Music Choice 2

NOSTALJA - Greenhaus (Presented by DJ Zorro)

This Album will contain Original Works, Traditional Ballads, and Popular tunes, from the 1960's era of the Golden Years of Classic R&B, Rock&Roll music, Licensed by the original artists or copyright expired.

Proposed Release Date 7th April 200

I found this track listed on the creative commons website Jamendo and instantly recognized it to be from the gangster film Casino (1995). The piece, although extremely dark, is powerful and atmospheric creating a criminal hostile atmosphere, this was what we were hoping to achieve from our media product. Currently we believe this piece is the one we will use for the main product, as it is recognizable and fits our mood perfectly.

Ancilary task- Magazine cover

As part of our ancillary tasks, we are going to created the front cover of a TV listings magazine/Soap opera magazine with our story on the front. Before creating the front cover, we had to research some that are already avaliable to buy in the shops now.

Below are numerous soap magazine covers in particular that we looked at in detail to see what features needed to be included on the front of our own magazine.

Looking at the soap magazine covers, they all look rather similar. They use bright, bold colours mainly primary colours, large and eye catching font and have large images of the main characters on the front. They are all very busy which makes them much more appealing to read and allows the reader to be interested in the magazine. Soap Opera Weekly, is the most appealing due to the big, bold main cover line on the front of the magazine which dominates the cover. Soap Opera Digest, is one that did not inspire us too much for our own production, the masthead of the magazine is not really eye-catching and just blends in with the rest of the magazine, also the fonts arn't too attractive and overall it does not look as interesting to read as the other soap magazines. Inside soap, is the magazine that is most inspiring for our own magazine, as it has a bold, striking masthead, good positioning of the main image and it looks busy with lots of cover lines.

This magazine cover for 'Soap Opera Weekly,' caught my eye when researching soap opera listings magazines, as it is much more dramatic and attractive than others I found. The use of the close up image allows the audience to feel connected and involved in the image. The vector shape, creates extra detail and drama to the cover of the magazine and makes the storyline appeal more exciting.

Above is a magazine cover from the 'all about soap' magazine showing a similar storyline to the one we are promoting in our own production: a love triangle. The positioning of the characters is essential to convey the storyline clearly to the audience. The male character in the middle of the two women, shows that it is the man that is in the middle of the triangle. The characters facial expressions also add to the clear presentation of the characters for example, sonia on the left hand side, makes it clear that she is his girlfriend as her face conveys a sense of anger and sadness, Zoë on the right hand side, is clearly the love interest, as her facial expression shows her character as being sly and conniving . The body language of the characters has cleverly been constructed in the image, to get across the storyline with the two women characters slightly back to back to show they are rivals.

Ancillary Task-Poster

For our ancillary tasks, we have chosen to create the front cover of a TV listings magazine and a range of promotional material to promote our soap and our trailer. We are going to create a number of posters, including billboard posters and one for bus stops. All these promotional materials will enable us to create our brand image along with promoting our soap and trailer.

We have researched a number of soap posters that are possible inspirations for our own production. Below, is a poster for ITV's Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach, which were created by ITV to promote the programme. The poster is good inspiration for our task as it has simple shots that easily convey what the programme is about. The use of the puppet string, shows that the writers of Moving wallpaper are controlling Echo Beach, the use of props, facial expression and body language connotate the programme content and what the soap is about.

Below is another poster for an ITV programme, this time a drama and the genre is clearly show in the image. The use of the action still shot, creates a sense of realism and allows the audience to feel 'in the moment.' The poster promotes the programme well and people who are not familiar with The Bill, will be aware of the genre and what to expect of the programme. We are aiming to do the same, by creating posters that will enable the audience to fully understand what our soap is about and clearly understand representations of the characters.

Music Choice one

This is our first choice musical piece that we have chosen to possibly use as the non-digetic soundtrack to our soap trailer. This song is performed by the Blues/Jazz musician Oscar Brent, a songwriter and performer from belgium. The track is dark and edgy, very much like the brand image of our soap. Brent's voice is deep and haunting, very much like the johnny Cash voice in the 'judgement day for max' soap trailer for Eastenders. (Below)

Lock Stock Poker Scene

Below is a clip of the poker scene from the film Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels which has very similar shots

to the some of the shots that our soap trailer will have. The video has a lot of close up and angle shots of the

characters so it does not reveal the full face of the character, creating suspense which is something we aim

to do in our own production. The film is a gangster film and so theme of the film relates well to the theme of our

soap trailer with it revolving around a ganster and his girlfriend.

Logo (Brand Image)

Above is our soaps logo which was inspired by the Eastenders logo. We decided on this design as it clearly shows location of our soap just as the Eastenders one does. The image was shot at the top of Shear Brow, Blackburn by Rob and James. It is an extreme long shot from a slightly high angle as it was shot at the top of a hill, this shows clear location and consists of a wide range of areas in the location. The image has a slight greyscale effect, which enable it to look gritty and dark, connotating the gangster, sly, hard hitting, realistic feel to it, therefore contributing to the creation of the brand image of the soap. The font that we chose, was selected for being bold, eye catching and complimenting our image effectively. We feel that eventually, it will be the font that will become recognised as the logo that people will associate the soap with.

Animatic story board

Above, is an animatic display of our storyboard for our T.V trailer. It lists the general idea of the shots we will be using however we were planning on using a few more close ups (e.g. whiskey glass close up and chip throw close up).

The animatic is performed a little faster than we are expecting our actual trailer to be, we are including more slow pace shots and slow motion editing in our final shoot to create a truly cinematic effect which many soap trailers have.

I feel that this storyboard is well articulated as it clearly states the type of shot we are hoping to achieve, although the first slide do move a little to quickly.

Planning

PROPS LIST

Poker set (chips and cards)

Green Felt

Ring

Dress

Shoes

Black Suit

White Suit

Whiskey

Whiskey Glass

Hat

Large, round table

CAST LIST

Gangster- Rob Maclean

Female Protagonist- Hannah Gilrane

Love Interest- James Laraway

LOCATIONS

Hawarth Art Gallery- Potential door shot

St Mary's College performance theatre- Majority of all the shoot

This shot is of the performance theatre at our college, St Mary's which is the location for our shoot. We originally wanted to shoot our trailer in a location outside of college to give us a more realistic, experimental approach to the shoot. However, visiting the theatre, it was clear it was a perfect location to film our trailer. The room is dark with the black curtains around the room and the only light available, is the spot lights above the room, which are just right for creating the gangster feel to our poker scene. On shooting our trailer, we are going to have one main spotlight on the table and the characters to create the perfect atmosphere.

Call Sheet

Health and Safety Form

Ideology

The text that we are making is aiming to force many different ideoligies and values toward the audience. All characters that are in the trailer are going to be stereotypical and therefore will all share the same moral values of that particular stereotype which they represent (eg the gangster is shown to be a drinker/ gambler intensifying the image and his values). The ideology of "love conquers all" will be offered to the audience but also the alternative ideology, that love is over powered by status and control, as the female is controlled so much by her gangster boyfriend, it's hard for her to follow her heart and be with the innocent man who she really loves.  Another  ideology that the audience is offered with, is that it is the men whodo  the chasing of the women, as both male characters are chasing the one female. All these ideologies are quite dominant as most countries/ people share these beliefs and therefore the audience will most probably be able to relate to the ideologies they are being presented with. All these ideologies link to our genre, as we are offering a gangster genre which the ideology of love being overpowered by status and control

Feedback 4/12/09

Very good group - very good posts/analysis for research and well chosen extracts!

- Research - which channel will produce your soap and why?- what is the brand image is of your soap?

Planning
- make sure you have put your target audience questionnaires and results on here
- Storyboard and animatic with comments-
- shooting schedule and call sheets-
- health and safety form-
- props list
- cast list- other location shots
- costume shots/ideas etc...

- keep blogging on your ideas and progress

Miss McNulty

Representation

Our TV trailer consists of three main characters, two protagonists and one secondary character.

The two protagonists are going to be created as stereotypes.

"stereotypes are a typical or mass produced images, repeated so may times, it seems to have an established pattern. It is a simplified and highly judgmental type of representation"

Stewart, Lavelle and Kowaltzke

With stereotyping, the process of selection is excessive. Certain aspects are focused on and then exaggerated. At the same time an evaluation is made and the audience is invited to make a judgment. Repetition establishes stereotypes and over time allows them to appear "natural"

Walter Lippman, defined four main functions of stereotyping:

-an ordering process

-a short cut

-an expression of our values and beliefs

-a map of the world

It is important for us to create stereotypes in our TV trailer, as they will allow quick recognition for the audience in such a small space of time, they will allow the audience to relate and quickly understand the content of the trailer by understanding the characters and their personality without even watching an episode and getting to know the character and it will also be useful for us to convey lots of information quickly.

Our soap opera/trailer will include three main characters. The ganster, the woman and the love interest. The gangster will be played by myself, the woman by Hannah and the love interest by James. Obviously due to all the characters being different, they will all be represented in different ways to enable the audience to understand the different roles that are being played. The female protagonist will be portrayed as being innocent, elegant but also made obvious that she is hiding her secret. Scenes with the woman, will be brightly lit up and perhaps side lighting will also be used, to establish the double life she is leading.

The gangster character will be filmed in the dark will low lighting to show his character as being dark and myserious. His character will be played confidently and slyly. He will be dressed in a black suit to give him the gangster representation.

The love interest will be shot in high lighting to show his character as vulnerable and the 'nice guy' who has innocently fallen in love with the woman. His character will be played almost confidently to reassure himself he will end up with the female and he will wear a white suit to give him the good, innocent representation of his character.

Audience

• Our main target audience is explained using the demographic profiling of GRASS:

G- Typically a female audience because the plot of the soap a love triangle and so it will appeal more to women and typically, women watch soaps more than men.

R- Any races will enjoy our soap.

A- Our target age range is between 16 and 35 .

S- Our product would attract an audience around c1/c2 on the socio-economic scale this is because it is a familiar soap to Eastenders and that is who they usually attract and what the plot of these soaps usually concern.

Our audience according to Young and Rubicams cross cultural consumer characteristics would be the mainstream audience. This is because our product is soap trailer and soaps are well known brand names and mainstream audiences tend to buy these brand names.

Our wider secondary audience will also be explained through the GRASS demographic profiling:

G – Our media product is trying to attract both genders because the different themes in our trailer will attract both males and females, e.g, the love triangle for females and the gangster theme for the males.

R – Our trailer will not specifically target a certain race it will use familiar soap story lines that will attract trhe usual audience of soaps however it is a universal soap and the trailer will attract a variety of different races because it is a universal storyline that people of all races could relate to.

A – The main age range for our trailer, is 16-35, however we are not aiming to limit our soap to this age range, the older generation will also appreciate it because they most probably grew up with gangster films like the Godfather so the gangster theme in the trailer will appeal to them.

S – The wider secondary audience from the socio economic scale would be D and B this is because although the plot of the trailer and others like it focus on c1 and c2 people both D and B people can relate because they are around that level.

By using Maslows hierarchy of needs I am able to show the basic human needs our text fulfills therefore why it appeals to our audience. On the scale our product represents love and belonging and that is why the audience will be interested in it. The reason our trailer represents love is because the plot is a love triangle with a good guy and a bad guy so the audience will want to see the soap to see what happens and hopefully for the good guy to get the girl. Blumer and Mcquails theory of uses and Gratifications also shows what basic human needs our media text is going to fulfill. Firstly entertainment it is an entertaining trailer there is a good storyline to the trailer with an old west standoff theme to it. As well as this it reinforces people’s values the good guy standing up to the bad guy who will harm the woman so tries to save her.

Our product will appeal to the mainstream audience because it is a gritty dark soap that throws up a lot of enigmas and is very similar to other gritty well known soaps like Eastenders. This is represented in the trailer via the dark room and tense music and the two males sitting across from each other like in an old western movie at a standoff. The enigmas thrown up with the gun in the pot goes with the theme of the soap a dark, gritty and thrilling show.