Soap Trailer: 2nd Draft

This is the link for my second draft trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTvlWnUeyko&context=C32aa0e0ADOEgsToPDskJ_KE3oAiiq7zGHajtMUO-g

The images below show the changes I have made thinking about the feedback I got from my questionnaire. Half of the people said that they liked the text with the voiceovers and half of them didn't so I decided to keep some of the text in but shorten it so it is easier to read in the time that it is shown on screen.

I also cut a lot of footage out that wasn't needed and I managed to get my trailer down to 1 minute 25 seconds which I think is a more suitable length for a soap trailer. Some of the feedback that I got said that some people thought the trailer was too long but I compared mine to other products and decided that mine was slightly too long.

Soap Trailer: Poster

This is my poster for my soap trailer.I have included pictures of the main characters so that people will know what characters to look for when watching my soap. I have used the original road sign of "Avenue Road" to create some realism. Underneath it is the tagline "there's two sides to every story" which relates to the synergy because the taglin appears in the soap trailer at the end with the last voiceover.
The 'BBC one' logo is in the corner because that is the channel which our soap would appear on once it was aired. This also means that the audience would know what channel to look on to watch our soap. I have told the audience when the soap will be on, "Monday - Friday at 6:00pm" which means that they will know when the soap is on.
I have given the audience all the information that they need to know about when the soap is on, what channel it is on and also part of the synergy.

Soap Trailer: Magazine

Soap Magazine

My soap magazine uses the same pictures that have been used for poster because I wanted to keep to the synergy. The main picture consists of 3 of the main characters wearing the same clothes because it will make it easier for the audience to connect this magazine to my poster. Again I have included my tagline "there's two sides to every story" so it appears in my trailer, my poster and my magazine. I used different blocks of colour for my magazine so the audience would be able to see all of the different titles clearly. The only photo that has changed slightly is the one in the background because I wanted to try and show a different personality for him and gives the audience an idea about him. I wanted to try and get the audience to think about my soap and what it has in it because then people are more likely to want to watch your media product to see what it is like.

Evaluation 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

HD Camera- This is the first time we have ever used the HD Cameras while filming so we had to work out how to use the cameras to get the best footage that we could. Before we started filming I tried out the camera at home in different lighting to see how it would affect the quality of footage. By using the HD Cameras it made our footage look more professional and it allowed us to use the Apple Macs to edit our trailer which made it better quality even further.

Adobe Photoshop- For the main part of my product I didn't use Adobe Photoshop as there was nothing that I wanted to use it for. However I used Adobe to cut out the photos for my soap magazine and soap poster. As I have had experience in Photoshop before this I found it easy to use. I also used Photoshop for Evaluation 1 to put together the photocard of different points in my film. It was easier to use Photoshop than another program such as paint as I tried it out before and I found it difficult to place the images in the place that I wanted them.

                                                                                     Photo Camera- We used a Fujifilm Finepix S5800 Digital Camera, 8.0 megapixel with a 10x optical zoom to take pictures of places that we could possibly use for our film. We went through them after and decided which places we thought would be best and then we started to plan our film used the scenery as inspiration. We tried to take photos of places that you might see if real media products such as the market so it would give us a variety of choices of places that are typical of real products but also places that you dont really see in soaps like "Eastenders".

Final Cut Pro- To edit we used Final Cut Pro X as it gave us more choice for effects and allowed us to explore more ideas. We also used Final Cut Pro when we edited our video to explain about out ancillary texts. I was able to use an effect called 'Boogie Lights' to support the point I make about the soap being fast paced. It was good to explore the effects that are available on Final Cut because it enabled me to choose the best effect that suited my media product.

Evaluation 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Throughout the time I have been making my soap trailer I have asked for feedback to try and make my soap appealing to everyone. However through my audience feedback I have learnt that some people have different tastes to others, for example some people in my family thought some parts needed changing and other people in my family felt that those parts didn't need changing. In order to try and appeal to a wider audience every time I received feedback I tried to change it but keep it the same just enough so that people who did like it still like it.

^Asking for feedback on Facebook.

Getting audience feedback taught me that creating a media product that appeals to a wide audience is quite difficult to start with and that you will need to make changes as your product progresses. It also taught me that you can never get your media product perfect but it is important that you follow the main conventions of a real product because people will recognise the conventions and want to watch your product.

Evaluation 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This is a copy of my video and ancillary texts explaining why I have decided to do what I did. This video doesnt have the best quality so I have posted the link to YouTube which gives you the choice of watching the better quality video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpXImNaD694&feature=youtu.be

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Taking the Eastenders Christmas Trailer as an example my media product follows many of the conventions that are shown in the trailer.

(Eastenders Christmas Trailer 2009 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GWmOETotQ)

Sound

Like the christmas trailer my soap uses non diagetic sound that relates to the action that is happening on screen. However in the Eastenders trailer they also use some footage that has diagetic sound which my media product does not have. I chose not to use footage that uses diagetic sound because I wanted the audience to watch the footage with a fresh mind however I did include voiceovers because I did want to give the audience some clues about some of the storylines.

Length

The Eastenders Christmas Trailer is only 36 seconds long while my product is 1 min 25 seconds. I decided to make mine longer because it is supposed to be a new soap while the Eastenders one is just advertising a special episode for a soap that has been aired for 27 years. If the aim was to create a media product advertising for a soap that was already being shown then I would have made my product shorter however due to the fact that it is longer I decided to make mine longer. Some of the other Eastenders trailers are longer for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBk5FcMARo (Who killed Archie Mitchell).

Characters
In my media product I have used some of the stereotypical characters that are used in real media products. The collection of print screens above show what characters I have used. I have used the druggie, jack-the-lad, young couple, and the gay couple. I have also used some stereotypical people that are not always used in real media products. My print screens show a geek and the third person of a love triangle. I chose to include these characters because I wanted to be different and include some characters that other soaps don't. I wanted to show all different types of characters in my soap so it would reach a wider audience.