Research into Preliminary Task

Soap trailers, or previews, are short advertisements designed to entice viewers to see the programme. They usually run between 1-2 minutes, and the companies that produce them are very good at compressing a great deal of information into a short time. We may also be able to see through them to broader social and cultural realities. Looking at the deeper message the creators try to portray. They are intended to evoke a response, make you feel emotions, enticing you as the audience.
Though very short, trailers still deliver a basic drama describing the characters are, the obstacles they face and their development between the start and the end. In a trailer the presences or return of a certain actor, could lure the audience. Eastenders use this technique



I searched this on Youtube, it has similarities to what we want to achieve in our preliminary task. Minimal use of characters and props, however it has good editing, with fades, straight cuts, close-ups and black and white footage. We believe it would be a great starting point for us since we are not familiar with the editing software.
There is a faint background track playing, the beat starts slowly then increases in tempo as the tension increases. The music stops for intervals for her counting down, as she counts, she applies make-up and get dressed into bright colours. The clothes and colours she wears, do not conform to the stereotype of her age, showing her personality. There are similarities between this trailer and the beginning scene of 'Legally blonde,' creators could have faintly based this trailer on Legally blonde, because of likeness between Sam Mitchell and Reese Witherspoons' character. They try to target the audience who would be interested in Sam's return, as the audience that would watch Legally blonde.
Her counting resembles that of the game 'hide n seek' she follows on with the well-known slogan 'ready or not, here I come.' Implying that her intension is to conquer the square and will crush any obstacles, her overconfident attitude is flaunted. Her character is portrayed as a craver for excitement and doesn't frighten easily as well as being headstrong and streetwise. She does not conform to the stereotypical East London women, who is determined to be famed, her appearance is bold and over-the-top she seeks to make it clear that she revels in attention.
The straight-cuts to the black and white scenes, accentuate her further when they cut back to her, with the contrast of colours. Meanwhile, a voice over takes over to provoke you further into watching it, encouraging the audience by saying 'is the square big enough for another Mitchell?' The slogan gives a brief background knowledge of the family, but the rhetorical question plays on the audiences mind involving them on a personal level. This aspect is usually incorporated in a good trailer, audience connection is imperative. A well-known soap like this does not need to prolong its title ending the clip because the audience would have realise from the hype in the media.

Brain storming for Preliminary & Main Tasks

This year I am working alongside Rebecca Smith, a fellow pupil from Wilmington Girls Grammar. Together we have successfully brain stormed some ideas for our main task, however decided to part take in a preliminary task as practice. The preliminary task will be important in order to familiarise ourselves with the apparatus. We would like to use all the equipment to the best of its ability when filming our final piece, so a preliminary task is vital. We have made a spider diagram to visually compile our ideas, and point us in the right direction.
I am going to research existing soap opera adverts, in order to gain valuable conventions from them. However we have not decided the main plot to base our coursework on, I am hoping to gain some ideas through watching other soaps interesting features. As I was considering the plots, I was aware that some plots have been over-used and exhausted. However no such thing as an original plot so I have concluded to do something that's been done before; just with my own twist.

Choosen Brief

OCR brief I will produce:

A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:
* Home page for the film
* A poster for the soap
* A listings magazine front cover featuring the new soap.

Produce a viral marketing campaign for a new soap, aiming to attract an audience primarily through social networking sites and YouTube. The trailer and the website will be the primary marketing tools to be disseminated via the internet. The poser and magazine cover will be the secondary phase, adopting mainstream ‘above- and below-the-line’ marketing techniques after the viral marketing campaign has secured media interest.
(OCR Media studies for A2, Advanced portfolio page 21)