A2 Media - Question 1 - Con Wood

A2 Media StudiesOCR G324

(CONNOR WOOD)

A2 Media StudiesQUESTION ONE

My Final Products

Basic Soap Opera Codes And Conventions

Storylines that are realistic or relatable to the audience of the show and allow the viewers to have a cathartic release, or an emotional escape.

The characters are also based largely around social class, and gender stereotypes to portray a character very quickly. A few perfect examples of this are in coronation street and Eastenders.

Each episode will usually end on a cliff-hanger that will be normally based around common narrative points such as domestic themes, personal/family relationships, which are portrayed in very melodramatic means. These conflicts will usually take several episodes to progress, develop and finally resolve.

The show will typically fill a prime time TV slot (7-10pm on a weekday), airing 3-5 times a week and filling a 30 minute slot (each episode being about 23-25 minutes long). These episodes will continue along a progressive and continuous storyline that runs from episode to episode, as most British soap operas don’t run within typical seasons.

Social Realism: Codes And Conventions

Social realisms storylines usually focuses on giving the audience a true indication of what life is like. Allowing the audience to relate to the show, and create connections with the characters. This can also be used as a cathartic release or a purging of emotions for some viewers, as they will realise that their problems aren’t as bad as the people within the show.

UK soaps typically tend to embrace their location as a large factor of the program. Playing to stereotypes such as accent, occupations and costume. For example a lot of characters in coronation street (Based in Manchester) will speak using mannerisms that are popular within the north-west and within working class life, they are also seen to mimic a northern accent.

Although a lot of the storylines are based around relationships, in social realism soaps there are a lot of deaths/murders which you wouldn’t see as much of in real life. The reason for these over the top, dramatic deaths is to give the element of fantasy. So although the soaps are based on real life, it keeps viewers entertained by seeing something out of the norm. For example, The tram crash in Coronation street, The Wolf pack Siege in Emmerdale.

The British soap Opera: Codes And Conventions

A British soap opera has plotlines based around domestic themes and conflicts, personal and family relationships, which was almost always cause conflicts between two or more characters. These conflicts are based around realistic or relatable storylines, so that a connection will be created from the show, to the audience.

Each episode will follow on from the previous episode as the shows usually have a continuous narrative that will last for 3 or more episodes, that will usually be resolved by the end of the broadcasting weekly schedule. These episodes will usually run for about 20-25 minutes and are usually aired 3-5 times a week usually ending with a cliff-hanger, followed by the catchy theme song and ending credits.

The characters within these shows are also based around very tight stereotypes, an example of some of these common stereotypes are, the Wise Old Lady, The Troubled Young Mother, The Villain, Vulnerable Young Child and the Homosexual Male. These stereotyped characters are evident in almost every British soap opera.

Made In Chelsea & Eastenders Comparison: Costumes

Characters within Made in Chelsea and Eastenders both are both very different as they both different accents, costumes and both live in totally different areas of the country. For example characters within Made in Chelsea are usually found to dress very smartly, take a long time perfecting their appearance and wearing very fashionable clothes, in contrast to this, characters in Eastenders are true working class stereotypes and dress very casually in their jeans and t-shirts and usually don’t look to made up or bothered by their appearance and aren’t as materialistic as characters in Made In Chelsea. Characters in EastEnders also have a very stereotypical Cockney accent, which makes them conform even more to the working class East London stereotype. Whereas characters in Made in Chelsea have a very posh accent which is from the central area London and has connotations of very rich upbringing and background. Even the character’s name connote to a very posh upbringing, names such as “Binky” and “Tiffany”, Which contrasts drastically with the names of characters in Eastenders, where characters are called much more middle/working class names such as “Bobby”, “Mike”, “Gary”.

Made In Chelsea & Eastenders Comparison: Characters & Story

The characters in Eastenders are also different to those in Made in Chelsea, for example Eastenders has a lot of working class, middle aged men and women, who are usually very extreme stereotypes of characters, however in Made In Chelsea, we are faced with a bunch of young men and women in their early to mid-20s, who are all real people that have had private education and are very well off, conforming to the codes and conventions scripted reality, none of these characters are professional actors, but are told to act out a situation and aren’t given a script. In comparison Eastenders keeps to a strict script and has professional/semi-professional actors.

Wise Old Lady The Troubled Young Mother

The Villain Vulnerable Young Kid

Homosexual Male

Hard-working, caring, soft natured and wise old woman.

Feisty attitude, mouthy, put right by wise old lady, usually sympathised

Driven by power and money, carless towards other people, Untrustworthy, shady

Seen as vulnerable, Parents usually have some issues, Picked on

Eccentric, Loves Gossip, Outspoken, Effeminate, Flamboyant

Liz McDonald (Coronation Street) & Peggy Mitchell (Eastenders)

Kylie Platt (Coronation Street) & Stacey Slater (Eastenders)

Peter Barlow (Coronation Street) & Phil Mitchell (Eastenders)

Simon Barlow (Coronation Street) & Bobby Beale (EastEnders)

Sean Tully (Coronation Street) & Christian Clarke (Eastenders)

BSO: Characters and Stereotypes

How I Used, Developed And Challenged these codes and conventions

Location: The location we decided to use for filming some of the shots of our characters was based around the coffee shop within Coronation Street, as this fits into the codes and conventions of a scripted reality British soap opera. We have then developed this convention as we decided to use a more middle class looking café, which will match how the characters are dressing, how they talk and where they're from.

Props: Similarly to the last slide we Used conventions from the British Soap Genre, and once again took influence from coronation street, and decided to have our characters discussing the local goings on with a cup of coffee, which is largely associated with working class social-realism shows. We have developed this convention as we decided to have our characters wearing smart/casual clothing so that we portray the social class of the characters and their surroundings, this is also further portrayed by the location this is filmed in as it was outside a “Costa Coffee” in the centre of Stockport, which is contrasting to the set of coronation street which is set in quite an industrial, working class area. We have challenged these conventions by taking influence from non-social realism show, Made in Chelsea.

Coffee Mug Mobile Phone (iPhone)

Handbag Watch

Props – Codes & Conventions

Coronation Street Made in Chelsea Made in Chelsea Coronation Street

Parka Coat Unbuttoned Smart/Casual Shirt

Hoodie/Jacket

Costumes – Codes & Conventions

Shot Types – Codes & Conventions

Low Angle Close-Up Over The Shoulder Shot

High Angle Mid ShotTwo Shot

Coronation Street:

Two Shot

Coronation Street:

Close up

Made in Chelsea:Over The

Shoulder Shot

Coronation Street:

Low Angle

Coronation Street: High

angle

Choosing A Song For My Trailer

Choosing A Song

Butterflies & Hurricanes Instrumental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HU4h-Af7AwI have decided not to use this song as I feel that it doesn't fit the mood of the trailer properly, as it almost feels a bit too epic, and the tempo was too fast. This song does build up very well, but doesn't really fit my trailer.

Music For A Nurse Instrumental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3-5916EsI4I have decided not to use this song as I feel that the tempo was too slow for my trailer, and the song didn't build up to the climax very well. Although this song is very atmospheric and gives the trailer a very slow and somber feeling, it doesn't fit the trailer very well. 

Isolated System Instrumental:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDkcgbIZ6EEFor the final cut of my trailer I have decided to use this song as it builds up perfectly to the climax of the song, and fits perfectly in time. This song is also the perfect tempo for my trailer, and is also very atmospheric and portrays a feeling of mystery, and sadness.

Unravel Instrumental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9s0WfQCCYYI have decided to not use this song for my trailer, as it doesn't really develop too well, whereas some of the other songs develop and build up into really tense songs. This song does have a very good atmospheric feel to it, but doesn't have a very simple beat, and can be off putting to the audience, as it doesn't fit the trailer very well.

Music Choice

When editing together the footage I had shot and choosing a soundtrack for my trailer, I made sure that I stayed within the codes and conventions of soap opera trailers, to do this I took influence from Made in Chelsea’s ‘Season 7’ Trailer. This trailer had the soundtrack of M83’s ‘Midnight City’ behind it, which created a prominent pulse, and constant tempo throughout the trailer, which built up continually until its climax at the end of the trailer. I decided to mimic this rhythmic style by choosing ‘Isolated System’ which fit a very similar style, as the song progressively built up until a final climax, in which I knew the final line of dialogue would play over, wrapping the trailer into a whole, and allowing me to let the audience come away from the trailer remembering the final message left. This song also contains a very significant pulse and tempo for me to construct my trailer around, with very atmospheric sounds adding to the mood I was trying to create.

Link To The Trailer: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/made-in-chelsea/videos/all/s7-ep1-trailer

Editing Within My Trailer

Conveying Narratives Using Editing

1) Tracking Shot of Elena as she walks through Stockport makes it look like she’s being watched by someone…

2) Cuts to a shot of her phone, showing that an unknown number has contacted her asking her to meet her, the straight cut between these shots allows the audience to link both of these together, as they assume she is walking to meet said mysterious person.

3) The third cut then shows Elena lay lifelessly on the floor with ‘blood’ coming from her head, this straight cut allows the audience to assume that these three shots are linked together.

Conveying Narratives Using Editing

4) Fade To Black shows that time is passing, but the narrative is continuing.

5) Fade from black as it shows Sibohan’s character finding Elena on the floor in the same position as she was the previous night. This fade shows that time has passed and that it is the next day, as Sibohan finds Elena on the floor and calls for help.

6) The final cut then shows an ambulance traveling at speed past the camera, the audience will instantly assume that this is the ambulance that Sibohan was calling. Linking the whole set of shots together into one scene.

Building Tension Using Editing & Speed of Cuts

Throughout the duration of my trailer I decided to stick with codes and conventions of a British soap opera, and scripted reality trailer, especially those set by Made in Chelsea’s season 7 trailer. After I found the right piece of music (Muse’s Isolated System) I decided that I would build tension throughout my trailer by speeding up the edits as the trailer progressed, alongside the music progressing and building into its climax, this fitted perfectly, with the last few shots coming in very quick succession allowed the whole trailer to reach its peak at the same time, and end on a cliff hanger for the audience to think “who really did it?”.

Continuity

Throughout the whole time filming my trailer I needed to make sure the continuity between scenes was perfect, so that the audiences attention wasn’t taken away from the realism and immersion of the trailer. Evaluating the continuity I believe that I managed to achieve a very high level of continuity whilst filming for my trailer, however there are a few examples where this isn’t a case.

As you can see in the images above, in the first shot Elena is seen be wearing a jacket over her t-shirt, however in the next shot she is missing this jacket. This is an example of a bad continuity error. This could’ve been avoided by putting the previous footage next to the footage we were filming to see what needed to be the same.

How did you USE, DEVELOP and CHALLENGE codes and conventions of real media

products?

Ancillary Texts

Magazine Front Cover

As you can see in the image comparing my Magazine front cover to a real TV magazine front cover, I have USED codes and conventions, as I have stuck to having a large, bold header, with bold mastheads and pugs, this is mirrored in the real TV magazine front cover. This is a very basic design technique as it simply allows the audience to identify the genre of the magazine, what it contains and ultimately if they are going to buy it or not.

Magazine Conventions When creating my magazine I made sure

that it stayed within codes and conventions of a working class soap opera TV listings magazine, to achieve this I chose a single coloured blue background, which seemed to be a reoccurring theme throughout TV listing magazines. I also decided to make sure that the masthead was large and bold, creating a strong brand identity so that the audience will instantly recognise it when they look at it. The anchoring text of ‘Merseyway’ is also used to catch the eye of the audience member, as they will instantly know which show is being discussed in this weeks magazine. When researching similar magazines I noticed that all of the taglines they used from within the show left the audience member wanting to read on, as if they were left on a cliff-hanger. This is why I decided to use ‘Who killed holly?’ as the tagline.

Billboard ConventionsThe three cover stars are anchored by an image of a car park in Merseyway creating quite a dark and mysterious image as the wall almost looks like it has bars on it, which has connotations of being trapped, both emotionally and physically. This also stays with the codes and conventions of working class characters, as the background almost looks industrial, and not very well off.

The characters costumes also reflect their class and status as they aren’t wearing particularly expensive clothes, but are wearing very simple clothes such as a jacket and t-shirt. All three characters have very neutral facial expressions, which challenges conventions of a scripted reality, as cast members are seen in always wanting themselves to look good and photogenic, however all three characters have a very neutral facial expression, implying that something bad has happened in the show. This is backed up by the tagline, ‘Who killed holly?’ as this creates mystery and tension between the two characters either side of who the audience assume to be Holly, as her image is in black and white so she looks ghostly. The placement of the characters on the billboard is also essential to what the audience assume about the relationships between characters, and as Holly is seen to be ‘The rose between two thorns’ on my billboard, its safe for the audience to assume that she started off a conflict between both characters either side of her.

Similarities to real media texts Above my poster is a similar poster

from coronation street, the similarities between this billboard and my own is that they all have a very dark and gloomy setting, which reflects both the weather in the location and the mood of the show. The characters positioning is also similar as each character is anchored by another character, showing a relationship between characters. None of the characters in either shot are over sexualised as they would be in a social realism billboard such as made in Chelsea. Both male and female characters in my billboard also dress very similarly to those in the coronation street billboard, they also have very similar haircuts and facial expressions.

Differences to real media texts There are quite a few differences

between my billboard and the coronation street billboard above. Firstly the coronation street billboard has a superimposed image of a truck on its side behind the characters, with some arising from it, this is clearly an indication that this has some significance to the story line, however the location in my billboard doesn’t have much to do with, or hint anything at the storyline. The characters in the coronation street billboard also have very closed body language with their arms folded and hands in pockets, however on my billboard all of the characters are seen to be very open in how they stand. If I was to reshoot this photo then I would make sure the characters looked much more shadier, and as if they had something to hide.