Planning For Final Soap Trailer - Storyboards

As planned, we are filming some of our trailer in the streets of Manchester on the 22nd October 2013.  This means that all our scripts have to be precise to what we want to film and where.

To create the script we first came up with a list of areas that we will film our trailer in:

• Manchester Picadilly Train Station
• Picadilly Gardens - benches, grass area
• Cafes - Nero, Starbucks, Costa
• Manchester wheel
• Victoria Square
• Street signs, taxis, iconic Manchester - for establishing shots 

Now as we had a list of trailers that we would use storylines from it was time to create a script for the characters to follow and in which our trailer will follow.

Trailers we used: 

We also created scenes in our script such like a conversation between Caggie and Louise. 

As a group we decided to call our soap ' The Mancunian Way '


Below is a brief list of the scenes and order for our trailer of the Mancunian way:

• Louise, Spencer and Jamie outside flats
• Caggie and Millie in a Cafe
• Spemcer and Millie in an iconic area
• Caggie and Millie in Cafe
• Jamie and Spencer
• Spencer and Louise in a Cafe
• Jamie and Spencer
• Caggie and Spencer
• Louise on the phone to Caggie
• Spencer running to train station 

Planning For Final Soap Trailer - Charcters

 Below are two images I created of potential characters names. 
The first image is a group mind map we created of names that could be used for our final soap trailer. 

The image below is a mind map I created of fewer names which seem to fit the Made in Chelsea brief better. As Made in Chelsea is a high class soap and the stereotypes of the characters in it are very wealthy and upper class, we had to ensure that our characters names matched the wealth of theirs.

Female Names for our Soap:

• Penelope
• Scarlett
• Evangeline
• Felicity

All of these names are very exclusive and rare meaning they link to the upper class culture and society very well. It isn't very often that you hear these names which means they are suited to the high class society of Made in Chelsea, or in our soap case - The Mancunian Way.


Male Names for our soap:

• Rupert
• Middleton
• Blaine
• Vincent

Most of these names seem to be very upper class as they are not heard very often making them exclusive to the high class society. The names used in the original Made in Chelsea soap   vary from Hugo to Jamie. Hugo, Spencer and Francis are characters in the soap and their names are very rare and for this reason they upper class and related to people from a high class society.


Character Clothing and accessories:

• Big Bags
• Oversized Sunglasses
• Ballet Pumps
• Lots of jewellery
• Skinny Jeans
• Heels
• Bodycon Midi dresses
• Blazers
• Leather Jackets
• Long Tops
• Suits
• Shirts
• Jeans or Suit Trousers
• Ties

Character Make up:

• Natural Look - little make up, not over the top
• Lipstick - Red or Nude
• Hair - Natural waves/curls, straight, Posh updo
• Bronzed/sun kissed - not fake
• Black eye make-up
• Groomed
• Comb over hair

Examples below (secondary imagery)

Parody

Before creating our own trailer for our soap, we had to decide as a group whether we were going to make up a totally new scripted reality soap or create a parody of an existing version. After looking into existing scripted reality shows, as a group we liked the codes and conventions of the soap Made in chelsea. For this reason we decided to create a parody of the scripted reality soap.

Definition of parody from Wikipedia - A parody in current use, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation.

Existing parodies of Made in Chelsea:





How to create a parody:
Subject - decide what it is you will be following conventions of and creating your own version off. To make it realistic you must know a lot about the genre to appropriate changes to it so that it suits and fit in with your audience.

Character - the characters you create must fit in and be recognisable to the audience. Their background and wealth must be able to be noticeable to the audience so they can instantly fit into your parody and create success.

Story lines - the story lines that appear in your soap parody must follow in the conventions of the soap you are 'spoofing.' They can follow the same footsteps but need to have various changes in order to ensure your are not copying the soap fully.

Everything in a parody is exaggerated and over the top.

Made In Chelsea storyboard

In our group we decided to use the codes, conventions and storyline's from Made in Chelsea. As we already have researched the codes and conventions of scripted reality we needed more of an understanding of the Soap - Made in Chelsea.

Below is a Power Point I created of the storyboard planning of a Made in Chelsea episode. It contains the camera shots, sound and characters that are used in the trailer and potential areas that could be used for filming.



Below is the original Made in Chelsea trailer that I used to create my storyboard from.

Scripted Reality

In my group, we decided to create a scripted reality soap trailer. To do this successfully we first had to research existing scripted reality soaps and understand the codes, conventions and costumes used in the soaps.

Definition: 

• A type of television series featuring real people who talk naturally but are put in situations which are pre-arranged by the production company.

Scripted Reality Examples: 

• The Only Way is Essex
• Made In Chelsea 
• The Hills
• Geordie shore
• The Valleys
• Jersey Shore

Codes and Conventions:

• M.E.S (costume) - represents their social class and wealth
• M.E.S (make-up) - to enhance their features and status, make them appear more glamorous 
• M.E.S (props) - used to exaggerate their roles and to add to their personalities 
• Lighting - to set the mood, dark lighting for sad scenes and bright, harsh lighting for happy and more glamorous scenes
• Sound - theme tune for brand identity, for the audience to remember and relate to. Most Scripted Reality shows have a 'made up' language - Towie: Reem, Jel. Geordie Shore: Worldie, Bosh, Bang 
• Camera - Close ups of character to show their glamour and wealth, wide shots to show difference in characters and social class, Two shots to show tension and conversations between characters

Hollyoaks Practise Posters

Here I have shown two versions of a poster I have done to promote my Hollyoaks trailer.

• The first poster (below) shows a medium, long shot of Jacqui running into a room and the quote says 'It's Mercy' she's in danger!' This suggests that Jacqui is running to save her and makes the audience want to watch it as they wonder if she will be saved.  The '4' sticker and 'Hollyoaks' logo are present on the poster for brand loyalty and reach. The audience will instantly relate to these and understand that this is the soap being promoted. 

• The second poster (below) shows a shot present in my Hollyoaks trailer, of Mercedes and Jacqui. The image shows Jacqui stood behind Mercedes looking concerned for her, Mercedes looks scared. The quote on the poster links to the image - 'Who can save you?' This will make the audience want to know more. Asking a question means the audience will want to know the answer and will ask themselves several questions - who needs saving, why etc. The '4' sticker and 'Hollyoaks' logo are present on the poster for brand loyalty and reach. The audience will instantly relate to these and understand that this is the soap being promoted. 

Soap Opera Poster Notes

Soap opera posters should have a narrative that draws the reader in, while conveying information about plot lines and characters, and playing on the audience's existing knowledge of the soap.

• They should use stereotypes to build expectations in combination with lighting, editing and mise en scene.
• Text has to be short and catchy on the posters as the audience will only see them for a couple of seconds and should include a play on word that is associated with the soap.

Planning, Filming and Editing

Planning: 
In our group, together we each assigned a role to each other. After watching the existing trailer several times together we all got a feel of what was expected in each role and how we should play the characters. Before filming we decided, as a group the places we would film in and in what order. We found that planning first made it much easier for us when it came to getting our shots as we knew exactly what we needed to do. 

Filming: 
We used a camcorder on a tripod to create most of our shots, this meant that the shots were steady and all in focus. For some of the more 'jumpy' shots, we used the camera manually and hand held it to create a realistic feel. We watched the shots after they were filmed to ensure they were ok to use and we had a variety to choose from when it came to editing.

Editing:

We used the Mac suite to create our trailer on a programme called iMovie. On this software, we were able to watch our clips in slow-mo and crop them down. After the clips were edited together sufficiently, we then added non diagetic sounds and transitions.

My Ancillary Deconstruction

Ancillary Magazine

This is my soap magazine front cover. I have used the two main characters - 'Paul and Mercedes' in a medium close up as my main image. Paul is behind Mercedes as he is the 'stalker.'  Even though he is behind Mercedes it still shows him as the more dominate one and that he still has a hold on her as he is watching her every move. The image links to the heading of the magazine 'Doctor Stalker' that is anchored onto the stars. This will immediately make the audience, who are already familial with Hollyoaks the impression that he is still in control of their relationship and that he is becoming more and more obsessed with Mercedes. 
The rhetorical question in the sub heading draws the reader in more as they want to answer the question and know more about the current situation shown on the cover. 

Unwanted Images

I rejected these images from my front cover for different reasons:

1:

I didn't choose this image as there was a lack of eye contact from both the characters. I wanted a shot of him looking at her, and her looking at the camera so the reader actually feels engaged, but from this photo, there is a lack of engagement. They don't look very connected together, as his hand is placed on hers but it looks very awkward. Also the girl has her eyes closed meaning the shot could not be used. 

2:

I didn't use this image on my front cover as it looks very unprofessional. When zoomed onto a large scale the characters are slightly out of focus. There is also too much white space at the top of the image making it unsuitable for a magazine front cover. For the shot to look suitable for a front cover, the girl in grey needed to be further behind the main character and both to move closer to each other and decrease the space between there heads as it shows a lack of relationship.

3:

This shot was not used for my magazine as it is out of focus. There are too many shadows on the girls face for it to be suitable for my front cover. Also the boys eyes seem to be placed in the wrong position. The characters are very well positioned together as there is very little space between their heads and it shows the relationship needed but it is too out of focus and blurred to be suitable for my front cover.

4:

This image was rejected because the main star is too close to the camera which makes her look too dark. The positioning of the stars is good as there is very little negative space between each of them but they are all pulling the wrong facial expressions and the back stars are slightly out of focus because the front star is taking too much of the cameras focus.

Creating my Ancillary

Flatplan:
Before creating my Magazine cover, I made a Flatplan which allowed me to plan out where I wanted my images, features, masthead etc. I chose an existing tv magazine and used the layout as a plan for my own magazine. Making a flatplan made it much easier for me to be able to get the correct photo that would be used on my front cover.

Photoshoot:

I used the green screen to get my images for my main front cover photo. I placed the two main characters (Paul and Mercedes) in front of the screen and used two circle, mirrored reflectors in order to reflect light onto the stars faces. During the shoot, I continually checked over my photos to make sure they were correctly positioned and they were in focus. For my smaller 'feature' photos i used two of google images and the other was taken in the green screen and then placed onto another background.

Photoshop:

I edited my pictures using ‘Adobe Photoshop.' This was to get rid of the background in the main photo and also to airbrush the characters, like on a real tv magazine. I also used photoshop for my small, feature photo as the image taken was placed onto a separate background.

Extras:

Behind my charcters on the main image, I added in a blue/grey gradient to give the image more depth and meaning after I had cut out the existing background. I took the inspiration from my flatplan and ‘Total, TVguide’ as this is the genre of magazine that I was going for.