Locations:
-Offices (central meeting point)
- Pub
- Car park
- Reception
- Kitchen (staff room)
- Car (travelling to and from work)
- Houses/homes
-Tube?
Target Audience:
-Middle/working class
- Unemployed, entrepreneurs, business minded people
- People of all ethnicity's
Main Characters:
1. Women in charge (boss).
-Very loud and powerful
2. Boss PA (personal assistant)
-Timid, quiet, keeps everything calm
- Gay, 'in the closet'
3. New girl.
- Attractive and flirtatious
- Lesbian
- Intern, training
4. Sexy man (tall, dark, handsome)
- 'normal' with a very peculiar laugh.
- Takes medication for mental condition (eg. ADHD)
5. Care taker
-'Stoner'
- Very slow and not very intelligent
- High most of the time
6. Tramp in the car park????
- Although in society he would be seen as a minor, we could make him someone who gives advice or something? so maybe he could be the philosophical one like the conscience of the cast because i think we need a kind of 'serious' character' since most the cast are eccentric in their personality. (aslihan) any comments?
These are some more rough ideas about our soap. We must refine them and be more specific of characteristics and whether or not there'll be enough realism. Once we've collected all our research we can then going through things in finer detail.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Reasearch. by Zoe
The first thing you will evidently notice is that technology was not great back then.
-Seeing eastenders in large writing posted aside a lorry doesn't do much noq days of getting a message across. The point there trying to make is that the bigger the better.
-It shown in real life too, its not generated in a studio so it enforces realism. It convinces viewers that what they view in the trailer is real and what they'll view when they tune in to the programme will be real.
- Todays society is extremely competitive as now there's moving images on the side of buildings.
- The drumming is a crucial element to the films marketing strategy. This proves that simplicity is key. It creates enough dramatic tension with contrast to the simple wording the trailer doesn't come across as too intimidating/'in-your-face'.
-The bus is a trademark of london and nothing more needs to be shown to establish a location. Although as London is extremely divers more needs to be shown to create an essence of the show.
- I like its simplistic structure (too short some would say). The bus is symbolic to London and i thnk we can include symbolic clues and metaphors (in simplistic forms) to convey complex messages to our audience. But possible not as vague but give enough clues to viewers to allow them to see what they want but still appealing to large audience.
What do you guys think?
An idea i just came up with was to include recognisable art work from around london such as Banksy work. A famous street artist (graffiti artist) that in recent years has become quite known and featuring some of his work in the office as indications of the lifestyle were trying to encompass. The image below is a Banksy, it's named 'Welcome to London' and holds a lot of symbology about London today.
Thats a great idea, it would be really good if we use subtle props to show how recent the soap is. i have art book of banksy maybe if we cant get the picture on the wall we can use the book. Aslihan.
Group Meeting
During our discussions today we realisedthe pressure on. For thursday all reasearch should be complete.
Me, Zoe - Locations and mise-en-scene.
Look at The L Word and Home and Away
Aya - Characters
Looking at Emmerdale and Dirty Sexy Money
Aslihan - Camera movements and sound
Looking at Neighbours and Dirty Sexy Money
Serhan - Storylines and dialogue
Looking at Coronation Street and The Office
And everyone must complete their questionnaires.
Also look at articles and reviews of your selected soaps or dramas.
Me, Zoe - Locations and mise-en-scene.
Look at The L Word and Home and Away
Aya - Characters
Looking at Emmerdale and Dirty Sexy Money
Aslihan - Camera movements and sound
Looking at Neighbours and Dirty Sexy Money
Serhan - Storylines and dialogue
Looking at Coronation Street and The Office
And everyone must complete their questionnaires.
Also look at articles and reviews of your selected soaps or dramas.
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Title sequence analysis-Eastenders
A close up of the river Thames is the establishing shot chosen, for the Eastenders title sequence. Producers have chosen this as the establishing shot to immediately make the audience aware of Eastenders setting. Drum roles accompany the establishing shot. This is a similar drum role as that which introduces long awaited results. By doing this, the viewers get the impression that several people are eagerly waiting to se the latest developments in the soap. The establishing shot being of the river Thames is relevant because of the connotations it resembles. Rivers can cannotate happy memories as well as bad ones.
Furthermore, lakes can also resemble secrets as no one knows as no one knows what may be deep down in the water. All of these are connotations relevant to the soap. This is because the soap includes both good and bad narratives as well as good and bad storylines and secrets which continue throughout the soap for years. An example of this type of narrative is Zoë Slater finding out that Kat Slater is her mother, when for several years she had thought they were sisters.
Furthermore, lakes can also resemble secrets as no one knows as no one knows what may be deep down in the water. All of these are connotations relevant to the soap. This is because the soap includes both good and bad narratives as well as good and bad storylines and secrets which continue throughout the soap for years. An example of this type of narrative is Zoë Slater finding out that Kat Slater is her mother, when for several years she had thought they were sisters.The camera then gives a wider view and gradually shows a bird’s eye view of the east end of London. Again this emphasises where Eastenders is set’ east end of London. A birds eye view of
the setting allows us to see all the houses and landmarks. Choosing this particular view and dominating most of the title sequence can indicate that regular viewers will be aware of the entire goings on, as someone looking down can see much more than anyone else. It can also be argued that this view can mean that viewers will have more knowledge of events than the characters themselves. The viewer is made aware. A number of musical instruments are present in the title sequence. This includes the drums and piano. By using instruments associated with toughness (drums), and others associated with softness (piano), we are given hints about the soap. Such as the existence of both feminine and masculine characters. We can also tell from this that there is a mixture of tough characters and cowardice ones. This is true as Phil is a tough character in the soap whereas Billy is a coward character.
Throughout the title sequence the river Thames moves in a circular motion across the screen before stopping in the centre. Possibly, to remind viewers that by watching they will see how the narrative turns out to be .From the bird’s eye view we can see dark black areas that are bright in colour. By showing this viewers can tell that there are both positive and negative storylines in the soap.
We do not see a lot of the landscape and are gradually introduced to more of the setting until we eventually see all of it, is important. This could be a message to viewers that by watching the soap for longer things will become more clear, just like viewer have found out the setting of Eastenders through watching the title sequence.
Group effort done by Aya El-fouani
Eastenders trailer analysis (Aya)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1_Y7dD8EpA
I found that this particular Eastenders trailer was an interesting one to analyse, due to the fact that it does not contain any central meeting points or shots of the soap. This particular trailer focuses on the narrative of Archie and Peggy consists only of them and is contructed almost like a movie trailer, in the sense that it features use of non-diagetic music and lighting. In analysing this trailer i found......
-The first establishing shot is a backwarrd shot of peggy wearing a white dress at her dressing table.The fact that underneath her is white and the ceiling above her is pitch black can indicate that her past was liberal, positive and happy, whearease the only thing ahead of her now is negativity. And as she is preparing to marry Archie (a control freak), the audeince immediately infer that her future him will not be a good one.Adding to tis that amongst the pitch black there is a red dot, we (the veiwer) immediately know that Peggy is in danger of being completely and utterly under his control.
-A two shot is also used whilst Peggy is content looking and putting on perfume. The character positions communicate to the audeince that Peggy is under Archie's control and vulnerable when compared to his superior character. Archie is standing up with his head held high Whilst Peggy is sitting down.
-The trailer uses non-diagetic music right from the start. The music sounding almost like twinkiling to make Peggy appear almost angelic, soft and vulnerable. The idea of portraying Peggy as an angel is a good one because it also shows her to be under the control of a greaer force. Angels take orders from above and Peggy too is taking orders from Archie.
-A low shot is used to look up at Archie, which again further emphasises his superiority. This also however, raises narrative enigmas. This is because the audeince begin to feel that Peggy is under threat and question future events and how wether or not she will retaliate.
- We later see a robot arm ,which gives the idea that she's being re-created oto suit Archie; just the same as an object is made- shes totally under his control. Archie moving his fingers to unravel Peggy's dress makes this obviose.
-Peggy is shown to be a doll and appeares completely emmotionless as Archie putts a strap like knechlace on her kneck.This shows that she fragile, weak and under his mercy.
-The soap trailer uses classical ways to portray Archie as bad and Peggy as good. This includes her being in white and him in black, and her being happy then becoming sad then eventually emmotionless as she approaches him.
-By the end of the trailer the audeince feel a great deal of sympathy for Peggy as she is the one shown to be exploited and vulnerable. So when the narrative voice at the end and the close-up shot of Peggy's eyebull indicate that she is going to fight back the audeince are bound to want to watch and be hooked. Not only this but the narrative voice posses a question to the veiwer which they can only answer through watching it; 'he's got Peggy under his control but for how much longer?'
Posted by Aya
I found that this particular Eastenders trailer was an interesting one to analyse, due to the fact that it does not contain any central meeting points or shots of the soap. This particular trailer focuses on the narrative of Archie and Peggy consists only of them and is contructed almost like a movie trailer, in the sense that it features use of non-diagetic music and lighting. In analysing this trailer i found......
-The first establishing shot is a backwarrd shot of peggy wearing a white dress at her dressing table.The fact that underneath her is white and the ceiling above her is pitch black can indicate that her past was liberal, positive and happy, whearease the only thing ahead of her now is negativity. And as she is preparing to marry Archie (a control freak), the audeince immediately infer that her future him will not be a good one.Adding to tis that amongst the pitch black there is a red dot, we (the veiwer) immediately know that Peggy is in danger of being completely and utterly under his control.
-A two shot is also used whilst Peggy is content looking and putting on perfume. The character positions communicate to the audeince that Peggy is under Archie's control and vulnerable when compared to his superior character. Archie is standing up with his head held high Whilst Peggy is sitting down.
-The trailer uses non-diagetic music right from the start. The music sounding almost like twinkiling to make Peggy appear almost angelic, soft and vulnerable. The idea of portraying Peggy as an angel is a good one because it also shows her to be under the control of a greaer force. Angels take orders from above and Peggy too is taking orders from Archie.
-A low shot is used to look up at Archie, which again further emphasises his superiority. This also however, raises narrative enigmas. This is because the audeince begin to feel that Peggy is under threat and question future events and how wether or not she will retaliate.
- We later see a robot arm ,which gives the idea that she's being re-created oto suit Archie; just the same as an object is made- shes totally under his control. Archie moving his fingers to unravel Peggy's dress makes this obviose.
-Peggy is shown to be a doll and appeares completely emmotionless as Archie putts a strap like knechlace on her kneck.This shows that she fragile, weak and under his mercy.
-The soap trailer uses classical ways to portray Archie as bad and Peggy as good. This includes her being in white and him in black, and her being happy then becoming sad then eventually emmotionless as she approaches him.
-By the end of the trailer the audeince feel a great deal of sympathy for Peggy as she is the one shown to be exploited and vulnerable. So when the narrative voice at the end and the close-up shot of Peggy's eyebull indicate that she is going to fight back the audeince are bound to want to watch and be hooked. Not only this but the narrative voice posses a question to the veiwer which they can only answer through watching it; 'he's got Peggy under his control but for how much longer?'
Posted by Aya
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
22/09 Group Meeting.
In lesson we looked at the conventions and forms of soaps. With this list we then (in our group) discussed possible conventions we'd like to keep, others which we'd like to develope and ones which we would discard.
Our ideas so far:
-Realism is crucial
- Ecentric characters
- 'Big Brother' soap - bizare characters in reality
- Viewing time is not crucial as with the internet and sky plus intelligent viewers can view it at any time that suits their leisure.
- Relevent to the year (eg, finacial year)
- Include more ethnic groups (possible sub titles)
- Documentary style (as similar to dramas such as desperete housewives)
- More depth than a love triangle
- 'ghetto twist'
- Keep strong narratives with gossip
- show more of a minority lifestyle within the mainstream (eg homeless people)
- Two sides of life in one location
- Have quirky camera work to appear glamorous/stylised
- Show glamorous lifestyle and reality
By next tuesday we should have a complete record of questionaires (which I, Zoe will do)
Everyone should do atleast one trailer and title sequence analysis (independently) we shall feed this back to eather either over the blogs or on Tuesday.
I hope people can begin posting pitches/treatments/general ideas about characters/storylines/storyboards etc.
If everyone posts all there ideas then i can write up a final treatment.
Our ideas so far:
-Realism is crucial
- Ecentric characters
- 'Big Brother' soap - bizare characters in reality
- Viewing time is not crucial as with the internet and sky plus intelligent viewers can view it at any time that suits their leisure.
- Relevent to the year (eg, finacial year)
- Include more ethnic groups (possible sub titles)
- Documentary style (as similar to dramas such as desperete housewives)
- More depth than a love triangle
- 'ghetto twist'
- Keep strong narratives with gossip
- show more of a minority lifestyle within the mainstream (eg homeless people)
- Two sides of life in one location
- Have quirky camera work to appear glamorous/stylised
- Show glamorous lifestyle and reality
By next tuesday we should have a complete record of questionaires (which I, Zoe will do)
Everyone should do atleast one trailer and title sequence analysis (independently) we shall feed this back to eather either over the blogs or on Tuesday.
I hope people can begin posting pitches/treatments/general ideas about characters/storylines/storyboards etc.
If everyone posts all there ideas then i can write up a final treatment.
Monday, 21 September 2009
Hollyoaks research (Aya)
In order to get a wider understanding of how soaps are constructed and have some ideas as well as a starting point for our soap idea, i thought it would be a good idea to research Hollyoaks. Through researching Hollyoaks i took into consideration the fact that it differs from other soaps. And as we too wanted to create a unique soap Hollyoaks would give us an insight into how to create a 'unique' soap which differes from others, whilst at the sametime attracting it;s target audeince and being succesful.....
*Majority of characters are young students as the soap is based on student life. Other soap's such as Eastenders or Coronation street contain characters from a vareity of different ages. Such as Dot who is an old character and Ben a young one. Hollyoaks was created by Phil Redmond, who also created 'Grange Hill' and 'Brookside', so this could be the reason behind the soaps emphasis on young charcters.
*There isn't really any old age characters such as other soaps and the majority of soaps are good looking. This is also further emphasised in the soaps yearly calenders which uses the charcters appearnce as it's main selling point. This also highlights another reason for Hollyoaks differeing from other soaps; it has many spin off for the show.
*Hollyoaks also includes a lot of non diagetic music to accompany episodes. Although soaps such as Eastenders have began to introduce this too, very lightly, Hollyoaks remains to be the soap which uses this particular type of music the most.
*Although Hollyoiaks does have a soap for a central meeting point like other more traditional soaps, such as 'Coronation Street', 'Eastenders', 'Emmerdale'. However it differes from other soaps because it also includes a university pub and Hollyoaks college as it's central meeting point.
Posted by Aya
*Majority of characters are young students as the soap is based on student life. Other soap's such as Eastenders or Coronation street contain characters from a vareity of different ages. Such as Dot who is an old character and Ben a young one. Hollyoaks was created by Phil Redmond, who also created 'Grange Hill' and 'Brookside', so this could be the reason behind the soaps emphasis on young charcters.
*There isn't really any old age characters such as other soaps and the majority of soaps are good looking. This is also further emphasised in the soaps yearly calenders which uses the charcters appearnce as it's main selling point. This also highlights another reason for Hollyoaks differeing from other soaps; it has many spin off for the show.
*Hollyoaks also includes a lot of non diagetic music to accompany episodes. Although soaps such as Eastenders have began to introduce this too, very lightly, Hollyoaks remains to be the soap which uses this particular type of music the most.
*Although Hollyoiaks does have a soap for a central meeting point like other more traditional soaps, such as 'Coronation Street', 'Eastenders', 'Emmerdale'. However it differes from other soaps because it also includes a university pub and Hollyoaks college as it's central meeting point.
Posted by Aya
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Questionnaire example - Primary Research
Sex
Age
Occupation
Social Class
List the soaps you watch
What's your favourite?
Which soap would you think is the most successful?
Why do you think this is?
What do you think of the soap?
Would you say it is realistic?
State what you think is unrealistic about it
Whos' your favourite character generally?
Why is this?
What storylines would you like to see more of?
Is there anything you would like to see more of?
Is there anything missing from your favourite soap that you would like to see?
Would you watch a soap that has a strong reality element? (eg. real scenarios based around the reccession)
Is there any part of reality you wouldnt like to see in soaps?
What would you relate to most in soaps?
When would you sit down to watch these soaps?
.
This is the questionnaire we are using to determine who the target audience is, and what sort of pitch we would like according to the information we receive.
Age
Occupation
Social Class
List the soaps you watch
What's your favourite?
Which soap would you think is the most successful?
Why do you think this is?
What do you think of the soap?
Would you say it is realistic?
State what you think is unrealistic about it
Whos' your favourite character generally?
Why is this?
What storylines would you like to see more of?
Is there anything you would like to see more of?
Is there anything missing from your favourite soap that you would like to see?
Would you watch a soap that has a strong reality element? (eg. real scenarios based around the reccession)
Is there any part of reality you wouldnt like to see in soaps?
What would you relate to most in soaps?
When would you sit down to watch these soaps?
.
This is the questionnaire we are using to determine who the target audience is, and what sort of pitch we would like according to the information we receive.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Contact info.
My email
Zoechristo@hotmail.co.uk
You can e-mail me whenever, i'm certain to reply in the next 24 hours.
=]
Zoechristo@hotmail.co.uk
You can e-mail me whenever, i'm certain to reply in the next 24 hours.
=]
First group meeting.
Me and Serhan were the only ones present for the first meeting. Serhan voluntered to tell the rest of the group of what we must complete by next week.
I took minutes for the meeting and it was my responsibility to create the group blog in which we shall post all relevent information, to help monitor our progress and to aid us in what we have and have not done yet.
For this project there are 5 main stages we must undertake. Stage 1 is the research element. Me and Serhan discussed that we shall all do our independent research and then feedback with potential ideas of what direction we want to take this project.
- We must first exchange contact details so we are all easily up dated with the project, so we can begin arranging meetings and for general discussions.
- We should independently research the different styles of soap opera's
- What styles, themes, techniques or generally anything you found interesting would you like to include or think about including in our project.
- You can also think about characters (characterization), locations, lifestyles, mise-en-scene, social class, ethnic groups.
- Have a breif idea about your target audience
- Watch the News, think about relevent (political) issues of today that you may want to include in the project.
Think about all these things, take notes as we will all deliberate to each other next week.
*Next week we are going to get a final idea of what soap we want to do so we know what to base our project on. From then on we will continue doing research about soaps with our basic idea in mind.
Me and Serhan brainstormed two breif ideas we shall introduce these to the group next week.
I took minutes for the meeting and it was my responsibility to create the group blog in which we shall post all relevent information, to help monitor our progress and to aid us in what we have and have not done yet.
For this project there are 5 main stages we must undertake. Stage 1 is the research element. Me and Serhan discussed that we shall all do our independent research and then feedback with potential ideas of what direction we want to take this project.
- We must first exchange contact details so we are all easily up dated with the project, so we can begin arranging meetings and for general discussions.
- We should independently research the different styles of soap opera's
- What styles, themes, techniques or generally anything you found interesting would you like to include or think about including in our project.
- You can also think about characters (characterization), locations, lifestyles, mise-en-scene, social class, ethnic groups.
- Have a breif idea about your target audience
- Watch the News, think about relevent (political) issues of today that you may want to include in the project.
Think about all these things, take notes as we will all deliberate to each other next week.
*Next week we are going to get a final idea of what soap we want to do so we know what to base our project on. From then on we will continue doing research about soaps with our basic idea in mind.
Me and Serhan brainstormed two breif ideas we shall introduce these to the group next week.
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