Magazine first draft

Magazine[1]

 This was draft one of the magazine, created by the second group I mentioned in earlier post ‘Creating the first draft poster’. By having me (a member who didn’t take part in the development) analyses the magazine we can get a more honest opinion, as I won’t be over generous of my own work.

The magazine included elements conventional for a soap opera listing magazine including a master head (magazine title), a main image, a main cover line, a price, the left third contains important information, smaller cover lines and smaller images. However, we have forgotten a dateline and a barcode and without the following the magazine cannot meet a professional standard.

Master head- The title of the magazine is simple and fitting. ‘Soap Buzz’ informs the potential audience of the type of magazine from first glances and makes it sound full of gossip. The colour scheme works well; the yellow is made bolder by the red behind. These bright colours will grab the audience’s attention. The  yellow connotes ‘boldness’ and ‘big events’ and the red connotes ‘gossip’ and subjects related to the theme including ‘death’, ‘love’ and more.

Images- Similar to the master head all images fit well to their cover lines; very well. Each characters facial expression and body language is intertwined with the narrative or enigma coded messaging fed through the cover line and this heightens the audiences interest, leaving them guessing if their theories of plot events are correct. An example of a fitting image is the top left cover line, ‘best friends? Hidden enemies?’ The character on the left looks like an antagonist or an enemy to the character on the right; yet, the character on the right looks like a friend of a protagonist to the character on the left. This fits perfectly with the cover line and allows the audience to guess if their friend or enemies and this in contrast will attract them to the show so they can find out, boosting our numbers.

Cover lines- Most cover lines need to be made better. But, this isn’t a massive issue as this is only a draft and the new lines made won’t take long. Some are clever and should be kept such as ‘Vicar Losses faith’ and ‘Best friend? Hidden enemies?’Ones that need improvements include the main cover line ‘trouble in paradise’. The reason I say this is because the characters did not live in paradise before Rachel Manning’s arrived. Though, their lives were easier I feel it is too random for our piece. The font for the main cover line is good and the colour scheme is good for the same reasons the master heads was. The sub cover lines however have smaller font which would be difficult for some viewers to read. I would use a clearer font and make the lettering bigger but again this is only a minor issue which can be easily corrected.

The left third- The left third is near too perfect. ‘BRAND NEW SOAP’ will capture the attention of potential audiences quickly and the purple colouring makes it easier to notice. Their eyes will continue down to the cheap price of the magazine. Followed by the channel the new soap is on and finally the free poster which makes the 45p cost seem more closely linked to 0p, leaving the audience believing the magazine is a bargain. None the less, without a dateline and barcode the left third seems unprofessional.  Once again however, this is an easy mistake to correct.

Layout and colour scheme- The layout of the magazine is good. It looks professional and all fits well. The colour scheme I feel may be overly bold. A conventional of magazine listings are bold, capturing colours but I feel the clash of multiple yellows, red, blues, greens and purples is too much and we should stick to a more simple set. Perhaps this colour scheme won’t matter if we incorporate more imagery and fill in the gaps? This will have to be experimented with and decided on a later date. Personally, I feel the colour scheme should be simplified as well as introducing more imagery or bigger images so too fill the cover more and too make the piece look more professional.

I will give my notes to the second part of our group and once they have made a second draft I will insist them in the final edit, making sure all my criticism listed above are dealt with.

Poster, first draft

1)      This is the first draft of our poster and it has obvious issues. Firstly, the majority of the characters do not look good. By this I mean they are either stood awkwardly or have had a bad photo taken of them. The characters Harriet Collins and Rachel Mannings look good, but the rest need improvement. We will improve the images by directing the actors better.

2)      The cutting out of the characters isn’t to an industry standard. This was not a major priority for the rough draft, for we were mainly focusing on layout. Now however, it is a priority and must be treated as a massive focus in order to attract audience to what should be thought of as a professional, real show being advertised. This quality of cutting will be easier when firstly we use a high definition camera and secondly we take photos in front of a white background. We are also debating using the program called ‘GIMP’, GNU Image Manipulation Program, which furthers the crafting material to edit photography.

3)      The background, I feel is good. But researching other possibilities will confirm if I am correct or not.

4)      The plaque with the soap title, ‘Mill lane’, is a good idea which will be kept. None the less, we have to find a better font for the title which is easier to read.

5)      Finally, we must plan a channel and a slogan for the piece. This is still being thought of and, similar to criticism ‘2’, wasn’t a major priority of the first draft.

Creating the first draft poster

To save time our production has split into two departments. The first department is creating a rough draft for the magazine cover and the second (the one I am in) is creating a rough draft for the promotional poster.

Step one- The initial idea.
The initial idea for our poster is to have it in a frame with an attractive backing. The frame and the background will attract higher class audiences and our soap character, wearing casual clothing will be juxtaposition to this posh-ness will attract the lower band audiences'.

Step two- Development.
The development required several factors. Firstly, images of the character to place into the poster. We took images in front of a black wall to make it easier to cut out the characters and place them into our poster. However, after several shots we realised that the black wall made it hard to see the black trousers of the characters, so as a result we started taking pictures infront of a white wall. Secondly, I initially did all cutting on ‘Photo shop 4’ but soon realised simpler looks better so we switched to the programme ‘Paint’ which made the cutting easier and faster.

Before putting characters into the work we gathered a background in which to place our characters and made the title of the soap opera so it can be advertised. We included a frame which I put around the image of the background to make the poster stand out and interesting.

 The first characters placed in the poster was Rachel Mannings and Harriet Collins. Here is an image to show you how this looked with the draft frame and background.

The third character I put in the poster was JenniferWard.

Followed by Barry Brooker and his bestfriend Charlie Collins.

Then I added Marcus Brooker and Ryan Parker.

All these characters created our poster and now I was able to add the final touches of poster conventions which included the location of the slogan and the channel name; which has not yet been confirmed.

Production notes

Location of Filming

We used Broomfield to record our whole soap trailer. It was ideal for several reasons; firstly, shown by the line on the map, it had both rural and urban locations. Secondly this urban location could be used as a base camp to get supplies or used for more practical reasons such as lunch. A crew members home was located on Mill lane making it ideal for this purpose. The urban location also homes our pub ‘The king’s arms’ shown on the map along the main road. The church featured was also beside the pub, known as 'Church green'. The close walk to all locations made filming simple and easy.

Locations of Filming 2

The above picture shows where we filmed our first scene (though it isn’t the first scene of the trailer). It was a complex shot which required four actors, two camera men and two crew members standing alongside the road as traffic watch. The smiley face represents the position of our two cameramen. One filmed actor two (shown by 2) and the other filmed actor three and four (shown by 3). Actor two simply had to walk forward from the gate and stand still when instructed; her position had to be perfect so the other two walking actors could be seen in the distance of her to the left side. Actor one (shown by 1) drove a car past actors three and four until it went out of site. We established and explained to each actor the pace they must move so all four could be seen in the frame, after several rehearsals we had the shots desired and moved to the pub, the kings arm, for further filming.

Location of Filming 3

This was the church location were we filmed the Vicar and the elderly lady. It was a simple shot. The smiley face represents were the camera crew stood and the black lines highlight the frame of the shot. The blue car was not in the shot on the day of filming.

Other shots were taken in varied locations but finding their position on Google maps is difficult or impossible. The two examples above highlight the skill and planning needed to get footage for our trailer.  

All images were found using Google maps.

What needs to be re-filmed?

We had several issues regarding lighting. The last three shots in our trailer have varied lighting. Going from gloomy to night then back to daytime; this is obviously not acceptable. To deal with the issues we have been playing with light using final cut express. We can change the brightness of shots which allows us to have a better flow of continuity within our piece.

The final shot was captured in daytime lighting but the shot before was at night. This is because our actors were available at different times. To fix the problem we are re-filming the final shot in night so we have a timeline within our piece from early morning to night time. This is an ideal plan as the actors filmed at night are no longer available making it possible only to re-film the day shot at night time.

Famous soap jingles

Every soap opera has an introductory piece of music. Most stick to the same music throughout the soaps life which helps it become recognisable and, too a degree, famous. Some soaps, like Hollyoaks, will change their music to help keep the show ‘fresh’ and to attract new audiences.

More traditional soap music includes Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street. All shown below.

Each piece of music helps attract its target audience, as does the imagery that goes along side it. Eastender has lots of drums and zooms out, it’s very fast pace and dramatic which is similar to the narrative of the show. Emmerdale is more chilled out but increasingly becomes more dramatic. The shot of the woman’s leg stroking the man’s attracts a younger audience who are more interested with ‘flirty’ storylines. Yet, the music staying more traditional still attracts an older audience. Coronation Street remains very old fashioned and will attract more mature audiences as it has little appeal to younger generations. Its final shot, of the chimneys, looks very British and feels the viewer with pride which keeps them engaged with the stereotypical British show.

Hollyoaks opening has changed over the years. This is because, rather than introducing locations in their opening they introduce characters. So, when characters leave and enter the show the opening changes with the cast. The credits is extremely fast pace and contains many flashing lights and colours, giving it an upbeat, younger feel, which attracts younger audiences to the over exaggerated narratives.

The reason it is important to research jingles is because at least a short section of our soap jingle should be featured within the trailer. This is a convention which can be shown by the Eastenders original trailer below. Our soap is targeting a wide range of audiences of all ages and several classes. The imagery from the trailer attracts a younger audience so our priority for our music should be too attract an older, more mature, audience which would require a more traditional genre of music.  

Actors I would use for our soap opera.

Farmer Husband - Charlie Collins               

Farmer Girl - Harriet Collins                        

Bad Boy - Ryan Parker                                

Essex Girl - Rachel Mannings                      

Farmer wife - Jennifer Ward              

Pub Owner - Barry Brooker                          

Pub Owners Son - Marcus Brooker              

Vicar - Simon Claude                                  

Old Woman - Edith Jones

In order to create the best piece of television or film you must find and gather the ideal actor for each character. These are the characters I would use if this was a real soap opera.

 

Farmer Husband - Charlie Collins  

The farmer husband is a cheating husband with his wifes bestfreind, Jennifer Ward. In order to portray this character well we must find an actor who finds acting natural to him, making the character and the storyline more powerful. My research has led me to recruit actor Gary Farmer.

Though too old now to perform a believable Charlie Collins, Gary would have been ideal in his younger years to be our farmer’s husband.  He could easily suit the required outfit for the character and he is a brilliant actor adapting to all roles quickly and sufficiently. He has appeared in over 100 television series and movies, ranging from main characters to extras. His career began as a small role in the film ‘police academy’ (1984) and since he has evolved to tackle larger roles.

IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) highlights how ‘Gary has shown he can adapt easily to any genre when necessary.’ This is why he is ideal to use, as he can make the audience feel the required emotions we set for the character Charlie Collins.

Farmer Girl - Harriet Collins      

The farmer girl is kind, shy and attractive. She is liked by all of the community apart from Rachel Mannings, who finds Harriet’s crush tempting. This rivalry premiers the feisty side to Harriet which ultimately means we need a character who seems innocent but has a feisty, hidden attitude.

My research led me to the actress Gemma Merna.

Already a Hollyoaks star she understands how to be a successful soap opera character. Above this she already performs the attributes our character must possess through her Hollyoaks character Carmel Mcqueen. On the other hand I am not confident Carmel has the look needed to suit a rural, innocent character. My choice in picking her was a tough one and if this was a real soap opera I would have tested her abilities and saw if the look suited with an audition before production.

Bad Boy - Ryan Parker  

Ryan is the cast stud. He is the bad boy who has the two most attractive girls after him. He works with cars and has to be seen as cool. This is why I did little research and knew quickly that the actor I would use for Ryan is Nigel Harman.

He, like Gemma Merna, has experience in the field of soap operas. He portrayed Dennis, son of dirty Den for Eastenders. The bad boy character is a commonly found convention of soap and that is why Dennis and Ryan Parker are almost identical in their actions and hobbies. Unlike Gemma Merna I do not question Nigel Harman as i have complete faith that he would be perfectly suited for the role of Ryan.

Essex Girl - Rachel Mannings 

I do not want our Rachel Mannings to be the over the top Essex stereotype. Instead I just want to portray her as a flirt. Using macke up, extensions and saucy dresses will connote Rachel as a self centred, conformational person. To help create a real Rachel we need a makeup covered proud woman who seems both strong and capable of living inherently.  

My research has suggested that Hannah Voice would make a good Rachel.

Hannah is 19 and has done several modelling jobs showing her confidence. She is also a commercial model which suggests she can act to a certain degree. She would suit the desired look of Rachel and if an audition showed me she could act I would offer her the role.  

Farmer wife - Jennifer Ward  

                                                                              Jennifer Ward is a good person despite her affair with her  best friends husband. We want people to still pity her despite her wrong doings. This is why we must find an actor who can do one thing but portray an opposite message during the performance.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter….

In my opinion the best actress of all time, Helen would be perfectly suited to bring the role/storyline of Jennifer Ward to life. She is a brilliant actress shown by her long list of main characters in hit films such as Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd , Fight Club, The Kings Speech and tons more. As a result she has little expertise or experience in television and none in soap operas. Yet I feel she would be brilliantly ideal. Realistically even if this soap real Helena couldn’t join the cast, she is just far to famous but I still think she would be the most capable actress for bringing Jennifer to life.      

Pub Owner - Barry Brooker 

                                                                          Barry Brooker is seen as the typical tough landlord; this portrays him as an antagonist. To bring this character to life we need an actor who looks tough and cruel.

My research led me to actor Steve McFadden.

Already a well-established soap opera actor Steve’s character is Phil Mitchell, perhaps the most famous pub owner who has screened on the small screen. He has all the stereotypical conventions of this character and is seen as the antagonist our character, Barry, must be.

Pub Owners Son - Marcus Brooker

                                                                     The son of Barry Brooker is homosexual; he appears weak and his father psychologically abuses him and rejects him because of this. The audience must pity Marcus; as a result our actor must look weak and terrified as well acting this trait equally as well.

My research indicated that Guy Burnet has the experience to suit the role

Craig Dean, character played Guy Burnet, was the gay landlord son for Hollyoaks. Taking on a starring role he gained experience for this stock character convention and would be ideally suited to rein act his role as Marcus.

Vicar - Simon Claude

Our Vicar must be one with the lord and must appear slightly boring. He is the kindest character from the cast and a boring voice will be a desired trait. He too must be elderly and seem wise.

My research has suggested David Neilson .

With years of soap experience in Coronation Street David may want to attempt more grown up characters in his later acting career. That is why he would be a good candidate for Our Vicar. Though an audition would be required, as he may not be suited for the role I think that David is a strong candidate for the role as he can portray both wise and kind characters.

Old Woman - Edith Jones

Our old lady is a widow and is the kindest character on the block. Yet, her hobbies include gossiping which connotes a slight weakness in her protagonist personality. She has to look sweet and act adorably making actress Hilda Braid perfect for the role.

With a long career in acting she played Nana Moon in Eastenders and gained good experience in the soap opera industry. Suiting the role with both her appearance and acting ability’s she is perfect for Edith Jones.