Reflection on Focus Group

As a group we decided on completing the final focus group. However, although this was more successful than our pilot focus group, it still didn't benefit us as much as we had hoped it would.
Our group consisted of 5 people aged between 17 and 18. They were of both genders (3 girls and 2 boys). We decided on this age group as it is our primary target audience. we started off by reading out our pitch to them, then followed by our treatment, and a rough outline of our trailer and website.

Here are the questions we asked and the most common answers:

1. Does the different approach we have, in terms of the trailer being based on one individual character and storyline, affect your perception of our soap?- no, it makes you want to watch it more, it wont confuse the audience
2. Does the trailer sound like a typical soap opera trailer, would you be inclined to watch this soap over another, already existing trailer?- it sounds more like a drama
3. With the time of the soap being 8pm, Tuesday to Thursday, would you watch this?- yes
4. How does the fact that we have a huge storyline in our first episode affect you?- it gets straight to the point
5. Are there any other comments regarding our soap?- no

After we had asked them the questions as a group we had a quick meeting to discuss how successful we think it went. The responses we received didn't benefit us as much as we thought and we have decided to re-do the exercise later on with different group of people.

My Photoshop Practice

I decided to pick one of the pictures we took, and attempt on using photoshop. i experimented with different styles of font and colour.
Im going to use my skills i have gained to help me with designing my own TV guide cover. I like the idea of it being black and white with the red lips and jacket being highlighted; we wore red clothing because it symbolised danger and it also showed us to be on one side.

Magazine ideas

On our first filming day, we took a number of photo ideas for our magazine.

-I used phtoshop to make some of them black and white to experiment on different approaches.

However, before we got used to thecold, and mastered staying in the same position for a few more seconds then we had liked we took a few pictures, which didnt prove to be as succesful.

You can see in the picture on the Left that there is a gap in between me and Natalie N, we all look fairly cold in both pictures so we decided to carry on taking more till we was all happy.

Minutes for Sixth group meeting

Discussions on General filming and ideas

Wednesday 1st December 2009

Start time: 11:00am

People present: Elena Christodoulou, Thegla Savvides and Natalie Nicolaides

• Planning ideas for our magazine covers.
• we went through all the pictures and each chose our own.
• We planned another day that we are going to meet up for filming, and we also discussed the editing process. We are planning to meet up this sunday to organise the film we have and which shots we are going to use. where then going to draw out another storyboard to make sure everything fits together perfectly and that we have enough shots for the editing stage.
• We also spoke about the music, what kind of music, theme tune we are aiming for..catchy,singing, lyrics...

Finish Time: 11:40am

My Individual analysis :)

Another thing i am challenging is the idea of taking a more formal approach with the television guide. Instead of creating one like "TV Easy" (Left) which are very basic and are sold inexpensively. I have decided to go for a more formal and realistic approach like "Radio Times" (Right).

Analysis of Radio Times magazine

-At the very top there is the website address, which is good for more information and details about the shows and competitions etc

-Below that there is the date and the price of the magazine- very formally set out

- Title stands out, bold

-Festive, front cover follows whats happening in the world (Christmas-snow)

-one main picture, covers most of the front cover, eye catching.

-Catchy Title (Who's The Doctor?) leaves audience questioning, "only in RT" persuading people to buy it to read who the doctor is.

- "exclusive previews", "Plus", "open the cover to find out who their up against.." this helps draw in more potential readers.

-Its main emphasis is on Doctor Who, it has slight advertisement of other programmes on the side but they are not very eye catching in comparison to Doctor Who.

EVALUATION

Analysing different front covers will help us to decide what we think will be the most beneficial. i like this fact that its festive, relating to contemporary seasons, i like the idea there is exclusive previews and interviews to draw in readers attentions. we can take alot from this, and help make our radio magazine cover just as succesful.

Interview Speech And Questions

During our first filming day, we filmed an interview scene where some of the cast were asked a few questions about their character.
Here are the questions that were asked:

Here today i am joined with some of the cast from the new soap 'I.V'

1. So, 'I.V' thats an unusual name for a soap, where did the idea come from?
2. So would you say that the lives of these characters get manipulated and changed throughout the outcoming episodes?
3. So, Thegla you play the character of 'Andrea', tell me about her.
4. So how would you say that 'Chloe' influences her?

A question for you all...

7. What makes your soap different to other contemporary soaps?
8.There are alot of soaps already out on tv, how are you hoping to attract the viewers fior yours?

Group Filming Day One

Sunday 15th November

Today we began filming for the episode of our soap. Due to the challenge where taking with the trailers focus on one character only, we have decided to film a snippet of the first episode and put it on the website of our soap.

Before we started filming we got together and discussed which parts of the storyline we where going to focus on, we discussed different shots and how each would fit together during editing. We shot numerous different shots from many different angles so that when we are at the editing stage we would not be limited in our choices.

We set up the scene and got the actors ready. Thegla was the main character and we also had her mother character ( my mum) in one part of the scenes.We begun filming her(Andrea) having her breakfast in the kitchen when her phone vibrates and she gets a text saying 'Are you in school today?'. We then framed the shot specifically for the audience to see her mum walk in at the back and tells her to get to school. Some of the shots we experimented with where: Zoom, close-up shots, over the shoulder shots , panning shots , wide shots, reaction shots.

Due to us finishing up filming the first part of the scene on time, with no problems we decided to film the cast interview, i was one of the characters being filmed alongside Thegla(Andrea) and Natalie N, i answered some of the questions Natalie M asked about our individual characters and about the soap in itself.

When we had finished up our filming, we quickly decided on whether the darkness outside would help benefit us with the photos for our magazine and website, we all changed into our characters outfits and went outside to practice on different angles. we took ones from high and from low, experimenting with the lighting and using the sun and the environment to our advantage.

Me practicing filming...

Natalie M and Natalie N practicing with filming.

<-- light reflector

Me organising the props, making sure they don't block the cameras view of the other props we needed in shot.

Interview set

(Natalie M- interviewer)

(Me, Thegla and Natalie N- Interviewees)

Natalie Michael at work with her interviewing skills, you can also see the way we positioned lights and the camera.

Having a laugh on set, especially when we messed up the words.

Just filling you in with where were up too so far...

So now we are organising our first filming day possible date Sunday 15th November, we have found extras and written out scripts for them just have to ensure we are all free on the same day now. We are also finishing up our Recce forms, shooting schedules and booking forms. i believe where definitly working on time and as a group where all participating equally. Excited for filming day one :)
Elena

Risk Assement

RISK ASSESMENT

Location: street/sidewalk

Hazards and Procedures

Cars/traffic:

Make sure all extras and crew are away from the road, keep an order under where people film and stand.

Bad Weather:

In case of bad weather occurring I will make sure my entire group will be under shelter to film so that they can somewhere it is dry, and so they do not slip and the equipment cannot get damaged.

Passers by damaging equipment:

Could accidentally break equipment, ensure we do not obstruct the whole pavement and keep all equipment not in use away from the sidewalk.

Location: Bedroom

Hazards and procedures

Tripping on wires:

Make sure all extras and crew are away from the wires and camera equipment when filming isn’t taking place, and ensure all wires are kept tidy and away from doorways etc.

Fire Starting

There will be a fire extinguisher on the side of the room, which everyone will be aware of, and be guided through before filming, we will also cover which way to get out of the house in case of a fire.

Location: Garden
Hazards and Procedures

Bad Weather:

In case of bad weather occurring I will make sure my entire group will be under shelter to film so that they can somewhere it is dry, and so they do not slip and the equipment cannot get damaged.

Tripping over:

Ensure all production team and extras are wearing safe clothing until filming, to prevent them slipping.

Location: Cafe
Hazards and Procedures

Fire Starting:

There will be a fire extinguisher on the side of the room, which everyone will be aware of, and be guided through before filming, we will also cover which way to get out of the house in case of a fire.

Tripping over:

Ensure all production team and extras are wearing safe clothing until filming, to prevent them slipping.
Disruption to public and Passers by damaging equipment:

Could accidentally break equipment, ensure we do not obstruct the doorways and passages and keep all equipment not in use packed away safely, also ensure we keep the noise down and only relevant amount of people present, preventing any accidents etc.

Location: Corner shop
Hazards and Procedures

Tripping over:

Ensure all production team and extras are wearing safe clothing until filming, to prevent them slipping. Ensure boxes and shop items are not obstructing any doorways or passages.

Disruption to public and Passers by damaging equipment:

Could accidentally break equipment, ensure we do not obstruct the doorways and passages and keep all equipment not in use packed away safely, also ensure we keep the noise down and only relevant amount of people present, preventing any accidents etc.

Location: Kitchen
Hazards and Procedures:

Fire Starting:

There will be a fire extinguisher on the side of the room, which everyone will be aware of, and be guided through before filming, we will also cover which way to get out of the house in case of a fire.

Tripping over:

Ensure all production team and extras are wearing safe clothing until filming, to prevent them slipping. Also ensure all wires and leads are kept in order and not running past doorways, if this is the case I will put up signs of warning.

By Elena Christodoulou

This is my final cut of the video, however there is no real storyline to it, i chose something simple like walking up streets, so i had something to edit during work experience and to simply learn all the techniques available on Avid. i did fade alot in and out of scenes, which i felt helped create this sad and dreary effect.
Enjoy :)

Untitled from Elena Christodoulou on Vimeo.

Minutes for fifth group meeting

General filming discussions

Friday 30th October 2009

Start time: 7:30pm

People present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides and Natalie Nicolaides

* We began by deciding we wanted to make a start with our TV guide magazine front cover.
* We then decided we wanted who would take on the role as the main character – we decided on Thegla.
* Next was the discussion about how we wanted the main picture on our cover to look. We decided on the victim as the main image in the foreground and the possible murderers in the background. It was settled that Natalie Michael would be the Victim and she would be dressed in white (to symbolise innocence or a coat to symbolise closure). The suspects in the background will be wearing something red to represent the danger.
* We selected a day that we would take a photo. We decided we would take these photos in school as we are going to be using photoshop to change the background of them.
* Our next main discussion was as to who would be filling out which pre-production forms we would each be completing.
* Next on the agenda were the locations we would be filming in. These included; -the house (Natalie M’s house), the cafe, a supermarket, the streets, the place where the girl bunks, a park and a kitchen.
* We finally discussed possible people who could act as the extra people.


Finish time: 8:05pm

Reflection of Pilot Group Exercise

So far i would say our group is heading up into the mid section of research of soap operas, were still analysing and discussing how we are going to challenge, use and develop conventions.

Previous to the exercise I believe we should have had a more in depth meeting to discuss and pin point what research and analysis had been completed in order to brain storm more ideas based around our individual findings.

The pilot exercise even though was not the success we expected, still successfully aided us towards the understanding of what a real focus group will be like. With this, we realised that the group of people that we are going to interview later on will not have the amount of information and understanding of our ideas and analysis than the people we practiced with had, so therefore we have decided to generalise our question leaving them the ability to expand on there ideas giving us a wider opportunity to receive as valid information as possible.

Day 5: at my Work Experience

Today i spent the whole day in my own AVID suite, i experimented with all sorts of fades and effects you can achieve on Avid.
I also searched some more music, and once i found what i liked, i made sure it was copyrighted before i ingested it into my edits.
I learnt all the short cuts on the keyboard and i learnt how to fade the music at the end.

Overall today was a great success, i also digitised another load of tapes that were sent in, it just came so easily that i felt i had been doing it for ages.

EVALUATION

My experience has definitely benefited me, i feel more at one with our contemporary media technology and i most certainly can bring back all of my knowledge to the group in more ways then one...like with editing, importance of copyright, music ingesting, tape ingesting, digitizing, different equipments jobs and importance and also more advanced things such as digibetas and betas.

Pilot focus group

Focus Groups:

This involves a small group of our target audience being analysed with the aim to produce data on the specific topic of our new TV soap that being with help on story lines and characters. They will be asked to express their opinions of elements of the soap which could affect them in some way. It allows the viewers to express what they feel is in need of improvement, after this our group can decide on whether or not these judgements are strong enough before we make a change.

We will be asking around 5-8 people aged 16-25 to be a part of the focus group, they will each be given an outline of our pitch and treatment. We will also have a few quesions discussed by the group in order to help us recieve the correct information we need to reach our best potential.

Day 4: At My Work Experience

Today I digitised a few programmes that had just come in, I was also introduced to the producers and directors of a recent programme being aired, they ran through there responsibilities and pros and cons to their work.

I spoke to an Editor of the programme, he showed me some more affects that can be used on an AVID, and so I carried on editing my practice piece.

Written Storyboard for Trailer

We have drawn our storyboard for part of our first episode (names of characters still to be decided). It will go as follows:

Scene 1

• Girl 1 in kitchen eating breakfast. She gets a text saying 'Are you in today? x'

• Her mum appears in the doorway saying 'hurry up or you are going to be late'

• Girl 1 walks out and slams the front door whilst her mum is still talking

• Girl 1 walking down the road

Scene 2

• Girlfriend and boyfriend walking down the street together talking

• close up of the girlfriend looking uneasy whilst the boyfriend is still talking to her

• close up of the boyfriend looking down at his girlfriend with a smile on his face

Scene 3

• Boy 1 cooking his breakfast, his phone rings

• He talks on the phone saying 'yeah I'm going to be late again'

Scene 4

• Girl 1 smoking in the street

• A group of girls walk past her, they say hi, one asks girl 1 for a cigarette

• She passes her one

• Girls say thanks and walk on

• Close up of girl 1 smiling

Day 3: At My Work Experience

Today I began working on my practice piece I filmed last week, I digitised it first and loaded it onto an AVID, I was then taught the basics of editing on AVID and began experimenting with all sorts of effects and themes. I never completed the editing today but I am going to carry on tomorrow.

I also researched some music, and went through some copyright Cd's they had in the office, I have selected 3-4 tracks i like and I am going extracts specific sections from each track I like and attach them along with the video to create emotion and a real affect on the audience.

EVALUATION

Today i can almost be certain that today's skills I've learnt will benefit my group, the opportunity to edit on such a powerful and expensive programme was amazing, i learnt shortcuts and all sorts of technique. i feel i could definitely use this to my advantage during the editing stage of our coursework.

Final draft of Treatment

Our soap opera will have a mixture of short and long term storylines which will all run concurrently with each other. This will allow the audience to get to know the variety of characters. Some of the less important storylines will be short term, only lasting for the period of one episode. The long-term storylines will run for perhaps two episodes with the effects of it lasting for the episodes to come. This will allow the audience to possibly connect to the characters that are having similar life events to them and may possible use the way the characters react to it to influence the way they deal with their own problems.

The characters in our soap are going to be mainly teenagers of both genders. We also hope to include the families of the teenagers and some of the teachers working at the school. The characters we are hoping to focus on include a “gossip”, a “dodgy geezer” who supplies drugs to others, a group who have parties and do not focus on school, “geeks” who focus on school work, “lower class” people who may be considered “chavs”, good-looking males who all the girls fancy and a mysterious new character who is known as an outcast to the others as they are new to the setting. They will be new only at the start but will not completely fit in as all the groups have already been formed between the characters that have been together for a longer period of time. This “new” character will be picked on and included into groups for particular reasons and then will be shut out. The main characters in the soap will change as the storyline does, one story will evolve around one group/character whilst in a different week it will change.

Our soap opera will be based in a school setting, including the classrooms, library, staff room and the playground. We will also include the homes of the characters and their local areas. The homes will be used so the audience can get an insight into the lives of the characters and the homes may also be used to hold parties. We will have a meeting place where all the characters go; this may possibly be a café. We may also include the park as many teenagers hang around in the park.

Our target audience is going to be teenagers and young adults of both genders as our characters are mainly of this age group too. By having teenagers as our target audience and as the main characters, we hope the audience will be able to connect with the characters and possibly relate their own lives to the characters. We also hope that our soap will appeal to an older group of people and that they will be attracted to the issues we will be dealing with.

As our soap is aimed at teenagers and we will have moral and educational content.
Our media product will follow the expected and unexpected elements of a soap opera. It will include all the necessary conventions of a soap opera such as narrative enigmas, a sense of realism, concurrent storylines, social representations, and a central meeting point and will deal with real life issues. Each episode will end with a big cliff-hanger and the storylines can sometimes end with smaller cliff-hangers. We will also challenge everyday conventions of soaps by having events such as a lesbian wedding, a teacher getting in trouble instead of a student and a person not fitting into a tight community.

We decided on the name I.V for our soap. This will stand for Independent Variable. We believe this fits into the nature of our soap as the definition of an independent variable is a variable that gets manipulated in order for the outcome to be different each time. The lives of the characters will get manipulated by other characters and by social factors in order for outcomes of the soap to be interesting and to keep audiences watching.


Group Effort: Written by Natalie Michael with contributions from Thegla Savvides and Elena Christodoulou

Minutes For Our Fourth Group Meeting

Discussing our Tv guide cover

Thursday 22nd October 2009

Start time: 2:10pm

People present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides and Natalie Nicolaides

• We began by drawing out a draft of how we want our cover to look.
  We planned where we wanted everything to be placed and how we wanted out title. We decided we wanted out title to be in the top left corner and we wanted it to be placed inside a TV.
• We then discussed possible titles for our cover. These included:
  -Teleh
  -Just TV
  -TV Rush
  -Ultimate TV
  -TV Revealed
  -TV World
  -Big Mouth

Finish time: 2:40

Day 2: At My Work Experience

Today has been more of a tutorial lesson, i was shown all of the equipment and explained how each one works, which kind of productions would use which and why, this was very beneficial because it helped me understand the budgetting side to production as well as learning all the technical equipment.





I was also shown CD printing, and had a run through of what to check before you print and also about playing back the DVDs before you send the off to clients, a bad disc doesnt look proffesionl and isnt good for the company if its sent out.

EVALUATION:

Today i learnt more of the financial side of media, this can be beneficial to our group to understand thealmost 'behind the scenes' of media, and to remember theres always more than we may see.

Day 1: At My Work Experience

My day started off with being taught 'Digitising' , i was ingesting tapes and i also learnt how to make a digibeta copy (dub), using a DW500P Machine.
I was introduced to professional editors and a few camera men. I asked loads of questions about editing and I as shown how to use an AVID, i was taught how to cut and use effects such as fading in and out, using this i helped edit something for Disney channel, adding fades and cutting out bits they didn't want.

(Digital Betacam) -->

I also got the chance to have a look at different cameras, which ranged hugely in size but similarly close in quality- shows the rapid increase in technology and equipment.

EVALUATION:
Overall today i definitely learnt alot and feel i could bring alot of this information Ive learnt back to my Alevel media and hopefully benefit the rest of my group as well.

My Individual Practice: Filming, Camera shots and Movements

Yesterday (Sunday 25th October) with the Camera i was borrowed by the Production company North One, My two brothers and I went out for a practice filming session where they ran through the basics of how to film, zoom, focus etc with me.
I decided that as i was working for a week at North One that i should film some clips and edit them on AVID with the professionals, they said they are happy to help, and so we went on to film a few shots.

(Sony DSR-PD150) -->

• We used the sound and sun to our advantage, taking close shots of blowing leaves and shadow shots against the sun to create effect.


• We filmed basic shots of me walking in different directions, as if i was looking for something.


• An idea that came to mind was to do a voice over of thoughts and music.


• Slight problem we found was with the camera mic, it was very powerful and due to the weather being windy it picked it up more then we would of liked, however it did in some cases add effect so they equal each other out.


• I filmed some shots of road signs and i also had the idea to film me walking with the camera and turning around to look at houses, i thought this would add to the realism, helping viewers see what the character (me) could see.


• I also liked the idea of keeping in the sound of my footsteps, i felt this really built up tension and really helped in creating an atmosphere of suspense as well.

EVALUATION

From even the slightest bit of experience i have gained i have definitly began to feel alot more confident when faced with new technology. I love the way things have developed over time and so rapidly aswell. I am positive that any form of knowledge and understanding i gain, will be beneficial for my group too, i can teach them things that ive learnt helping them to progress as much as i can.

Minutes for our third group meeting

Discussing locations and the Treatment

Thursday 8th October 2009

Start time: 2:10pm

People present: Natalie Michael, Elena Christodoulou, Thegla Savvides and Natalie Nicolaides

• We began by discussing what types of locations we would need for the specific moments we want to film for our trailer.
• We decided upon a school which led to us needing corridors and a classroom.
• A bedroom
• A central meeting point which we then decided we wanted to be a cafe.
• We then discussed the advantages and disadvantages of these locations
• Included in the advantages were; a school is easily accessible for us to film in as we have access to classrooms and corridors and included in the disadvantages was whether we would be able to film in a cafe and we then discussed that we would have to get permission from a cafe owner before filming there.
• To overcome the cafe problem we decided that we could create a cafe in one of our gardens and get people to pose as a waitress and customers.
• We then went through our treatment together as a group and discussed what we could include in each section.
• We also went through the tasks we had set each other from our previous meeting and gave new ones to each other.
• We discussed having to complete location recce forms, risk assessments, production schedules, shooting schedules and scripts and any booking forms for equipment and rooms

Finish time: 2:50

Group Effort. Written by Natalie Michael

Analysis of Home and Away Website

Analysing Websites - What? Why?

As a group we have decided to analyse the websites of the soaps we have been researching, including; Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Home & Away, and Corination Street. This research, we believe, will help us decide what is acceptable of a conventional soap website and what we will include in our own. Colour schemes, features and amounts of pictures and text were taken into consideration throughout our research.



http://au.tv.yahoo.com/home-and-away/


The official Home And Away website is on the Yahoo TV website. Theres options for fans to catch up on missed episodes, see trailers, read spoilers and have the chance to see behind the scenes footage.

Its special features let you comment on forums, read newsletters, characters personal blogs and see episode galleries. Also after every aired episode the website is updated and new imformation is given, featuring new pictures, news and gossip everyday.

Theres also options to watch and read the characters being interviewed, joining the fan club and also the music used in the episodes.

EVALUATION

• I Definitely will take some of the links and features they have into account.
• Like a Gallery and the ability to catch up on missed episodes i think is benefited from.
• I also think trailers and spoilers are a brilliant idea to have, ensuring fans regularly sign on to the website to see what's up next.

Evaluation of Websites/What we have Learned:

What my group has learned from researching websites is that the features we allow our audience to have is very important. We must make our theme match the personality of our audience and provide what they would need to acomplish their desired task. Research from all of these soaps' websites has allowed us to see what they have in common but what they offer individualy. Our aim is to cater to all the needs of our users by taking on board what we have found and put it into our own website.

Progress Of Our Group Ideas

So far we are comfortably into our coursework process and have come up with numerous ideas, and through discussion and analysis of different soap operas, we have been able to elaborate on all of these ideas, all having our own individual input.
Ethnic groups, sterotypes, middleclass Vs Lower class, are just a few of the ideas that have crossed our minds.

Some of the ideas I thought of, for example Echoing thoughts, another group member added the idea of a heartbeat sound and another group member mentioned her being locked in her bedroom; We work well as a group taking in everyones ideas and moulding them to suit everyones liking.

So here are some of our ideas so far:

• Echoing thoughts throughout, heart beating backtrack- her sitting on her bed, discomfort, moving, shaking, crying.
• Board- Characters pictures, sums and equations(shows lifes difficulty, struggle) closes in on character scene.
• Final image a dead body, back to girl on bed rocking, close up of face.
• Heart beat-flashing images on every beat
• From picture of girl on bed, to board to close up of her face etc.
• Mother trying to talk to her and get into her room- turning of the door handle- but she cant hear her because of the noises in her head.
• IV drip-dead body-girls face-running makeup- crying frozen with hands on ears- zoom out and Iv appears on screen with siren sounds.

By Elena Christodoulou

Minutes of our second meeting

Discussing character types, ideas for trailer and story boarding first episode.

Tuesday 6th October

Start Time: 11:06am

People Present: Elena Christodoulou, Thegla Savvides, Natalie Michael, Natalie Nicolaides

• As a group we first discussed different character types that we think would appeal to our target audiences, We began mapping out different characteristics that individually appealed to us.
• Some ideas where a posh character that doesnt look posh, bad looking characters who are very well behaved, The popular girls and the misfits.
• We discussed numerous ideas for the trailer, one of us comes up with an idea and by the end we all have had an input.
• Some of the ideas for our trailer, we've elaborated upon and decided it for the first episode, allowing us to leave numerous cliff hangers in the trailer and prolong them onto the episode.
• We asked ourselves many questions like...Is the trailer going to be a spoiler of an unrealistic scene-e.g. like at the beggining of Hollyoaks with the supernatural and flashbacks etc.
• We also set eachother targets in order for things to all be completed in time and in order, keeping us up to date.
• We discussed a few locations, and the advantages and disadvantages of these.
• Some of the ideas we came up with, where more of a challenge than others we discussed how we would work around certain problems and in some cases lack of required props, i.e. recording in a shop-copyrighting issues- and our main idea of having a clear board for characters thoughts.

Finish Time: 12:20pm

Written By Elena Christodoulou

Review of Home and Away

There are an equal amount of negative and positive reviews for Home and Away, with some mentioning its better than any British soap, and others saying there embarrassed to say they watch it. It is fair to say everyone has there own opinion and some say you do either love or hate it.


"This show is awesome it just keeps getting better and no one can doubt that. look at past story lines, psycho stalkers, killer cops, explosive weddings, hostage situations, drugs, on the run, storms, shipwrecks and much more...Have you ever had juicy and gripping plot lines like that on things like Coronation street, and Neighbours. NO. and you probably never will...Home and Away is way before its time and its one show that Channel 5 shouldnt ever let go of, i hate it when people say ozzy soaps arent as good, i cant stand neighbours the show has bad acting and story lines were as Home and Away is off the scale juicy ahead of its time storylines what more can you ask for in a soap."



"The charaters are perfect for the part they play and it is directed so well. The person that invented Home and Away should become a saint"

"its a great show to watch, focusing on everyday issues "Alot of people compare it to Neighbours, they say Home and Away has gripping sorylines and gets to the point faster, avoiding long dragging story lines.

"Utterly pitiful. Made even more hilarious by the original boast of its cast members that it was more "realistic" than Neighbours... If realistic means a town where all the inhabitants have white teeth, there's no smoking, everyone is politically correct, there's lashings of bizzare family disharmony, morality is policed by local "tough nut", there's *never* any swearing, I haven't bothered to watch this soap since 1991"

"The show does need fine-tuning. It is very, very predictable and the twists are not as good as they're made up to be. I think I will stop watching Home and Away soon"

EVALUATION

From the positive reviews to those of which are highly critical, we can take down things some audience members dislike and some audience do like, some enjoy the unrealistic story lines, some find it extremely annoying, others are just unaffected, With everybody voicing there own opinions of soaps, it is impossible for everybody to be fully satisfied, however you could try and touch upon many different aspects, making it enjoyable for many people rather then just a particular type- some unrealistic story lines, some realistic ones but then this would most probably raise criticism, so i have gathered that it is something that's unavoidable and is dealt with accordingly to keep as many people happy as possible.

Analysis of Home and Away trailers

Analysing Trailers - What? Why?

As a group we have decided to analyse trailers from our allocated soaps (Natalie M=Neighbours, Natalie N=Emmerdale and Coronation Street, Elena=Home and Away and Thegla=Hollyoaks). These soaps are from both the UK and abroad. We are hoping this will benefit us when we go on to deciding how we want our trailer to be. We hope to use these trailers as inspiration and as a guide as to how to make our trailer successful.

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Home And Away

Trailer from 1991:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DJbfUUADxQ

• The colour and quality is very different to the 2008 trailer as expected
• There is a narrator over the trailer
• No music
• Camera work is very basic
• Storyline seems plain
• No real drama with tension is shown
• Lies and secrets seems main issue
• based around the village area
  

Trailer from 2008:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX5hyur0rjc

• No speech
• Tension music throughout whole trailer
• Music creates an atmosphere for the audience as well as emphasising the acting
• Camera works are alot more advanced, under water shots
• Death, lies, injuries, weapons
• No love, happiness etc
• cliff hangers
• based around the sea

Evaluation

From this we can see how through technology, the trailers have changed, this can also have influence on the story lines and how different plots have become more popular amongst soaps and dramas overtime, with what is more accepted and common in society today.

How analysing trailers has helped us progress...

Analysing trailers has definitely helped us and guided us into making decisions about our trailer. Some of us have compared previous trailers to more modern ones and others have focused on one trailer. It was noticed that we usually see trailers for soaps when there will be a huge life changing event on that soap. for example, the Neighbours trailer was advertising the death of a loved character and the Emmerdale trailer was advertising the return of a character. Trailers are modern and according to their time period. This is done through the technology used, the music and the storylines advertised.

Analysing trailers has definitely helped us and guided us into making decisions about our trailer. Some of us have compared previous trailers to more modern ones and others have focused on one trailer. It was noticed that we usually see trailers for soaps when there will be a huge life changing event on that soap. for example, the Neighbours trailer was advertising the death of a loved character and the Emmerdale trailer was advertising the return of a character. Trailers are modern and according to their time period. This is done through the technology used, the music and the storylines advertised.

Analysis of Home And Away Opening Title Sequence & How it has helped us progress..

Analysing Opening Title Sequences - What? Why?

As a group we have decided to analyse opening title sequences from a few popular soaps, both UK and abroad. We feel this will benefit us when deciding on our own opening sequence. We hope to take ideas both positive and negative and apply them to ours to make it the best it can be. Things like music type, colours, pictures and even the length of it.

• Orange/red bright colours- based around the sun, sand and sea.
  
• Pictures kept basic, trees, sea, boats, pier, houses could represent in some ways relaxing and easy going.


• However, the pictures are puzzled, cut out in seperate squares moving around, this could show how the perfect images and scenery, are not soperfect in reality.


• They are also fast moving, could show how long the timeline of the show is, or how fast time flies.
• Trails to the right, its asif we are driving through their lives up to the end where it all breaks apart and zooms in.


• In one of the seperated boxes there was a close up of a net, this could represent the feeling of being trapped.


• There was also an image of a tree, which then was cut up and seperated into seperateboxes, this could show family breakdown and losses.


• The last image, is a picteresque, empty beach at sundown, could howloneliness, empty feeling etc.


• It then all breaks apart and zooms in, shows we are moving into these charaters lives.
• Boat sailing away, could be communicating trying to escape, break free?

Music

• Lyrics are catchy, contain soap title, theres a regular beat- both a man and a womans voice- complications? love? relationships?

Colours

• Red-deep, love, blood
• Orange-sun, happiness bright
• yellow-summer,peaceful innocence

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I also found the opening sequence from 1991 and 1995, i decided to compare them to the new opening because i feel this will help see how technology has developed overtime, and how some aspects have remained intact i.e. the theme song.

1991 Opening sequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJOJekRZ_-c&NR=1

1995 Opening sequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN8M0rjrNu4&feature=related

In Both Sequences

• The soaps theme tune has stayed the same throughout all the new openings.
• They both portray clippets of a happy lifestyle.
• laughing, smiling, playing around
• friends and families all getting on together
• sun, sea and sand
• Doesnt show any problems

In the 1991 Sequence

• has a black washout around all the clips-could represent dark backround/secrets
• It looks asif a black screen has been rubbed away to reveal pictures of the characters lives.
• The characters stage names are written with the characters real names.
• All happy pictures
• Theres are sterotypes of women relaxing by the beach, kids playing beach games and the men on boats.
• No images of sadness and i couldnt pick up much that could portray any kind of sadness
• at the end the black around the screen zooms out to show the 'n'- all the black borders could have been a close up of the letters of "Home and Away".

In the 1995 Sequence

• There is a sun and a sea image at the bottom of the screen throughout, giving off the idea of it being based somewhere hot and at the sea.
• Again happy images
• family and friends happily together
• As the song plays along, the picture of the sun and sea at the bottom of the screen becomes a bigger wave, could represent difficulties and drama.
• At the end someone dives in the bigger image of the sun in the sea, then "home and away" zooms out.
• Theres is the same sterotype of women relaxing by the beach, kids playing beach games and the men on boats.

Evaluation
Majority of the soaps we have analysed, have shown me a similarity commonly used, they tend to base there opening sequences on the setting of their soap, or like Hollyoaks include all the characters.

Taking both the old sequences and new sequences into account i will definitly refer back to these to see what influence and ideas i can retract from them.

How analysing Opening Title Sequences has helped us progress...

I feel that it has definitly benefited us, we have looked at how the music differs between soaps, with 'Hollyoaks' using an upbeat tune, aiming it more at a teenage audience, and something like 'Coronation Street' keeping it very original and basic, aiming more for a mature audience but at the same time leaving it broad. We also saw how as technology has progressed through the years like in 'Home and Away' i found that they had a new opening sequence every few years, and each time it getting better and more advanced.
We can see that it is important to find a very catchy tune, something people will want to here and automatically recognise it as our soap. We need to make sure it appeals to our target audience as well as opening doors for different audiences aswell.
Written by Elena Christodoulou

Analasis of the soap ''Home And Away''

Analysing Opening Title Sequences - What? Why?

One of the main stages of production in my groups research and planning stages is the insight into current soap operas and their use of conventions in order to create a realistic viewing experience for the audience. From the viewing of current soap operas we hope to gain the correct knowledge and understanding of how to create an effective soap and also the efficient techniques to make our product either conventional or unconventional. The analysis of different types of soaps (e.g. Australian, English.. ) will broaden our knowledge and also allow us to understand how each is different through their use of convention elements.

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Unlike the majority of soaps aired on television in Britain the beggining of Home And Away shows what has happened on previous episodes to keep audiences updated and also introducing new viewers.


Audience:

Im not a regular viewer of Home and Away, but the first viewing gave me the impression it was aimed at teenagers, the first scene was a drunken teenage party. However the more i watched into it, i felt it opened out to a more mature audience , with worrying parents and family problems etc.





Its based around a small community, with locals meeting points being a school and a cafe. There are the common problems that arise in groups of friends, like gossip and rumours.


Representation:


Older characters are at home, worrying about the younger characters out partying.

The younger characters who are at a party drinking alcohol, dancing and acting disordely, sterotypes as a typical teenager.





Man is in the kitchen washing the plates, the woman sits down, goes against traditional sexist sterotype of women.

Narrative, storylines:




The storylines are realistic, troubled teenagers turning to alcohol, accidents and family fueds. There was interlocking storylines and also big storylines that viewers of a similar age can relate to taking advice, like underage sex. relationships. hospital check ups etc.


Evaluation

This soap like many other soaps contains cliff hangers, over dramatization, love relationships, family breakdowns etc...
The difference between this soap and a UK soap is the flash back reminders of whats happened in previous episodes, UK soaps such as eastenders and Hollyoaks tend to steer clear of these.

Overall from my research of soap episodes i have come to understand that the producers key target in creating an effective episode stems from their representation of creating a sense of realism through out the soap. From my research into the soap episodes i have clearly understood that producers create a sense of realism through a number of techniques codes and conventions

Minutes For First Group Meeting

Discussing general ideas, pitch and treatment

Tuesday 15th September

Start Time: 11:37am

People Present:

Elena Christodoulou, Thegla Savvides, Natalie Michael, Natalie Nicolaides

• As a group we decided to involve our soap around a teenage lifestyle, involving school, relationships and typical teenage problems.
  

• We discussed various locations and central meeting points like school, home and cafes.
  Characters we decided are based around a stereotypical teenager. leaving the audience the ability to relate to them.
  

• Heirachy:
  -Popularity Vs Geeks
  -Rich Vs Poor
  

• Popularity/Rich/Education
  

• Relationships/Jealousy/Revenge
  

• We also discussed targets for the week and allocated eachother different assignements in complete. e.g research (questionnaires, tv soap analysis, trailer analysis evaluation of questionnaire etc.)

Finish Time: 12:26pm

Group effort: by Elena Christodoulou