http://www.youtube.com/embed/M-UKUX80cew?rel=0
During the making of our trailer for the fictional soap opera Bathwood, my group and I both stuck to existing genre conventions, as well as challenging them using a mixture of creative techniques; all within productive features of the editing, camera shots, mise-en-scene etc.
Ways in which we followed the soap opera conventions are varied. Firstly we had to decide on the characteristics of the core elements of the soap such as: setting, characters, plot starting points, names for locations and characters, etc. When choosing the setting we chose to put emphasis on the fact that we were filming in the working class areas of East Midlands suburbia, providing a theme of gritty realism and pathetic fallacy that would be present within the soap’s storylines.
Within the trailer we mainly focus on the lives of four members of the Malone family. Barry, the father, who is deeply in debt due to his gambling addiction and moves his family all over the country; on the run from those he owes thousands of pounds to. Michelle, the mother, is the powerful female figure who is having an affair behind her husband’s back, with local troublemaker Tommy Bagwell.
The two teenage characters within the family allow the soap to reach a wider age range in target audience, by presenting issues that people of all generations could relate to. Scott is distraught over discovering his mother is having an affair, and is in the dilemma of deciding whether or not to tell his father. Whilst Frieda is in a stage of rebellion, going binge drinking and making friends with the ‘bad crowd’ at school.
All this is similar to the types of plotlines and character types present in existing soaps, yet have enough originality to seem fresh and new. Other ways in which we stick to soap opera conventions is that the soap’s name- Bathwood, is named after the fictional location where the soap is set, similarly to existing soaps such as Emmerdale or Coronation Street.
Furthermore when analysing exiting soap opera trailers we noticed that in order to convey an idea of plot, without showing direct dialogue, non-diegetic voiceovers where used to give the audience a clearer knowledge of context. This is a convention that we used in the making of our own trailer, such as when Michelle slaps Barry with the voice over saying “I can’t do this.”
In terms of sticking to trailer conventions we took a more cinematic approach, so that our soap opera trailer would stand out compared to others which tend to always follow a similar format. Ways in which we challenged conventions includes the usage of close ups of each characters face before introducing their storyline, using an eye line match to create more intimacy between screen and audience.
Also the music which we edited together for the sound aspect has a more modern twist opposed to that used in most soap opera trailers, which would help to entice a younger generation of audience. Here is a link to the sound clip: http://soundcloud.com/jaysanderson/alibis-remix.
I believe that the ancillary texts that I have created, of an advertisement poster and the cover of the television soaps magazine, contrast well with the imagery we have portrayed in the trailer. The poster consists of the Malones posing sternly, faces towards the camera lens as if they were looking straight at the audience, almost intimidating them. This is consistent with their working class and troubled lifestyles, making them interesting to a voyeuristic audience.
The colour scheme of this is black and white along with bursts of red text; this keeps the look of the poster modern along with adding colour connotations of passion and anger within the appearance. The magazine cover design has the soap Bathwood as the main article, the theme of red text is continued, and so viewers will immediately relate this colour scheme to the soap. Barry and Tommy are used as the main cover’s characters due to their rivalry over Michelle, a love triangle is a common storyline which shows up in soap opera conventions.
The taglines to these advertisements include “Bad News for Bathwood”, which makes use of persuasive techniques such as alliteration, and “Home Sweet Home, or not so sweet?”, relating to the fact that they are moving into a new home and it isn’t going to turn out as well for them as they’d hoped.
Through audience feedback I have found that reception to our trailer have been extremely positive, with wide age ranges and backgrounds saying that they would wish to watch the soap if it were in fact really running. Due to the fact that we have included characters of all ages in our soap they felt that there was no sign of present absence, because each character had their own individual storyline which was just as important as the others.
I feel that I have moved on dramatically in my understanding of media technology since the beginning of my AS year, through creating my poster and magazine cover I am now able to confidently use photographic editing programmes such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe In Design, and enjoy the process at the same time.
Also through using video editing software of Premiere Elements, the same as with my AS project, I was familiar with its functions and was able to comfortably spend time editing the trailer, along with my fellow group members, to the best of our ability. Combining split up clips together so they flowed naturally, adding in sound, voiceovers, usage of slow motion special effects, etc.
During filming I was also already familiar with using video cameras and how long to film each particular shot which would be best used in the editing process. We aimed to use a vast range of camera angles to emphasize status, as well as close ups to show the character’s facial expression clearly throughout the trailer.
If our soap were to be a shown it would be on BBC1, the most popular TV channel instituion in the UK and therefore would ensure the most popularity and highest veiwing figures.
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