Evaluation 4

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For my as course last year I did not use blogger like the rest of the class but instead chose PowerPoint so using blogger to document our project was a new experience for me. As well as using blogger I also used traditional pen and paper to write down our thoughts as although technologies great sometimes inspiration spills out better on a page! I found Blogger very easy to use, I already had a google account so it was easy to set up and away I went, my only difficulty was creating a header for the top of my blog! After asking the girls in school I was soon helped and went on to photoshop.

Adobe Premiere Elements
This programme was entirely new to the school system and therefore the whole class, including the teachers, had to learn how to use it from the beginning. This was the reason that Zara and I thought it a good idea to do a remake advert before our real thing as it would familiarise us with the tools the premiere could provide, which at first looked rather daunting. When I finally got to grips with the programme I was away. I quickly learnt that using the timescale screen I could edit the length of my video, presented my the actual length of the image on the timeline. Using the programme I was able to change the hue, satuartion, brightness of my clip whilst also adding a great number of overlays to edit the piece together. My big problem with premiere is the issue with saving our work, after the disaster of loosing it all halfway through editing, (for no apparaant reason), I was very frustrated at the programme but I understand that technology does backfire sometimes!

We used Photoshop CS4 on Zara's home computer to create our two ancillary tasks. It again is quite simple to use and Zara had alot of previous experience using it from her coursework last year so our magazine was in safe hands.

as well as being very annoying at times computer technology also provided me with A LOT of help. From watching all the previous adverts on YouTube, Googling the history of Soap and using Facebook to gain insipration from my friends it has aided us to an amazing extent.

The main negative about the technology used was the video cameras that we recorded our advert with. During the feedback stages a lot of people commented on the sometimes grainy quality of the film.

Evaluation 3

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once we had finished our video we were very eager to show other people to get their reaction and gain some constructive criticism. Our first idea was to upload our video onto the social networking site Facebook, where most of our friends could watch and comment from the warmth of their own home. Here is a screen shot of the comments on Zara's blog:



A wide range of the audience that watch soaps are teenagers so our fantastic reaction and everyones comments that they wished the soap was real was amazing to hear.

From a different perspective we also recieved teacher feedback as well as from our peers heres what our teacher, Mrs Mcallister had to say:




I also asked members of my media class for their opinion, which I reorded on paper:

Lauren Mason: I really liked you video, especially the silence when Beckie says shes pregnant. It leaves you wanting to know more!

Faye Allen: I liked the editing of your voice over the top of the whole piece but the indroduction of you on the screen, its like a confession to the audience.

Emily Allen:You really conveyed your plot well and produced something which is very realistic, I want to know who the dad is!

The general audience reaction of wanting to know the end result of the advert is extremly motivating, as that is the purpose of soap adverts to try and entice the audience to watch the soap.

Evaluation 2

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our main task, the soap advert and the achillary tasks, the front cover and poster all correlate with each other as we have chosen to use the same storyline throughout. I feel that we focused on the main task in much more depth the the other tasks however and this as come out at a much higher standard. Featuring the same storyline throughout all three tasks meant using all the same characters, wearing similar sorts of clothing following the same plot. We strayed from this idea a little when designing our poster as we lost track of the plot and designed it with the byline "Doing the dirty on a young girl" underneath the wanted sign. Upon reflection we changed this to just "WANTED FATHER" as we realised that our plot showed that my character was in the wrong, not the male characters.




By using the same name of the soap opera in all three tasks we have created a brand for the soap. like Eastenders and Coronation street it is shown to feature dramatic story lines and realistic characters. The shocking pause of the video when i say "I'm pregnant" gains audience attention immediately, as does the headline "Who's the father?" of both the poster and magazine.

I think that our poster is very inviting and I enjoy the comedy, we have played on the fact that I need a father for my character's baby, and managed to incorporate the glamour aspect from the modern soap adverts I viewed.

Evaluation 1

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Overall I think our product is extremely realistic and have tried to stay to the conventions of existing soap operas as much as possible. We have, like all soap adverts, used the same character throughout all of our media products and set the soap in locations which are familiar to us and the audience. The storyline we used is realistic and one which viewers themselves may have found themselves or someone they know in.

Although I feel that our media products are similar to existing ones the main difference is that we have drawn inspiration from older soap adverts, that do not feature special effects but instead lifts clips from the actual soap. Although a modern soap opera advert would have been extremely enjoyable to film, it would not be possible for us to use special effects to the standard that existing products used and therefore may have looked unrealistic.

We used title credits. just like in existing soaps. Displaying the one word name of the soap (which came to me off the top of my head!) which flashes up at the end. We displayed our title credits over the ending of the sequence which is a development on existing adverts as it usually comes up on a separate plain background. We chose to display our credits over the top of our end sequence to heighten the suspense for the viewer.

We had problems staying to the conventions of a soap poster as we found it difficult to find any existing soap advert posters. We therefore had to create our own idea and therefore went for a comic element.

Risk Assessment

For saftey purposes we have complieled a list of potential saftey hazards we may encounter during our filming and how we are going to ensure we are not at risk.


Potential Hazards
Swanley Park, Kent

Branches falling, bench breaking or objects on the ground

Suggestion, To move all objects that pose as a threat, check the site thoroughly.

Dog roaming free

Suggestion, Shoot at a quiet time in the day, most dogs will be kept on leads yet always be aware .

Swanley train station, Kent

Other commuters,
Suggestions keep clear of the commuters when filming

The trains, especially fast trains are rapid and can come regularly, we should stay well clear of the platform at all times, all platforms are marked with a yellow band, do not cross it until the trains stand-still.

Luckly our two posibly three other destinatios do not pose any threats to us during filming.

Final Video

Editing the Video

Now we have all the filming done the hard part really starts, the editing. Although we are a partnership I think I got to grips with our editing programme Adobe Premiere Elements better then Zara,but enjoyed helping her understand as it is extremely difficult and frustrating at times.


Whilst editing our video a few changes were made to our original plan, it is much easier to imagine the effect of the end result when all the clips are played together. After putting the needed clips in time order it began obvious to us that some shots were not necessary.

As agreed before the opening shot was kept as the train arriving at the station, but we slowed down the movement to 70% original speed, and also kept the digetic sound of the train against the non-digetic Amy Winehouse track as it sounded poignant when emphasising my return. We then instead of shooting me walking away from the station went straight to the clip of me against the black background talking to the screen. The shot was not needed and looked out of place, after asking members of my class they agreed that the opening shot of the train was another symbolism for my return I did not need to be shown to actually be there.

I then had to learn how to overlay my clips, which was actually quite easy.

This sidebar on premiere had all the effects i could use listed, i only had to drag over my selected sequence to decide the overlay. I think that the first overlay used going from the train fading into my face is particularly effective as it shows my connection with the train whilst also introducing my character.

Another effective transition I used was the slide between the shot of the door and the medium shot of me on the toilet looking at the pregnancy test. This shot was effective as i felt the slide portrayed the shift in time between the two events. It also successfully changed the mood of the clips as my emotions at being pregnant differ highly to the romantic feelings I show in the previous collage of clips.

The screen shot below shows the scene on the swing with Tom which I used premiere to heighten the brightness of as I wanted an almost cloudy effect to represent the happiness and dreamlike state that i felt.

We had originally planned to place me entering the taxi after my exit from the station but i feel its placement at the end was the right idea. All of the action has passed in the advert and my final statement of "I'm pregnant" accompanied by a silence of all non-digetic sounds has left the audience in suspense. By ending with me departing in the taxi the audiences are left awaiting my arrival. I also placed the end title credits over my departing shots, this was also relatively easy to do i just pressed add text and added the necessary comments as the picture shows below.

I then had the difficult job of choosing which kiss sequence I should feature. There were slight differences in the two including the scarf i had wrapped round me in one and the slightly different angle each was shot in. One also features me kissing tom where the other shows tom kissing me. I finally decided on the shot of tom kissing me as it was a wider shot, showing more of the setting and i thought it would be fitting for me to kiss tom as it shows that i am the character in the wrong as i also lead Simon into the hotel room in the following shot, my character being portrayed as a kind of temptress.

Overall I found the editing process the most enjoyable part of the production process and really enjoyed using premiere, (when it saved my work!)

Editing the Music

Using premiere I also had to edit down the music of the Amy Winehouse song to suit then length of our video and also the specific lyrics we wanted to use. Using a "set in" and "set out" button I controlled the length of the clip featured and could then repeat this process, dragging the clip into action whenever I need a different section of the song. This process was challenging at times as i also had to attempt to blend the two sections of the song together to try and create a natural flow of rhythm.

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I then had to add the sound of my voice narrating the piece onto another audio timelime, deltinng the existing audio from the clips. The two went together smoothly and the final effect flows together well!

What a Day!

So today I came into to add the finishing touches to our video, full of happiness that the end is nigh. But ...

Once I logged onto Zara's school account (where our video was saved), I could not find it on the premiere start screen. I then went onto search all of her files vigorously but could still not find anything. To make matters worse despite my previous mistake of my remake advert of not saving the clips to a USB I had done it again and had no back-up. This is when the crying began! But after I calmed down I realised there was nothing I could do and thankfully still had all the clips. I had to edit the advert from the beginning but on reflection hope that it is better the second time around, and everything happens for a reason. I am now saving my work seemingly every 30 seconds so I think I really have learnt my lesson this time.

Poster

for our poster we found it very difficult to draw inspiration from anywhere as there is not many existing soap opera posters available. The main theme for our poster is simplicity. Compared to the messy bold magazine front cover we decided to take the poster in an entirely the direction, using a comic twist to entice viewers. Both headlines are bold and thick which could be seen from far away.

Final Front Cover

Width- 208.03mm Height- 276.01mm


This is the final copy of our magazine front cover, which i think looks very effective. The magazine which we named "i-tv soap" follows all the key conventions of existing magazines, including the bright, contrasting colours and shocking headlines. The main image of me is very emotional and we used photoshop to separate the picture of tom and Simon together to place them either side of me.

The actual size of the magazine is smaller then the tradtiotional a4 size, this follows the convention of existing magazines though as they too are smaller in size.


We changed the title from "Who's the daddy?" to "Who's the father?" as we thought that the original title sounded too cheesy and the question is who is the biological father to the baby, not who is going to raise it as its dad. term to use when a women is pregnant, opposed to asking who's the daddy?

Front Cover Layout
Our title and logo "i-tv" was born out of the idea that the audiences and comsumers of soaps have an ownership in them as they are so intergrated into our culture, this is emphasised by the eye behind the writing of the logo. Initially we wanted a one word title to grab readers attention, we carefully considered "relax", the emotion which audiences feel when letting go and watching soaps but we then though of existing magazine which mainly feature the word "tv"

on the magazine there is a variety of different headlines which grab the readers attention. Headlines like "BITCH IS BACK" and "KILLER" are hard-hitting titles followed by an interview about "DRUGS WOMEN & MONEY. These headlines are extremely dramatic and entice the reader in.

At the top of the cover, shows a bright yellow Skybox with "Wedding Glitz, but do you remember who?" written within. This trivia question accompynied by a photo that zara took at a wedding adjusted to black and white, was aimed at the older age bracket, who have been watching soaps for a long period.