Ideas just keep coming!

Above is a mock up of what we want our front cover to eventually look like.

I drew the picture to represent where we will place our images on the page, showing the different sized images as well as accompanying text.

Challenge Conventions?

So far the modern soap adverts we have analysed have had a surreal theme to it, we are looking to make our advert a cross between this elements but to add more realism. I highly enjoy the adverts that I have analysed but as the brief states that it is for a new soap I feel that we need to convey the characters in much more depth, whilst combining the lighter elements of the existing adverts.

By doing this in some way we will be challenging the conventions of modern soap ads, but focus on plot and characters will hopefully entice audiences more then an advert which glamorises and particular storyline, which the existing ones seem to do.

Remake Advert Update

So our remake advert is filmed - its a very rough cut as it is just a practise but am quite proud as we had hardly any idea how to use the editing software adobe premier elements:



I am very proud of the little knowledge we had about Adobe premiere meant we were complete amatures, but the video does indeed capture the same elements that the Eastenders original did. There are some major errors on reflection though. Upon completion of the video, playing in back we realised the clip when I say "three" in my countdown does not have the speech on it. We then realised that we had filmed different versions from different angles and this particular one I did not say "three" as I should. By now though the other clips had been deleted and this is what we were left with. It did however teach me some valuable lessons including keeping a backup usb with your files AND not deleting anything till I am 100% sure that its not needed!

Character Profiles

We have decided on having two possible fathers in our video and we now have the decision to make upon who we ask to play these roles. Since characters are vital for any soap we are going to attempt to portray the characters as clearly as possible, as the only dialogue is me talking to the screen, the two possible fathers are going to have to have their personality displayed through other mediums, largely their clothing and the setting in which we film them in. Here's who we chose:

Potential Father One:
Tom Darwin



Tom is to play the first potential father, possibly portraying a rougher character in contrast to father two. We are going to ask him to wear a hoody and film in a cheap looking location to convey to audiences through mise-en-scene his lower class background. Its going to be difficult in a 45 second advert but it is vital that character set up is achieved if our audience is going to be engaged.













Potential Father Two:

Simon Edie







Simon's character is going to be much more upper-class then Tom's. We have asked that he wears a
suit and am looking into possible restaurants that
we can film in to convey his wealth and our relationship compared to mine and Tom's.








Pregnant Character

Beckie Smith (Me!!)







I am going to play the role of the pregnant protagonist character in our video and also in our two ancillary task. I am going to have to wear two contrasting outfits in my scenes with the two boys to differentiate between the two characters. I am also going to have to less made-up during the scenes when I return, to convey my emotional distress at what I have to tell them.

I am happy to feature in our video as I can fully control the emotions that need to be conveyed!

All Change!

After long discussions on whether the teenage pregnancy storyline will be effective we have changed our minds completley. Upon remembering the recent Eastender's storyline featuring Heather Trott, who was pregnant with a selection of possible fathers and the positive reaction it got we thought that it may be more effective for us to convey.

The new idea is that the advert is now going to focus of me being pregnant and there is two possible fathers. I am coming back to the location of the soap to tell them which one is the dad! This new idea is very exciting and leaves us with a much larger scope for character development.

Copyright Letter

Above is the letter that we sent to universal records requesting the use of the Amy Winehouse single "You know I'm no good". We are going to use this song in the background of our remake video, just as in the original Eastenders clip. It is needed to ask their permission to use the song, as it is copyrighted and would therefore be illegal to use otherwise.

Main Advert Ideas

Since the teenage pregnancy idea Zara and I have been trying to focus our attention on whether this will be possible to convey. We thought the advert should perhaps revolve around me trying to tell my parents the truth or trying to conceal it from other characters in the soap. This would mean featuring either Zara or my parents in the video, which will take a lot of convincing! I volunteered to be in the video for the main part and Zara and I film between us when possible.

In the large part soap opera adverts are a relatively idea. All the adverts we could find on the Internet have been from the past 5 years. We therefore have no advert of Sarah-Lou's storyline to draw inspiration from.

The storyline was very controversial however and gained a lot of audience attention, a shocking storyline like this may gain us a lot of audience interest.