OCR Media Studies – A2 Level

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

Mind Map and Research

Name: Dan SgarbiniCandidate Number: 2005Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

Generation of Ideas for Ancillary Product 2) –

Poster

Theme/Ideas

Narcos: A key idea of mine is to follow the poster format that TV drama series ‘Narcos’ portrays. This poster consists of a dark background setting with a high definition/quality image using various editing techniques. The information such as time and sponsorships are presented in a bright and bold format using colours such as red and white against a black background. This poster is presented in a portrait format. However, in order to adapt this idea I could implement a gradient background with the ‘Walton Hill’ scenery.

EastEnders: Another format that has caught my inspiration is the Lucy Beale murder mystery poster. This is presented in a landscape orientation, a colourless mise en scene and a background of setting. This poster clearly portrays the themes of mystery and death through its dull approach which I may implement within my soap opera stories of disaster. I will therefore maximize the theme of death when using this format as I will use image adjustments, saturation and various other edits in order to alter the consistency of my poster. Within this poster all text are aligned evenly and are presented in contrasting colours to the background e.g. grey and white.

Hollyoaks: This poster is presented in a landscape format in order to maximize the number of aligned images in a horizontal format. This power has used a flame brush tool via download in order to create a fire effect over each character. This demonstrates a high level use of image adjustments. Furthermore, as previously mentioned five main images has been taken in order to display more depth to the plot which is exactly what my poster needs being a brand new soap opera, each character also represents alternating themes allowing them to ‘inform and educate’ my audience (Katz).

Tagline

Positioning

Language

Alliteration: A common language device that is used within multiple posters and magazine headline’s is the use of alliteration. This technique consist of the repetition of a plosive, letter or sound within consecutive terms. A phrase that I will consider placing within my poste is ‘Lucas or Lizzie!’ as these two characters within my soap opera trailer a prominent in the Walton Hill Storyline.

Rhetorical Question: ‘Who will survive’ is looked upon as a common however highly effective tagline, the use of a rhetorical question allows the audience to ‘immerse’ themselves into the text (Maslow). This will allow me to follow the theme of death and mystery which is the most popular sub genre within my survey results with over 20% of participants answering in favor of the theme.

Phrase: In multiple cases a basic phrase with a direct link to the narrative proves to be the most effective when creating a poster tagline. I have therefore put the phrase ‘A Recipe for Disaster’ in parallel with my trailer idea as it is based around a kitchen setting. ‘Hollyoaks’ used a basic phrase within their latest poster which stated “A week that will change Hollyoaks forever”. Although presented directly this phrase creates suspense, anticipation and a clear message to the readers which my poster is obliged to produce. This will also be useful for my poster as I will be advertising a brand new sop opera and will therefore need to implement a direct and general tagline.

Central (Lower): A lower centralized tagline is highly common amongst posters as ‘Hollyoaks’ clearly demonstrate within their week of change poster. This is due to the fact that it denotes a high importance of the tagline however still creates a greater significance for the main images as by being lower it will not overlap any key content.

Right (lower): Another common presentation of text is within the bottom right of the template. This creates space for the images to dominate the poster and is used within the ’EastEnders’ Week of Revelations campaign. However in order to achieve higher marks using this format my images must be taken professionally using high quality equipment.

Upper: An alternative method of presenting the tagline is in a title format in which the text is placed on the upper section of the poster. This is common amongst portrait posters and TV drama ‘Narcos’ demonstrate this alternative method at a high standard. However, Narco’s have produced an image to a high quality as with the tagline placed above draws all of the attention to the main image.

Image(s) Setting

Manipulation

Characters

Saturation: A key aspect that I aim to use when editing my main image, background and various other images is the saturation tool. This allows the user to adjust the colour, vibrancy and visibility of an individual image. Within my poster I plan to adjust the saturation of each image through image adjustments in order to add intensity, professionalism and to relate to my chosen theme.

Patch Tool: The patch tool will primarily be used for the images of characters within my poster, this removes an individual of spots, marks and cuts building a consistency in appearance. This is used by all major editing companies and will be carried out on Adobe Photoshop where my poster will be crafted.

Brushes: There are also multiple brushes within Photoshop such as the fire brush, faded brush and a regular brush, all of these can be adjusted based on their shape, density and size. This will allow me to refine the edges of an image and will allow it to blend into the background of my poster.

Cover Star: The traditional mise en scene within a poster in the implementation of one cover star as they star within the main storyline. A key example of this is the ‘EastEnders’ ‘Week of Revelation’ poster as well as the ‘Narcos’ poster. An advantage of this format is that it creates a clear message/story however a disadvantage is that the posters with one character generally lack detail due to the size of the main image.

Cast: However a more modern approach is the implementation of over one character within the poster. This technique creates a third dimension to the plot as suspects can be portrayed within murder stories and introduction posters such as my A2 ancillary product also portray many characters in order to introduce the soap opera to its unknown audience.

Walton Common: By using a background of my soap opera scenery it will allow my target audience to familiarise themselves with the narrative and plot of ‘Walton Hill’. If this technique was to be used I would adjust the hue/saturation as well as any further image adjustments to create a sense of mystery and darkness within the trailer.

Black Background: An ordinary black background would create a sense of darkness and futility and has created a similar effect within the ‘Narcos’ poster which follows this basic format.

Synergy

Social Media

Within my soap opera poster I will include the synergy of social media through the portrayal of a ‘Walton Hill’ Facebook/twitter page. This is used amongst all forms of modern day posters as it creates a sense of professionalism and proceeds an interactive house style. I will implement these features in a colour scheme of black and white as the strong colours of blue that these sites possess would clash with my basic and intense colour scheme.

Hashtag

Although similar to the implementation of social media icons, by using a hashtag I will be building the brand identity of my soap through the addition of WaltonHill. This is also a common device amongst many posters as ‘EastEnders’ promoted their soap via social media in order to grant their audience with updates and countdowns into the storyline/plot.

Reviews

Similarly to traditional film posters I will use magazine appraisal in order to promote the viewership of my soap opera. Fort example: ‘Whats on TV’ (5 stars) which creates approval from a reliable source. This creates a widened view of the TV series and alters the reputation of the plot itself. I will present this in a contrasting colour scheme to my background in order for the positive reviews to stand out immediately drawing in all viewers.

Information

Soap Channel/Time: Within my poster I will include the 8:30pm time scale that my soap will be broadcasted on the channel BBC 2. I will therefore implement the BBC 2 logo within my poster in order to inform and educate (Katz) my target audience allowing them to be located to the TV drama. Therefore these details will allow my audience to navigate to the soap opera as my statistics remain consistent from my trailer to the poster. I will also include the fact that my soap opera is ‘brand new’ in order to create a generic narrative within the poster. This will immediately create a hype for the product and will draw a new, untouched audience who will relocate to ‘Walton Hill’. All soap opera posters include the channel in order to promote its area of broadcasting and as my soap opera is brand new the time is more than appropriately portrayed to my target audience.

Conclusion• Overall, I will plan to take all of the appropriate images for my second ancillary product by

Monday 9th November 2015. I aim to make a decision of these images in the near future and am leaning towards the idea of multiple main images in order to introduce the cast to my audience. I will primarily use the font style of corbel (dafont)as it remains within a professional format and remains the current font choice for my soap opera Walton Hill. I will create my poster on Adobe Photoshop as this was the preferred software when creating my magazine front cover, this software also possesses a superior format for editing images which is the key aspect within my poster. I will therefore follow the basis of this document in which I have shortlisted the potential actions to follow when creating my poster, each aspect will be further shortlisted in which I will implement all of the sub categories in order to create a high quality soap opera poster.