Wednesday 6 March 2013

FINAL MAGAZINE COVER



This is our final magaine cover.  As you can see, since our draft, we have worked hard to create this final product that we are very proud of.  Our draft lacked images and captions and a professional finish, so we have improved on these things for our final magazine cover.

-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman

Thursday 31 January 2013

ROUGH MAGAZINE DRAFT



This is our first rough draft for our soap opera magazine.  As you can see we are not only advertising our soap Cherry Gardens but also other soaps which means our soap magazine follows the conventions of real soap magazines.  We still need to add more storylines and pictures with complimentary captions.

-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman

FINAL POSTER



This is our final poster advertising our soap Cherry Gardens.  As you can see, since our rough cut, we have added actual photographs as opposed to black silhouettes of the characters that will appear.  We have also slightly changed the layout, font and colours.  We have removed the previous blood drips from the 'CHERRY GARDENS' title as this conveys horror; something we are not trying portray as our soap is not gory because it is shown before the watershed.  We also thought this may frighten some viewers away and so have left a subtle suggestion of dark storylines instead of it being 'in-your-face' and obvious.

-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman

Thursday 24 January 2013

FINAL SCRIPT

Kirk and Dan: fake punch of camera CUT runs away with dog
CUT
Marris: lying on ground looking pained
CUT
Pub owner: walks across pub whilst Bar Tender: tends to bar
CUT
Villager 1: walks through shop door
CUT
Villager 2 and Dan: walk past and observe furniture shop
CUT
Marris: on floor looking pained
CUT
Beryl: reading book
CUT
Marris: on floor looking pained
CUT
Villager 3: walks into phone box
CUT
Dom and friend: sitting, drinking outside pub
CUT
Marris: on floor looking pained
CUT
Dan: walking out shop
CUT
Dom and friend: sitting outside pub
CUT
Marris: on floor looking pained

The script is necessary to ensure our actors know how to perform to meet our vision.
This is our final script, to make it, we reflected upon our two draft scripts and took what worked from them and got rid of what we thought didn't fit.
For our final script, we've taken most our ideas from the already improved draft script 2. We decided to keep the lack of voiceover at the end, which we showed in our second draft. We found that this really worked in our trailer rough cut, and was like by our target audience. We thought it was more suitable to leave the end silent, with just visual words to display our information, rather than speech. We felt that it rounded the whole trailer off nicely, and the audience would go away being more affected by what they have seen, therefore hopefully making them want to watch the soaps opening episode.

-Lauren Tween and Amy Bowman

POSTER LAYOUT IDEA


This was the idea we used in the end.  We chose it as we liked that it didn't give too much of the storyline away but just hinted at it.  It also directly links with our trailer; showing the main characters portrayed in our trailer on it.

Cherry Gardens Soap Initial Poster by


This is our initial poster layout idea.  The silhouettes represent the pictures of our characters that we will take for our final poster.  We decided to change it slightly from the original idea above as we will include every character in our soap on the poster, as an introduction of them to the audience, similar to other pre-existing soap opera posters.  We have also added blood drips from the title to connote an even more sinister feel to our soap and to generate interest so people watch it.

-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK



This is some general feedback about our rough cuts from our target audience.

- Jordan Kenneally, Amy Bowman & Lauren Tween

Friday 18 January 2013

SOUND WITHIN OUR TRAILER

A common convention of soap opera trailers, is that they use little or no spoken dialogue within them. Following this convention then left us with a silent trailer, which we didn't want, so we then had to start considering music and sound effects for our piece. Before we started to choose suitable sound tracks, we had to make sure all the sounds we were considering were royalty free so we didn't infringe on any copyrighting laws.
As a group we decided we wanted two sound effects and a music track within our trailer.
 photo church1_zps85936050.pngOur idea was to have a contrast in the tone of the trailer, between what happens before the punch and the shots after this event happens. We thought music would allow us to display and highlight this change.
For our opening clips of the church and the tilt of the 'Cherry Garden Road' sign, we decided to include church bells as a sound effect. We thought this would work as the clip of the church would make the music relevant and would put it into context of the piece. We also thought that by having the bells, it would make the audience anticipate happy scenes, such as a wedding, so they are even more socked when the mood of the trailer changes shortly after.
 photo church_zps375bc033.pngAfter this section, the next part of the trailer is introduced through a boy punching the character of Marris. We discussed if we should add a sound effect to this part, or if the use of silence would be more effective, we finally decided that we would use sound as we hoped it would add to the impact of this part. We searched through all the appropriate sounds available on the software we used, Imovie. We found out that there wasn't any that sounded like a punch, but there was one noise which we felt fitted perfectly with the clip. Although it didn't sound how you would imagine a punch to sound, we liked the impact and effect it brings to the trailer, and it doesn't seem out of place.
 photo marris_zps05066cd4.pngFor the rest of the trailer we wanted a soundtrack that would run right up until the end of the piece, this meant the music track would have to be about 50 seconds long. With this in mind we starting to listen to sounds of about this length. We were not sure what music style we wanted yet, so we tried many different tracks with the trailer to see what fitted and matched with the clips. As this would be a non-diegetic piece of music to co-inside with the visual side, it didn't have to sound realistic to the setting, so we could be quite open with the types of sounds we were testing. In the end we decided upon a certain track that we felt worked well and helped convey our aims of the trailer. Our sound track has been described as religious by some of our audience members, but we think this suits the trailer, as you could link it with the church bells at the start, yet it's still a huge contrast. It also could connote that Marris is looking towards religion to help him in his situation.

-Amy Bowman

Friday 11 January 2013

SOAP OPERA BRIEF

Our soap opera brief for Cherry Gardens:

Welcome to the new era of soap operas...
Cherry Gardens is a soap opera following the dramatic lives of ordinary people living in Great Waltham, 'Essex Village of the Year 2010'.  Experience the day to day lives of your new best friends as they tackle ups and downs, divorces and marriages, relationships and affairs, births and deaths and the overall emotional roller coaster that is Cherry Gardens.

We think this paragraph will capture our audiences attention and imagination. We deliberately made it short and to the point, so our audience would be able to read it quickly without getting bored and hopefully remember most of what they have read so they can tell others of our soap.
We've made a direct link between the characters within the soap and the audience members themselves by stating that they will experience the lives of their new best friends. Meaning for everybody who reads this, they should feel as if they are being directly spoken to, and by doing this we are giving them a connection with the soap, which they probably don't have with other TV shows. We also listed many life events, by doing this, we instantly made it seem like an intriguing soap, and something they will be able to relate their own lives to.



- Amy Bowman & Lauren Tween

FONT CONSIDERATION FOR TRAILER

Within our trailer, we have to display the key facts of the soap opera. We've decided to show this in text at the end of the trailer including, the soap name, when it is on and 'channel5.com'. We've shown these as we wanted to keep to the channel 5 title screen (below) so our trailer has a professional look to it. Our aim was for it to look as much as possible like the genuine channel 5 screen, this means picking a font that matches this font as much as possible:

We spent a long time on IMovie looking at all the potential fonts types we could use we, this is the shortlist of fonts we found which could work:
  • Hiragino Kaku Gothic
  • Trebuchet MS
  • ITC Franklin Gothic
  • Ayuthaya
  • Damascus
  • Euphemia UCAS
  • Geneva
  • Coolvetica
In the end we decided upon Coolvetica.  We thought we would use this font as it was the most suitable we could find for what we were looking for.
Below is our final title screen:
Photobucket
The font is obviously not extremely identical to that of the Channel 5 title screens, nor is the positioning (the main white and red titles should be lined up and slightly to the left hand side.  Ideally the 'CHANNEL5.COM' needs to be further down and in-line with the other titles).  However, we did what best we could using iMovie and are pleased with the outcome.

-Amy Bowman and Lauren Tween

Thursday 10 January 2013

SHOT LIST FOR MAGAZINE AND POSTER

Magazine shot list
Magazines always have multiple images on them.  This means we will need to take multiple photographs for possible use on our magazine.  To do this, we will need to recreate scenarios stereotypically seen in soap operas and ensure they are verisimilitude regarding setting and costume to everyday real life. 



CharacterShotEmotion shownCostumePropsSetting
KirkMid shotAngerHoodien/an/a
DanMid shotAngerHoodie and waistcoatn/an/a
Dom & extraOver the shoulder shotHappyJumper worn in trailerDrinks in handOutside pub
Extra & dogMid shotConfusionPink jumper, glassesDrinks, platesInside house, sitting at table
ExtraMid shotSurprised/shockedCoat and jumpern/aInside house
ExtraClose upStern expressionTop and apronn/aIn kitchen
ExtraClose upShockedJumpern/aIn house
ExtraMid shotUpsetJumper/jeansBroken mugAt kitchen table
ExtraLong shotAngerT-shirt, jogging bottomsn/aOutside pub

Poster shot list
Our poster is going to be fairly simple, with the characters standing forward facing.  We will need mid shots of them (torso upwards) wearing costumes similar to in the trailer.



CharacterShotEmotion shownCostume
KirkMid shotAngerHoodie
DanMid shotAngerHoodie and waistcoat
MarrisMid shotNo emotionJacket, no hat
BerylMid shotSlight smilePink jumper, glasses






-Lauren Tween

Wednesday 9 January 2013

ROUGH CUT 3



Since the previous rough cut, we have made some drastic changes to our soap opera trailer.  This included the addition of a professional-looking title screen and the rearrangement and addition of some shots (e.g the 'Cherry Garden Road' sign post shot has been put to the beginning along with a new shot of as church).

Feedback:
  • Liked the addition of the church and bells ringing since the last rough cut
  • The title screen at the end looks classy
  • They would definitely watch the soap after seeing this advert and think they would be dedicated
  • It's fantastic
  • Good actors found
  • The gap between the kids running and the man on floor is slightly too long
  • It looks really professional
  • I was lulled into a false sense of security by the bells which made me think i was going to see beautiful wedding scenes, so i was very shocked by the impact of the punch! It was a great contrast and made me want to watch the rest of the trailer, it is a great 'who done it?'
  • Left me in suspense, want to watch the actual soap now! And Marris Morris!
  • I don't know what's going on, but that is why i would want to watch it.
  • It would have been better with speech and i didn't understand the relevence of the music, but i thoguht it was really funny!
-Lauren Tween & Amy Bowman