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

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

During my coursework production I understood that certain aspects of my soap opera would need to meet the conventions of other real media products eg Eastenders, Hollyoaks in order for it to be a success.

In achieving this in depth knowledge on a large variety of real media products was needed in order for me to create a similar genre, making my soap opera look professional and recognisable but in order for my soap opera to be a success I needed to challenge certain conventions making my soap recognisable and different from previous ones.

Soap opera trailers

I looked at a number of soap opera trailers in order to understand the forms and conventions expected of my soap opera, enabling it to be a success and for me to produce professionalism.

Typical pub establishing shot, features all main characters looking specifically at something.

Natural lighting and a variety of medium shots and close ups.

Pathetic fallacy of a cloudy day connoting something bad may happen.

Ends on a close up of the main characters face, shocked expression for the mise en scen, wearing makeup and a low cut top illustrating she may be sexually objectified.Low key lighting in the background, female dressed in white connoting her innocence.Indoor setting, one main character.

Pathetic fallacy of dark clouds connoting something bad will happen within the trailer.No characters used and a recognisable font is used at the beginning.

Aspects I have taken from these trailers….

Within my trailer I have used aspects of the weather such as the shine off the sun to create ironic pathetic fallacy.

Also I have ended my soap opera trailer with my main characters face smirking as I found this was an effective as it created engima.

I have followed the connotation of using a pub as my opening scene as this is a typical feature in any soap opera.

Cast.. I have used an original cast therefore I have challenged the

conventions of a real media product by using non recognisable characters.

I have also used young characters which challenges real media products as typically there are older characters within a soap opera.

I chose to not sexually objectify any of my characters and the props I used were minimal.

Storyline…

I have followed the typical conventions of a soap opera storyline as I believe the most successful storyline is when someone is returning.

I have used a typical female character as my main character and the themes I have chosen are typical of a soap opera. (Death, Love, Hate, Deciet, ect)

My storyline is based on someone coming back who was in a previous relationship with my main male character.

Setting/Ending… I used the typical setting conventions of a soap opera, I

opened with a pub setting and filmed my entire soap opera in a street which is similar to many soap operas.

I went onto using shots at night in dark ally’s and typical living room home settings.

I have chosen to not illustrate my main characters face throughout the entire soap opera trailer until the end where I used a close up of my main characters face in order to create enigma and suspense which is a typical convention of soap opera.

shot types/camera movement… I have followed conventions of soap operas by using close

ups of my main characters walking along the street in order to create suspense as her face is not being revealed.

I have also challenged conventions by using over the shoulder shots in order see the reaction shots.

I have adopted the technique JJ Abrams uses within his directing, using pathetic fallacy in medium shots where the sun reflects on the camera, this is not typically seen in soap operas.

I believe my soap opera will be a success as I have followed the successful techniques used by real media products. I have also challenged conventions by adopting new original techniques in order to differ my soap opera from other real media texts.