my own personal modifications. A prime example of the timing issues is that the first draft was much longer, by around 20 or so seconds which is a substantial amount of time regarding trailers. This was due to many shots being unnecessarily long, and as of such made the trailer drag for much longer than it needed to. When editing this draft, I went through every single scene, cutting and removing entire sequences that did nothing to advertise the Soap, but only made it drag. As of such, I was able to create a trailer that was much faster and had better pacing between scenes making it more dynamic.
A second change I made was one of my own ideas, and that was the music. Due to the first trailer being much longer, the song we play over the trailer went on much longer also, and I did not feel that the bass solo in the middle of the song helped advertise the show, and ultimately distracted from the trailer. As of such, in the original I looped the first half of the song. The result, despite my best efforts, was a sudden jump in the audio, which, although nobody mentioned it in the feedback, was very obvious. As of such I decided that, now that the trailer is shorter, I was able to play the song normally, and therefore could have a much more fluent soundtrack throughout the trailer.