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St. Paul’s Catholic College

Center Number: 64770

Candidate Number: 6346

Candidate Name: Charlene Fernandes

A2 Media Studies

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –

Production Log

Evidence of Planning & Research

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Aims and Objectives

AO2– Assess candidates’ application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work, showing how meanings and responses are created.

AO3– Assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills.

AO4– Assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.

Brief Chosen

A 45 second – 1 minute 30 second trailer for a NEW Soap Opera that will be exhibited on BBC 3 at 8:30pm (after Eastenders) that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.

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Contents

Textual Analysis

Eastenders - Soap Opera Codes & Conventions - Multi Strand Narrative

Coronation Street

“..the home, the family, domestic tribulationsand the strong woman, and as such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”

‘Masculinity and Popular television’ – Rebecca Feasey (2007)

- Is this evident and how is this presented to the audience?

Research

Purpose of a Trailer Multi-Platform promotion Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks

Deadlines – Production Work Filming Dates: 23rd October 2013 12:45- 16:45 Edited Trailer – Complete: 14th February 2014 Promotional Poster – Complete:14th February 2014 Promotional Magazine Cover – Complete:14th February 2014 Evaluation – Complete:14th February 2014

Production Work

Director Producer Institution research – BBC Three

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Soap Opera Codes & Conventions – Lesson 2 1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre? You MUST demonstrate what you already know by completing a “Spider Diagram” of what you know about OR expect from this genre:

Romance Family Relationships Tragedy Wedding Funerals/Death Pregnancy/Teenage mums Community Working class characters Conflict Adultery

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2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale) elements of:

1. Multi-stranded Narrative

2. Family Relationships/conflict

3. Working Class Characters 4. Romance

5. Disequilibrium

Eastenders(1985 – Present)

Key information regarding this text:

Exhibited on BBC1 and repeated on BBC 3 One of the UKs highest rated programmer- 8 million viewers per

week Set in the ‘kitchen sink’ setting of fictional Walford east London

Textual Analysis Task http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -

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In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the target audience for Eastenders?

Age

30+

Gender

Females

Nationality

UK

Trailer 1) What is the Focus of this trailer?

Adultery ------ Family ------ Secrets ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Code &

Convention

Evidence

(Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical)

Impact on the Audience

(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)

Romance

“Love You” Verbal code Kiss- Non verbal

Middle class characters – Class- Hartley Kissing a public display of affection is a normal part of every day life and establishes a relationship between the characters.

Family relationships and/or conflict

“Does she know something?”- Conflict, as characters are scared their secrets may come out and create problems “I know you’re dirty little secret”

Like father like son- Family- Hartley This shows the common idea held by society that family are all the same, and that children are copies of their parents. This can either be taken positively or negatively by the audience who agree or disagree with the statement, which causes a reaction within the viewers.

Focus on working class communities

Stacey working at a stall

Class- working class- audience can personally identify with these characters - Katz

“Multi-Stranded Narrative”

Girl and Guy in love The cheating couple

Hartley- Gender- a battle of the sexes as sides are taken.

‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)

Secret And the oncoming fight

KATZ-Diversion? And to ‘entertain’ - John Reith

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Trailer 2) What is the Focus of this trailer?

Death---Adultery---Hate ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Code &

Convention

Evidence

(Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical)

Impact on the Audience

(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)

Romance

The maid and Max share a look at the elevator – Non-verbal – facial expressions.

‘Diversion’- Katz- an affair though normal in everyday life is much more exaggerated in soaps with it becoming more dramatical and more serious to enhance the entertainment factor.

Family relationships and/or conflict

The Womans nails digging into the table at the morgue- showing hate to max – Non verbal - Conflict

‘Personal relationship’- Katz- the audience will chose a character to back up- perhaps Max or the woman and the physical actions aid the audience in their thoughts on their characters.

Focus on working class communities

Security guy Audience can ‘Personally identify’ with these characters- Katz

“Multi-Stranded Narrative”

Max- Judgment day- the trailer shows the different views on max by different characters.

More ‘informative’ (Katz) of all the characters views and the audience can make a good decision on whose side their own and will often create a ‘personal relationship’ (Katz) with them or at least become their caregiver.

‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)

Morgue setting – a death?

Katz- to divert people from their day to day life by adding a bit of suspense and mystery that doesn’t occur often from them.

Multi-stranded narrative A Multi-stranded narrativecan be defined as….. Telling a story from more than one persons point of view Telling multiple stories, about multiple characters in an open narrative episode.

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You MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastendersand identify where the following elements are presented to the audience:

Multi-stranded narrative Family relationships and/or conflict Focus on working class communities ‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Romance

You SHOULD write down x1-2 examples for EACH of the elements above that are presented. Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience

Multi-stranded narrative

Fast paced cuts Similar setting Alice-> in love

‘Personally identify’- Katz, with our lives being filled with many issues, not just one big focus. Also the being in love aspect is also very big because the audience must of all been through something similar.

Family relationships and/or conflict

“special little girl” “meaning to call you” –Jack “stop pretending you care”- Sharon

‘Personally identify’, especially with the 1st comment, since it is a very cliché phrase used by fathers.

Focus on working class communities

Waitress Accent “got a make a livin” market scenes Ambient diegetic music-trains

‘Personally identify’- the target audience is the working class communities so the portrayal of theses characters will make the audience close to them and perhaps make them caregivers as they develop close relationships with these characters.

Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)

“she’s staying with me”- father preparing to fight for his daughter.

‘Personal relationship’-Katz

Romance

“I really thought he liked me”- Alice Alice+Mike Maz+Tanya Jack+Sharon

Diversion – Katz, the audience members are diverted from their normal day life to focus on the petty problems of a girl who made a mistake and assumed that he loved her, which I’m sure many of the female audiences

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might even personally identify with.

Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 3 Textual Analysis According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the Soap Opera genre tends to focus on: “…The home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman and as such it has long been said to appeal to the female view.”

1) – Do you agree? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY(First 5 minutes)

You MUST deconstruct the opening 5 minutes of a sequence from the popular ITV Soap Opera Coronation Street (1960 – Present) to identify examples of where this ideology is presented to the target audience. You SHOULD also try and identify, to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the genre, any Codes & Conventions associated to the Soap Opera genre.

Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience

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Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology: 1. Home: Openingscene focuses on houses of the characters, making it clear that the setting of the scenes will most likely be inside or around someone’s home. 2.Family; Mum, father and son partaking in a familial activity; the dropping off of the son to school, and giving the lunch when they have forgotten it, 3. Domestic tribulations: Issue of going to work when a loved one is ill, but knowing that a living has to be made. 4.Strog women; Red coat- Hayley- resilient and strong/independent, also the mother who gives her so the forgotten lunch is almost seen as the provider or the dominant one, in opposition (Levi Strauss) to the alpha male figure the father is meant to be, considering she is the only one who seems to be remembering the important things.

Multi-stranded narrative

Story between the family of 3 Story of Max +Tanya’s family The guy in shop who is seeing ghosts

Hartley- ‘Family’- ‘Personally identify’ (Katz) as all audience members will have family problems.

Family relationships and/or conflict

Some sort of conflict between the father ( fromfam of 3) and an outsider who knows more than he wife.

‘Diversion’- Too many problems occur at once in the soap operas which will divert the audience members

Focus on working class communities

People working in a shop Accents

The local accents give away a sense of unity and community - Hartley

Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)

Hayley is Asked to spy on someone, and feels it is immoral and could cause problems

‘Diversion’ – Very different to normal life- spying on other characters is not a norm.

Romance

Mum and Dad Everyday life- a happiness that people expect when associated to romance- ‘Family’-Hartley.

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Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4 Textual Analysis

1) What is the purpose of a trailer?

Promote and advertise a new series or season before its release to inform the audience on what it is about, without giving too much away. It generates interest by showing the plot points and having a point of call on display.

2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?

To be able to access a large group of viewers/Mass audience New e-media-> allows viewers to gain information in different formats- in whatever format they prefer. Ultimately, some form of Convergence is important when promoting a text to the target audience

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Textual Analysis –

You MUSTmake notes on the following areas when deconstructing this sequence from Coronation Street:

Multi-stranded narrative Character dilemmas ‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)

Good luck-Repetition “this is my lucky day”- Non diegetic lyrics

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Friday the 13th – ironic as is the opposite of a lucky day Cake makers facial expressions ( Non-verbal ) denotes her unhappiness over this wedding, which may imply that there is something wrong with them getting married. Close ups of cake decoration show perfection Crossed fingers non-verbal code for luck Becky getting prepared on self for wedding showing that perhaps no one supports her or this wedding. Marriage Personal identification with members of the audience. Multi-stranded narrative tension between Steve’s mum and a young boy Jason

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od

The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.

1. What are the connotations of the Ident for the popular Channel Four Teen Soap Opera Hollyoaks(1995 – Present)?

It is aimed at both genders with pink representing girls ad blue representing boys, the symbols also represent how both genders will be in this show or how both may be inclined to watch this show. Also if looking at the word Hollyoaks it can be split in to 2, Holly- a girl’s name, and Oak- a relatively manly name.

Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4

2. You MUSTmake notes on the following areas when deconstructing this sequence from Hollyoaks:

Binary opposition of the non-diegetic music Symbolism of the non-verbal code of the tear Representation of Pregnancy Any other examples that would impact the audience

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Baby Bump Fake as is too big, as if the marriage is fake. Black tear Makeup is fake, too much , Black dress represents death/ funeral – “Betray” Broken doll Threat to the baby/ Prediction of future “Nice day for a white wedding” Dying flowers

Production Work

1) What is the role of a Producer? Oversee pre-production, production and post-production Manage everyone and ensure everything is in place.

2) What is the role of a Director? Oversee the creative aspects of the production, direct people in front and behind the camera.

3) Institution research – You MUSTresearch the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on. Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.

Broadcast on free view

Starts of new shows e.g. Eastenders

9ths Feb 2003 launch Stuart Murphy