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.
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