Evaluation Question One

1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Our extract of Oakfield conforms with the stereotypical soap operas.
"Soap Opera" the label connotes a domestic setting, and the contrast with the epic and melodramatic forms of high cultural 'products', Opera. Is the name "Soap Opera" significant in any way?

Codes and Conventions are the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used by the media to convey a desired impression. Codes include the special devices of an individual media, such as camera angles, lighting, special effects. Conventions are the typical plot elements including conflicts and resolutions of a particular medium.

Signs of the Soap. Importance of the face-on close up, and of the intimacy achieved by domestic camera. Also note the importance of cuts between shots. Trying to notice any other "signs" which often lead us to know that we are watching a "soap", rather than a different kind of programme. What, for example, is significant about the use of music in certain soaps? And how relevant is it that 'soaps' are often made on a limited and strictly controlled budget?

Are these elements in Oakfield conventional? i.e. they happen in all soaps, or that they are specific to Oakfield.

• Soap Opera trailers are built and design around the Soap Operas plot/storyline and often the audio narrates, since the acting is a mixture of different shots on different day, it would be a task for the viewers to keep up, and possibly portraying different messages to different people.
Although there are moments which are obvious like, the scene where Simon is lead by the preying Rebecca.



Rebecca and Simon's restaurant to bedroom scene--
This shot is subtle yet implies the same message. Meaning this trailer can be advertised all hours of the day, since it doesn't hold a age restriction, like some trailers do. Using Premiere enabled us to discovered effects that would enhance our video to the maximum. There set of footage we cut down to make a quick easy to watch piece.


Taking the above into account I think our product is extremely realistic, knowing we attempted to stay to the conventions of existing soap operas as much as possible. We have, like all soap adverts, used the same character throughout all of our media products. Its becoming believable after all our amazing feedback, I can't believe WE HAVE DONE IT!!!!!
• Referring back to the question: Our depth has challenge but conformed to the real media of today's society, its an ever changing we battled to keep up and on-top of schedule. Looking back now, I feel we should have focused more on the quality of the footage, although it hasn't deeply affected the professionalism of our trailer.
Although I feel that our media products are similar to existing ones the main difference is that we have drawn inspiration from older soap adverts, that do not feature special effects but instead lifts clips from the actual soap. Although a modern soap opera advert would have been extremely enjoyable to film, it would not be possible for us to use special effects to the standard that existing products used and therefore may have looked unrealistic.

We used title credits, just like in existing soaps. Displaying the one word name of the soap (which came to me off the top of my head!) which flashes up at the end. We displayed our title credits over the ending of the sequence which is a development on existing adverts as it usually comes up on a separate plain background. We chose to display our credits over the top of our end sequence to heighten the suspense for the viewer.
We had problems staying to the conventions of a soap poster as we found it difficult to find any existing soap advert posters. We therefore had to create our own idea and therefore went for a comic element.
Although I feel that our media products are similar to existing ones the main difference is that we have drawn inspiration from older soap adverts, that do not feature special effects but instead lifts clips from the actual soap. Although a modern soap opera advert would have been extremely enjoyable to film, it would not be possible for us to use special effects to the standard that existing products used and therefore may have looked unrealistic.

We used title credits, just like in existing soaps. Displaying 'Oakfield' which flashes up at the end. We displayed our title credits over the ending of the sequence which is a development on existing adverts as it usually comes up on a separate plain background. We chose to display our credits over the top of our end sequence to heighten the suspense for the viewer.


here is an extract I have been meaning to find, finally downloaded, i think its a lot like our trailer. i understand its a movie trailer yet it has familiar characteristic, aspects & plot to ours. its not worth comparing since movie trailers have again different conventions and we dont want to confuse ourself. Yet there are any advantages to looking into a different medium to get other perspectives.

Evaluation Question Two

2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our main product was a Soap Opera trailer, and our ancillary tasks, which had to be produced to an equally high standard as the main task, there were a Poster, and a magazine front cover. All correlated with each other as we have chosen to use the same storyline throughout. Featuring the same storyline throughout all three tasks meant using all the same characters, wearing similar sorts of clothing following the same plot. We did this so that we entice and can capture the viewers perception of our storyline, and hopefully influence them to watch the soap.

The 3 tasks were to create a recognisable and realistic trailer and advertisements, as it is these advertisements which are used to promote the soap opera and capture the target audience. Our target audience being strung in at all ages, since the poster doesn't give of too much information i means all ages relate to it. Meanwhile the magazine boldly shows off that its a young girls pregnancy. Alarming the elderly bracket, although capturing their interest with a trivial question lurking above. As you may notice we used the soap name Oakfield in both the Trailer and the Poster, however not in the magazine we did this conforming to the conventions, because the main picture just has a headline, readers are familiar with these characters, or it an evolving storyline.
The narrative of our trailer is not specific, but we have portrayed it to the best of our ability. We haven't come across any limitations of viewers not grasping the concept as of yet. As you can see Rebecca plays the protagonist roles as well as main narrator, alike our preliminary task of Danielle Westbrooke. This is conventional of most existing soap trailers. If the story is only vague, and means the viewer will have to watch to find out, since the competition strife in the soap world with continuous fights to top spot.
Our story is vague but displays all the key information without giving away too much. Which is the definition of a great trailer. However usually in soap trailers there solely based on a plot, leaving no kind of interpretation Usually, music is used in trailers the narrative is amplified through the lyrics. We searched for other love/hate songs but the rhythm is in sync with her movements.
Fan base is obviously teen/young adults, from the help of Simon and Tom. The plot surrounds the story of Sarah-Louise Platt, her teenage pregnancy, covered in love/lust scandals. The drop in the music shows what her emotions are going through we immediately empathise with the character Rebecca creating a connection between viewer and character, increasing popularity and aiding there way to top spot.

We had problems staying to the conventions of a soap poster as we found it difficult to find any existing soap advert posters. We therefore had to create our own idea and therefore went for a comic element.

Evaluation Question Three

3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Gaining accurate feedback is crucial in Soap opera trailers. As soon as we had finished our video we were very eager to show other people to get their reaction and gain some constructive criticism. There is merely two different approaches, teachers and peers. Whom will there actual opinion and help towards making your project the best it can be. My teachers analysis these posts and comment there thoughts which provokes me into what path to take next, and i take on board to anything they have pointed out, and seek to improve it. There critical feedback, rip ping our work apart can only improve on it vastly. My teachers have only commented on the ancillary tasks, although Miss saw our Preliminary task although it wasn't near finished and we had a few gaps here and there, this was mainly because we ran out of footage we felt was suitable to use and knew we would have to re-film.
So these comments from our audience helped us take a lot of footage else we would still be gathering up quality footage today.










For our main task we turned to the general public, we posted our trailer on youtube, and has currently 32 hits over a few hours. We had pointers at exact timings to what add in the simplest transitions and we have taken these on-board. Initially we hadn't Incorporated enough intimate shots of Simon with Rebecca, opposed to the ones of Tom and her. There was an obvious imbalance there and it stood out so now we have lengthened and used transitions such a slow down to balance the shot, so the trailer stands biased to who the baby daddy is. It started to digress and lose its narravtive, i found that the main negative feedback.





Over the social networking sites, like Youtube and Facebook there is a newsfeed on everyones account of the most recent chats, event invitations, friend requests etc. Videos falls into this live newsfeed, as i uploaded the main trailer and ancillary tasks onto YouTube and Facebook and within minutes recieved terrmendous compliments back. Which is motivational and inspires me to look into their opinions and re-think my strategy to what the audience wants.
Below are the comments, from all different ages proving our age braket was correct in that all ages want to know and read about it. ->



• I believe if we didnt have the set back of losing our mock-up then, we would of had time to produce a questionaire to post to everyone from facebook members to members of our families, that way we would have got more feedback on a larger scale. Because theres no limit to the extent of your feedback.

Evaluation Question Four

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This is my second year using blogger, I think its a vital in taking A2 media, although I don't feel my skills have developed in this area. Since the standards are so high and and my world as a teenagers revolves around technologies such as the Internet and social networking sites, it is more effective and theres no limit.

Our two media teachers introduced us to Adobe Premiere, which was installed for our purpose to edit and create our video. Rebecca and I, used our Preliminary task to familiarise ourselves with the tools on the programme. I had been warned Premiere can be temperamental and has difficulty rendering, so we were anxious to use it. Although when you play around with different shots, I found I was impressed and shocked that I could do such things on school computers. It enabled us to overlay footage, slow down and speed up shots, change the hue and saturation to improve the quality and add text at the ending of the video to make it seem even more professional. I was overwhelmed that I was using a programme which renowned in the industry, it motivated me further to attempt to make something dead professional.
Fortunately we installed it into the schools system although if we hadn't had this software our trailer wouldn't be half as realistic. The cross dissolves, fades and saturation's all are major aspects of our trailer which we needed to make our trailer adequate.

We used Photoshop CS4 to create our two ancillary tasks, its not available on the schools computers, but i have it installed on my home computer form last year. It was great fun and an ease to create, as the layers just simply were created individually over lapping the different bases we compiled. Again with Photoshop I was wary, as i thought of its reputation being to extinguish blemishes from models and remove unwanted skin etc. My opinion soon changed and i enjoyed using the programme.

In terms of recording our research, evaluation, construction and planning stages we were told in the brief that we had to use a blogger.com. I immediatly sign in to my existing account and proceeded to create a new Blog, 6 month later and it almost done. I was familiar with blogger already & in my AS blog i mentioned that this year i would continue, loyal to blogger. Over all it is an easier solution to recording our work being faster, a lot safer than a folder that can get lost or damaged.
Photoshop CS4 was used to create both of our ancillary tasks. We worked with Photoshop as we could edit photos with ease on Photoshop. This is the second year i have used photoshop for my media, and not once had a problem or malfunction with the programme.

> An example being our Magazine poster.
Firstly we added layers which replaced the photo on the base. Through transparency levels I got carried away and introduced an actual eye to the background of the logo, Photoshop helped us in creating and manipulating the images added a unique selling point to our magazine.

Media technologies in the A2 course are essential, creating our products would not of been possible without them.
From watching all the previous adverts on YouTube, Googling the history of Soap and using Facebook to gain inspiration from my friends it has aided us to an amazing extent.

Taking into account the main negative about the technology used was the video cameras that we recorded our advert with. During the feedback stages a lot of people commented on the sometimes grainy quality of the film.
Below shows a clip I found on YouTube at the start of this process, not being conformable with my skills in premiere. This advice, educate me out of school hours.

Audience Feedback

The overall feedback was mainly positive, editing and the camera angles seemed well received and the storyline was easy to understand, since its a common issue yet not televised. Common feedback is that its has great transitions, especially between shots which result in the Rebeccas monologue. Another effect which the people complimented was the slowing down effect used on the clip featuring Rebecca and Tom on the bench. Many people said that they thought the video was professional and looked like a real soap opera trailer. Some people liked how the storyline and editing reflected in the Wanted Poster, because it was an magnetic and unique. Another comment from the audience was that they liked the way the music pauses as Rebecca confesses, they complimented us as producers for the way we filmed and edited as it fit the music perfectly.

There were a few negative comments, constructive criticism if you like, about the quality of the footage, that it didn't seem as clear in comparison to the other videos. Although we couldn't come to conclusion because we used the schools camcorder, which another student used before hand. Although we have taken the comment on board and will seek to improve the quality.
But however these comments varied, yet the target hit on the right audience, most age brackets, all viewers were intrigued.