Evaluation - Website & Trailer

Website evaluation Lopen Road

Below are current screen shots of each page of our website. It is important we evaluate each page of our website by identifying the strengths, weaknesses and improvements that could have been made. Below is our homepage for our magazine, on it: it has bright bold headings of our soap name. It was a image of the cast and characters, it has screen shots of episodes, social networking links, an avert of our magazines and the actual soap trailer. We included an online poll to entertain our audience and increase their knowledge on the soap. The soundtrack that will be played in our soaps title sequence. To improve this further, we could have changed the background to make it more user friendly and stand out to the audience, as it can be seen as slightly dull.

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Above is another webpage; this is about our soap as a whole. It expresses the main characters in the soap. It also has a description of what to expect in the soap; for example portraying real issues in everyday teenage lives. It was important to include an overview of the soap as this page includes vital information regarding the soap. We didn't want to add too much information as it could bore audience members. We only included vital information. To improve this further we could have added more character images on this page as it can be seen as bare. Adding more images would have made the page more friendly and interesting to view.

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Above is a webpage of the characters profiles. It has their names, ages and their character type; for example Michael is Good boy gone bad. It also has their images within the soap opera. I feel this page has many strengths as it explains each character. To improve this further I would of added more characters, however I did not want to overload the audience with too much information as it could become quite boring.

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Above is the description of the location where the soap is being shot. It has images of the different locations. We did this so people would notice the area that we use; because in other soap operas they have sets of locations instead of having real ones. We also explained fully the location in every image in case audiences were unsure what we were portraying. I feel to improve this further we could have added more iconic locations and cut down the writing to only vital information.

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Above is a catch up page; for viewers who have missed an episode on TV; or for the ones who prefer to watch it on their computers. We have a screen shot of the episodes; their dates, a description of the episode and a play button for each. I feel this page was important, as we aim to attract interest to both television and internet viewers. This page will change frequently as we will have to add new episodes in.

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Above is a interview page of the main characters. The video content are how they feel playing their character's. It was important for us to show to the audience how our characters feel about playing their roles. It also has quotes of what they said in the soap and int he interview. To improve this page further we could have interviewed more characters or the director of the soap to explain the overall vision for the soap.

The above webpage is about promotion. It has three magazines; that will have issues about our new soap opera. It was important for us to have promotional advertising; this would attract our viewers to watch our soap opera more. This page also explains appearances that the cast will be making. This will advertise the programs that the characters will be on which will increase the interest regarding our soap. To improve this page further we could show the appearances from the cast when they are on the programs, for example showing the video from the characters on T4.

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Above is a game page; with the characters names. So for instance a viewer has a favorite character they would play that specific game. Maria researched that soap opera websites has games webpage.

A game page was important as it will attract the younger end of our target audience. After reading the information regarding the soap, the audience can then play a game involving current characters. To improve this page further I would suggest adding more games.

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Above is a webpage of the blogs with the characters posts; there are also post from celebrities; commenting that they are exciting to watch the new upcoming soap. This would also attract our targeted audiences wanting to watch the soap more.

We felt it was important to include a blog on our website, as it will allow the audience to comment on any post and voice their own opinion. There opinion matters to us as we aim to interest them and meet their needs. The blog will be updating regularly so I feel at the moment no changes or improvements can be made at the moment.

Maria has showed excellent skills in creating the website. She has developed her researches from other soap websites. Her research was very important and inspired her when creating our website. She was able to depict certain parts of websites and put her own unique spin on it when creating our website. She understood the requirements for the audience as she included many images and vital text to keep the audience interest. She used bright colours on the pages to enure she was gaining the attention of the audience. Her weaknesses would be the background colours of the website, as she left them dull compared to the rest of the style of the website. It may have been in her best interest to change the colours to a colour that would stand out the audience.

Tamika showed great research skills when looking into the layout of other websites. She explained her findings and how our group could implement this into our website. She also showed strength in her evaluating skills as she evaluated each location and why we felt it was important to use it in the soap opera. She also showed strength in picking bright colours to stand out to the viewer. However her main weakness was entering a large amount of text onto the location page. Although the information was interesting, it can be seen as an overload for some viewers. To improve that page further she could have only included vital information regarding the location and added in more images of different locations.

Trailer Evaluation

The storylines shown in our trailer were a strength as audience members felt they could relate to them and that they seemed very realistic against other soaps. I also feel that the editing and filming was of a very high standard which is great as it made the storylines stand out to viewers and entice them into watching the soap episodes.

I feel a weaknesses to the trailer would be regarding the lighting in some of the scenes. The lighting in some scenes was slightly dark which made it hard for some viewers to see. If we was to produce another trailer I would ensure that we film on a day when there is as much natural light as possible to ensure we do not face the same issue. As for the length of the trailer we did not want it to be too long as this would result in giving too much of the storyline away. We can take the length issues on as a positive because it shows that audience members are excited in watching the soap and want to see more of what is going to happen.

Overall I feel our trailer for "Lopen Road" was a great success. All the narratives were explained in a way that is informative but not giving too much away which was a objective of ours. The music found by Tamika was great as it sounds like a theme that could run for years and it does not confuse audiences on what the type of television program "Lopen Road" is. The filming is clear enough allowing audiences to understand what is going on, recognise characters and create an identity for each character shown in the trailer. Sinthujas used a great amount of different shots such as of close ups, long shots, two shots, over the shoulder and shot reverse shot. I feel as the director I saw a way in which I wanted the trailer to look and I am very happy as I feel it worked out great and my perspective and role as the actress helped my aim to come true. The props and costumes stayed real to the soap common themes as the characters were all dressed casually which works well with creating realism and allowing audience to be able to relate to these characters. The editing is very clear and works towards the progression in the narrative. All transitions used work very well and do not lose focus on the characters, narrative or dialogue. The dialogue used throughout the trailer is very clear and was a great idea to lower the theme tune when characters are speaking to ensure the audience can hear them clearly. To conclude I feel the trailer was very successful in creating a clear narrative for our soap long with meeting the needs of our target audience.

To improve this further I would say the lighting in one scene was rather dark which could make it hard for the viewer to see what is going on along with this although the editing software was of a good standard I feel there may have been other software that could have done a better job.

Sinthuja showed excellent skills when producing our trailer. She was in the manager of editing the trailer. Sinthuja did a great job on creating the soap trailer. Her editing skills was very advanced. She place together a great soap trailer. she used a lot of different features of softwares; for example imovie, photoshop, youtube and blogger. The part of the trailer she filmed was filmed well as we experienced no issues when it came to editing her section. She was also able to edit well by the use if iMovie. She used different transitions to move forward the narrative such as fade in and out. She also created the blackscreens which explained the narrative and genre of the soap in a clear way to the audience. Her weaknesses to the project would be the smoothness of the editing cuts. Although she completed them well, she could have found out how to improve the quality of quick cuts. Another weakness shown in the trailer is the steadiness of the camera in one part of the trailer. This could have been improved more filming that scene again or by cutting the scene down to avoid showing that scene.

Tamika's filming skills improved when filming in the trailer as she gained more experience and felt more comfortable with the equipment by the end of the process. Her strengths were that she was able to film many different shots and movements, as she is now able to shot over the shoulder, shot reverse shot, long shots and close ups. However her major weakness was the lighting of her filming. The scene Tamika filmed came out slightly darker than the rest because of the location. To improve this issue she could have changed location or waited for the natural sunlight to show.

Overall evaluation

Overall we feel as a group that we worked well together and produced our magazine covers, website and trailer effectively. The biggest strengths were meeting the needs of audience members when they expressed they wanted the soap to portray realist issues. We feel we meet this requirement due to the feedback received. We also understand that our website will attract both young and older audiences as we have created pages with games and loads of images for our younger target audience and excessive text for the older. I feel the colours stand out to the audience, however the background colour and style is dull and could have been improved.

The weaknesses I feel we experienced was the overall style of the website, as more attractive colours could have been used along with more images of the characters, as familiarising the audience with the characters would have been more beneficial. Other weaknesses I feel we experienced was with the lighting of the soap trailer, as the narratives would have been easy to understand had the lighting been more bright. To improve further we could have held more group meetings and left ourselves more time to add extra filming in. Having more time to film would have improved the lighting of the trailer. Overall we feel we worked well as a group and completed each task to our best ability given the time and experience we had.

Evaluation - What have you used and learnt about different technologies?

Whilst planning and constructing our soap trailer, we used many different programs and technologies to give us the best final outcome. A collage has been created of all the logo's and software that was used during the production process of our trailer. I will explain how it benefited us as a group, how it was used and what we learned from using them. I have written a brief evaluation on each software.

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1. BLOGGER

I used Blogger as a diary that was used throughout the planning, research, production and development of my soap trailer. Each blog post was used for us and our teachers to evaulate the progression. I used blogger for my AS project, so I was aware how to use it properly. As a group we would draft any work that was uncompleted to ensure we did not forget to complete it at a later date. We did not experience any issues with Blogger apart from the school computers running slowly.

2. PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop is an application that I had only used breifly before this year. I had minimal experience on how to edit photographs. However my group members had used Photoshop before which allowed me to gain knowledge on how to use it, as it was important to use Photoshop to produce my television guide cover along with images for our soap website. After gaining knowledge from group members I was able to create my cover successfully, along with editing images of characters for the website. I have now some confidence in Photoshop, I feel I could now create some successful images, however I need more practice to be able to create effects on pictures, as I am only aware on how to crop, resize, fill and add different text and colours onto an image.

3. YOUTUBE

Youtube was used in a large way during the planning and research of our soap trailer. We used Youtube to search for the Eastenders and Coronation street trailers which we then evaluated to decide what works well and what could have been improved. This research allowed us to make some important decisions regarding our own soap trailer. We also researched the Eastenders title sequence along with snipts from the Soap, to give us an idea of what narratives we can expect to see in a normal episode of a soap. We also used Youtube to upload our video onto in order to gain feedback on what worked well and what could be improved. Youtube was also used to add annotations regarding our final trailer, this proved difficult as we had not used the annotations feature successfully in AS. We had to watch some tutorials before beginning to use the function.

4. IMOVIE

iMovie was used to edit our trailer. At the start of the editing process, Sinthuja (editing manager) had some problems getting the hold of how the application worked. After taking out some research on the Mac website and tutiorals she was able to understand how to perform the basic tasks. However by the end of the editing process, Sinthuja had become a pro at using all the functions as was able to add transitions, sound, effects and images into our trailer. She also taught myself and Tamika how to use the program for future projects.

5. FACEBOOK

Facebook was very effective for us as a group as we were able to receive the maximum amount of feedback regarding our trailer from all facebook accounts. We all posted the video onto our account and recorded the feedback receive regarding our final trailer. We also found some images required for our television guide covers and websites. We were able to collect real images as opposed to false posed ones. Facebook was effective as the feedback receive will help us in the future when producing something. The only issues we faced was that Facebook is blocked from our school computers which meant that all feedback could only be collected after school hours.

6. JVC

A JVC camera was used to film the full trailer. We had use a JVC camera in our AS projects so we were able to understand how to use the camera well and its all functions. We liked this camera because it is small and adaptable to all different locations. We only experienced one issue with the camera which was that the sound microphone was faulty on the camera. However the sound still recorded, it just did not play through the camera but was fine on iMovie.

7. DIGITAL CAMERA

A digital camera was used by myself during the production stages of our trailer. A camera was taken onto set when filming and I was in charge of taking photographs during filming. The camera was also used to take images of all the cast and characters along with for the episode page on our website. The only issue I experienced with using a digital camera was that I could have taken more photographs than I did. I got carried away with directing the filming that at times I neglected taking photos.

8. TWITTER

Twitter was used to promote and advertise our trailer as well as receiving feedback on thoughts and feelings. I posted the trailer onto twitter and waited for any @ responses regarding the success or improvements that could be made. Using Twitter was a good idea because it allowed us to reach out to a different audience than on Facebook, as it is a different type of social network. Twitter is blocked at school which meant that any work on twitter had to be done at home or away from the school computers.

9. USB WIRE

A USB wire/fire wire was used to covert our video from the JVC camera onto the MAC computers. The wire also allowed us to convert images and videos recorded on the digital camera and iFlip. As we used the wire last year we did not experience any problems, which was good because we had great difficulty last year.

10. IFLIP

An iFlip camera was used to film our focus group meeting at the end of production. We decided to use an iFlip instead of the JVC camera as the iFlip cameras are small and good for quick filming as they can be uploaded very quickly onto the Mac computers. However after filming one focus group interview the camera failed which meant we lost the filming so we had to re-shoot the focus group interview before uploading it onto the Mac.

11. IWEB

iWeb is an application on Mac when I used to create our website for our soap. As my main home computer is a Mac, I have great knowledge on short-cuts and using basic designing material. I had no issues creating hyperlinks, uploading images, videos or adding tax into all the different pages. The production of our website went smoothly and was done at quite a quick speed. Although I had not used iWeb before, I picked up on it very quickly. The only issue I faced was adding games onto a page. I had no idea how to add games, however after taking out extensive research on the internet and watching tutorials I was able to finally add 3 games into the games page.


12. MONOPOD

A monopod was used whilst filming, the camera was put onto the monopod during certain parts of the filming. The monopod allowed Sinthuja to tilt the camera upwards. However we wanted a tripod instead but our media department was out of tripods. After watching some filming back which identified that the monopod made some of the shots stiff which resulted in us cutting some of these scenes out.

13. SOUNDJAY

Finding the correct music for our trailer was quite easy. Tamika was put in charge in finding the correct music. We used the London Grid For Learning last year which was good, however we find out very hard to use this year as the layout had changed. We used SoundJay as it was expressed as a copyright free music site. Tamika found the music relatively quickly. An issue was faced the time it took to find a copyright site. Tamika searched through many sites to find a real copyright free site.


14. WINDOWS

Within school most of the computers are use Microsoft Windows software, this allows myself and my group members to use the Windows software effectively as we are very familiar with it. We used the software to access our blogs, which we would regularly update in class after having group meetings and discussions. Issues that we faced would be that the Windows computers are quite slow compared to the macs which resulted in us taking slightly longer to make a post. All social networking sites are also blocked which meant all other research had to be done away from the Windows computers.

15. GOGGLE

Google was used throughout all research, planning and production for the trailer. Google was used to search for images for the evaluation task 1 along with the images for this task. It was used to locate icon images which I then added to the collage above. I also used Google when conducting my secondary research on Eastenders and other soap websites. This helped me when planning for our own website. I also screenshot images for the websites to stay in my memory. I have been using Google for many years and it is not blocked at school which lead to why I experienced no issues with it.

16. VIMEO

Vimeo was used to upload our video. We decided to upload our video onto Vimeo in order for audiences to view our new project. Vimeo took some time to upload the video which would be the only disadvantage for using this application.


To conclude, as a group we used many different media technologies whilst constructing, researching and planning our soap opera trailer. I was able to learn how to use new software and technology that I had no previous experience in. My knowledge on these software programs has progressed and I will take these skills on with me in the future to ensure that I can produce the best project in the future. I have gained many new skills which I am very happy about, I also have take into account all the issues that we faced as a group and I hope if I was to use this technology again that I would not experience such problems.

The image below shows how we used he different filming technology kit that was used throughout the filming process.

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IMAGE 1

This shows how Tamika used the storyboard produced by Sinthuja whilst filming. It was important for her to understand what shoots will be used as she had to film Sinthuja's scene. The storyboard explained to her what shots she needed to make in the particular scenes.

IMAGE 2

This picture shows myself looking at the storyboard before filming. I had to look at the storyboard before filming as I had to look in depth as where I should be framed. The storyboard explained to me where I would be in my scene and in what way I had to act. However looking back I would have prefered to analyse the storyboard before filming as it would have saved time if I was already fully aware of what I had to do before hand.

IMAGE 3

Next It was Sinthujas turn to have a double look at the storyboard that she produced as she had to familiarise herself with the shots and movements she must use throughout the filming process. However she also felt to improve she could have carefully looked through the storyboard before approaching the set as it would have saved them at allowed us to have extra time to film.

IMAGES 4 and 5

The next image represents Sinthuja's filming on the second day. She used a camera and a monopod to shoot the scenes outside and up high. However when shooting the scene of myself she did not require a monopod as the shot was still. Looking back we all understood that using a tripod would have been more useful as the monopod made some shots quite stiff which came apparent to us when looking back at our filming.


IMAGES 6 and 7

These images represent myself holding the camera equipment during the filming process. Although I did not film any of the final product, I experimented with the camera to see what the shots looked like. I filmed a short scene which enabled us to realise that my filming would be the best for our soap. However if we was to produce another project I would have ensured I had practice in filming to make sure I could film in the future.

IMAGES 8 and 9

These images show Tamikas contribution to the filming process of Lopen Road. Tamika shot a scene outside Michael's house before filming the whole of Sinthuja's scene inside. Tamika set up the camera outside as you can see from the images above. Tamika also felt she would have liked some extra practice in filming before filming the final product.

To conclude, we feel as a group we were very successful in filming the final product, we were also able to understand the success of the filming produced from our audience feedback regarding the final product. However as a group we discussed if we had the chance to film our trailer again we would have anaylsed our storyboard and production schedules well before entering the set to ensure we were all aware what we must produce in order to save time and give us addtional time to film. We also concluded that myself and Tamika would have needed extra experience and practise in using the camera equipment. The following post will access our final overall evaluation of our research, planning and production of trailer and the work relating the trailer.

Evaluation - Audience Feedback Received

It was vital that we received a large amount of audience feedback throughout different stages of production. The results we received influenced us to make certain choices and make changes to our trailer. I will now explain all the different feedback and how it helped. We choose 5 different people to interview and to become our focus group. We will speak to our focus group on a regular basis to get there views and ideas during production. The first meeting with our focus group was to find the types of narrative they find interesting which held us decide what different narratives we could use in our soap. We decided that we will hold each focus group meeting separate to ensure no one is influenced by others answers. The meeting allowed us to find out some specific information on what viewers find successful and unsuccessful in soaps. The questions we asked are as followed:

1. Do you watch soap operas? Why?

2. Do you consider yourself as a casual or religious viewer? Why?

3. What would you like to see in a new soap out of the following? Why?

Death
Relationship Issues
Teenage Issues
Any others?

4. What channel do you watch the most? Why?

The answers we received are as followed: Naomi - Girl - 16 "I find soap operas unrealistic and pointless so I don't watch any at the moment. So I would not consider myself as a casual or religious viewer of any soaps. If I was to watch a new soap it would have to include real issues so that I can relate to them. I don't really watch anything on television channels, I mostly watch things on the television." Nathan - Boy - 16 "Yes I watch soaps with my parents. I see myself as a casual viewer because I don't find all soaps interesting, only some of them. I would be more interested in watching a soap with more of a twist. I watch channel 4 mostly because I think it is more realistic." Ashley - Boy - 17 "Yes I do watch soaps because I have watched them for a long term. I am a religious viewer, this is because I enjoy watching them all. I would like to see relationship issues because that is what I am interested in. I watch BBC1 and Channel 4 because the programs I watch are on these channels." Ipek - Girl - 18 "Yes I watch some soaps, this is because I fin them entertaining and interesting. I see myself as a casual viewer, I am not obsessed. I would like to see more Teenage Issues because I am a teenager, I can relate to them. I watch BBC1 most as I watch Eastenders." Ibrahim - Boy - 19 "I don't watch any soaps at the moment, I don't find them interesting. I am neither a casual or religious viewer. I would like to see Death in a new soap because I find the aftermath interesting. I watch Channel 4 because they have interesting programs on."

In order to attract Naomi we needed to make our soap as realistic as possible. We also decided that we would broadcast our soap online from Naomis input as we felt this will increase our audience base and the overall success of our new trailer. After speaking with Nathan I felt that I will need to ensure my soap can keep the audience interested and attract people such as Nathan who does not watch soaps regularly. Nathan insisted that he would like to see more twists in a soap. This gave me the idea and fuel to put more changeling narratives within our soap. Ashley insisted for my soap to stand out I should aim to make it as realistic as possible as he finds some of the story lines very unrealistic. He also would like a narrative regarding relationships to be shown within our soap. This then aided our decision to have a large narrative around relationships and how different some relationships can be. After speaking with Ipek we decided that our soap would relate around teenagers. We felt that as teenagers are our target audience we will have many narratives revolving around them. This lead to our decision of having teenagers are shown in the trailer in order to identify the character base straight away. I felt that in order to grab the attention of audiences like Ibrahim we needed to make something our new and exciting. Ibrahim said he would watch a new soap opera if it included death in it and how the characters lived resulting this death. We included an unanswered death scene in our trailer to interest audiences and want them to find out what happens to the character Michael after stealing Billy's Money.

Overall we learn't a lot from this focus group session. We were able to understand that many people have there current viewing habits due to force of habit rather than because they find the soap story lines highly entertaining. Four out of the five interviewed insisted they would be more than happy to watch a new soap opera if it included more realistic events and circulated around teenagers/ relationships and death rather than adults who they are unable to relate to. I also was able to identify that the most popular channels for these people where channel 4 and BBC1, I felt that broadcasting our soap on BBC1 would be an issue as Eastenders is a well established soap and we will be unable to attract audiences to watch two soaps on the same channel. We decided that channel 4 will be the best channel for our soap as there are no soaps on around the time of 8.00pm on this channel.

Next round of feedback , after filming

After filming for our first day, we felt as a group it was important to show our focus group and media class to get some feedback regarding the shots so far. We also had another day of filming planned but felt before filming for a second day it would be a good idea to get some feedback regarding the current filming. We picked Ashley, Ipek and Nathan from our pervious focus group, we showed them the current filming one by one, to receive their opinion and get feedback. The feedback we received is written below. Ashley "I think that the scene of Michael running away from the two other characters is hard to understand, I was unsure of what was happening because of the lighting. I think that the storyline between these two characters is unclear. I think some dialogue in this would be better." Naomi "I think that most of the filming is good, the framing looks good. I think that maybe the end scene should be re-shot because its quite dark and unclear to see what is going on." Ipek "The storylines are good and would get a audience interested, but I think another storyline would be better because at the moment you are just focusing on one main character." We took on board all the feedback and opinions that our focus group gave us.

This lead to our decisions to improve filming. We also came to the conclusion that we needed to make some changes to the current storylines. We decided that we would re-shoot the fighting scene in the daylight so that audiences can see what is going on. Taking on board Ashley's comments we also decided to add in some dialogue to explain the conflict between the two characters. We also decided to add in another character to our trailer to express the parallel storylines that will appear in our soap. The results from this focus group were very important and enabled us to see issues with the current filming that we were unaware of. We then to our second day of filming with a clear idea of what needed to be filmed.

Next round of feedback, after editing

After completing our first draft of our trailer we felt it would be a good idea to show some of our focus group the trailer so far. We wanted to receive feedback on our trailer at this stage so that we would make some changes to suit our target audience. It was important for us to take into account all views as the more feedback we received the more successful our final trailer became. The review below is from Nathan which is a member of our focus group.

"I think the trailer is pretty good, the first couple of storylines are very clear and easy to get the jist of, Soap is set in Edmonton (good use of the train station). Sinthuja is reminded of what seems to be her ex-lover Philip and is upset about it, there is one small bit where it looks like shes about to cut herself that bit is like so quick happens in a flash you should get rid of that bit and just make it Sinthuja holding the knife edging it closer to her wrist."

"Next storyline is the character finding out their pregnant that's cool the character makes a shocked face, surely if you were doing a pregnancy test already you had a feeling you were pregnant you wouldn't be that shocked. Then the whole "where's my money scene" i didn't 100% get, because in the trailer the two characters seem to have nothing to do with each other then all of a sudden they have a history. Apart from that everything is great. Subtitles are good. Also the soundtrack is amazing, dramatic but yet sad track which relates to all the storylines in one way or another."

We also gained feedback from Ibrahim who is another member of our focus group.

"The narrative seems clear and it feels real to me which is something that is not shown in all soaps on at the moment. I think the black pages explain what is going on in the trailer which is good if some watchers don't understand. I think that scene of Michael being stabbed should not been in the trailer as it gives too much away, the audience want surprises not everything explained. I think the locations are very realistic and the transitions work well with the filming. The editing was done well."

The results from our focus group were very important when making decisions regarding the trailer. They enabled us to understand some issues with the trailer that we hadn't realised ourselves. I feel gaining these results at that particular stage was a good idea because it allowed us to have some time to edit the product again with the input from our target audience and focus group. From this information we decided to cut the scene of Michael getting stabbed as this will explain our main storyline early on which will not give audiences something to be surprised by. We also decided that we will change the text on one of the subtitles as it can be seen that we are explaining the narratives too clearly and not leaving room for speculation or mystery. We also decided to cut out the scene of Priyas character cutting herself with the knife as it is too quick and not explained well enough by the audience. We will leave that narrative to be explained further in episodes. The final change we will make is to extend the pregnancy scene showing a upset facial expression rather than a shocked face as we have taken on board what Nathan expressed that the character would already have suspicions that she is pregnant.

Next found of feedback, after edit of trailer

After making the changes to our trailer we felt that it was important to show the new trailer to our media class before finishing. We felt our class will give us some new and extra feedback before making the final edit of the trailer. The whole class watched the new edited version twice before they gave feedback. After watching the trailer twice, Chris from our media class suggested that it will be more effective if we changed the font size and different font on black screen texts. Gemma and Michael felt that the font and font size that appears at the end of the Trailer should be different from all other pervious text. Finally Saul's feedback and suggestion was that the still image of the pub was placed in the wrong order, he expressed it may be a better idea if the still image of the pub us taken out from the trailer or move to a different order just after character Michael leaving the house. After receiving this feedback we decided as a group that we would take out the pub image as the pub is already shown in the conflict scene, we also decided that the font style and size should be changed on our black screens to make more of an impact and to make sure that there words are clear to the audience.

Next found of feedback after final edit of trailer!

After producing our final trailer we felt it would be great to show our focus group the final cut and get some feedback on how or if we meet there needs. It was important to gain feedback from them as they gave us some of the initial ideas to get us started. They are also our target audience so there feedback is vital. I interviewed each member alone to ensure there results were not influenced by anyone else. I first interviewed Ashley his response is below.



He explained that he really liked our trailer which is important because we aimed to please him along with all our focus group. He also expressed the storylines were clear which was important as previously we had some difficulty in portraying the narrative clearly. He was said he was happy that we took on board what was said in his focus group meeting. We are very happy with his response as he said no other changes needed to be made. I next interviewed Ibrahim as you can see below.




Ibrahim he explained that he felt the camera work was really clear. This response was great because we had experienced issues with our camera work before which lead to us re-shooting so it was good that the camera work is finally clear. He also insisted that the editing was really good which is another great response as Sinthuja had no previous experience on iMovie and was able to edit our trailer so well. This showed us that if we was to make another project putting Sinthuja in charge of editing would be best. Ibrahim also said that no improvements needed to made and that he wants to watch more which is good because we want our target audience to be enticed by our trailer and want to watch more. I then interviewed Ipek which you can see below.




The response we received from Ipek was fantastic. She insisted that she loved what we have done with the soap since the last time she gave us feedback. It was important that we have made progress from our very first meeting with Ipek. She also explained that all the issues shown comply really well with teenagers which was what we set out to do as in our first focus group meeting with Ipek she insisted on us making a soap around teenage lives. She said no further improvements need to be made and that the directing was of a high standard, which is good because in the future we would use the same directing skills. Lastly I spoke with Naomi as you can see below.




Naomis response to our trailer was vital because she explained in her first focus group that she doesn't watch soap operas because she finds them unrealistic. After watching our soap trailer she insisted that although she doesn't watch many soaps she would watch our one because it seems quite interesting. She also insisted that she watches mainly channel 4 which means she would more likely to watch our soap as that is the channel of broadcast. To conclude she said "I think its going to be great". Which means she had a very positive feeling towards our soap. We were very lucky to receive such positive feedback regarding our soap trailer, however we had to re-film and re-edit many times before reaching the final outcome. The 4 members interviewed all expressed how excited that are to watch this soap which is important because they are who we are targeting. If I was going to hold focus group interviews again I would target more people as we should have gained feedback from more than 4 to 5 people. I would also have targeted slightly different age groups as our focus group only ranges from 16-19. After showing our focus group we decided to post our trailer onto Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. We decided to do this so we could gain more feedback from our target audience and other viewers. The more feedback we receive the better knowledge we will receive on what went well and what we could improve on if we was to make another project.

Feedback from Facebook

Tamika posted our trailer onto her Facebook first to gain some feedback. What she received is shown below. CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE

The comments we received back from Tamikas facebook were great as they were from our target audience of teenagers aged between 16-21. Daniel said he thought the trailer was quite good which we are happy about. Dee's comment was great as she said it looks like a soap and the editing was good. We wanted people who have never seen the trailer before to feel it looks like a soap as this symbolises realism. Ally's comment regarding the music was good as constructive criticism. Although we do not want to change the music for our trailer, if we was to make another trailer it may be in our interest to play soundtracks to our focus group before deciding. Tash's comment was useful as she explained the trailer looks good and that we done a good job which was important because we wanted it to look as good as possible. Next I posted our trailer onto my own Facebook to gain some more feedback from my own list of friends which varies from Tamikas.

The feedback I received is shown below.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE



The responses I received were both positive and constructive which I am happy about because it is important to understand what we could improve if we was to produce another project. Andrew,Michael and Gerhard's feedback was great as they insisted the trailer is very good and amazing which is great because it expresses that they liked it, it is important they like the trailer because they are our target audience and we wanted to make sure we could attract them. Kevin's feedback was very important as he stated "who needs eastenders when we got this?!" which is excellent feedback as Eastenders is a major competitor of ours and we wanted Lopen road to stand out against other soaps which Kevin insisted it does. Savva expressed that we have followed soap conventions as our trailer looks just like a soap. He also likes the different storylines which is important because the storylines will progress in future episodes. Loulla's feedback was interesting as she expressed that the lighting was dark in places, this critism was important as we know understand if we was to make another project we would try to film on days which the natural sunlight is visible to ensure no filming is dark or unclear. Natalie's comment was good as she explained that she likes how we have shown different characters which was a decided from previous feedback. She also insisted she wants to watch what is going to happen which is excellent as that was the intention we had in making this trailer as we want to interest audiences into watching our soap.

Sinthuja then posted the video onto her Facebook to gain further feedback from her friends on the trailer. Her responses are shown below.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE



The feedback we got from Sinthujas Facebook was very positive as all the people who left a comment said how well they liked the trailer. However some constructive criticism would have also been useful to allow us to understand what we could improve if we was to make another project or in the future. Ramya's feedback was useful as she quoted a piece of text we put into our soap regarding peoples past. She expressed she could relate to that quote which shows to us as producers that our editing worked well with audiences as it allowed them to relate to certain text. Ajenth also said he liked the issues shown which is an important piece of feedback as our focus group helped us choose what issues would be shown. We felt choosing the narrative had to be something teenagers would find interesting which it seems we have done well. Joseph and Sanjay both agreed that the editing was done really well which is another positive comment regarding the editing. This allows us to understand that Sinthujas editing skills are of a high standard.

Feedback From Youtube

Our trailer has been linked from Youtube onto Facebook and Twitter as we used Youtube to upload our video. We received some comments on Youtube regarding our video which we recorded as feedback. The page where our video is shown and the feedback we received is shown on the images below.

CLICK THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE









Jen's comment was interesting because she expressed she likes the storylines which is a common piece of feedback we have received along with the statement that it seems very realistic for her as a teenager. This is a great piece of feedback as we want teenagers to feel the soap is realistic and be able to relate to it in many different ways. Misstsmith expressed the trailer is exciting and has a great scene of community which was an effect we were trying to show within our soap by using the pub and corner shop as icon locations. She always feels the soundtrack and editing goes well with each other which was something we hoped would. She felt that a downfall was that the trailer is not long enough, however we choose to not make it too long as we do not want to give too much of the story away, we want to leave some round for speculation and mystery. We are glad that her favorite channel is channel 4 as we hoped we could gain a younger audience on channel 4. Apetrou explained the trailer is well edited however the lighting was slightly dark in places which is a comment we should take on board and improve on next film we film something as the lighting of a frame is vital as it can depend on the clearness of the shot. He also said he liked the pregnancy test which is interesting as this shows he liked this character and the narrative behind it.

Feedback from Twitter

I tweeted a link to my trailer with some information bellow for all my followers to read so they could watch and comment about the new soap trailer. Below are two images. 1 of my tweet and 2 of the feedback received. CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE






Anna expressed that the storylines seem interesting which is important we aimed to keep audiences interested in our soap. She also made the point that our soap is not over the top which is great because we wanted to keep it real and allow audiences to be able to relate to it as much as possible. She can't wait to watch more which is great because it shows she was interested and it appealed to her as a viewer. Michael said the trailer looks really good which is a nice response. Jankisutra said our trailer is the best soap trailer around which means that we have managed to compete with other soaps and interest others into watching Lopen Road rather than other major soaps. Gemma said the camera work was really good which is an important piece of feedback as Sinthuja and Tamika were in charge of filming. This feedback allows us to understand that if we was to make another project we would put Sinthuja and Tamika in charge of filming again. Overall we gained a huge amount of audience feedback throughout the planning and making of the soap trailer along with after the soap was finished.

I feel the feedback received after the soap trailer was finished was vital as it explained to us as a group what we did well and what we could improve on in the future. To round up the feedback gained, it would seem that the storylines were a major hit with our audience members as many of them insisted they could relate to them and that they seemed very realistic against other soaps. Many audience members also insisted that the editing and filming was of a very high standard which is great as it made the storylines stand out to viewers and entice them into watching the soap episodes. The negative feedback we gained was mainly regarding the lighting in some of the scenes and the length of the trailer. The lighting in some scenes was slightly dark which made it hard for some viewers to see. If we was to produce another trailer I would ensure that we film on a day when there is as much natural light as possible to ensure we do not face the same issue. As for the length of the trailer we did not want it to be too long as this would result in giving too much of the storyline away. We can take the length issues on as a positive because it shows that audience members are excited in watching the soap and want to see more of what is going to happen. To conclude the audience feedback was very useful to us as a group and allowed us to have extensive knowledge on our target audiences thoughts and feelings regarding our new soap trailer.

Evaluation - Target Audience Ethan Defoe

ETHAN DEFOE

A prime example of our target audience is shown above; for our soap "Lopen Road" This is Ethan Defoe; He is 18 years of age and lives in Enfield in the city area. He also habits with his parents and his brother Sheridan. His favorite hobbies are hanging out with friends, playing Call Of Duty on Xbox, spending quality time with his family and enjoys playing basket ball with them. He also studies Applied Business at Barnet College.

He enjoys watching televison with his brother. He mainly watches Channel 4, E4 and BBC1. Programs he generally watches are 90201, Misfits, Hero's, Skins and Eastenders. In addition he enjoys watching new blockbuster films in the cinema, he also keeps an eye on new releases via media magazines and the internet. Hes favourite films at the moment are, Anuvahood, Harry Potter, Kick-ass and Transformers. He also enjoys watching Anime's online as he is interested in creative drawing. However because he is studying most of the time; he also tends catches up with his favorite shows on TV on demand; such as BBCIplayer and 4OD. He would use these websites very regularly sometimes everyday. Ethan also spends time catching up on soap gossip from Facebook and Twitter.

Ethan would usually spend over £50 a month. Ethan shops at stores such TopMan, Blue inc and JD sports. He spends on average £30 on clothes such as t-shirts and hoddies.His favourite shopping cities are Brent Cross and Westfields. However he usually visits Enfield Town as it is only a 10 minute walk from his house. He purchases magazines weekly from a nearby newsagents, such as gaming magazines along with new film releases and television magazines such as Sky, Xbox 360 nd Tv listing. On average he spends around £10-20 on magazines per month. Along with magazines he also catches up on reading Manga on the internet. He receives most of his finance from his parents as he is unemployed at the moment.

He enjoys listening to music, typical genres would be Grime, Hip-Hop and RnB. His favourite artists are Skepta, JME, Yasmin, Eminem and Jessie J. Ethan eats in McDonalds, Kft and Nandos generally when he is out with friends or shopping. Overall Ethan is a bubbly person who enjoys trying new things such as meeting new people. He enjoys having fun and living life to his best ability.

The image below represents some of the common features that interest Ethan. CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE.



We feel Ethan Defeo is a member of a target audience because he enjoys watching a lot of television which is an advantage to us as we feel our soap opera will interest more viewers who already watch a sufficient amount of television. However I feel our new soap has a unique selling point with it being targeted at teenagers with real life issues which means a wide range of different people will be interested in watching "Lopen Road". Ethan enjoys watching programs on Channel and E4, which is an advantage to us as "Lopen Road" will be shown on Channel4 which expresses as to why Ethan is a member of our target audience. The programs he watches such as 90201, Misfits and Skins suggests he enjoys watching programs regarding teenagers and teenage lives which is another element which makes him a target audience for our soap as "Lopen Road" focuses on real issues with an special focus on teenagers. Ethan spends a substantial amount of money on magazines per month which suggests that he enjoys reading about television, film and gaming. This means that he will notice the magazines regarding our soap opera, which will give additional information about our soap and characters.

The following post will include the Lopen Road final trailer along with Youtube annotations which explain where we got certain ideas from relating certain shot types, transitions and text.

Final Trailer

The video below reflects the final trailer of our new up and coming soap "LOPEN ROAD". I feel as a group we worked successfully and were able to each add our own spin and input into the research, filming, editing process. The music for this trailer was found my by group member Tamika Smith. The trailer was filmed by both Tamika and Sinthuja and Edited by Sinthuja and Myself. Myself and Tamika Smith also stared in the trailer. I am very happy with the final trailer and was much influenced by the all the audience feedback we received during the way. The final trailer of Lopen Road is below.

Producing Soap Website

After holding out secondary research on soap websites I was able to decide what hyperlinked pages I would add onto my soap website and what pages were less successful and effective to the audience.

To begin producing the website I opened iWeb which is an website creating application on the iMacs. I chose this application as I was told it was good for what I wanted to produce, along with the fact I have an iMac at home so I was aware that I could take out loads of research on how all the functions work and practice at home if I was unsure. Myself and Tamika were in charge of the creating of the website, as Sinthuja was still editing our trailer. However Sinthuja still gave input to us whist we created it to ensure that her ideas were also put forward. I was the project manager as I held out the most secondary research. We first had to choose a template for the website, we choose a gray/black template as I felt this symbolised the themes within our soap as colours such as black and gray symbiose dark and a sense of realism as apposed to bright happy colours such as yellow and pink. We decided from the start that each different page will have a different colour theme to excite and interest viewers.

I next created all the different pages that we would put information onto. I wanted to create the page headings first, as I felt this would hurry the process up as we would could just print the information onto them after. I created an "About Lopen Road, Characters, Location, Episodes, Interviews, Appearances, Games and Blog page.

A Home page was created first by Myself, Tamika and Sinthuja. It was important to have a group effort on this page as it is the first page that viewers see and it needs to gain there interest. We put loads of red text to explain things as this will stand out and make the page be memorable to the audience. We a large image of the cast to show audiences the sorts of characters we will have. The trailer was also put on the main page as we want audience members to watch the trailer to give them an insight of what to expect from our soap. Our soap theme tune was also posted onto the main page which can be turned on and off at the availability of the viewer. A poll about the character Esther is also on the main page to allow audiences to get involved with the narrative within the soap. Twitter and Facebook links are also posted on the main page which allows audiences to gain more information regarding the soap.

The first page created was "About Lopen Road", the creation of this page was a group effort between myself and Tamika. This page was important as it explains some background information on the soap to ensure audiences are aware of the narrative. We also put some pictures of the location and characters as I felt a page full of text may bore viewers, visual aid can make a page of text seem more interesting.

The next page produced was "Characters". I (Maria) created this page. I imputed images of the main characters in soap. As new characters are introduced into the soap, I will add more onto page, however at this moment I don't want to give too much information as this could confuse viewers. I added the name, age and a description of personality of the character on this page, as audiences will be aware of a little background information but not too much to make the characters predictable.

Next was the creation of the "Location". Tamika produced this page on the site. She took pictures of the icon locations in the soap such as the train station, pub, office license and Lopen Road. She wrote an explanation of each location and how it well be seen in the soap. This page will allow viewers to familiarise them with common icon features in the soap, many storylines will be expressed around these areas which is why it was important to create this page.

An "Episodes" page was created by Myself. I felt this page was important after holding out secondary research. I decided on this page because it is a great idea to allow viewers to catch up on missed episodes if they are unable to watch them when they are broadcasted. As our soap is on Channel 4, it will be liaising with 4oD when shown online,which is why they are expressed on this page. We also took some pictures whilst filming other scenes for our soap to put on the website to express what happens in that particular episode. A small amount of text is also explained on the page to explain the main feature of that episode. I done this in order to give just the right amount of information to interest audiences in watching the full episode. The date and time of broadcast is also shown in case viewers are unaware when the episode was shown.

A new and exciting page that we added to our soap was the "Interview" page. Myself, Tamika and Sinthuja all created this page. We felt a way in which that audiences can realate to characters and narratives would be to interview some of the icon characters within the soap. They were asked questions such as, how relatable are you to your character? How do you feel on set? What can we expect from you in future episodes? I feel this page will excite audiences as they can see a real interview of what the characters are like and have to say about the new soap that they star in.

The "Appearances" was also a new and fresh page that we came up with to market and advertise our soap and its characters. In order to market our soap opera, we choose to advertise it in three different magazines, which we had to produce the cover page to. I felt it would be a great idea to have the front images of these magazines on the appearances page so audiences can be aware what magazines our soap will be appearing in. This will increase sales of the magazines and increase the excitement and anticipation of our soap. Underneath the magazine images, we also have an news feature. This explains when and where audience members will be appearing. In order to promote Lopen Road, our cast have many appearances where they get a chance to explain the soap. Advertising this on the soap website will allow viewers to be aware when and where they can gain more knowledge regarding the soap.

From holding out my secondary research I understood that many soap websites have games on them in which the audience can play. I felt this would be a good idea to add this onto our own website. This was because viewers will be able to familraise themselves with characters whilst having fun. We created 4 games to put onto our website. 1st was a weekly quiz which will change every week which will ask questions regarding the previous week in "Lopen Road" this is a great game because it will test the knowledge of audience members and allow them to watch back previous episodes if they are unsure of what happened. The other three games are virtual and include a car rasing game with the character Michael and a burger making and bike game with other characters from the soap.

The final hyperlink was the "Blog", which was created by Myself and Tamika . The blog was the most complicated page as it had many pages linked it, we had to ensure that each blog post was informative and interesting for audiences to read. The blog on the website will be updated regularly however we felt it was important to start of with 4 posts to introduce the soap.
We all produced different blog entries to save time and give our own input in. The blog pages we added are listed below:

1. A day in the life of Esther Clark
2. Frankie Stanford - "Live episode sounds great"
3. A day on set with Lopen Road
4. Aston Merrygold - "I can't wait to watch Lopen Road"
5. Playing Priya Patel
   

I produced numbers 1 and 2 and Tamika produced 3 and 4. Number 1 is a post regarding a day in the life of the character Esther Clark. I felt this would be an interesting post as it explains what Esther gets up to on a daily basis. An image is also shown of her at a party with other characters. I felt this page works well because it allows audience members to understand her as a character more and what she gets up to during the soap. I also produced number 2 which is a post regarding Frankie Stanford from the Saturdays feedback on Lopen Road. This post explained her feelings and thoughts regarding a live episode of Lopen Road so soon on. I feel this post will attract audiences into watching Lopen Road because if they understand famous people or icons are watching something, they will have more faith in watching the soap to see what it is all about.

Tamika produced a day on set with Lopen Road. This post was effective because it explains how cast and actors work on the set on a daily basis. This gives audiences an insight to how the soap is produced and what has to go into a day of filming to ensure that the soap stays effective. She also created the post regarding Aston Merrygold. He was interviewed on his thoughts and feelings regarding the new soap and why he is excited to watch it. JLS fans will be interested in watching this soap if there icon watches it, which will increase the fan base we receive for our soap.

The final blog post was regarding playing the character of Priya Patel. This was a group effort as the issues around Priyas characters are very important and creating awareness of domestic violence is a sensitive issue. The actress was interviewed and her answers were then recorded and posted onto the blog post. We hope this interview will create awareness of this violence.

After producing our website, we wanted to show our media class the trailer for any last minute touches that may be needed for our trailer to be even more effective. We will publish our website after taking on board the feedback as our newest and latest trailer needs to be posted on the home page. The group meeting when showing the class our trailer is posted above.

Soap Website Research

Following our meeting, we felt it was important to take our some research into websites and the common features that they show. Conducting research into soap websites is important because it gives us an idea of what we would like to include and what features we feel will be unsuccessful for our soap be it the target audience or broadcast.

I researched on websites such as:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/
http://www.itv.com/coronationstreet/
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od

It was important to research on different websites as it will enable our website to attract audiences who view all different soaps. I was able to take ideas from all different websites before deciding the final pages that I will include on our website. I put myself as a viewer and had a look around all pages to see what it feels like for a member of the audience.




The image above expresses where I got some ideas from when deciding the page headings. I decided I wanted to add a episodes and characters page from this information. I also like the large image as the main picture on the website. I felt the next research to do would be into the character page. The image below also explains other features on the home page of Eastenders.





I like the weekly quiz application which is something I would be interested in doing on our website. I also think the script is a effective feature as it gives audiences a sneak peak of what will be shown in the soap. This will entice audiences. I also find the character poll a great idea as it makes audience members feel involved with the narrative and leaves them with a mystery regarding the narrative.




This research enabled me to understand important information that should be shown in a character profile. I will take this information on board when producing character profiles, however I may not include so much information as Lopen Road is a new soap I don't want to audience members to have an overload of information.

I next researched on the Coronation Street website for further information regarding website headings and what kinds of information should be included on separate posts. The image below shows what the home page looks like on the Coronation Street website.



This research aided my decision to add in a games and blog page onto the Lopen Road website. I feel that games page will draw in our target audience as they are at the ages were they like to play games. I also feel a game page will be useful as it can familiarise audience members with the characters. I want to add a blog onto the website as this can draw in a older audience. The images below show what these two pages look like on the website.



The image above shows the fun and games page that is on the Coronation Street website. I feel this page is effective because it is colourful and they have used images of real game stations to allow audiences to understand what kind of page this is. I want to add a games page onto my website as this will attract the younger side of our target audience which is 16.




The image above symbolises the blog page on the Coronation Street website. This blog has generated many different posts over a certain period of time. After researching into the different posts that could be added onto a blog I have the ideas to post a day in the life of one of our characters. I also have an idea to enter posts regarding the filming process of our soap, this could interest audiences as they will have an insight to how the soap was put together along with spoilers and behind the scenes information.

The last bit of research I did on soap websites, was on the 4od website. This was vital because our soap will broadcast on channel 4. This means that catch up sessions will be available on 4od. The image below is a copy of the 4od catch up page.



The above image has given me the idea to give a episode description on the episodes that can be viewed online. This will give audience members an insight to what narratives will be portrayed in the episodes.

I feel that the research that I carried out on soap websites has been very effective. It gave me time to think about what the sort of pages I would be interested in implementing onto my own soap website. I was able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of other websites which will work in my advantage. For example I feel that these websites are dull and need more exciting images and text to excite viewers. I will take this on board when designing Lopen Road's website. I now know what kinds of pages work well on these websites such as episode catch ups, character profiles and games. The next step is to produce the website. I will be producing the main bulk of the website as I have previous experience on using the iMac computers. However I will be receiving constant input from Tamika.