Joshua Davey - 5892 - Production Log

St. Paul’s Catholic College

Center Number: 64770

Candidate Number: 5892

Candidate Name: Joshua Davey

A2 Media Studies

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –

Production Log

Evidence of Planning & Research

Aims and Objectives

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AO2 – Assess candidates’ application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work, showing how meanings and responses are created.

AO3 – Assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills.

AO4 – Assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.

Brief Chosen

A 45 second – 1 minute 30 second trailer for a NEW Soap Opera that will be exhibited on BBC 3 at 8:30pm (after Eastenders) that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.

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Contents

Textual Analysis

Eastenders

- Soap Opera Codes & Conventions- Multi Strand Narrative

Coronation Street

“..the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”

‘Masculinity and Popular television’ – Rebecca Feasey (2007)

- Is this evident and how is this presented to the audience?

Research

Purpose of a Trailer Multi-Platform promotion Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks

Production Work

Director Producer Institution research – BBC Three

Soap Opera Codes & Conventions – Lesson 2

1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?

You MUST demonstrate what you already know by completing a “Spider Diagram” of what you know about OR expect from this genre:

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2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre

The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale ) elements of:

1. Romance

2. Family relationships and/or conflict

3. Focus on working class communties

4. Antagonism and conflict within the community

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5. Verisimilitude

Eastenders (1985 – Present)

Key information regarding this text:

Exhibited on BBC One and repeated on BBC Three

One of the UK’s highest rated programmes (average 8 million)

Set in the ‘kitchen sink’ setting of fiction Walford, East London

Textual Analysis Task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -

You MUST complete the Table below whilst watching the TWO promotional trailers for the BBC Soap Opera Eastenders.

You SHOULD aim to identify key examples (Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical) from each trailer that demonstrates your understanding.

You COULD apply relevant audience theory to explain what impact these key examples would have on the target demographic.

In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the target audience for Eastenders?

Age 15-50

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Gender Women

Nationality British

Trailer 1)

What is the Focus of this trailer?Betrayal

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Code&

Convention

Evidence

(Verbal, Non-

Verbal, Technical)

Impact on the Audience

(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)

RomanceVerbal “I love you”

Personal identification (Katz) – There is the identification of the love between both characters through both verbal and non-verbal codes.

Family relationships and/or conflict

Verbal “Likes Father” “Likes Son”

Personal relationship (Katz) – This connotes that there is differentiation between the father and son but StacEy cannot or will not choose between them.

Focus on working class communities

Non-verbal

Suits and Ties worn by mid/upper class characters

Character appearance – The characters are dressed in attire that makes their appearance seem smart and casual and easily indicates to the audience that they are of the middle to upper class of social status.

Setting – The setting connotes to the audience that it is east London and is within a small working community made up of all different backgrounds and status.

“Multi-Stranded Narrative”

Technical

Different camera angles and shots used to focus on the characters

Close-ups – The close-ups help to establish the characters facial expressions to the audience to bring deeper meanings to the multi-stranded narrative.

Mid-shots – The mid shots help to establish the body language and the characters place in the narrative.

Establishing shot – The establishing shot will help to display the setting to the audience and the key areas of the main part of the multi-stranded narrative.

Narrative Technical Mid shot & Close-ups – These together make up the main shots used within the soap opera genre as to

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The different camera shots that are used to portray the narrative.

establish the different aspects of the narrative, mainly in terms of the different characters presented.

‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)

Verbal

“I know your dirty little secret”

Personal identification (Katz) with family conflict within the narrative. This is representative of typical family life where families have arguments and keep secrets from each other. The audience can also relate to this on a personal level.

Trailer 2)

What is the Focus of this trailer?Judgement

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Code&

Convention

Evidence

(Verbal, Non-Verbal,

Technical)

Impact on the Audience

(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)

RomanceNon-verbal

Costume that Stacy is wearing is a maid’s outfit.

Personal relationship (Katz) – This connotes the personal relationship between the characters and the audience.

Family relationships and/or conflict

Technical

All of the camera shots that are used to show the prominence of the family.

Close-up & Mid shot – These camera shots connote to the audience of the importance of family but also the conflict that is shared not only between the direct family but to the complete family.

Focus on working class communities

Non-verbal

The appearance and the costumes of each the characters within the trailer

Costumes – The characters appearance and the costumes they wear are typical of the working class and are true to the theme of the soap opera genre.

Multi –Stranded Narrative

Technical From 4 different character perspectives. This connotes to the

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The camera angles and shots used show the perspectives

audience that there is a different side to each story and in particular from the 4 perspectives of the family.

Narrative Technical

The downfall of Max Branning

The personal identification (Katz) of the audience with the conflict in the narrative. Also the aspect of judgment.

‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)

Technical/Non-verbal

Tania clenching the Morgue bed and Jack holding the tag for Max for when he dies. Shows they show anger towards him and will show no remorse when he dies.

Multi-stranded narrative

A Multi-stranded narrative can be defined as…..

Telling a story from more than one person’s point. Telling multiple stories about multiple characters in an open narrative episode for example.

You MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastenders and identify where the following elements are presented to the audience:

Multi-stranded narrative Family relationships and/or conflict Focus on working class communities ‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Romance

You SHOULD write down x1-2 examples for EACH of the elements above that are presented.

Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience Multi-stranded

narrativeTechnical – Close-ups Immersion in to the

narrative

Family relationships and/or conflict

Technical/ VerbalClose-ups

Conflict between the Branning’sPersonal Identification

Focus on working class communities

Non –verbalThe costumes of the characters within the narrative are both formal and informal

Setting and appearance of the characters

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Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) A lot of talk about Lauren “She’s on a slippery slope” She is going downhill into depression

Romance Jack and Sharon arguing. Tension

Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 3Textual Analysis

According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the Soap Opera genre tends to focus on:

The home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman and as such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer

1) – Do you agree?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY (First 5 minutes)

You MUST deconstruct the opening 5 minutes of a sequence from the popular ITV Soap Opera Coronation Street (1960 – Present) to identify examples of where this ideology is presented to the target audience.

You SHOULD also try and identify, to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the genre, any Codes & Conventions associated to the Soap Opera genre.

Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience

Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology:

1. The Family – There are multiple families shown in the extract which helps to conform to the ideology.

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2. The home – This is prominent through the clip as the episode starts off with everyone in their homes as the day begins. This is where the families are also situated throughout the clip.

3. Domestic tribulations – There are domestic tribulations as is seen then the Rovers Return as Stella is making one of her daughter’s tea. An argument starts between them and this is typical as families fight but usually resolve their differences.

4. Appealing to the female viewer – There is a lot to appeal to the female viewer in this as it revolves around family life and also the domestic tribulations that are associated with it daily. It mainly allows them to create a diversion from their daily lives to relax and ‘personally identify’ and ‘relate’ to the narrative.

5. The strong woman – Throughout the extract there are strong women presented to the audience and these are the women that the female part of the audience build that ‘personal relationship’ with as they seem to make the will of others bend around their own and get things the way they want them to be.

Multi-stranded narrative

TechnicalThe camera shots to portray the multi-stranded narrative

Establishing shots portray the different families and their narratives.

Family relationships and/or conflict

Verbal

Leanne arguing with her mum and her sister

The families talk to each other in only ways that families would address each other and also there is conflict between them.

Focus on working class communities

Non-verbal/Technical

The camera angles and shots used to display the working class community

The characters and their costumes help establish that the focus is on the working class community and also the mid shot and long shot establish the appearance of each character.

Disequilibrium’ (Todorov) Verbal

Sean and Marcus argue because Sean thinks he has lost him and he is having an affair

There is ‘disequilibrium’ (Todorov)between Sean and Marcus because Sean thinks that Marcus has lost interest in him so they have an argument and Marcus storms off creating the enigma clue what is going to happen next.

Romance Technical The audience is presented

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The camera shots and angles to show the distance between the characters is very little

with Romance between Mary and Norris as she dances around the shop and then begins to smile and laugh when she talks to him.

Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4Textual Analysis

1) What is the purpose of a trailer?

The purpose of a trailer is to attract/promote a programme to a specific target audience to entice them into watching.

2) What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?

Attract a larger target audience

Cheap and easy to get to the audience

Ultimately, some form of Convergence is important when promoting a text to the target audience.

3)

Textual Analysis –

You MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this sequence from Coronation Street:

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Multi-stranded narrative Character dilemmas ‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)

Multi-stranded narrative – Becky and Steve, Roy and Hayley, Liz and Jason

Focuses on multiple characters and their lives that they lead in the narrative

Character dilemmas – Becky drinking down the champagne extremely quickly showing she has a drink problem. This connotes to the audience that it may not all be plain sailing for her and Steve.

Personal Identification – The wedding and the big build up, people rushing about to get things down and to make sure everything is perfect for the big day.

Personal Relationship – The relationship the audience and the characters share, to strengthen the verisimilitude of the narrative to keep the audience captivated and continue watching.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od

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The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.

1. What are the connotations of the Ident for the popular Channel Four Teen Soap Opera Hollyoaks (1995 – Present)?

There is a gender divide and that because the female punk is first they are the important or most focused on.

Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4

2. You MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this sequence from Hollyoaks:

Binary opposition of the non-diegetic music Symbolism of the non-verbal code of the tear Representation of Pregnancy Any other examples that would impact the audience

“A nice day for a white wedding”, binary opposite when the church and everyone is wearing black.Symbolism of the tear is betrayal or guiltPregnancy is seen as unwantedMulti-stranded narrative of the different charactersA broken relationship or the death of a relationship due to black being worn and it seeming as though a funeral service is about to take place.

Production Work

1) What is the role of a Producer?

The role of a producer is to oversee all aspects of the production across pre-production, production and post-production.

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2) What is the role of a Director?

The role of a director is to oversee the creative aspects of the production and to direct the people in front and behind the camera.

3) Institution research –

You MUST research the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on.

Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.

1.4 % audience share Target audience is 16 -34 years old Launched February 2003

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