Research: Music

Anotsu - Man On The Run
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqqInVXkujY

4 String - Take Me Away (Neucore Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsKGeE5Awc8

Best Uncopyrighted Songs Ep.1 By Stylez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLmB3DWEGVY

Out of our favourites we chose 4 String - Take Me Away (Neucore Remix) because we felt it suited out target audience the best as it was a dubstep remix.  Dubstep is a new and contemporary music genre, particularly popular amongst teenagers and young adults, which was the age group we had decided to target our soap at.  The tempo of the song builds quite quickly from the beginning, which we particularly liked as it gave the trailer pace, making it snappy and therefore hopefully able to catch the audiences interest.

Trailer in the making

Whilst filming we took photographs to show the different locations and variety of camera angle which we used to make our trailer seem as realistic and attention grabbing as possible.

Our soap trailer characters

We thought carefully about our characters to ensure that they were targeted correctly to our audience and were people which they could relate to, as well as making sure there was a variety of age.


This character represents the typical teenage 'bad boy' who everyone in the area would be afraid of.  His dark clothing and, in particular, hooded jacket represent the stereotypical appearance of being a dangerous and unfriendly figure.


These characters represent young mums and the struggles in which they have to face, as well as being looked down on by society in general, despite the unknown circumstances of the individual.


This character is a teenage mum-to-be, highlighting the fact that this is an ever growing problem within society nowadays.


These characters represent the different generations being together, a granddaughter and her grandparents.


These character show 'the love triangle', as well as focusing on the tough decisions of sexuality which many young teens face. The girl on the left is wearing a check shirt, dark jeans and boots, representing a typical boyish dress sense, whilst the girl in the middle is dressed more feminine.

This character displays a typical teenager and the emotions that they have to go through and the drastic decisions which some of the make when faced with tough prospects.

New production schedule

Tuesday 29th November
Film Aleisha and baby Charlie arriving off of the train at the train station, including Ricky biking past.

Sunday 4th December
Film Toni's grandparents and their granddaughter arriving at the street, including Ricky biking past again.

Friday 9th December
Film Eva at my house, running away from home to go to the new area.

Monday 12th December
Film Toni, Rowen and Mark, love triangle, outside a pub.

Production schedule delayed

We had a problem with when we had organised to film as another group had booked the HD video camera for the same time as us and only one was available, so, we were therefore unable to film until Monday 28th November when the other group had finished filming their footage.

Production schedule

Friday 25th November
Film Toni's grandparents and their granddaughter arriving at the street, including Ricky biking past again.
Film pregnant Lihenna walking down an alley with her friend Kelly, including Ricky biking past.

Sunday 27th November

Film a group of teenagers/young adults from the local ramps making their way towards the street on skates, skateboards, bikes, scooters etc.

Tuesday 29th November
Film Luci and her baby Charlie arriving off of the train at the train station, including Ricky biking past. 

The deadline for the final draft of our soap trailer is 16th December 2011

Equipment checklist

To be able to film our soap trailer we needed to make sure we had all the correct equipment.

• HD Video Camera
• Tripod
• Digital Camera - used to take photos of us filming, for evidence of production.
• Battery charger for video camera

After careful thought we decided, as a group, on a new idea for our soap trailer but still ensuring that we showed a variety of stereotypical characters.

The reason for changing from our initial idea was because we would've needed every character to be available to film on the same day, which we discovered would be quite tricky.


Our new idea was to have different groups/people making their way to the new street/area where the soap would be set using a range of different transport such as a train, car or bike but have one character which appears in every scene; such as someone riding past on their bike, making their way to the street, as this would link each scene.
This would introduce the characters and set the scene, but not over complicate the trailer.  We would also include small snippets of the characters personality or reveal something about them to entice the audience and make sure that the trailer is still appealing and interesting.

We created a rough storyboard for our new idea and planned out some ideas for how the characters would arrive, expressing their personalities to the audience.

Ideas for locations

This field could be used as an area for the community where young children can play or where the community can come together for events and socialise.

We thought that these roads could be good possible location settings as they are dead ends, meaning that we would be easily able to film without causing any disturbances or putting anyone in danger. As well as this, they look like typical locations for a soap set in a town.

These are both quite main roads meaning that it could be tricky to film as it will be busy.  The left photo may look slightly too urban for our soap as you can see cranes in the background where as the houses in the right photo give more of a small community feel.

These alley ways could be the ideal location for something teenage related to occur as they are out of the way of any main roads.

This small forest area could be ideal for filming as a place for young children to play as it almost looks like a den.

  

We wanted to ensure that we used some public places to not only help set the scene but to make it seem as realistic as possible.

By choosing a variety of locations we would be able to target different audience types and ages, although, we had decided that our main audience would be within the range of 16 - 24 years old.

As a group, we went for a walk around one of the local estates to get inspiration for the name of our new soap.  Only after we had got back to school and looked over the photos we'd taken did we realise that we'd only chosen road names beginning with 'C'.  When discussing a name we had said that we didn't want anything that sounded too country like, as though our soap was set in a village, but a name that would reflect a soap set in a town.  Out of the photographs we had taken we decided that we prefered 'Conway' as it was fairly short, snappy and easy to pronounce and didn't soud like another word, like 'Corfe' did.

As a group we made a list of possible characters, as well as people to play them, making sure that we had all of the typical steroetypes.

We made a rough plan of how we wanted our opening sequence to be.

The main character is seen in the center of the drawing, he is either handcuffed or on drugs.  As he makes his way down the street characters are revealed down the side of the road and it cuts to flashbacks of involvement that this character has had with the various different people.  The possible reason for him being handcuffed is that his involement with all the other characters was things he shouldn't be doing. The second possibility, of being on drugs, is the reason behind his flashbacks as he sees the people.

Our original idea for our soap trailer was to have a male character walking down a street.  We thought that he could possible be handcuffed and be escorted by police, but then thought that we might not be able to ensure that it looked as realistic as we wanted it to.  We then thought that the character could be on drugs and, as he walks down the street, sees several people he knows; all being very stereotypical characters such as the thug, chav, slut, homosexual, matriarchal character and someone from a different ethnic background.  This is where we would put in flashbacks, as he sees them standing along the road he is walking down, showing that he has had some involvement in each of  their lives.  This would then hopefully entice the audience into watching the new soap as they would want to find out more about this character, and the details of their involvement with all the other characters.

Inspiration

Hollyoaks trailers - because they're quirky, include special effects and appeal particularly to a younger target audience.

Skins trailer - although Skins is a drama, and not a soap, the way it targets it's young adult audience is similar to Hollyoaks in the fact that its trailers are young, exciting and pacey, involving scenes which young people can relate to and would be interested in.

 

We created a mindmap of ideas as a group about a potential soap name, the target audience, setting and characters.

Research: Launch trailers for soaps

1985

We looked at EastEnders very first trailer, only 13 second long, consisting of a variety of quick paced cuts showing what is evidently a street in London, due to the big red buses.  The removal lorry which drives past has the 'EastEnders' logo across the side of it, representing the fact that it's a new soap.  The quick paced cuts  fit in time with the well known theme tune which is still played today.
In contrast to this, the Hollyoaks trailer broke the stereotypical soap opera image as well as the verisimilitude as the actors and actresses are shown to be on set and filming, aware that it is not reality and talking about their character roles.

  
1995

Research: Soap title sequences

Both of these title screen are iconic and attract their target audiences in different ways.


EastEnders has it's iconic drum beat at the beginning of the title sequence, known as the 'duff duff's', alerting its audience that the programme is starting.  The tune is fairly repetitive and keeps a simple pattern making it easily recognisable and catchy.  The shot of the Thames is famously known and therefore a good representational image for a soap based in London.

Compared to EastEnders, the Hollyoaks theme tune and title sequence is a lot more modern and evidently aimed at a younger target audience.  The music has a strong guitar beat and the camera shots are fast paced and choppy, showing all the characters and their personalities through props, which is a great contrast to EastEnders simple pan outwards.