Iconic Music

We went on to Jamendo.com to find the music for our soap opera trailer. We found serveral tracks that we liked the sound of and after careful consideration we narrowed it down to one. The track is entitled 'Night Out' on the album 'This Ain't Hollywood' by 'Silence is Sexy'.


We found a copyright free bleep to censor our trailer so that it would be suitable for daytime viewing.

http://www.soundjay.com/beep-sounds-1.html

Shannon, Scott

Progress

We have cut all of our footage and have got it into order and have added our background for the talk show set. During editing we found that our actor that played Jamie spoke a little too quiet so we have made the audio for his voice louder on Final Cut and we did the same for our audiences' chanting. We still have to add our music and censor it which we are hoping to do next lesson.

As far as the ancillary task is concerned we have cut all of our images out that we are using and started work on our magazine cover. We hope to finish this during our workshop session tonight - 14/12/2010. We will be doing the posters for our soap on Wednesday and Thursday during workshop sessions.

We have booked the editing suite for Wednesday so that we can take some photos which will feature on our magazine cover.

Shannon

Ancillary Task Photo Cut Outs

When we took the photos and Scott and Shannon chose the best ones that we thought was most appropriate for the job. Scott then took the photos home and cut them out using Macromedia fireworks and put them in backgrounds to see how they look with proper backgrounds behind them. We will be using the photos without background for our poster and front magazine cover.

Here are the photos with and withuot backgrounds:

Magazine Front Cover

Scott Craig - Geoffrey

James Ashworth - Marco

Shannon Abraham - Stacey

Shannon, Scott

Today's Green Screen Filming and Ancillary

Today we filmed Jamie Spicer who had to be replaced by and actor called Joe. We both did the camera work as Hawa was not present. We now have all the footage necessary and will be booking more workshops regularly to complete our work. We also re-shot the slap as there had been an acting error during the slap scene.

Today Scott and Shannon went out of college hours and created a a rough mock up of what we want our magazine cover to look like. This will be made to look neater during the next lesson.
Shannon, Scott

Progress on Green Screen

First of all we could not get two of our actors in for various reasons so we will be filming the rest of our footage on Wednesday 8th December.
This meant that we could only film the scenes involving Geoffrey and Stacey. Hawa did all the camera work to film Shannon and Scott on the green screen. Playing Stacey was Shannon and playing Geoffrey was Scott.
Some of the scenes with dialogue in it and a set script ended up being slightly improvised (the fight scene) but overall it worked quite well.
We set up the lighting for the green screen together as a group
Shannon, Scott, Hawa

General Info

Location

• Editing Suite (Green Screen)

Props

• Card and Envelope
• Chairs

Costumes

• Audience - Casual Clothes
• Geoffrey - Trainers, Jeans, Leather Jacket
• Marco - Trainers, Jeans, White T-Shirt and a Striped Pink over shirt.
• Stacey - High Heeled Boots, Skinny Jeans, Scarlet Red Jumper
• Jamie Spicer - Black Suit, White Shirt, Polished Shoes

Actors

• Geoffrey - Scott Craig
• Marco - James Ashworth 
• Stacey - Shannon Abraham
• Jamie Spicer - Joe Burton

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Ancillary task photos

Today we booked the editing suite so that we could take photos for our ancillary task. We took photos of Geoffrey, Stacey and Marco.
We took shots in various style to emphasize that they are a gay couple. We are going to look through the pictures to use in our ancillary task.
We had our actor James, who is playing Marco, wear a pink shirt to connote homosexuality. Scott, playing Geoffrey, is wearing a leather jacket and jeans to go against the stereotype of being gay. Shannon, playing Stacey is wearing a red jumper, and jeans to connote that she is viewed as a 'scarlet woman'.
In the photos we took for our cover, Stacey is placed between Geoffrey and Marco to show that she is attempting to drive a wedge between the two as a couple and that the pregnancy is on the verge of splitting them up.
Here are a few of the photos we took:

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Logo update

We have changed our logo slightly as the E4 logo was on the wrong side of the screen and was the wrong colour.
This is the refined version of our logo which will be placed at the end of our trailer. 


Shannon, Scott

Green Screen filming

We will be filming the majority of our trailer using the green screen on December 1st and we have booked the studio for during our lesson time. We will be getting our actors in and after we have got all the footage we need we will be getting our photographs for our ancillary task.


In the following lessons we will be editing our footage together with the footage we already have of our audience, creating our T.V. listings magazine cover and poster.


Shannon

Our logo

We took extra time outside lesson, during college hours to get together and design a logo and the ending title for our trailer. We used Live Type to create our logo. We made a first draft which looked like this:

First Draft

After receving some feedback on it from various people in our class and our teacher, we decided to change the font and colour of our text because they felt that these were not suitable or appealing to our target audience. However everyone we talked to about our logo said that they liked the background and so we have decided to keep that. We are also adding the E4 logo to our final logo design as a way to make it look authentic.
Final



This is our final logo design and the feedback we have received on it is good. The people whose opinions we asked said that the colour and font were much more suitable for our target audience. We intend to place this at the end of our trailer.

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Background Trial

We made a background to place behind our characters for the trailer. We shot some footage in order to see  what it really looked like and what changes we had to make.

Instead of using this background we have decided to make it look less fancy and are opting to just have a simple one wall background. We have also noticed that the blues are a bit too bold and distracting from the subject and therefore we have decided to tone down the blues in the background.

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Progress Report-Hawa

On Friday 19th november at 12.15 we had booked the college theatre to film the audiences as that was the only time available we could get with the audiences. We had to take long shots and close ups on them whilst we made them shout various comments for our trailer. For our trailer the the casting characters are Shannon and Scott, therefore when shooting the stage shots i''l be handling the camera the most so Shannon and  Scott did most of the audeince shots. I helped Shannon handle the camera.

Hawa

Demographic and Psychographic profiling in relation to our target audience

Demographic profiling

This involves separating people into social classes. This is based on certain criteria on which separates people.

• Gender: We are mainly looking to target females as the majority of people who watch soap operas are female, but we also hope it will appeal to male audiences. 
• Race: We are primarily targeting caucasians but we hope to represent other ethnicities in our trailer such as muslims. This is so that our audience is not alienated.
• Age: We are looking at targeting teenagers to people in their mid-twenties. So our target age range is between 16-25. This is because our brand identity is going to be similar to that of Hollyoaks which has a similar target audience.
• Socio-Economic Status: Since our age range is 16-25 and the majority of these people will most likely be in full time education or starting a career we are primarily targeting groups C2-E

Uses and Gratifications Theory

This theory is used to understand why people like media texts as they offer a wide range of fulfilling experiences.There are four reasons in this theory given by Katz, Blumler and Grevitch. McQuale in 1983 stated in relation to this theory that the audience is active and they use the media to gratify their needs. The reasons given are:

• Personal Relationships - The audeince talk and discuss the media text which is beneficial as it will help reach a wider audience. Some issues focused on in the soap will prompt debate and discussion.
• Personal Identity - The audience use media texts to discover who they are. They generally identify with particular stars and characters. In our soap we hope that the audience will be able to identify with our characters as the particular issues we  are tackling effect so many of the general public and therefore they will be able to relate to the characters.
• Escapism - This helps the audience to escape the reality of every day life using the soap as a form of entertainment, a way to relax and fill some time.
• Surveillance - This helps the audience to gather information to satisfy their curiousity and learn how to deal with certain issues within their life which a character may be going through in the soap through watching them.

Young and Rubicam
This theory identified four main groups of people based on there characteristics. These are:

• Mainstreamers - This concerns the majority of the audience and they enjoy familiarity and security so that they are not disappointed. They tend to respond to the bigger brands as they know they are reliable and trustworthy.
• Reformers - This concerns people who want to make the world a better place. They are independent and socially aware
• Aspirers - This concerns people who want to achieve the best they can and reach a higher status. They like things which are modern and trendy.
• Succeeders - This concerns people who have reached a high status and they enjoy being in control and enjoy to have the latest product

Our soap will mainly be aimed towards mainstreamers because they enjoy having a set routine and as we want our soap to be popular with a lot of people mainstreamers would be ideal as routine is important to their lifestyle. As they also like big brands and security, and are already familiar with soap operas they know that soaps are trustworthy, secure and offer familiarity due to the fact that soaps tackle issues common in society and are set around family and familiar places such as the pub and home.

Shannon

Target Audience

Using the results of our questionnaire we found that more adult working age (25-45) watched soap operas such as Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale.
Younger people that are students or just entering employment (16-24) showed interest in watching soaps that targeted issues such as homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, STD and discrimination. Members of this group that watched soaps were more interested in soaps like Hollyoaks. For this reason we have decided that we would like to create a soap aimed towards the younger generation. We came to the decision that we would include two of the four issues that the 16-24 group were interested in seeing soap operas tackle and chose to incorporate the issues of teen pregnancy and homosexuality into our trailer especially the issue of homosexuality which has been a very prominant issue within all the soaps in recent months.

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Feedback 15.11.10

Well done team! You are continuing to work hard here and you seem to be very well organises. I have noticed that you have some unpublished posts so as soon as you can complete and post them do.

I know you are filming the audience this week but when are you filming the rest? You need to book the studio for this and arrange it with your actors. In the meantime, you can use the lesson time to create the studio setting for the talk show. Have a word with Mike if you feel you need more help with this. I am not in tomorrow but the lesson will still be held. Mike will open the classroom for you so that you can get on with your work.

Mrs A

StoryBoard

This is the story board we created together. Hawa drew it and scanned this in, & Scott made it lighter.

Hawa

Footage of our audience.

We have booked the theatre at St Mary's College for 12:15 - 1:00 on Friday 19th November in order to get the footage we need of our audience. As this is during college hours our teacher has agreed to let us use her class as our audience.
We will be filming our audience cheering and clapping, booing, and chanting phrases including "DNA", "FIGHT" and "JAMIE". During these shots we envision them standing up on their feet with their arms in the air. We will also have our audience using sound effects such as "oooh", "ahh" and gasping.
We will also be getting a wide variety of shots of our audience. We will be getting several panning shots from left to right of our audience from different distances (Long shots, medium shot and close ups), we will have close ups on several of the audience members faces and they wil be portraying looks of shock and horror.
We have decided to use these shots as if you look at The audience in The Jeremy Kyle Show and The Jerry Springer Show you see many of these types of shots of the audience used and we want the trailer to feel as authentic as possible as a talk show.
We will be ensuring that we film each of our shots from different angles so that we have more than enough footage and if we find that one shot doesn't quite work as well as we hoped we will have others to choose from.

Shannon

Synopsis of soap opera trailer

After further discussion within our group we have decided to do our trailer in the style of Jeremy Kyle and Jerry Springer.
The story we will be trying to convey in our soap will be that a boy has impregnated a girl during a drunken one night stand however he is in a long term relationship with his boyfriend. 
The guy is denying that he is the father and the girl wants him to admit he fathered the child and the guy's boyfriend is demanding a DNA test so he can prove his boyfriend is not the father.
The girl is just 18 and the guy is 25. 
In order to convey this we thought that it would be a good idea to set it up in the style of a talk show that is controversial just like the Jeremy Kyle and The Jerry Springer show.
By using controversial ideas we will be able to build tension at our audience as we can make use of comedy by doing outrageous things.

This is an image from the google which shows The Jeremy Kyle show with the audience in the back. Because our soap opera trailer is going to be some thing like this, we will need an audience in the back too, to give it more enthusiasm and make it appear to be more authentic as a talk show. 

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Feedback 8.11.10

Well done guys, there is some good work here. You are clearly pulling together as a group and have developed some good ideas for the project.

I think you need to work on your synopsis a little more and the storyboard needs work. There seems to be no real range of shots used in the sequence. Please see me in the next lesson and I'll talk you through the issues with this.

You also need to get your casting and location shots on the blog asap. Remember to book the theatre with the Performing Arts technician. It is used frequently throughout the week for lessons and also after college so don't assume it will be available for your use when you need it. You will also need to arrnage to get some assistance from the technician with the lighting. If you let me know when you intend to film your audience in there then I will arrange to be there with you. You also obviously need to get an audience!

You need to see Mike (media technician) about creating the studio background on photoshop. Perhaps you could arrange for him to give you some help/advice during your workshop time one evening this week?

Anyway, keep up the hard work!

Mrs Abell

StoryBoard Shots

There will be onstant non-diegetic music from shot 1- shot 4.

Shot 1: Establishing shot is a panning long shot of the audience with diegetic cheering and clapping. We decided to use this as the establishing shot because it is a very common opening shot in talk shows such as Jerry Springer and Jeremy Kyle.

Shot 2: Mid shot of the audience whilst clapping. We put studio lighting on our audience so that they will be seen clearly.

Shot 3: Close up on an audience member with constant clapping in the background. We will be using this type of shot because in our research of the talk show genre there were lots of different shots of the audience in the establishing sequence.

Shot 4: Jamie will walk onto the stage, there will be a panning long shot to show the stage. There will be diegetic clapping.  As Jamie reaches centre stage the non diegetic music cuts out.  Jamie thanks the audience for coming to the show.

Shot 5: Close up on Jamie Spicer as he introduces the issue at hand. At the bottom of the screen in the centre there will be the logo accompanied by a white text to the right of the logo saying "My baby daddy's gay".


Shot 6: Close up on Geoffrey and Marco. This will serve to convey to the viewing audience that they are together and make up a part of one side of the argument.

Shot 7: Close up on Stacey's face. This will introduce the accusing Stacey and will convey to the audience the other side of the argument.

Shot 8: A medium shot of Stacey pushing Geoffrey whilst he's pulling Stacey's hair. This scene will be added to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.

Shot 9: Close up on Geoffrey's face whilst Stacey slaps him. This will show us the reaction Geoffrey gives to us after he has been slapped.

Shot 10: Long shot of the audience shouting fight. This will be added to help convey the talk show style of our commercial as the audience is used to aggravate the audience.

Shot 11: Over the shoulder mid-shot of Geoffrey and Marco kissing. Diegetic ooh-ing and ahh-ing.

Shot 12: There is a Mid-shot of Geoffrey and Stacey shouting curses at each other. E.g. Bitch, town bicycle, dick and freak of nature.

Shot 13: Close up of Jamie Spicer. Diegetic sound "Here are the DNA test results."

Shot 14: Long shot of the audience chanting DNA.

Shot 15: Split screen of Geoffrey and Marco on one side and stacey on the other. Diegetic sound of Jamie saying  "And the results show that....."

Shot 16: Goes to logo. Non-diegetic sound "Find out on Spicer's Life... Out soon."

Hawa Scott Shannon

Equipment & Technologies being used

For our soap opera trailer we will be using various pieces of equipment and technology.

Hardware

• Green Screen - We will be using this to show the background of the studio where our trailer will be primarily set.
• Camcorder - We will be using this to capture takes of our scenes.
• Mac - We will be using the mac to create, store and edit our trailer. It also allows us access to the internet for secondary research and to access our blogs.
• Lights - We will be using the lights to light our scenes appropriately light our scenes so that they will look clean, crisp, clear and professional.
• Cameras - We will be using it to take photos for our ancillary task. We are going to have photos at the end of trailer as well.
• Scanner - We will be printing many sheets for our research, planning and research.
• Printer - This will be used to print pieces of work that will be needed to be scanned.

Software

• InDesign - Will be using for our ancillary task for the poster and the cover of the TV guide.
• Photoshop - Will be using photoshop for the editing of images before they go into InDesign.
• Final Cut - Will be used to sort out the editing and compiling of our commercial.
• Microsoft Word - Used to create prototypes for assignments or blog pots such as our questionnaire.
• Microsoft Publisher - Used to create our questionnaire and other assignments.
• Microsoft Excel - Used to compile the results into a visual format such as pie charts for easier analysing of primary data and it will be useful for explaining our results.
• Macromedia Fireworks: used for alternative image editing for simple tasks such as the spider diagram for our initial ideas.
• Mac Operation System - Used in the macs and gives us access to files we store.

Shannon, Scott

Institution

E4 is a spin off channel from channel 4 for the younger generation. This channel is a freeview channel so it is easily accessible to students who own a tv. E4 shows a variety of progammes made and aimed for teenagers such as The Inbetweeners, Family Guy, 90210, Glee, Skins, Ugly Betty and One Tree Hill. However E4 also shows programmes that both students and people who are over 25 years old would find interesting such as Desperate Housewives, Scrubs and Friends.
E4 personally states that they only show the 'finest telly' shows.


Ideally our soap would be shown at either 8 or 9pm in the evening preferably on Mondays and Wednesdays.


Shannon

Feedback 1.11.10

Some good work here - well done. Some points to consider:

The post on demographic and psychographic profiling - you shouldn't just be lissting theories, you need to apply them to your work. I.e. Use GRASS to outline who youyr target audience are for your project. Every time you use a theory or anlayse a media text, you must relate what you have learnt to your project and your plans for it as they develop. Do not simply describe theories - this will not earn you marks.

Also, you only need one post that outlines the genre conventions - there are three that all say the same thing here! You should have three analyses (one each) and these should be very detailed. You also need to be refelcting on what you have learnt from doing these analyses. Hasv they given you any ideas for your own trailer.

You need to complete all research and planning asap. This should have been completed by now so that uyou can start production this week. In lessons, you will be doing all the chromakey and lighting training etc so you may finalise you rplanning. Any incomplete research should be completed for homework or in workshop time. Don't forgte to include the primary research in to target audience. Upload your questionnaire using scribd and then produce graphs and charts etc to display your results. Ensure that you evaluate the results and reflect on what you have learnt that you can use in your planning.

Any other problems/questions then let me know.

Mrs A

The Chroma Key Tutorial

To practice using the green screen, we have completed a training tutorial on using Final Cut Express. We used Hawa as our subject. For our first attempt we have made good use of the green screen.



We feel that this tutorial went quite well and for a first attempt at using the Chroma Key technology we think that the end result was really good. The way we lit the green screen and the subject was near perfect. We did an awesome job!!! :D

Shannon, Scott, Hawa

Magazine Conventions

This magazine front cover of a soap opera gives alot of conventions of itself. This cover stands out alot to soap audiences as it has the images and stories from the main soap operas people watch.
The font used is very plain.  The phrase "pregnant by Ian" where "Ian" is highlighted in pink. Ian is one of the protagonist in the stories and this is why it is highlighted out.  "Archie" is alos highlighted out in pink. The colours used pink, white and red are very feminine which tells us it revovles around women.
"Baby shocks" is in white. This heading is quite similar to what our soap is going to be based on. This is one of the reasons why i chose to analyse this cover.

Hawa

Soap Magazine Cover Research

This magazine cover would be appealing to the audience as the cover is filled with information about the three most popular soaps on television.


The name of the magazine “Inside Soap” would appeal to the reader as it suggests that this magazine will contain all the latest gossip in the soaps. The strapline which reads “Every Story, Every Secret, Every Week. This would appeal to the audience as it further suggests that this magazine knows all the most recent news in the soap world about up and upcoming storylines. At the top of the page it says “First for the big soap news” which also connotates that Inside Soap knows all the biggest gossip in the soaps before any other television magazine.


The focal storyline that it is advertising is the one concerning Max, Stacey and Ryan in EastEnders. The text is in an easy to read font and the word “final” stands out against the rest of the writing making it easily noticeable to the reader and more likely that they will pick it up and have a flick through it. Stacey is placed between Max and Ryan which tells us that her choice is between them.


The other storylines in the soaps surround the focal storyline. Each of these are in a clear and easy to read font which stick out. There is use of bold colours which stand out and would attract the reader to it; just like with the main storyline they are advertising. It appears for that each soap a different style font is used which separates out all the different storylines being advertised.


For our ancillary task we will take our inspiration from this magazine, as this magazine is well loved and a lot of people like to know what is coming up in the soaps. The fonts used stand out and there is a lot going on on the cover meaning that it attracts people to it. Although on our cover we will place more emphasis on our soap and have the image for our soap a bit bigger and more centralised than on this cover; and instead of having several other soap storys being advertised we will have a couple of other soap storylines surrounding it.


On our cover we will use bold colours that stand out, very similar to Inside Soap as well as easy to read fonts.

Shannon

Poster Research

       For my part of the ancillary poster research I have decided to analyse a poster of the programme called Reaper as it has a similar target audience to ours. 

Analysis

       Firstly there are two distinction in font style. The writing that uses a direct mode of address in the centre of the poster that says 'Are you ready?' uses a very informal and rebellious font as that is the sentence which is supposed to grab their target audience. Then the other more formal font gives basic information such as time, date and which channel the show is on. It is easy to read and keeps to the top and bottom of the poster so that it does not distract the audience from looking at the picture which advertises their programme. There is also a constant use of logos in this poster as there are two on the poster. The first is the logo for the show which is on the bottom left hand corner and the second is the channels name which is at the top. The poster's picture is very symmetrical as there is a couch that if it was not for the flames would be symmetrical. The characters sitting on the couch are equal distance from each other and both sitting in a similar way that already makes themselves slightly symmetrical as their hands are together no at different angles. Behind the two on the chair is a man in a suit that has his hands on their shoulders to the outside of the chair making it look even more symmetrical. Red is their iconic colour which is used to insinuate concepts such as danger, action, passion and excitement. Also for people that know what the television show is about the red also insinuates hell as the show is about working for the devil, this meaning is anchored down with the flames coming out of the couch. Clothing worn by the characters are geared towards their target audience as the two sitting on the couch are wearing clothes such as jeans, shirts and jackets which allows their target audience to identify with them. Binary opposites are used behind these two as the man behind them representing the devil is wearing a formal suit which represents things such as authority which labels him out as the enemy. All the characters are looking at you the audience so that they make a connection with the person looking at the poster (The character on the right hand side of the couch is peeking at you at the side of his eyes). Lastly there is use of facial expressions to help convey their situation as the two people sitting on the couch have pained expressions on their faces and the devil behind them is smirking as if he knows something they do not.

Points of Interest

• Use basic fonts for information such as date, time and which channel the programme will be on.
• Use a sentence that will grab the audience (E.g. Are you ready?).
• Use logos (Yours and the channel it is showing on).
• Use symmetry (Not perfect symmetry though).
• Make sure you have an iconic colour.
• Make the characters look at YOU.
• Make sure the clothing fits in with our target audience.
• Try and have facial expressions.

Scott

Analysing The Talk Show Genre

As mentioned before we have decided to do a talk show based them for our Soap Opera trailer. For this I have decided to do some extra research about the talk show genre fro shows such as ;The Jeremy Kyle Show' and 'The Jerry Springer Show'. I have analysed two clips each for these shows and have seen clear distinctions between the two. One main reason for this I think is that The Jerry Springer Show is American which like to have over dramatic themes in their shows and The Jeremy Kyle Show is British which like their shows calmer and more realistic.

The Jerry Springer Show
1) Shows opening sequence:



2) Clip of The Jerry Springer Show:



Starting from from clip one which is the opening sequence there is already an establishment of brand identity by having a warning at the beginning telling the audience that their show is for adults only. The word 'warning' is in a thick bold red which is used to put emphasis on the danger element of the show. After this we are greeted by what appears to be a trailer which is not normally shown on the beginning of The Jerry Springer Show, nut this is an exception as it is the first episode of the new nineteenth season. This part is in a comercial format which will be able to give us a good impression on what we may want our Soap Opera trailer to be like. The narrator explains a few of the stories such as two people wanting to marry the same women. this clip mainly contains all the most dramatic scenes such as a man rising up with his arms in the air and this clip also gives off their brand identity as  having over exaggerated violence with people jumping on each other, beating each other with flowers and censoring out random parts of the body to incinuate that a person is being inapropriate (e.g. Censoring out chest to incinuate that their nipples have become exposed although this may not be the case).
After this commercial like sequence there is a pan long shot on the audience to create their prescence which then goes onto Jerry's overdramatic entrance by entering from the roof. The audience being an establishing shot is also used in The Jeremy Kyle Show as I will compare when I have analysed both of the shows. Jerry will then explain what their topic is for today. The non-diegetic background music has a rock theme to it to give the show a feeling of intensity to yet again make the show even more dramatic.

Analysing the second clip of The Jerry Springer Show there are two motifs emphasized here, one is violence as the characters can not seem to stop themselves from jumping on each other in an almost drunken rage. The second is the emphasis on controversy. In this clip a grandmother is having a sexual relationship with her grandson. These two factors work together to yet again make their show over dramatic. On the bottom of the screen there is the Jerry Springer logo which adds to brand identity along with a brief synopsis of what the issue is so that late watch can know what is happening. There is a definate relationship between colour and brand identity as background is always a brick red which represents danger. Using a brick background and from clip one there is a brand identity that the show is similar to that of a night club as there are flashing lights coming from the roof and the walls are brick colours giving off a vibe of excitement. In this show the bouncers have a large presence as they always try to stop the violence which in most cases end up making the issue worse, but they are also there to stop the entire show to be about fighting and will leave room for talking which will lead to more violence.Another factor in the show is that the audience do not make hissing noises or are used for comedic sound effects for drama like in The Jeremy Kyle Show but are used to build drama in a different fashion, instead of sound effects they will chant Jerrys name whilts standing up and will also give insults such as 'Freak'. Along with this Jerry also insults their guests and in most shots he is shown with the audience behind him.

The Jeremy Kyle Show
1) Shows opening sequence:



1) Clip of The Jeremy Kyle Show:



In clip one which is an example of the Jeremy Kyle opening sequence. The iconic colour of The Jeremy Kyle Show is blue which is associated with calmness which their show is trying to convey. Proof of this is shown in the sequence. It starts with small scenes of the host Jeremy Kyles face talking and other small  pictures of normal people doing their ordinary activities. The non-diegetic background music is jazzy to give the audience a feeling of intelligence to the show. At the end of this sequence we see their logo which is their icon telling informing the audience that they are watching The Jeremy Kyle Show. After this the camera is set on the audience clapping with a panning mid body shots of the audience and then being greeted by Jeremy Kyle and he thanks them for his applause and welcomes the audience/viewers to the show. To convey the situation large white writing appears on the screen informing the audience of the situation.

Clip two is an example of the actual talking part of the show. Again there is the iconic calming blue background of the set. In this show there is a lot of talking and no physical violence, there are the presence of bouncers but they are not seen unless actual violence did break out. Jeremy Kyles talking is very sharp and harsh which is used to bring the interest and drama into the show. By using insults and provoking the guests Jeremy Kyle manages to bring interest rather than actually trying to talk to his guest calmly which would be considered boring on television. Another way drama is brought to The Jeremy Kyle Show is by using the audience. The audience in this show is mainly used for two things, the first being used to add amusing gasps like 'ooh' and 'ahh' which makes can be used to spur on any intense conversations or create intense conversations. The second is to put them behind Jeremy Kyle giving the impression that the entire audience is on his side which makes him seem more powerful. The last way The Jeremy Kyle Show creates drama and interest into his show is by inviting scummy and controversial guests in which he can insult. In clip 2 there is an unemployed teenager who has gotten his girlfriend pregnant whilst he has cheated on her fifteen times and has no interest in finding a job so he drinks 20 cans of beer a day. This is very controversial as their target audience in mainly social class C2, D and E which have more of a taste for tabloid newspapers which usually tend to highlight these topics. Lastly on the bottom left hand corner there is the Jeremy Kyle logo accompanied by a quick synopsis of the situation.

Comparing the Two Shows
Comparing these two shows we can see both similarities and differences between the two. Starting with differences, although they are both talk shows the entire feel of their shows that they represent to their audiences are completely different. Jerry springer focus' more on violence where as Jeremy Kyle focus' more on talking. Jerry Springer conveys the more physical intensity of his show by using a brick background and the constant presence of bouncers to hold their guests back whilst provoking them where as Jeremy Kyle uses blue to create a calm environment to try and verbally bash his guest into submission without using bouncers. Their non-diegetic background music are both different as Jerry Springer has a more rock beat and the Jeremy Kyle uses a Jazzy melody to try and create the mood. In Jerry Springer the audience are used to cheer, hiss and boo where as Jeremy Kyle makes the audience give sound effects to create his mood. Another way they both use their audience in a different way is by using the opening sequence. In Jerry Springer he comes down on a pole and near jumps into the audience using a panning long shot shaking their hands while they are chanting his name where as Jeremy Kyle gets his audience to calmly clap as panning mid shot shows them and Jeremy Kyle will simple accept their applause graciously. The last difference is that Jerry Springer has a big flashy warning message at before the show begins and Jeremy Kyle does not.

As many differences as there are between the shows there are also similarities. One similarity is that they both have their logos followed by a brief explanation at the bottom left hand side of the screen. Another similarity is that they both have their audience in the background of their shots as to convey that the audience is on their side. Scummy guests also seem to be used in both shows although Jerry Springer tends to be more controversial using themes like incest instead of topics like teenage pregnancy in the Jeremy Kyle show. The host also jabs at their guests psychologically as well although Jeremy Kyle does this more as his show is more about talking than violence unlike Jerry Springer.

Scott

Branding

Branding

A brand is not the same as a product. In terms of coursework the product is a soap opera however the brand would be EastEnders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street or Neighbours which are all different soaps and each have their own separate image. Neither of these soaps have a similar brand identity.

Branding is an essential part of promoting a specific product. There is a need for different brands came about as a result of mass production. Nomi Klein, No logo said "….Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age-within a context of manufactured sameness, image-based difference had to be manufactured along with the product."

Branding is all about creating an image that people can easily link to a certain product that will draw in consumers over and over again. In terms of soap operas this would be people linking the theme tune and setting to the soap.

According to mudvalley.com here are 8 elements that come together and create a brand identity.

1. Brand Essence - What a brand means in a sentence.
2. Brand Slogan - Often a catchphrase linked to the logo.
3. Brand Personality - What kind of character does the brand have? These humanise the brand and make it easier to relate to.
4. Brand Values - What does the brand stand for/against?
5. Brand Appearances - What does the brand look/sound like?
6. Brand Heritage - What tradition does it have?
7.  Emotional Benefits - What feelings does it offer the consumer?
8.  Hard benefits - Is it cheaper/better? What real benefits does the brand offer to the buyer?

The brand identity of Coronation Street is quite clear through the way it shows terraced houses, the corner shop and the pub. You can tell at a glance that the soap will be about family life and focus primarily on the working class. The theme tune also suggests working class and it is played by a brass band which tells us that it is set in the North of England. All of this suggests that the soap would be aimed at an older audience as it deals with every day real life family issues.

The brand identity of Emmerdale instantly gets across the message that it is all about village life due to the mise en scene showing plenty of greenery. It is clear to the audience that Emmerdale is set in a rural area through the landrover that is being driven, which is generally used on farms, in the mise en scene. The stone buildings are also connotate that it is set in a rural area. Since Emmerdale is set in a rural area everyone in the village will know each other and what is going on in each other’s lives as they are a tight knit community.

The brand identity of EastEnders is very simplistic. It shows a bird’s eye view of the East End of London which connotates city life and the working class. It is well known that London is known for a high crime rate in some areas so another connotation of the logo is that there will be crime present to a certain degree but not to the extent of central London.  

The brand identity of Hollyoaks is that it is youthful. The logo connotates that it is for both girls and boys through the use of the signs used to represent each gender and how half of Hollyoaks is written in pink (which connotates femininity) and the other half is written in blue (which connotes masculinity).

We want our brand identity to be similar to that of Hollyoaks as we are aiming it towards a similar target audience. Our trailer is going to be fun and youthful as we are taking our inspiration from Jeremy Kyle and Jerry Springer which are especially popular with the younger generation. Hollyoaks also tackle controversial issues and in our trailer we are tackling the issues of homosexuality and teenage pregnancy. At the moment Emmerdale is tackling homosexuality with the stoyline concering Aaron and Jackson; Hollyoaks is also tackling homosexuality with the storyline concerning Ste and Brendan; Coronation Street is tackling homosexuality with the storyline concerning Sian and Sophie; and EastEnders is tackling the issue of homosexuality with the storyline of Syed and Christian (made controverial because Syed is a muslim). It is for this reason, that it is current and popular, that we began to consider homosexuality as our main storyline. 

Shannon

Target Audience Questionnaire

To find our target audience I have produced a questionnaire to find out what people like and then exploit this information in our Soap Opera trailer. This is what my questionnaire looked like:

I then printed out 50 copies of this questionnaire and asked 10 members of each age group stated and within those age group 5 were male and 5 were female. I then personally distributed and compiled the data into an Excel document and made a visual representation for each of the quantitative data questions I asked.

Here is the Excel document I made in which I then turned into .jpg files by using Macromedia Fireworks:

In question 5 there are more than 50 answers in it because most people actually watch more than one soap at the same time. This is a great finding because it tells us that people watch a variety of different soaps and not just one. This allows us to be able to make a space in the market that will be watched as we now know that people do not only stick to one soap opera.

For question 3 since it is a qualitative answer I will give an explanation to what most people have wrote in their questionnaire. Socio-economically speaking most people that answered the questionnaire we in the D, C1 and C2 scale area. The small minority were B and A. Also no one in the E section had admitted to watching soap operas.

Also for question 6 since it is a qualitative answer I will give another explanation to what most people have wrote in their questionnaire. In Emmerdale most people were interested in a man that has just recently confessed to being gay and has gotten into an accident with his first boyfriend. In neighbours people were interested in another male character admitting to being gay and then breaking up with his girlfriend. 

The results of my questionnaire have shown that people between the early twenties and mid thirties as there seems to be a gap in the market for this age range according to my questionnaire as the most popularly watched soaps are Coronation Street and EastEnders which are mainly aimed at an older audience.

Scott