Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Final Trailer
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:
- A day in the life of Esther Clark
- Frankie Stanford - "Live episode sounds great"
- A day on set with Lopen Road
- Aston Merrygold - "I can't wait to watch Lopen Road"
- Playing Priya Patel
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.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Soap Website Research
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.
Minutes of Meeting - Focus group
08.45am-9.45am
Present - Maria Alexiou, Sinthuja Tacks and Tamika Smith
Abesent - None
It was important to hold a group meeting to discuss our current process and what improvements we have to make to current posts. In order to do this we produced a table with the titles of Completed, in progress and not yet done. After recording the progress of important posts we then evaluated whether the posts are effective or require some re-drafting.
This research enabled us to understand that we have to re-draft the current risk assessment that we made as we have not completed the risks and hazards that we had to consider when filming our trailer. We were also able to understand that we needed to take some extra cast photographs which will then use for evaluation purposes and for our website. We also identified that we must research into soap websites and begin the production of our soap.
We completed our trailer for our soap. It was important to gain some final feedback before deciding on the final cut. We felt it was important to show the trailer to some members of our focus group, this is because they are our target audience and we value there suggestions.
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 but you make 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 Ryan 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 are very important. They have enabled us to think of issues that we hadn't realised ourselves. I feel gaining these results now was a good idea because we can then edit the product again for a final time with the input from our target audience and focus group. We have decided that we will 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. 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 Ashley expressed that the character would already have suspicions that she is pregnant.
Conducting a focus group meeting has allowed us to understand on what audiences expect to find from our soap opera. We will then make the final cut to our soap trailer. The next post will express what was changed along with a final copy of the trailer.
Group Meeting - Focus Group
08.45am-9.45am
Present - Maria Alexiou, Sinthuja Tacks and Tamika Smith
Abesent - None
It was important to hold a group meeting to discuss our current process and what improvements we have to make to current posts. In order to do this we produced a table with the titles of Completed, in progress and not yet done. After recording the progress of important posts we then evaluated whether the posts are effective or require some re-drafting.
This research enabled us to understand that we have to re-draft the current risk assessment that we made as we have not completed the risks and hazards that we had to consider when filming our trailer. We were also able to understand that we needed to take some extra cast photographs which will then use for evaluation purposes and for our website. We also identified that we must research into soap websites and begin the production of our soap.
We completed our trailer for our soap. It was important to gain some final feedback before deciding on the final cut. We felt it was important to show the trailer to some members of our focus group, this is because they are our target audience and we value there suggestions.
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 but you make 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 Ryan 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 are very important. They have enabled us to think of issues that we hadn't realised ourselves. I feel gaining these results now was a good idea because we can then edit the product again for a final time with the input from our target audience and focus group. We have decided that we will 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. 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 Ashley expressed that the character would already have suspicions that she is pregnant.
Conducting a focus group meeting has allowed us to understand on what audiences expect to find from our soap opera. We will then make the final cut to our soap trailer. The next post will express what was changed.
End of Filming Wednesday 16th March
We choose to re-shot scenes as after viewing them we understood that they needed to be replaced as the lighting was poor and unclear to the audience. We also decided to add a new narrative into the soap as we felt our trailer looked more like an opening than a trailer. We had a discussion about our old shootings and thought that our targeted audience would not understand some of narrative used. However we made it more clearer for our audiences' to understand the soap trailer but at the same time to entice them to want to view our future episodes.
All shots were filmed in the daylight as this was issue for us previously. Natural light was important for our soap trailer as we wanted audiences to understand what was being portrayed by the characters in order to interest them and excite new audiences.
The scenes re-shoot was the conflict between Michael and Billy. Shot reverse shot was used to explain the relationship between the two characters, as the audience will be able to understand this well. A range of long and close up shots were used throughout the filming to express the characters profile such as clothing as well as body and facial expressions. The new narrative was also shot, an over the shoulder shot was used to include the prop of a photograph into the frame which explained the reasons as to why our character was upset, a close up shot was also shown to express this feeling if audiences were unsure of the props purpose. It was important to put ourselves in the eyes of an audience member as sometimes we can forget some narrative storylines may be hard to understand.
At the end of our filming we discussed how and when we were going to edit our final shooting. For instance; do we use voice over?, do we add non-diegetic sound in our trailer?, do we add special effects to our soap trailer?. Our production company had a lot of important decisions to assemble. By the side of our filming we also filmed our character interviews; to get an insight of how they felt about playing their particular characters' and how they can/cannot relate to them. We will place these interviews on our company's website, to promote our new soap opera or even to promote the audiences' favorite character. Our next step of our progress is to create magazines covers to entice our target audiences even more, this is also another way of prom
Cast Photography Shoot
1. The first photograph below shows a picture of the cast shown in our trailer and expressed in our treatment.
2. When taking the image below we wanted to express the different storylines. On the left hand side we have Ester, Michael and Ruth. On the right hand side we have Priya, Lucy and Janki. We tried to make the facial expressions of these characters symbolise there traits.
3. The two images below were taken to express the relationship between Ruth, Michael and Ester. Ruth is a protective and concerned parent which I feel is shown in the pictures below. Michael is centered in the picture on the left as he is what connects Ester and Ruth together.
4. The photograph taken below shows the relationship between and Billy. I feel the facial expressions shown on these characters make the audience aware this is pain being inflicted.
5. The pictures below express the character profile and traits of each character shown in our trailer. These pictures will be used on our website to make audiences aware of the characters in "Lopen Road"
Lucy Jones played by Janki
Party Animal
Age - 20
Occupation - Works in the pub
Marital status - Single
Ruth Smith played by Tamika
Concerned and loving mother
Age - 43
Occupation - cashier at the local newsagent
Marital status - Divorced
Priya Patel played by Sinthuja
Can't get over her past relationship
Age - 19
Occupation - Student, Business Management at University
Marital status - Its complicated
Michael Smith played by Michael
Good boy gone bad
Age - 18
Occupation - Part time job in retail
Marital status - In a relationship
Billy Gorden played by Phillip
Constant anger and aggression
Age - 20
Occupation - College student
Marital status - Its complicated
Easter Clark played by Maria
Sweetest girl you will ever meet
Age - 18
Occupation - University studying Accounting and Economics
Marital status - In a relationship
Improved Script
I (Maria Alexiou) was assigned the role of producing the script for the trailer of "Lopen Road". After our group meeting it became aware to me that our script needed to be changed before production as we have changed some scenes in order to make sure our narrative is clear to the audience. I felt that it was important not to include to much speech in the trailer as we want to make the trailer intense as well as informative of what the soap will include.
Our trailer begins with establishing scenes of the train station, and road signs. The next shots shown are of Katie in her kitchen. No dialogue is in this scene, therefore it is not included in the script.
The next scene shows Ruth Smith speaking to her son Michael.
"I don't want you out late"
"Yeah mum"
"Hiya"
Lucy
"Hi"
Michael is then walking up to the pub. Billy enters the frame as he is coming out of the pub.
"Oi,bruv, where is my money?"
Michael Smith
"What money?"
Billy Gordon
"ENTER LAST TEXT"
"No, please stop !"
We decided to cut the scene out of Michael and Esters phone conversation as when being played to our focus group it became aware to us that this can be seen as unclear and the dialogue was not expressing the relationship as we hoped. We also decided to change the scene on Michael dieing and film a real conflict between the two characters over money. The money situation makes the conflict aware to the audience as they will now understand why Billy's motives were strong.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Improved Shooting Schedule
Shooting Schedule for Home Scenes
Date/Time | Location | Shot No | Description of shot/dialogue/lyrics | Camera angle, distance, movement | Equipment needed | Props/costumes, characters, motifs | Cast/crew members needed. |
Monday 21st Feb 4.00pm | Michaels house | 11 | Michael will be walking down the stairs. | Long shot of Michael walking down the stairs. Medium | Camera and monopod. | Phone, bag, casual clothing. | Michael and Tamika |
Monday 21st Feb 4.05pm | Michaels house | 12 | Ruth (Michael’s mum) says goodbye to Michael. “I don't want you out late” Michael “ Yeah Mum” | Long Shot. | Camera and monopod. | bag, Book, Coat casual clothing. | Michael and Tamika |
Monday 21st Feb 4.10pm | Michaels house | 13 | Michael leaving house. | Over the shoulder Shot | Camera and monopod. | Bag, casual clothing. | Michael |
Monday 21st Feb 4.25pm | Esters house | 17 | Ester is in the bathroom looking at a pregnancy test. | Camera | Pregnancy test | Maria | |
Wed 16th 2.30pm | Priyas house | 4 | Priya walking into her house | Over the shoulder shot | Camera | Key | Sinthuja |
Wed 16th 2.45pm | Priyas house | 5 | Priya Putting the key on the table and picking up the Envelope | Long shot/Medium Shot | Camera | Envelope | Sinthuja |
Wed 16th 2.50pm | Priyas house | 6 | Priya is looking at the photograph and dropping the envelope | Over the shoulder | Camera | Picture and Envelope | Sinthuja |
Wed 16th 3.00pm | Priyas house | 7 | Shot of Priyas facial expression | Close up | Camera | Picture | Sinthuja |
Wed 16th 3.10pm | Priyas house | 8 | Shot of Priya getting the knife out | Over the shoulder | Camera | Knife, picture | Sinthuja |
Wed 16th 3.20pm | Priyas house | 9 | Shot of Priya cutting herself with the knife. | Medium shot. | Camera | Knife, picture | Sinthuja |
Group Meeting Friday 11th March 2011
Time- 2.10pm~2.50 40minutes in total
Present- Tamika Smith, Maria Alexiou and Sinthuja Tacks-Jeyaranjan
After filming for the first day, we felt it was important to gain feedback from class members, teachers and our focus groups. We all watched over the filming and feedback was given on what worked well and what could be improved in order to make our trailer more effective. The feedback received enabled us to understand that some improvements need to me made to current storylines in order to make them more understandable. So we felt before filming the excess scenes we would re-shoot one of the current scenes. We also would be adding another narrative, so it was important for us to understand that our narrative needs to be explained well to the audience in order to gain there interest. Changes in narrative will need to be shown in our storyboard, script and treatment.
After taking out this research we will have to know re-write our storyboard and script as this will help us when it comes to filming for the 2nd half of our trailer. I feel that once re-writing this, our trailer will become more effective and draw in a larger audience as we will now express three different storylines, as if one didn't appeal to a viewer the others may. Mistakes will also be reduced with a new step outline for us to follow as filming in the day light is very important for us. Myself(Maria) will be re-writing the script, Sinthuja Tacks will be producing the new StoryBoard and Tamika Smith will be producing the new Treatment.
The following three posts will show the improvements and changes that have been made to story board and Script with the new and the final treatment of "Lopen Road". The group meeting was very important as it lead us to understand what changes we need to make in order to progress and become more successful producers.
Start of Filming project - Monday 21st Febuary
Following on from producing our production schedule we could then begin filming when recorded. We began filming at 2.00pm on Monday. We wanted to start filming early so it would still be light outside to film the establishing shots. Sinthuja was able to film the front of the pub, Michael's conversation with his mum along with walking down Lopen Road, as well as establishing shots of the road, and the corner shop between 2.00pm and 5.00pm. These scenes were straight forward to film as our shooting schedule for each of these scenes enabled us to know what we were filming and who should be where during this. Myself and Tamika Smith were directing the scenes and ensuring that all characters were in the right place and understood what roles they were playing.
Filming then took place outside Tamikas house in "Lopen Road" between 5.00pm to 6.20pm. Many shots were then of Michael coming out of the house and interacting with other characters. We felt it was important to take loads of shots as we could then choose from a variety when it comes to editing. An issue we faced when filming the shots in Lopen Road were that it became dark quite quickly which meant we had to shot the scenes quickly before the filming became unclear.
We decided we would then hold a group meeting before we finish the rest of our filming which is set on Wednesday 16th March. This will give us time to watch back all the filming we have done and see if we can make any improvements before filming the rest of our soap trailer.
The image below is of Sinthuja Tacks filming the train station. This proved difficult as many people got in our way which resulted in us having to wait for several trains to go past.
We felt it was important to gain different shots of the train before choosing the final one when we begin to edit. The image below explains the high shot of the train going past.
The image below represents when filming the argument between Michael and Phillip. This picture also explains when the corner shop shots were taken.