TV Choice Cover Research and Analysis

We have decided to use the magazine TV Choice as the inspirational magazine for our second ancillary task -The front cover of a soap or listings magazine. The main reason we chose this magazine is because it was a well recognised soap magazine and although there are other soaps in the magazine most of the covers that we have found have a Easteners cover on it which is a similar soap to our own. TV Choice is also similar to other soap magazines we have previously reasearched in that it uses bright,primary colours and an attractive font to get the readers interested in the magazine and its contents. Although we are using the name, and similar logo (one we copied but created ourselves in photoshop) and general design of the tv choice magazine we have decided not to make a complete copy of it instead we are going to change some things about the magazine like the logo we prefered the text to be black rather than white so we designed a new logo with black text.

Progress

This past week we began to make a rough cut of our film. We first got rid of all the footage that we did not need and then we began to put the video footage in the order according to our earlier storyboard and we hope that by the end of this week the rough cut of our trailer will be complete. While we have been editing our film we have also made a start in making the first of our ancillary task,the four posters. The idea behind them, is to have three posters of the characters, individual on thier own and then a billboard poster of all the characters together. Towards the end of this week we will be creating our next ancillary task, the magazine cover, as well as continuing with the editing of our video.

James

19/01/10

We have finished our first ancillary task which consists of the billboard poster (shot of all three characters) and the individual posters. I first began to create the billboard poster in InDesign, where I created a black back ground and placed the individual images of the characters onto the page, having cut them out of their original backgrounds on Photoshop. However, after printing them, I noticed a black box around the images which did not intergrate with the black background. Due to this, we had to transfer our final design to photoshop and then further we had to create all our other posters in Photoshop straight away without the use of InDesign at all. We desaturated all our images to keep the consistency and flow of the campaign and kept our colour palette to 3 colours, black,white and red for effect. We used the same font as we did for our "Challenge Way" logo, Gloucester MT to keep a coherent feel to our production.

Hannah

25.1.10

We have almost finished our second anciallry task which is to create the front cover of a TV listings or soap magazine. We chose to create our front cover of a soap magazine purely through the inspiration of TV Choice magazine which is a very popular and well recongised soap opera magazine. We have used the close up images of ourselves which we took on the same day we filmed our production, as these are more likely to be on the front cover of a magazine to attract the readers attention. We created the front cover in InDesign as it allows us to layout the various elements of the magazine correctly and proffesionally. We edited all our images in photoshop as some of them needed their hue and saturation reducing.

Hannah

26.1.10

We have almost completed both our magzine cover ancillary task and editing our video we have decided to make some final changes to our video.We had to erase some small problems with our video on was that the first scene was turning black and white at the end which we did not want so we did it again so now only the scene after it is black and white.We have also fixed a scene in which robs character is flicking a chip but the scene restarted at the end so Rob deleted the end of the scene to get rid of the problem.

James

26.1.10

We have finally completed our magazine ancillary task. I feel that the final outcome looks really good and traditionally like other soap magazines that are already available to buy on the shelves today, which was what we were trying to achieve. The image we were trying to create for our magazine, was cheesy, bold and bright,stereotypical and not look like a high end, classy magazine with the contrasting colours and the corny vector shapes. Before creating our magazine, we primarily created it with a particular target audience in mind. Looking at our final outcome, we feel successful in our target audience, aiming it at middle aged women.

02.02.10

Today we have decided to upload our video on youtube in order to gain further feedback from a much broader audience hopefully drawing in a response from our target audience. The final edit has been colour graded so that we have achieved our film look that the majority of soap advertisements have. The image is much darker than the original filming and hence the atmosphere is more like a real life poker game. I have also edited the music choice so that the instrumental part emphasizing the electric guitar is involved making the final product more powerful. I have also added more of defragmentation effect so that the black and white scenes make the scene more classic and stylish. As a group we decided to remove the logo from the final cut as it was too bright and friendly and the advertisement does not support this concept. Instead I opted to use the same text as the poster over a black screen that fits in with the whole darkness of the video. I also decided to put in some cross cutting (the cut of James and myself/ James and Hannah) so that the audience can feel like there is some intensity between the characters. To conclude this post I feel that the editing process was extremely lengthy but the final cut has delivered the image that we were aiming for.

Rob

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.

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.

Narrative

We are creating a soap trailer which we have researched and discovered that it is more like a film trailer in that it is enigma driven and does not have to relate to a plot that is going on it could be as simple as someone returning. The trailer needs to link with the theme of the soap which is a dark gritty drama similar to Eastenders.

The plot of our trailer is a love triangle which includes the soaps local gangster his partner and her love interest. The woman has fallen in love the other man but for her to follow her heart could result in her life being in danger due to her gangster boyfriend who feel he posses her and it would destroy his reputation. The start of our trailer is the woman walking towards a door with a shot of her designer shoes to show she is well off she then walks into a room with a poker table and two men sitting round it. The woman touches the gangster on the shoulder and the other man looks with jealousy the cards are dealt by the woman and when they both pick the cards up they both have a smile on their faces so you do not know who has the better hand The two men are holding cards and there is a tense stand off between the two like in a western movie.

The typical narrative structure of our product is one that is very similar to a film trailer in that they are very enigmatic. The trailer brings up a lot of questions and makes us want to find out more and obviously watch the show to see what happens. The trailer goes along with the binary opposites theory in that the trailer is about good versus evil the good guy trying to get the girl with the evil gangster not willing to give her up. A good example of another trailer that represents the binary opposites well is the max payne trailer (below). This is a typical good versus evil trailer with one man standing up for what is right. It is obvious that it is good versus evil because of the use of demons and monsters and the mention of the devil aa well as Max Payne fighting them.

This is a trailer from a similar soap to our own Eastenders which is advertising the debut of two new characters the Mitchell sisters (below). This trailer defiantly does follow the rules of the narrative structure in that it has a lot of enigmas which drive the trailer along. One of the enigmas is the viewer wanting to know why they are coming to the square and at the end when it says the square under new management makes the viewer think that they might be coming in to take over. Another narrative rule this trailer follows is the setting they are in a nightclub which shows they are out to have a good time. The soundtrack to the trailer goes well with the video because it is a dance track and they are dancing but the lyrics go against what the characters are being portrayed as. The lyrics are talking about getting the girls but the men in the trailer are just staring at them they are not getting with them showing that they are strong independent women.

Our media product will follow the typical narrative theory of Propp the story of our media product is a familiar story for mainstream western media a story of good versus evil. The trailer does have some of the main characters that Prop outlines there is a hero, villain and the princess. Our media product follows Propps theory because it is typical of soap storylines to have a hero and villain. It follows the theory by having the three characters round a poker table the woman standing in between the two men who are seated the bad gangster putting a gun into the pot to show he is the villain. The trailer does not follow Todorovs theory of an equilibribium being disrupted and then fixed. The reason it does not follow this theory is because it is a trailer and therefore needs to have enigmas so there cant be a second equilibrium shown because the story would be given away. Our media text does follow the narrative theory of Levi-strauss probably more than any other narrative theory, this is because the storyline is about conflict which is represented through the two main characters sitting at other sides of the table. As well as this our media text follows Barthes narrative theory that texts are built of codes. It follows the enigma code by making the viewer ask questions like what will happen next which makes them want to watch on. It also follows the action code theory becasaue there is not a lot said in the trailer the looks between the characters are important in informing the viewer what is happening.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to our blog!

Our group consists of Hannah, Rob and James and we have chosen to produce a TV/Soap promotion.

We are intended to create a promotion package for a new soap opera which is to include:

-a TV trailer

with two of the following...

-a listing magazine

-two hyperlinked websites (with a video extract) for the soaps website

-a poster for the soap

We have chosen to create the listings magazine and the poster to promote the soap.