IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP AND CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? BY JOEY GROVES

MY MEDIA PIECES

MY AIM

• I wanted to ensure that we met many codes and conventions of a typical soap opera whether it be through the sense of community, story lines, or issues covered.

• However I felt that codes and conventions are there to be broken also as it makes a more enjoyable and memorable viewing experience for the audience

• I aimed to find out the codes and conventions through research of other programs such as Hollyoaks, Skins and Eastenders.

POSTER RESEARCH• I decided to do research on E4 branded posters to be able to identify the

codes and conventions used, what the mise en scene includes, character costumes, character positions and expressions, and the overall layout.

• During this period of research I analysed two posters mainly to identify the codes and conventions, these posters were:

• Hollyoaks

• Skins

HOLLYOAKS POSTER• The first element I identified in this poster was the background and setting. The background gives a sense of what

the soap is about, with this being set in a bar/club. This is effective as it reflects the lifestyle of the young characters within the show. Also this shows the audience this this soap is full of fun, excitement as these are the typical connotations of what can happen inside a club.

• Mise en scene is also a key element within this poster. The is very important as this is the first impression of the soap that the audience will get to engage with. When identifying the costumes of the characters we can see that the blonde character Claire is shown as the typical princess character as she is in a glamourous dress with her make up and hair done. This reflects her lifestyle and helps to show how Hollyoaks is a over glamorised soap about the lifestyle of young adults/teenages.

• The poster is mocking other soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street for their emphasis on pubs and perhaps for having a pub as the dominant central meeting point in their soap, through it featuring pubs and drunken people negatively. Hollyoaks is shown in the poster, as not being about drunken people in pubs like other conventional soaps but about young, glamorous, sophisticated characters.

• I identified facial expressions in the poster. The facial expressions of the male character in the white tshirt called Jason help show his attitude towards Claire. By Jason’s bemused expression towards Claire helps emphasise that he is taken by her beauty and presentation. This will help convey a relationship to the audience to suggest that a romance or attraction will blossom throughout the series.

• E4 branding was also a very key element I picked up from my research into this poster, I could clearly see that the channel 4 branding was clearly shown and the time of the show was evident, this is effective as in one glance it can let the audience know the channel, the time and the date of the show. I knew this was a vital factor I needed to include in my poster.

MY POSTER• I wanted my poster to convey an effective message as seen in the Hollyoaks poster, through the

characters, expressions, costumes, mise en scene and effective branding.

• One of the first features I included was the title and tagline. The title, bold and brash was something I had originally planned as I wanted the title of our soap opera to be recognized straight away as we are a new soap opera and would require to develop brand recognition. The tagline “opposites never attract” helps to convey as story line to the audience to show that these two characters in the poster do not have positive relationship and will clash as the soap progresses.

• The costumes of the characters was another element I paid a great amount of detail to, through the character on the left I wanted to show his sense of laziness, being relaxed and having little worries in life. I did this by giving the character an open buttoned shirt to portray his raggedness to the audience. I also wanted to play on the “opposites never attract” tagline by contrasting the male character with a female character who is presented very neatly and smartly, similarly showing to the audience that she is determined to work and is the complete binary opposite of the male character.

• I also used the E4 branding in the bottom right hand corner. After doing research into the E4 branding guidelines online I established that the new generation of E4 posters has the tape logo at the bottom with the E4 peel logo on top. I added this to inform the audience of the channel the soap is being broadcast on, and to tease the show with the line “coming soon to E4”.

CONTINUED • The Main feature of my poster was the colour tint difference between the

two characters. The male character on the right has a cool blue tint to shoe his relaxed and lazy approach to life and university. Also it has very bright highlighting round his face, this is to show his positive outlook on life and how he is happy with the party lifestyle.

• However this is contrasted with the female character of Soph, Soph has a very dull colour tint to her photo. This dull tint is to establish how she is simply at university to study and will do her best to not get sucked into the party lifestyle of university. This offers as a stark contrast to the male character on the left, which is what I originally aimed for.

MAGAZINE RESEARCH • The magazine I chose to research was TV Choice, I aimed to find out more about

the layout, character positions, sub stories and Headlines used in the magazine.• I noticed that TV Choice magazines all had the same blue background, bright

yellow/red font and same logo in the left hand corner. All TV Choice magazines included the price on the front and small sub stories at the bottom. I knew to create a professional piece of work I needed to replicate these elements as they were the magazines trademarks.

• The sub sections at the bottom are also effective as they are all targeted at a similar audience, this is to gain the readers attention when they first take glance at the magazine and convince the to purchase as they believe the content is interesting through what is shown on the cover.

• The position and sizing of characters was also something I noticed remained consistent throughout the magazine cover. The cover consisted of two lead characters. The most dominant within the story line mentioned in the head line would always be positioned in front of the other character and larger in comparison to the character behind. The proxemics between the two characters being so close in the frame, can help show a relationship between the two.

MY MAGAZINE

• The title, logo and substories and something that I chose to replicate in my magazine. This helps the magazine look more professional. Also this benefited the way my characters were edited into the magazine as it meant that I could ensure the characters were not stretched or enlarged out of proportion as I knew to aim to just cover the bottom right hand corner with the characters head.

• Once again I used the character costumes for effect within the poster. I ensure the male character Lee, who lives a lazy and rough lifestyle was shown wearing a basic black coat to show his simplicity of not caring about his appearance, matched with his long overgrown hair to emphasise this. I used an imagine similar to my poster for Soph as she is seen to be dressed up in a well presented manor and holding a textbook to emphasise that she is keen on her studies and the total opposite to Lee. I also used the character positioning to show how in university lifestyle Lee is viewed as greater in status as he is the party animal and can easily make friends, whereas as Soph is behind Lee as she is timid, and less popular as she does not socialise with others in the same way Lee does.

CONTINUED • A vital part of a magazine is to attract a passer by into engaging with your content, I

have aimed to do this through the use of the bold bright title, and also the subs stories underneath. With headings such as ‘Rouge traders, and “struggle street”, which are snappy, to the point sub titles, this can help the audience engage as they are brash attention grabbing sub titles that are not the every day normal programming on TV.

TRAILER RESEARCH • In addition to the print work, our group needed to create a one minute trailer for our

soap opera. I decided to research numerous trailers mainly on E4 to identify the style of trailers, codes and conventions used, branding and iconography. I studied both Hollyoaks and Skins once again for my research.

SKINS FINDINGS• One of the first aspects I noticed regarding the Skins trailer was the fast paced editing

and cuts between scenes. This can be used to emphasise the fast paced lifestyle of the youth in the way they live their lives through partying with no thoughts about consequences. The trailer also does an incredible job at creating relationships between the characters through the proximity of characters and simply through eye contact and body language.

• Brand recognition is another aspect I picked out of this trailer. The trailer as the E4 branding at the end, this is to inform the audience of what channel they can view the program on, meaning it is easily accessible after they have viewed the trailer. The voice over at the end also is used to inform the viewer of the program title and channel. The accent used is not in received pronunciation such as the BBC, giving the program and channel an alterative appeal and style.

• The trailers use of sound was also an interesting aspect I picked up on. The trailer does not feature mute diegetic sound, it mainly features a non diegetic soundtrack of a party soundtrack. The once again can help reflect the fast paced lifestyle of the youth and set the tone for what is to come in the series. It also helps the trailer feel more modern for its time as it was a current song in the charts.

OUR TRAILER

https://vimeo.com/158182736

• We created our trailer in a montage style similar to that of skins. We aimed to show the audience a variety of narratives between characters in a short period of time and link them all back to one setting/location. We show a variety of character backgrounds and differences throughout the trailer, such as Soph being from Wales and being isolated. The different story lines help show the difference and diversity between the characters In our soap opera.

• A Key scene we used throughout was the party scene. This was used to firstly emphasise the fact of university students living a fun party lifestyle, to appeal to our target audience as they will do the same, and lastly to link all the characters and separate story lines together. This is vital in portraying a community that is an essential part of a soap opera.

• Also we used the ending of our trailer as an opportunity to establish the brand recognition, we used a voice over to announce the program title and the channel E4, as well as using the tape logo which is shown in the brand identify guidelines. http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/styleguide/e4styleguide/e4-brand-guidelines.pdf. The voice was also very relaxed and in a common fashion that can help relate to our young audience.