evaluation question draft 2 (edited)

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 feelings.

Storylines run continuously, overlapping one another.

Large number 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 developing 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 entice them to watch next week.

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

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 soap. The opening scene was filmed in an alleyway in Manchester to give the soap a working class complexion. It illustrates that the characters are realistic and the audience can easily empathise with the storylines.

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

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 shot

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 consistent group of characters.

Stereotypes are shown 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 in Northern Quarter, 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 includes a greater range of age groups in its casting, which means it attracts a wide audience as people relate to characters of a similar age. Whereas Northern Quarter actors are contained within a single age group, meaning only an audience of specific age can relate to the social problem’s and dilemma’s of the soap’s characters. This challenges 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 typical soap conventions.

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

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 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.

Many photographs to interest reader and show different storylines.

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

Vibrant 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 the 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 to model my ancillaries on the more sophisticated style. This was because I believe the social realism genre is better reflected in a simple professional product rather than a cheap and ‘trashy’ magazine.

Poster Ancillary Magazine Ancillary


Poster Ancillary Conventions

I used a photo containing all the characters, reflecting the differing storylines. A grey background portrays the “gritty” feel of the soap and a simple heading keeps the poster neat and professional. The BBC Three logo in the top left hand corner creates brand recognition and audience trust in a high quality product. The day and time of the soap is included so the audience can quickly see when and where the soap will be played.

The photo I chose to use is very similar to this particular ‘Skins’ poster, it includes all characters. The closer to the camera the character , the more important they are to the main storyline. I used this technique when arranging the 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 width of the page.

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 obtrusive

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 use of multiple photo’s is a convention of the “trashy” style of magazine, but demonstrates that careful use of one such element can maintain

the professional appeal.

+ =


Challenging Magazine Ancillary Conventions

I believe my magazine challenges the conventions of both the “trashy” and “sophisticated” styles by combining elements from both to create a magazine with an interesting mix of codes. This supports the professional look of the magazine and creates a quality product that retains audience interest.

evaluation question draft 2 (edited)

Documents

soap use

typical soap conventions

thethe soap

soap magazines

casualthe soap

challenge codes orconventions

conventions of social

characters storylines