evaluation question 1

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

How did you USE, DEVELOP, or CHALLENGE codes and conventions of real media products?

Social RealismConventions Close ups to

show characters emotions and

feeling's.

Storylines run continuously,

overlapping one another.

Large amount of characters to allow

parallel narratives, and for

storylines to combine to keep

the audience interested.

Use of low key lighting to make the soap seem more

gritty and lifelike. When outside real daylight is used instead of lighting equipment

to create realism.

Social realism is created so the audience can relate to the characters situations and misfortunes crating a connection between character and audience.

Characters wear normal casual, everyday clothing. Props and settings are made realistic to represent daily life.

Social realism has a mainly working class audience who enjoy the everyday drama that people in their own position encounter.

A dilemma in each episode to keep the audience interested and watch again next week.

Position camera as fourth wall, to create the feeling the audience are in the room with the characters and their emotions and feelings.

How does your soap USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE codes or conventions?

How does my soap conform to the conventions?

Title Card Over the shoulder shot Medium Shot

Reverse of ShotExtreme close upTwo shot medium close up


How does my soap conform to the conventions?

I used the conventions of social realism to guide me when filming my own. The opening scene of the soap was filmed in an alleyway in Manchester to give the soap a working class complexion. It show that the characters in the soap are realistic and the storylines are easily related to by the audience.

This shot was filmed using real light to emphasise the “gritty” feel of the soap, and to relate to the real life situations the characters faced.

Minimal make-up and casual clothes help to create realism.


Similarities and differences between my media product and existing media products

Over the shoulder shot

Medium close up

Extreme close up



Similarities• Both Soap’s are set in

Manchester.• Both use shot types

typical of the genre e.g. extreme close ups to show emotion

• Both have a small group of characters.

• Stereotypes are used through clothing to represent personality.

• Quick edits between storylines keep the audience interested.

• Same socio- economic group, similar dilemma’s and problems.

Differences• Northern Quarter is

aimed at a younger target audience than coronation street.

• Music is used to reflect the mood of the characters and storyline and to keep a younger audience interested.

• The age of the characters.

• Channel, and programming i.e. time of day Northern Quarter would be aired around 10pm.

The main difference between Northern Quarter and Coronation street is age. Coronation street

has a greater range of age groups which means it can attract a wide audience as people of

differeing ages can relate to the characters of the same age group. Whereas in Northern Quarter the age group of the characters is very similar

therefore meaning only an audience of specific age can relate to the social problem’s and

dilemma’s of the soap’s characters. Which is challenging the generic codes and conventions of

social realism although in an indirect way.



Challenging codes allows soaps to go against their own conventions, this is to keep the audience interested and engaged with the soap.

Northern Quarter does not directly challenge any of the conventions of the social realism genre.


Challenging conventions

The Hollyoaks Enchanted Forest advert, premiered 21st of may 2012 directly challenges the soaps conventions.

Characters are wearing animal masks to represent the relationship’s between them and their personality.

The fairground mise en scene is created to make Hollyoaks seem

both playful and youthful.


Challenging conventions

Hollyoaks used the enchanted forest to challenge the normal conventions of the programme. Normally Hollyoaks trailers would be on the location of the soap and would show the storylines of the characters in parallel edit’s conforming to the conventions of soap drama.

The trailer is challenging as the

codes and conventions of

Hollyoaks do not fit an enchanted forest, it is unusual which is what attracts the audience as they do not expect it but are interested to

know the relationship between the

narrative of the trailer and the

characters storylines.

I researched soap magazines to help me understand their codes and conventions before creating my own ancillary for

Northern Quarter.

There are two main types of soap magazine...


Main Ancillary Conventions

“trashy” “sophisticated”


Main Ancillary Conventions“trashy”

Large title to draw attention.

Lots of photographs to interest reader and show different storylines.

Lots of sub-headings in bold font to attract attention.

Lots of colour to create “ordered chaos” effect.

“2 weeks revealed” shows magazine is value or money.

Use of question and exclamation marks to create urgency and rhetorical questions to include audience.


Main Ancillary Conventions“sophisticated”

Restrained colour scheme to create a quality product, red highlights important features.

One large dominating image with one large title to keep the magazine simple and professional.

Large masthead which extends over the edges of the page creating brand recognition (BBC).

Date of release and barcode also create a quality and trustworthy product from a well established brand.

Number of small features down the left hand side of the page keeps magazine subtle and professional.

Star gives eye contact to the reader, creating a personal connection.


Main Ancillary Conventions

After researching Soap magazines I decided I would model my ancillary’s on the more sophisticated of the two. This was because I believe the social realism genre is better reflected in a simple professional product rather than a more cheap and trashy magazine.

Poster Ancillary Magazine Ancillary


Poster Ancillary Conventions

I used a photo which had all the characters in which helps reflect the different storylines. I used a grey background to reflect the “gritty” reality of the soap and a simple Heading keeps the poster simple and professional. I used the BBC three logo on the top left hand corner to create brand recognition so the audience trust the brand and know the soap is a high quality product, the day and time of the soap is also on the poster this is so the audience can quickly glance and see when and where the soap will be played.

The photo I chose to use is very much like this particular skins poster, it shows all the characters. The closer to the camera the character , the more important they are to the main storyline. I used this technique when choosing a photo for my poster.


Magazine Ancillary Conventions

The title for both my soap magazine and Radio Times are similar, the simple colour and font creates a high quality product, and both mastheads stretch the with of the magazine.

The simple list of features on both my magazine and Radio times creates a restrained colour scheme, the features are different colours to attract attention without being “tacky”.

Both photo’s are simple and give eye contact to the reader to create an instant connection. The simple background for my poster reflects the “gritty” reality of the soap and like Radio Times creates a quality product.


Challenging Magazine Ancillary Conventions

To challenge the conventions of the

“sophisticated” radio times

magazine I used a number of secondary images of

Northern quarter to attract the

audience further. This is use of

multiple photo’s is a convention of

the “trashy” style of magazine

demonstrating a combination

between both types of magazine.

+ =


Challenging Magazine Ancillary Conventions

I believe my magazine challenges the conventions of both the “trashy” and “sophisticated” styles of magazine by taking elements from both and combining them to create a magazine with a number of different

codes which help the magazine look professional and create a quality product and keep the audience interested, and work well

together.

evaluation question 1

Documents

soap use

soaps conventions

soap magazines

conventions of social

conventions ofprogramme

codesand conventions

challenge codes orconventions

clothes helpthe soap