Production Process

A Typical Family Scene being shot for a soap opera

Original idea

Civil Road

Plan

Time: We produced our shooting schedule, with times which suited everybody in our group, this was a difficult task, as we all have different commitments, for example part-time jobs, hobbies, but we have managed to overcome this.

Location: Due to members of the group coming from opposite sides of the county finding locations which were easily accessible out of school times for filming, was not the easiest of task. Members of the group could not agree on this however this was resolved after the first shooting.

An Example location from 'Eastenders'

Props: We are continuing to work on props, we need to buy some wedding decorations for our wedding scene, for example confetti, we already have a bottle of champagne and wine glasses that we can use, but we also need a dress and veil for the character Nicola to wear, during the ‘runaway bride’ scene. We also need to make sure that the lighting used is of good quality, in order for our filming to be clear. This could prove to be a difficult task to overcome in reality. ** After filming the first time in a pub, we reviewed this on the camera and it didn't look so bad, however when it was ready for editing on a larger screen the lighting was appalling and very unprofessional.

Editing/camera: In order for our trailer to look realistic and professional we need to extend on the skills learnt at AS level We need to remember to use appropriate transitions and voice-overs when editing out trailer for it to have a professional look. As we are creating a new soap this will not be easy because it is easy to set a theme for current soaps as people know who the character are, an example of this is the western Kat and Alfie return from Eastenders.


Reviewing the characters we have chosen we have made them easily recognizable for the audience. We have done this by using stereotypical attributes for the characters. We have done this because if the audience can easily relate to the character they have more interest in what they are watching, and it is easier to catch the target audience’s attention.




This is an original storyboard we created







Regulations which need to be taken into account when creating our soap.

Within our soap trailer we explore various situations, a new family moving in, alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancy. This can be uneasy for some audiences and certain issues can sometimes not been shown in soap operas or if they do the producers must have an action help line in process. For example the current situation in Eastenders with the death of Ronnie’s baby and stealing Kat Moon’s. There was originally a helpline for this for people who it may have affected. However there have been many complaints about the storyline and it had to be cut short. Another regulation that needs to be taken into account is the Race and Regulations Act, therefore we had to make sure our trailer was not racist in any shape or form, people may feel the soap trailer has a stereotypical view on teenagers, however it contains mainly a younger generation as we have chosen a style of soap similar to Hollyoaks. To prevent future issues, when the soap episodes extend we will bring in a variety of characters, taking into consideration race, disability, and sexuality. Businesses like OfCom ensure that certain content is not broadcast .The OfCom website speaks about making the media safer for everybody.

Changes

During out time of production we experienced a group s e p a r a t i o n, this was because we wanted to achieve the best grade possible because the people we were working with did not seem interested, however leaving our original group of five people, left us with just two people, this put an extreme difficulty and pressure on our group as it meant filming with only two people.
This change also meant that we had to create a new storyboard, a new idea (although we created a similar storyboard), a new shooting schedule, and new camera maps. We chose to keep some of the themes and ideas for our soap new family etc.
As our soap is a similar style to Hollyoaks we chose to use younger generation characters. This is then also creating a representation of youth being ‘rebellious and unruly’ using stereotypical attributes. We have shown this by one of the characters stealing a bottle of vodka and stuffing it into her bag. This is ironic to one of the previous shots of her speaking with her mum, mentioning the new family that are moving in and having a stereotypical opinion on them. This replaced the family scene round the table, and the younger boy stealing the alcohol this was because after original shooting the lighting was incorrect and the scene generally did not fit the ‘Hollyoaks’ theme of the younger lifestyle, as the original alcohol stealing did not look realistic and the character was too young, and for the family scene you do not see a mum and dad with two children sat round the table eating in a soap like ‘Hollyoaks’
We also decided to get rid of the idea of shooting in a pub. This was due to lighting issues, however to keep the traditional theme of a soap and a central location of a pub, we included a still of the pub at the end, this also included a voice over of the time, channel and stating that we are promoting a new soap opera.

Target Audience


Our soap is not aimed at a particular age group as many people do tend to watch soaps, however as our soap is in a Hollyoaks style we expect that more of a younger generation will watch it, whereas soaps like Coronation Street and Eastenders have older characters like Ken Barlow, which have been in the soaps since the beginning which attract an older generation to watch. We will use aspects of Hollyoaks to attract our audience for example key locations and the situations that happens. During the 1960s, as the first generation to grow up with television became grown ups, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming text. In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts have the following functions for society and its individuals. Surveillance, correlation, entertainment and understanding cultural transmission. In 1974 researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published their own theory which stated that audiences may choose and use a text for a diversion, surveillance, to help them discover their personal identity and to help them with personal relationships. For example substituting soap operas for their family life, and the soaps helping them feel and think ‘I’m glad my life isn’t like that’ and because soaps are so realistic it is easy for the audience to indulge themselves within a soap opera and be touched by story lines and plots. This relates to our soap because the audience watching may get similar feelings when they watch the soap, or they may have the total opposite and think to themselves how they can relate to the situations in their personal day to day life.



Final shooting schedule

Shop shot- December 19th daytime- props required- N/A
Pregnancy test- December 31st- anytime possible- props required- Pregnancy test
Pub shot- December 28th- daytime- props required- N/A
Eating scene- January 8th- meal time- props required- table of food
Alcohol into bag- January 10th morning/evening but before too dark - props required- alcohol and a bag
Getting out a car moving in- January 18th daytime- props required- Car
Street shot- December 19th daytime- props reqired- N/A
*CHANGE* eating scene removed- changed to general talking scene- props required- newspaper, cup of tea





The new StoryBoard



One of the new camera maps




Another new camera map

Masthead: the purpose of a masthead is to get the company’s logo, and details of the magazine onto the cover, for example the date and the website for the company.

Central Image: the purpose of a central image on a TV magazine cover, is to advertise a particular plot in a particular soap in the one I analyzed was about a fire and from Eastenders.

Central Article: this supports the central image, it is the font and the catchy headline usually a small phase to explain the situation.

Flash: this can be used for the price of the magazine cover or as a flash article, which means advertising a program either returning or a new program beginning, in this cover it is advertising the X-factor secrets.

Other featured articles: this is usually a collection on images usually 3 at the bottom and two at the top, which are photos of different plots in different programs.

For my Ancillary texts I had to produce a TV magazine cover and a poster which would advertise my soap. Above I analyzed a magazine cover, It helped me understand the names of the parts of the magazine and how it went together.

Below is my Drawn idea for my magazine cover






Above is a rough idea of colours for my TV Mag cover which I inserted my drawn image into Photoshop and coloured the backgrounds and sections of the masthead and flash for the price as an idea of what I intended to do.



This is my magazine cover being produced in Adobe Indesign. In this mode i can adjust the layers which means I can move the place of each photograph to get the appropriate cover.





Below is the cover I produced, I took the photographs for the cover, and edited them in Adobe Photoshop. I used a tool which cut the subject out from the background and placed it into a new layer. I then created an Adobe Indesign document to create the cover. I made new layers for each part of the cover, and then inserted my images. I chose to use Indesign as it is used by professionals and is simple to worth with and easy to re arrange layers and place the central image and masthead and other featured articles.





Below this is the poster I created. I also made this in Indesign and Photoshop for the reasons mentioned above.



I chose to use simple pastel colours for my magazine cover as this is a standard theme within professional covers. I also chose simple fonts as for the same reason and because it is easier for the audience to see and read. I chose to use one main photograph for my poster, with white bold font as it is a contrast to the background image and would not blend.




Synoptic Treatment

The trailer explores what will be happening in the few opening scenes of Ashfield Oaks, only two families are shown in the trailer ‘the Bestwicks and the Browns.’ The Bestwicks are discussing the ‘Browns’ which is the new family moving in. They are very negative towards them, and have a prejudice sense about the ‘Browns’ way of life. This is ironic to what happens in a further scene as one of the Bestwicks is stealing alcohol; this immediately connotes the idea that there will be conflict between the two families. The ideal release date for our soap to begin would be around the autumn or winter; this is because audiences are more likely to be at home after work, to watch the soap. The soap will be on channel 4 on a Monday at 7.30pm, Tuesdays at 8pm Wednesdays at 8pm and Fridays at 7.30pm this is so it stands a chance at not clashing with other soap operas on other channels, therefore more likely to be watched. Stuart Latham first directed Coronation Street and a director like him would be perfect to direct our soap, as he worked towards Coronation Street becoming largely successful and extremely popular within the industry. Ashfield Oaks is NOT to be missed!

Detailed Treatment

The opening scene of the Ashfield Oaks trailer is a panning mid shot of a street of terraced houses, we then get a fade transition which is a panning shot of a shop. We then get another fade transition and see we are in a house, we see that Elaine in mid shot is having a conversation with Nicola, who could be a neighbour or her daughter, it is revealed that it is her daughter as the soap episodes are released. We then get a mid shot of Nicola talking back to her using the 180 degree rule, with an overlay of the words ‘The Bestwicks’ which is the family name. We then get another fade transition to a close up of a green house for sale sign, and a fade transition to three teenagers getting out of a car. We presume this is the family that Nicola and Elaine were talking about, this is in mid shot, and then we get another overlay of words which say ‘The Browns’ therefore we know this is another family. Another fade transition sees Nicola entering the kitchen with a suspicious look around to see if anyone is in the kitchen. She heads for a cupboard and opens it and we get a close up of what is in the cupboard, which happens to be alcohol. Another fade transition sees Nicola stuffing something into her bag, presumably the alcohol, look around and leave the kitchen. Yet again another fade transition to a close up of the character Jessica who appears to be crouched or sat down. The camera pans down and we see her staring at a pregnancy test, which is implying she has found out she is pregnant. This then fades out to a still of the Ashfields pub, with text and the channel logo on it. With the overlay of a speech, this says Ashfield Oaks coming soon to channel 4. Throughout the trailer we have a non digetic mellow music and only have speech in the talking scene. This fades out as the details of the soap are announced.