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

Question 1

SoapsThere are several different types of sub genres within soap operas to suit different audiences: Scripted Reality, Realism, Melodrama, Australian Soaps and American Fantasy. These are the conventions structured in most soaps but vary to the type of soap it is. Most of them are easy to identify in popular soap operas: Central Location, Dramatic stories, Theme Tune, Multi strand narratives , Repeating characters, Named after a location, Diegetic audio, Shot reverse shot, Regional, stereotypes.

Mise En SceneLocation: Represents where the characters are from. Could give information on there backgrounds. Reflects who they mirror and relate to.Costumes: Reflects the mood of the characters. Connote what they are feeling e.g. Re oat could connote love or danger depending on what is happening in the scene. Reflect the characters lifestyle, whether they are wealthy or poor.Lighting Reflects the mood of the characters or of the current setting. High key or low key lighting depending on the soap and it’s background/location.Sound Combination of Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sounds to represent what’s happening in the scene and to suit the storyline.

Codes and Conventions of Genre

Choosing Sub -genreI decided to focus on scripted reality as it was something I watched more often then realism or melodrama which were the more popular choices.

Mise En SceneCostume: designer clothes, connotes that they all have rich lifestyles. All characters are extremely well groomed, care about there appearance more than they would in real life.Location: set in common places such as houses, cafes, restaurants, pubs and nightclubs. Show the wealth and that they can afford things we wouldn’t normally be able to. Also shoes that that can do normal stuff like us so we can relate to them.SoundNon-Diegetic sound is used a lot in scripted realities such as current chart songs to reflect the mood and so the audience can relate to them. Diegetic sound is throughout to create the feeling of realism.Shot typesClose ups: to see characters facial expressions and emotions.Lighting High key lighting which connotes riches and glamour. Also makes the shots look clean and crisp. Lighting also reflects the mood and what is happening in the scene.

Scripted RealityIncludes real people who speak naturally but are put in pre-planned situations for audiences entertainment. Not professional actors and actresses, they are real people not characters.Target audience: younger people aged 16 – 30, mixed gender, this age can relate with the characters and situations.

Codes and Conventions of Sub-Genre

When researching into scripted reality programmes already out there, there wasn’t one which focused on an all Manchester cast set in Manchester. This made me think that there was a target audience out there for a scripted realty based in Manchester. In are research we found that we wanted to base are scripted reality on the lines of Geordie shore, The Valleys and Beauty School Copout.

I thought that to connect it into a students life would be appropriate considering Manchester has two big Universities in the town centre and could some how revolve around the lifestyle of a student but glamour it up with money and rules.

Research

My trailer fits into the genre of this category perfectly. In some way I've made it a long teaser trailer showing clips from all over the ‘series’. From the screen shot below you can see how I have given it the same feel as to it being an MTV programme which are unique in there own way as you can tell when a programme is from MTV. It has the same fount, same arrangement and a website and social media connection.

From the screen shot you can also see what I have called my scripted reality ‘The Mancunian Way’. As most scripted realities relate there title to the place or the people it is set in, we went with that initiative to try and incorporate both into the title of the show. This is when we found out that there was a road running through Manchester called Mancunian Way, very close the University which was perfect to fit are scripted reality with involves students which is how we came up with the name.

My trailer alongside Real trailer

From the screen shots on the left you can see what we have done similar in are trailer to one which is in Geordie Shore, with the interview set out for the characters to communicate with the audience and how they narrate themselves. This is a great way to inform the audience on what is going on in the trailer, and give them teasers as well. We also tried to dress them in the same sorts of stuff , with them showing expensive brands and looking well groomed making the conventions of a scripted reality also included.

Form the screens shots on the right you can also see how I have tried to get similar the logo which is featured at the end of the trailer where I have included the whole cast instead of just one and writing which again is in the same sort of style as MTV have it as you can compare with the both of them.

Similarities

From the screen shots on the left you can see what we have done similar in are trailer, which is in Geordie Shore, with dramatic story lines even though it is hard to incorporate one into a trailer, we still managed to do it. The two main characters of the shown Lucy played by Niamh and JJ played by Chris have a small story in the trailer after they have developed some sort of relationship which obviously goes wrong as shown. As they are the two main characters the audience would want to know more after seeing the trailer.

From the screen shots on the right you can see Gary and Charlotte from Geordie Shore which is where we have got the idea from for the dramatic story line which is something that is in the Geordie Shore trailers, where various bits of story lines are shown. As you can see some parts they are friends in them and in some there are ‘incidents’. This is actually a good technique for the audience to be enticed as they assume something goes wrong and makes them want to watch the episode/series to find out what happens.

Similarities

From the screen shot below you can see what we have done to make it a bit different by trying to include the whole cast at the end so the audience can get a good peak at the cast whilst being told what the programme is called and only being told that it is coming soon making them want to see as much as they can of the characters as possible. Also I have tried to make it less cluttered by not having boxes and to much colours involved in the text as the audience don’t want to be feeling that there reading to much as they will prefer to be watching.

Form the screens shots on the right you can also see how the first frame of the trailer is the location of where the programme it is set and makes the audience aware, especially since they are well known locations in Manchester.

For the trailer we had to find Non-Diegetic sounds, which was hard as we had to use royalty free music. This also had to suit the genre for the show which is normally very happy and clubby music most common chart music. I did find some in the end which worked effectively for the trailer.

Differences

From the screen shots on the left you can see that we tried to explore into a vehicle for filming and incorporate that into the scripted reality. As you can see Geordie shore attempted this with a plane but as more of a one off and as you don't normally see them travel somewhere, its just normally snap shots. We were trying to make his more interactive to the audience to make them get a feel for what the characters might actually get up to while in the car and make it more fun with audience. The challenges faced were shooting angles, safety and dimensions.

From the screen shot on the right you can see we have attempted to do some different camera angles which wouldn’t normally be in a scripted reality. With this shot you can see all the characters and where there going form a high angle shot. This makes the audience more aware of what the characters are doing.

From the screen shot on the left you can see we have attempted to do another different camera angle which would normally be in a scripted reality, a birds eye view. We felt that we wanted to explore more with the camera to see what would work for this genre of soap compared to the regular shots in a scripted reality.

Challenges

My billboard is very similar to a current MTV billboard. It has all the conventions a billboard should have, the institutional logo MTV, an enigma code, title The Mancunian Way, Characters, and the layout. My billboard uses the same bold colours, follows the MTV style, and is very simple but effective making suitable to be used for MTV.

This billboard however challenges what a billboard does for MTV as it doesn’t really promote a lot about the programme, it only really promotes MTV. This is because it is a coming soon billboard and wants to hide as much as possible from the audience and I personally think this has worked more effective with this scripted reality. The main differences with this billboard is that it doesn’t have an air time, the characters are covered so you don’t know what they look like and there isn’t much of a style it’s just simple.

Billboard

My magazine is very similar to a current Soap magazine. It has all the conventions a magazine should have, a masthead Reality TV, bleed, weekly publication, enigma, cover story, colour scheme, secondary images, bold text, main image, tag line and secondary cover story. My magazine uses the same sort of layout and is a very simple but effective design.

This magazine is different as I feel I have tried to lower down the bold and extreme colours used and make them a little bit more softer on eyes, this makes the reader feel more welcome to the magazine with a softer colour scheme. I have taken a lot of red out of the cover and made it a eye catching colours which focuses more on exclusives to the magazine, compared to everything being cover in red. I have used less secondary images to make the page feel less cramped but still made the page feel busy as there's always a lot going on in any kind of soaps.

The challenges I faced with this magazine were to make a scripted reality show relevant on a magazine cover as they aren't really on magazine covers. This was to associate things on the next episode and things associated with the characters and to the audience.

Magazine Front Cover

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

Question 2

When I looking at the effectiveness of the combination of my main product and ancillary products I need to ensure that they are each effective on their own first. They would be deemed effective if they fulfilled their purpose and if they were appropriate for my target audience.

I think the soap trailer fulfils it’s purposes as it address the audience with sneak peaks of the series as a whole, different storylines throughout and what the show will be involved in. This is what we aimed as a group for are trailer to be.

I think the magazine fulfils it’s purposes as tells the audience what to expect in the next episode and exclusives from the characters.

I think the billboard fulfils it’s purpose as it address the audience of the characters and the style the show will follow, not much because this is a coming soon billboard.

Comparison

There are a few convincing links between all three of the products. One being the name of the show, on everyone one of the products quite obviously the name of the scripted reality is quite clear. I did try and keep the text the same, with the same font but didn’t always work considering that the magazines don’t really have a logo of the show but I tired to get this in all my products.

The channel is clear on the trailer and the billboard MTV but I didn’t feel it was something that was necessary to be put on the front page of a magazine but something more that would be clear inside of it.

The characters names are clearly shown in the trailer and in the magazine cover but as the billboard is coming soon I couldn't reveal the characters names but you can quite clearly see how many characters there are and which ones are girls and which ones are boys.

Comparison

With the billboard being coming soon it was very difficult to put any storyline in as I wanted the audience to now as little as possible about the programme, storylines were a lot easier to link with between the trailer and the magazine with the relationship on JJ and Lucy the most popular characters in both as this is a big feature in the show.

The characters representation stays the same in all as they all act the same and are represented in the same way, as outrageous, mad students, wearing designer clothes and getting drunk.

Comparison

Matches the sub-genre which is scripted reality, with the masthead being called RealityTV which tells the audience the magazine focuses on reality TV programmes but doesn’t necessarily matter how scripted the programme is.

Storylines feature in the magazine which are included in the trailer also, this being JJ and his relationship with Lucy and the ‘Bromance’.

Characters names feature in the magazine with there names and pictures indicating to the audience who the characters are.

The soap name is also featured in the magazine with it telling the audience that there are exclusives to this specific programme.

I didn’t think it was necessary to put the channel logo on the font cover at it’s not something you normally see on a magazine cover, normally it’s inside.

Characters representation is clear, as the characters are wearing designer clothes, target the age group if the audience and are doing what audiences there age would be doing.

Comparison

The billboard is set out very similar to the conventions of the channel MTV with the characters at the bottom and title, logo and air time at the top.

There aren't really any storylines featured in the billboard as its a coming soon billboard and I want to hide as much from the audience as possible as I want them to be wanting to find out more about the show instead of being told everything at once.

Characters names feature aren't featured in the billboard but you can clearly see how many characters are in the show and how many girls and boys there are.

The soap name is also featured in the magazine with it telling the audience that there are exclusives to this specific programme.The channels logo is

clear in the top left hand of the page this is therefore represent the institution it is associated with and will make the audience aware of what programme the show will be featuring. This also matches the conventions of the channel MTV by it featuring the logo.

Characters representation is no to clear as the billboard is coming soon billboard and is trying to hind more about the characters then gives away. This makes the audience want to know more about the characters.

Comparison

What have you learned from the audience’s feedback?

Question 3

I asked for feedback on my products to see if I had achieved what I had planned with my target audience and other features including what I could possible do to improve my trailer, billboard and magazine front cover if it was still possible.

Feedback

Proof of Feedback

Feedback: Question 3

Feedback: Question 1

Feedback: Question 2

Feedback: Question 4

Feedback: Question 5

Feedback: Question 6

Feedback: Question 7

Feedback: Question 8

NO: Genre doesn't interest me.

NO: Don’t understand what it’s about.

YES: Looks funny and something I would watch.

1.Would you watch this Soap after seeing the trailer, billboard and magazine?

NO: Don’t understand what the show is about.

YES: Yes, drunk teenagers.

2.Can you easily understand what the show is about?

Feedback Results

YES: Spinoff from Geordie Shore/Jersey Shore.

Feedback

Teens

16-25

16 – 30

Teens

16-25

3.Who do you think is the target audience? (Age)

Feedback

Reality

Scripted Reality

Realism

Soap

Reality

Correct genre Soap/Scripted Reality.

4.Can you tell the genre/sub-genre/hybrid genre from the trailer, billboard and magazine front

cover?

All of the people I asked guessed the correct target audience.

Feedback Results

5.Do you have any of the features appeal to you?

FeedbackA How Similar it is to MTV.

B Editing of the trailer is good.

C Billboard looks really realistic.

D All three products link very well.

E Billboard is very good.

Most of the people I asked had some kind of features that appealed to them.

6. What do you think would make the soap more appealing?

All the people I asked had something different that they fort could make my soap more appealing.

Feedback Results

FeedbackA More characters.

B More then just one song.

C Shorter clips.

D More storylines.

E Short trailer.

7. Do you think from watching the trailer and seeing the billboard and magazine it would

appeal to the target audience?

8. Overall do you think from looking at the three different products that this soap is a good idea?

Feedback Results

YES: Perfect for target audience.

YES: Would appeal to teens.

YES: Can see why teenagers enjoy these types of shows.

YES: Suits the target audience.

YES: Is perfect for the genre.

NO: Is to similar to scripted realities already out there.

From my audiences feedback I learned something from every question I asked and whether or not my products have been successful even though I could go back and make some improvements from the feedback I have received.

Question 4 asked if you could tell the genre of the soap, which again was very successful with the audience guessing correctly. This tells me that I had portrayed enough for the audience to clearly understand the genre and what the soap would be about

Question 3 asked the who the target audience was, this was something which was quite is represented in the three products and all the audiences feedback guessed the correct answer.

Question 2 asked the audience whether or not they understood what the soap was about, nearly everyone understood apart from one person but later explained that they had never seen this sort of television before. This again then shows that from audiences already seen similar genre shows that the representation is good from the genre.

Question 1 proved that audiences interested in my genre of soap would watch it meaning that I had clearly portrayed good representation and enough happening to draw audiences in to watch the soap.

What I have learned from feedback

Question 8 asked if this soap idea was a good idea. This again was a successful response as it focuses on another regional identity not explored in the genre area but one response explain it was to similar to products like it already out there but I have adapted the show to make it not as similar to other products which would be explained in the show.

Question 7 asked if from the products it would appeal to the target audience. This again was a successful response making it clear that it fit the genre of soaps and would also to appeal to the target audience even though there are shows out there like it already.

Question 6 asked the audience what would make the soap more appealing. This again gave me information are where I could still possibly improve on the three products if it was possible in the time frame I still had. Some of which I did as to adding another song into my trailer and also editing more of the clips to make them shorter and also make my overall trailer shorter so the audience don’t think that it is too long to watch.

Question 5 I asked the audience what I appealed to them. This gave me the knowledge of what I felt I had good well with the products so I new if I could improve them else where to make my products stronger overall.

What I have learned from feedback

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

Question 4

Firstly I signed up for Weebly at the start of the course so I could start on a blog and website for all my coursework on the internet.

I was then able to totally edit my Weebly website with new pages, themes, styles, designs, videos, picture, text, etc. This made everyone’s Weebly site there own.

New pages (adding new pages)

Design (themes and styles)

Building (adding to the website)

Items which can be added

Weebly

After finishing the design of the website I could then add my coursework to my website depending on when I finished and added it to the correct page.

After I had finished put the coursework on the correct webpage's and didn’t need to add anything till I had done the next set of work I could then publish the page so it was a live website which could look at the work I saw. My official website is www.mylesrichardson-weebly.weebly.com

As you can see this is how I did this with a word document as I selected the document button which download a specific document on to the webpage.

Weebly

Microsoft PowerPoint is quite an easy technology used which I am using right know for this evaluation. It is a more clearer way to present work and to address the audience better. After I have created a PowerPoint I would then upload it to Slideshare online.

Microsoft Word is another easy technology used which I am used for a lot of my coursework as it is simple for a lot of text but for something which doesn’t need a lot of imagery. If you look on my blog you will be able to notice the amount of work which has used it.

Microsoft Publisher is another easy technology used which I am used for my coursework as it is simple for a lot of text and imagery but is something which fits on a A3 page instead of a lot of quantity of presentation. If you look on my blog you will be able to notice the work where I have used it.

Microsoft

Firstly I signed up for Slideshare so that I could start to upload PowerPoint's to the website.

This was quite a simple process with only an email required, and to create a username and password.

I then upload PowerPoint's to the website which on the left you can see is quite easy to do. On the right you can see what it actually looks like on the website where anyone can see and leave there feedback.

Slideshare

The camera which I used for my project was the Nixon Coolpix L120 which isn’t an SLR and as a group we knew that we would have a lot of hand held shots to shoot and would need a bit of a smaller camera which was capable of doing that which is why we picked this one.

I also used a tripod with this camera for still shots. This provided accuracy and focus and was great when we needed to use the green screen. We took a tripod when we had to go into Manchester for some filming, it is a very light and can be made smaller and bigger by extending the legs.

Camera

From are planning and research we knew we would have to use a green screen in are trailer. This is a very important part of are soap and the genre it represents as its a way of the characters communicating with the audience in a personal and direct way.

Some explains of how the green screen is used in scripted realities already out there.

Green Screen

iMovie was the technology which i did all my editing for my Soap trailer. This took a lot of time but is a good simple editing software for apple products.

From opening iMovie you can start a new project and import videos very simply. Then you can select certain parts of clips like on the left and drop then into your project. This is easy for editing long clips that the majority of the film you don’t actually need.

Form there you can do this several times to develop the start of a film for any amount of clips, an example of this is on the right.

iMovie

When I had got the majority of the clips i needed you can add music over the film. This is easy as all you need to do is download the music. You can make this as long as you want including recorded audio which we also added which is done exactly the same as music.

You also can edit the level of sound you want in the video which is shown on the right. You can either have more music then audio for the clip or the opposite way round or a mix of both. In my trailer there was music right the way through just various levels of it at different points.

You can also filter the clips, add green screen images/clips and add text into the film which is shown from the three images above which is very simple when in the software.

iMovie

Photoshop was something which I used for my Ancillary products more then my trailer. It was great for making the characters representation to the audience more realistic and a great software to make my billboard and magazine front cover.

It was also good for constructing several different images into one, as not every picture on its on was good but bits from a lot of pictures were good which the software helped me make on image out of several images.

As you can see the Photoshop software has aloud me to edit photographs with bits from them that I want with the tools on the end. You can see the difference this has created in me products.

Photoshop

Youtube is a great way of sharing videos on the internet for anyone to watch. In my coursework I only used this to upload videos which I had finished so then could go on Youtube as well as my website.

On the left you can see how my videos are on my Youtube page and can was very simple to get them uploaded as Youtube is a simple platformOn the right you can see how my videos look when you watch them and see that you can comment and see the views it’s had.

Youtube will hopefully in the end help me get more feedback from different audiences apart from the people I have already asked.

YouTube

Social media is a great way of communicating with the audience which is what I did with Twitter. I would personally say it is the biggest social media platform at the this moment in time which is why I have focused it in my product.

From the above picture you can see in my trailer that it includes #THEMANCUNIANWAY, this is something which is done on Twitter known as the form of hash tagging which I felt was something that needed adding to get the audience talking about the show on a social media network.

Another thing I did which was add a website to my products which you can see from the left and picture above. This was because I didn’t make an official website for the products just a blog type website and didn’t make a actually Twitter page because it wasn’t required.

I didn’t think it was necessary to have another social media response because of how popular Twitter is to audiences as even celebrities use it.

Twitter