Forge lane evaluation

Name: Chloe BonnerCandidate Number: 6377Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic CollegeCenter Number: 64770

OCR Media Studies – A2 Media Studies

Unit G324: Advanced Production Portfolio

Evaluation

Evaluation – YOU MUST

• Show evidence of your contribution to the Group Production (trailer) – highlight your role and what you brought to the production from a creative perspective.

• Give detailed analysis of how your research shaped your ideas and helped you succeed I the production of the main and ancillary texts – Refer to Soap Opera specific theory you learnt in the planning stages.

• Establish how audience feedback has allowed you to reflect on the production process – Give detailed evidence of questionnaires/facebook surveys etc.

DELETE THIS SLIDE AT THE END OF THE EVALUATION – Once it has been marked and you have been awarded a mark!

Question 1

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

• Sentence starter (example) – “Both the main and ancillary products produced for ‘Name of Soap’ denote ‘elements of repetition and difference’ (Steve Neale) from the Soap Opera genre in order to attract the target audience. For example…”

• Then, focus on the Main Product (Trailer) FIRST and establish (x3 detailed example) what codes and conventions conform to Steve Neale’s theory and help establish it’s status as a promotional media product for a new Soap – YOU MUST use language like verbal/non-verbal/technical codes when giving your examples and other relevant media language (denotes, connotes)

• Areas to refer to:

1) Non-diegetic music/lyrics/voiceover2) Setting/Costume/Props3) Shot types/camera angles/edit techniques


Question 1


Both the main and ancillary product produced for ‘Forge Lane’ denote ‘elements of repetition and difference’

(Steve Neale) from the Soap Opera genre in order to attract the target audience. For example, the non-verbal

code of the setting of the pub conforms with this theory because the majority of Soap Opera’s have pubs in

them, such as Eastenders having the Queen Vic and Coronation Street having the Rovers Return. This makes

the trailer more realistic as it is following conventions from the Soap Opera genre. The social setting of a pub

implies that this is a place where all of the friends hang out and get together as they are all young people. This

helps us to target our trailer at our young audience.

Additionally, our Soap Opera trailer challenges typical Soap Opera conventions as it appears to have more

conventions of a drama series than a soap opera series. This is because of the characters which we have in

our trailer as they’re all very young, therefore it looks to be more of a young adult drama than appealing to a

wide audience like a Soap Opera would. This is because of the fact that there aren’t many Soap Opera’s out

there which appeal to a young audience, so we have tried to exploit this.

Also, the shot types which we have used in our trailer help to introduce all of the characters which has

‘repeated’ (Steve Neale) conventions as in other Soap Operas. In all of the shots of each individual character

they are looking up at the camera. This follows the conventions from the Eastender’s trailer “There’s a killer

amongst them”, therefore it makes it look as if it is a real Soap Opera.

Question 1


• Ancillary Product (Magazine Cover and Poster) –

YOU MUST state how your research in to similar products helped you to “develop and challenge forms and conventions” – for example focus on particular conventions (x2 at least) from your magazine cover and say how it will help promote the soap to the intended target audience.

THEN, do the same for your Poster and make sure you discuss how the conventions help establish the text as being a soap opera – YOU MUST refer to soap opera specific theory where relevant and audience theory as well (Katz, Maslow)


Question 1


For my ancillary task I created a Soap Opera magazine front cover. To do this, I needed to research what Soap magazineslook like so that I could ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale) the conventions from these magazines into my own magazine. One of theconventions which I ‘repeated’ from my magazine of inspiration was the Masthead. The masthead on my magazine frontcover is big, bold and red. Therefore this will stand out to my audience because a young audience would like to see brightcolours and this would appeal to them, so they would be the ones who buy the magazine. The red can also connotedanger, which relates to my trailer because it is associated with the death that happens in my trailer.

Another convention which I have challenged from usual Soap Opera magazines is the puff. When I was researching whatTV/Soap magazines looked like, they didn’t have a puff, therefore I’ve made my magazine ‘different’ (Steve Neale) tomake it attract to a wider audience, because if they think that they’re able to win something from it then it will makethem want to buy the magazine more.

Additionally, for my ancillary task I had to create a poster. When creating my poster I looked at other TV show postersand found one which had static lines and somebodies hands around the girls face. So, in my poster I have put static linesin front of the image. This gives my poster a ‘destroyed’ effect and can make it look as if somebody is watching theperson and will make the theme of the soap look dangerous. However, the poster which this came from was a TV dramaso it is ‘different’ (Steve Neale) to what a Soap Opera poster may look like.

On the poster I have added the logo for my soap. When I was researching what soap opera posters looked like, all ofthem had the Soaps logo on. Therefore, I am using soap opera poster conventions in my own poster. Also, this can help tocreate a brand identity for the soap and will allow the audience to see exactly what the poster is for, which might makethem want to watch the soap.

Question 2

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

Key terms to consider:

Convergence – How more than platform work together to help promote the soap opera – for example the presence of a an e-media product (website) within a broadcast media product (trailer)

Synergy – The relevance of the institution (BBC 3) and producers of the show being in symbiotic relationship with other institutions – for example Facebook

YOU MUST refer to these key terms and examples from your own production work to explain the success of your overall production, as well as how similar they in presenting the same narrative themes and issues etc.

Sentence starter (example) – “The combination of the main and ancillary texts within the production of ‘name of soap’ on reflection has proved to be very successful. For example…”


Question 2

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

The combination of the main and ancillary tasks within the production of ‘Forge Lane’ on reflection hasproved to be very successful. For example the use of convergence within my production work has helpedto attract a wider audience because I have created different media products to attract them. For example,I have created a magazine, poster and trailer. These will all appeal to a wide audience as they all appeal todifferent audiences.

The poster would be found on a billboard or in a magazine and would appeal to a young audience, whichis the exact audience which I want to attract. It can appeal to both males and females as it has a darksetting.

The magazine could be found in a shop where it would be on show to a variety of people. However, as thisis a soap magazine, stereotypically it will attract a female audience of all ages. This is because femalestend to be the ones who watch soaps, so they will want to find out what is going on with all of the soapsso they will want to buy the magazine so that they can find out everything to do with soaps.

I have also included a facebook and twitter link on both my magazine and poster. This form of synergymeans that people will be able to find out more about the magazine and the TV show by going to thesesocial media sites as there will be more information about them on there.

Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

YOU MUST complete the following to demonstrate to the examiner your “excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback” (OCR):

• Questionnaire –

1) Get a group of students to sit and watch your trailer and get them to answer a set of questions (no more than 5 of your choice) regarding the trailer.

2) Do a similar task for your Ancillary products (Magazine Front cover and Poster) OR:

• Facebook Survey –

1) Upload a JPEG of both the Magazine Cover and Poster and ask students to complete a survey (x5 questions) relating to EACH product – YOU SHOULD aim to get 8-10 participants to respond from a range (age, gender) of people

2) Screen grab evidence of this being completed – along with a hyperlink of the survey itself

FINALLY, deconstruct the results you gained and answer the question in detail by referring to specific examples.

DELETE THIS SLIDE AT THE END OF THE EVALUATION –Once it has been marked and you have been awarded a mark!

Question 3


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For my audience feedback, I decided to use survey monkey to collect my data. I asked them all 4 questionsand received detailed answers back from everyone which helped me to understand exactly what peoplethought about my trailer and whether or not it was relevant to them and if it would be worth themwatching it. The majority of the feedback which I have received since sharing my trailer out has beenpositive, so I have learnt that many people enjoy my trailer and would want to watch it as a soap. Thesepeople also helped to give me some improvements so that I could see what I would need to work on nexttime.

I also decided to upload and share my trailer on Facebook so that I could ask my family and friends whatthey thought about my trailer. Many people responded well to the trailer as it received 42 likes and 4comments with people posting positive feedback about it.

Question 4

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

YOU MUST EVALUATE THE WHOLE PRODUCTION PROCESS HERE – Talk about the following step-by-step:

• Construction – What did you do (Premier, Photoshop) to help the production look fit for purpose and beneficial in promoting your soap opera?

• Research – How did your research into the genre help you produce the trailer and ancillary texts (Give examples of inspiration and refer to Steve Neale’s theory)

• Planning – What pre-production work did you do and how did it benefit your decision making/end product? – Refer to hand drawn drafts, storyboarding etc. – Make sure you identify what technologies you used and say why.

• Evaluation – Briefly state how this format (PowerPoint) allowed you to produce a neat and presentable reflection of the whole production process of both the main and ancillary texts. DELETE THIS SLIDE AT THE END OF THE EVALUATION – Once it has been

marked and you have been awarded a mark!

Question 4


To construct my media products, I used both Photoshop and Premier. I used Photoshop for my ancillary tasks such as my magazine front cover and my poster. This helped me to make it look more professional as I could use certain tools such as the overlay tool for my poster. The overlay tool helped me to create the static effect over the image which gives my poster a more dramatic and dark effect which connotes that there is death in my trailer. Additionally, Photoshop helped me to create my magazine front cover as I could use certain tools such as the Quick Selection tool to manipulate my images. For example, my main image on the front cover has been quick selected so that the people blend in with my white background.

Additionally, to construct my main task of the ‘Forge Lane’ trailer I used premier to edit it. This allowed us to use certain tools such as slow motion to give the trailer a more dramatic effect. The slow motion can make the audience feel tense and they will want to find out what happens from these snippets which will make them watch the TV show. Also, using Premier allowed us to edit all of the clips together. We can put different transitions in between each shot for example; a fade or a jump cut therefore all of the shots are now in a certain order and can all link with each other to create the story line.

Before creating my trailer and ancillary tasks I carried out plenty of research. For my trailer, I looked into all other Soap trailers to see what kind of conventions they had included. One soap trailer which I looked at was the Eastenders ‘there’s a killer amongst them’ trailer. I ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale) conventions from this trailer in my own trailer when they are introducing all of the characters they look up at the camera. In the ‘Forge Lane’ trailer, each character looks up at the camera as they are introduced. This also can make the audience feel tension because they will feel as if the character is acting suspicious.

Question 4


Another trailer which I looked at to help me create my own trailer was the ‘Glue’ launch trailer. As this was a launch trailer it gaveus an idea on exactly what our trailer needed to be like. As there was slow motion in this trailer we felt like this gave a verydramatic effect and created tension, therefore we decided to add a slow motion effect into parts of our trailer. However, as ‘Glue’is a TV drama, this means that we have added conventions which may be ‘different’ (Steve Neale) to a normal Soap Opera trailer.Similarly, the poster of inspiration I used when researching my ancillary task was also from a US TV drama called ‘Cult’. However, Ithought the conventions and effects which were used in that poster were relevant to the idea that I had for my soap trailer.

For my ancillary tasks, I had to research what a soap magazine looked like. I annotated all of the different conventions which wereon my magazine of inspiration ‘Soaplife’ so that I could see which conventions I needed to ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale) for my ownmagazine, for example; the masthead, main images, coverlines and strapline. I decided to make my masthead the same colour asmy magazine of inspirations masthead so that I was ‘repeating’ the conventions. Also, as it was red it stands out and will be ableto catch the readers eye.

I made some hand drawn drafts of both my magazine and poster for my pre-production work. These hand drawn drafts are what Iintended my ancillary products to look like. They helped me a lot when creating my ancillary products because I could see exactlywhere I wanted everything to go such as where I was going to place my masthead and my images. Also, pre-production workwhich I carried out for my soap opera trailer were meetings with my group so that we could discuss different ideas about what wewanted our trailer to be like and the different themes which we could include. When meeting with my group, we also created astoryboard so that when we were filming our trailer we knew exactly how we wanted every shot to be and why each shot neededto be like it, so it would be easier for us when it came to our filming day.

By using powerpoint to complete my evaluation it helped me to present it in a neat format. I’ve been able to analyse each sectionof my work in detail by making my evaluation on powerpoint as I could type out each aspect of the work which I carried out formy task.

Education

Forge lane evaluation