Magazine Cover

As a group we decided that we should all pick a different picture to use on our individual magazines. We have also decided to use different names. For example, my magazine will be called 'Television Times' whilst Elena's magazine will be called 'Television Weekly'.

I started off by picking the picture I want and opening it on Photoshop. I do not feel confident on Photoshop, so when I got home I used a programme called Picasa to edit my picture. It was a excellent programme and I found it much easier to use and I created different versions of the basic layout of my magazine.

This picture was made black and white, but the red still showing on the characters to symbolise danger. I placed my magazine name at the top and other soap related stories around teh edges. I completed my cover with a barcode, date and price.

This is a colour version of the cover. I moved around date and price and i was also considering puting a christmas special banner on the bottom because of the date I had entered.
I have acknowledged that my picture was taken as a landscape photo so my cover could not be A4 sized. I have worked around this fault and made my cover look A5 sized.

This is my christmas special edition of the magazine. I may later add a border to the banner at the bottom of my page.

Website Development

On Tuesday 24th November we as a class visited the CLC to learn how to use a programme called iWeb, which is used to make website layouts and pages. There were only 3 members of our group present but we managed to do an individual site each, using the same template. Some of us were more comfortable with the software than others, but as a group I can say we are confident with using iWeb.

On Tuesday 1st December when my whole media class were trying to edit their work at school, we all encountered problems. We could preview our work but not change anything. One group will soon return to the CLC to gain information to share with the class on how we should overcome this problem, but until then work on our website is on standby.

Filming: DayOne.

Sunday 15th November 2009.

My group travelled to Elena C's house to film some parts for the opening of an episode which we are to put up on our website. We arrived around 11:30am and started sorting out how we would position the room. We moved unnecessary objects out the way, such as dog treats and keys, and took pictures of the way our set was, so if we were to go on a break and come back, we would need to re-position anything out of place.






After getting all the props in position we set up the camera and microphone. We decided not to use the camera given to us by our school, but used a professional camera which belonged to one of the group members. When we lined up the shot we encountered some problems such as; too much back light coming from the window behind the actress and the light being too dark in the position of the room we had chosen. We tried to eliminate these faults by 1. blocking out the back light, and 2. trying to reflect light onto the actress. These attempts were unsuccessful. We had to move the actress from the kitchen table to the counter to get a good amount of light. This was successful, so we started practising the scene. As the actress I had to 1. play around with my breakfast and receive a text, 2. read the text. Then my mother in the scene was to walk behind me in the doorway and ask why I wasn't at school. I was told to pull a face then storm off. We shot these scenes from different angles of the kitchen and decided on which shots looked the best. The shot of the text I receive was to be from over the shoulder so the audience could read the text from my perspective, and when my mother walks in the camera would focus on her as she spoke, and me as I spoke. This took around 2 or 3 hours to complete.
After completing this task we set up the living room to make it look like an interview room. We chose the interviewer and the interviewees and arranged what questions will be asked, how they would be answered, and how many different shots were needed. This process was supposed to start at 2.30 but due to too much backing noise we decided to leave the equipment as it was and go take pictures for our magazine cover. This is when we came up with the idea to neglect the ordinary TV magazine cover and opt with one like 'Radio Times'. We walked down a quiet road near the house and stood together to take pictures. A big group picture, we thought, would deceive the reader into thinking we were all a big group of friends in the soap, which we aren't, so we decided on three of the girls standing together and me, the outcast, to stand away from the girls. For these shots we all looked at the camera. Then we walked further down the road and the three girls stood in a group whilst I sat on a bench and looked at them. This was to show how my character longed to be part of their group, but by the body language exhibited by the group, I was not welcomed.
We returned to the house to find it was quieter than before, so we conducted our interviews. These took us around 30 minutes to an hour to complete. We dis one long running clip of the Q&A's and then we filmed different people's answers, reactions, hand movements and body language. When we create the website for our soap, this part of our project will go under the "interview" tab.
Tasks done and everyone shattered, the filming day ended at 5.30pm. We took various pictures from the day but on two separate cameras. These are some of the pictures taken from my camera.


[ The Camera We Used To Film ]

[ Natalie.N & Elena C Filming With Our Camera ]

[ Trying To Eliminate The Bright Back Light ]

[ Using A White Board To Bring More Natural Light To The Filming Room ]

[ The Microphone We Were Using ]

Magazine Cover Ideas Part.2

Radio Times

Normal magazine covers consist of one or more characters from a soap with a plain coloured background and a big headline cutting them off by the mid-drift. These plain covers were not what my group wanted for our exclusive soap so we decided to make it look more sophisticated and complicated, by giving the reader a look at how our characters can behave, and not just stand there smiling with a headline saying 'MURDER'. So, we have looked at the layout of Radio Times and decided we could use it as a template for our new magazine.
Most covers consist of a single side of glossy paper. However, Radio Times often uses double or triple-width covers that open out for large group photographs. We, like Radio Times, will publish the same magazines but with four different covers (one for each group member).
Our picture, based on one of our pictures, is set on a road following 3 of the characters whilst the other character is sitting on a bench looking at them. This represents how this character is an outcast compared to the tightly-knit group she is staring at. She is not with them nor is she welcomed by their body language.

Magazine Cover Ideas

3rd November 2009

For this lesson we had brought in a digital camera to take pictures for our Front Cover.
These WERE NOT our final pictures, but a rough idea of how we will shoot and position the pictures for the final cover.
A normal front cover usually has a big picture of the main character in a storyline in the middle of the page, and may include other characters behind them. We tried to position ourselves to make it look like the victim was the main picture but with the suspects on each side of her, over her shoulder. Firstly we stood with the main character infront of the two suspects and took a picture, but we saw that the characters behind looked too short and not in place. We moved to the stairs to try and elevate the other characters. This looked successful, but not professional. We decided, as a group, to take individual pictures and Photoshop the characters into place.

Fifth Group Meeting - Filming Discussion

Friday 30th October 2009

Start time: 7:30pm

People present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides and Natalie Nicolaides

• We began by deciding we wanted to make a start with our TV guide magazine front cover.
• We then decided we wanted who would take on the role as the main character – we decided on Thegla.
• Next was the discussion about how we wanted the main picture on our cover to look. We decided on the victim as the main image in the foreground and the possible murderers in the background. It was settled that Natalie Michael would be the Victim and she would be dressed in white (to symbolise innocence) or a zipped up coat (to symbolise closure). The suspects in the background will be wearing something red to represent the danger.
• We selected a day that we would take a photo. We decided we would take these photos in school as we are going to be using Photoshop to change the background of them.
• Our next main discussion was as to who would be filling out which pre-production forms we would each be completing.
• Next on the agenda were the locations we would be filming in. These included; -the house (Natalie M’s house), the cafe, a supermarket, the streets, the place where the girl bunks, a park and a kitchen.
• We finally discussed possible people who could act as the extra people.

Finish time: 8:05pm

Written by Natalie Michael

Fourth Group Meeting - TV Guide Ideas

Discussing our Tv guide cover

Thursday 22nd October 2009

Start time: 2:10pm

People present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides and Natalie Nicolaides

• We began by drawing out a draft of how we want our cover to look.
  We planned where we wanted everything to be placed and how we wanted out title. We decided we wanted out title to be in the top left corner and we wanted it to be placed inside a TV.
• We then discussed possible titles for our cover. These included:
  -Teleh
  -Just TV
  -TV Rush
  -Ultimate TV
  -TV Revealed
  -TV World
  -Big Mouth

Finish time: 2:40

Written by Natalie Michael

Storyboard For An Episode Opening.

We have drawn our storyboard for part of our first episode (names of characters still to be decided). It will go as follows:

Scene 1

• Girl 1 in kitchen eating breakfast. She gets a text saying 'Are you in today? x'
• Her mum appears in the doorway saying 'hurry up or you are going to be late'
• Girl 1 walks out and slams the front door whilst her mum is still talking
• Girl 1 walking down the road

Scene 2

• Girlfriend and boyfriend walking down the street together talking
• close up of the girlfriend looking uneasy whilst the boyfriend is still talking to her
• close up of the boyfriend looking down at his girlfriend with a smile on his face

Scene 3

• Boy 1 cooking his breakfast, his phone rings
• He talks on the phone saying 'yeah I'm going to be late again'

Scene 4

• Girl 1 smoking in the street
• A group of girls walk past her, they say hi, one asks girl 1 for a cigarette
• She passes her one
• Girls say thanks and walk on
• Close up of girl 1 smiling

Group effort. Written by Natalie Michael. Drawn by Natalie Michael and Thegla Savvides

Trailer Storyboard

We have drawn up our storyboard for our trailer (names of characters still to be decided).
We decided we wanted our trailer to be unconventional using the recent Eastenders trailer with Peggy and Archies wedding and Hollyoaks trailers as inspiration. It will go as follows:
Close up of girl 1 crying with make up running down her face

• She closes her eyes to a heartbeat sound

  Close up of the first note on the floor 'We'

  Scene fades to letters coming through the letter box

  The note with 'We' falls out from in between the letters.

  Close up of girl 1 with her hands on her head. she closes her eyes to a heartbeat

  Close up of the second note on the floor 'Know'

  Girl 1 sitting in a cafe

  A waitress brings her a drink and hands her a note from someone

  Girl 1 reads the note but audience do not see it.

  She looks around in the hope of seeing who it is from but the cafe is empty

  Close up of her hands covering more of her face and the sound of her whimpering

  Close up of the third note on the floor 'What'

  When girl 1 gets home from the cafe she looks in her bag and sees the third note

  Close up of the girls face, tears rolling down

  Close up of the 4th note on the floor 'You'

  Girl 1 sitting on her floor doing homework, as she lifts up a folder, the fourth note falls out from it.

  Close up of the girl crying

  Fifth note on the floor 'Did'

  Girl 1 in supermarket she gets her purse out to pay and the 5th note falls from it.

  Girl in her bedroom putting the notes together
  'WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID'

  The tempo/pace of the music increases as she puts the notes in order one by one. the music stops as they are put in order and a cardiac arrest beep comes on.

  The scene flashes to a dead body

  I.V appears on screen with the days and time the soap is on - 'Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm

  Final sound of a heart beat then silence as the trailer ends.

  Typed By Natalie Michael.
  

Analysis of Hollyoaks Website

As a group we have decided to analyse the websites of the soaps we have been researching, including; Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Home & Away, and Corination Street. This research, we believe, will help us decide what is acceptable of a conventional soap website and what we will include in our own. Colour schemes, features and amounts of pictures and text were taken into consideration throughout our research.

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/hollyoaks

The official Hollyoaks website is situated on the Channel 4 website. With 4OD now in place fans can watch Hollyoaks online at whatever time they want as well as get gossip,trailers and behing the scenes footage. It's features let you explore the characters and their backgrounds and see pictures in a gallery of upcoming episodes and previous episodes. After every aired episode the website is updates regularly, featuring new pictures and gossip everyday.

The site also links Hollyoaks related news to the website, such as Ricky Whittle (Calvin Valentine) competing in 'Strictly Come Dancing' being posted on the Hollyoaks website.

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/H/hollyoaks/news

Games and quizes can be played interactively online to add a bit of fun and see how well you know Hollyoaks.

Hollyoaks is to push the boundaries of cross-platform content by launching an online show that will also appear in the TV soap. Producer Lime Pictures and its digital arm, Conker Media, are developing Runners, a show-within-a-show that it plans to air daily on the teen soap's website.In Hollyoaks, characters will be seen talking about comedy-drama Runners and watching it on TV. The show is set among students working as runners in showbusiness and the fashion industry. It will be filmed in London close to transmission and will include sequences shot at events such as the Brit Awards.As well as brief clips of Runners appearing in the soap, Hollyoaks fans will be able to watch a full three-minute online episode each weekday for the 10-week initial run. Episodes are planned to appear on C4's Hollyoaks website as well as on Bebo, MSN Messenger TV, Facebook and iTunes.

What my group has learned from researching websites is that the features we allow our audience to have is very important. We must make our theme match the personality of our audience and provide what they would need to acomplish their desired task. Research from all of these soaps' websites has allowed us to see what they have in common but what they offer individualy. Our aim is to cater to all the needs of our users by taking on board what we have found and put it into our own website.

Progression Of Group Ideas

So far we are comfortably into our coursework process and have come up with numerous ideas, and through discussion and analysis of different soap operas, we have been able to elaborate on all of these ideas, all having our own individual input.Ethnic groups, sterotypes, middleclass Vs Lower class, are just a few of the ideas that have crossed our minds.
Here are some of the ideas we thought of

• Echoing thoughts
• Heartbeat Backtrack
• Girl being locked in her room; mother tries to get in
• She sits on her bed crying, rocking, shaking, make-up running dow her face
• Her thoughts in a scene - white board with pictures/equations
  

We definitly work well as a group taking in everyones ideas and moulding them to suit everyones liking.

We also decided on:
Final image a dead body, back to girl on bed rocking, close up of face.
Heart beat-flashing images on every beat
From picture of girl on bed, to board to close up of her face etc.
Mother trying to talk to her and get into her room- turning of the door handle- but she cant hear her because of the noises in her head.
IV drip-dead body-
girls face-running makeup- crying frozen with hands on ears-
zoom out and Iv appears on screen with siren sounds.

These are only the progression of our idea, and not our final decisions.

Group Effort, Written By Thegla Savvides

Minutes For Second Group Meeting

Discussing character types, ideas for trailer and story boarding first episode.

Tuesday 6th October

Start Time: 11:06am

People Present: Elena Christodoulou, Thegla Savvides, Natalie Michael, Natalie Nicolaides
As a group we first discussed different character types that we think would appeal to our target audiences, We began mapping out different characteristics that individually appealed to us.
Some ideas where a posh character that doesn't look posh, bad looking characters who are very well behaved, The popular girls and the misfits.
We discussed numerous ideas for the trailer, one of us comes up with an idea and by the end we all have had an input.
Some of the ideas for our trailer, we've elaborated upon and decided it for the first episode, allowing us to leave numerous cliff hangers in the trailer and prolong them onto the episode.
We asked ourselves many questions like...Is the trailer going to be a spoiler of an unrealistic scene-e.g. like at the beginning of Hollyoaks with the supernatural and flashbacks etc.
We also set each other targets in order for things to all be completed in time and in order, keeping us up to date.
We discussed a few locations, and the advantages and disadvantages of these.
Some of the ideas we came up with, where more of a challenge than others we discussed how we would work around certain problems and in some cases lack of required props, i.e. recording in a shop-copyrighting issues- and our main idea of having a clear board for characters thoughts.

Finish Time: 12:20pm

Analysis of Hollyoaks Review

In the nineties we saw the birth of many fantastic forms of entertainment. Take That sparked sexy malepop, The Spice Girls introduced us to ’girl power’ and hollyoaks stormed on to our screens with its young and beautiful cast. Only oneof these has fully survived the last decade, growing from strength tostrength and eventually gaining the respect of the British public and critics alike: Hollyoaks.

Over the years we’ve seen rape, murder,drugs...to name but a few! Hollyoaks has repeatedly gained theattention of young adults in Britain, but has in its beginningsfailed to gain the respect of critics and the wider population. Thatwas until the hard hitting story lines of 2007 were aired.In recent months we have seen bulimiaending in tragedy, teacher student relations resulting in a prisonstabbing and a murderous gold digging wife. These are a few storylines amongst many that have made the wider public and critics reallysit up and take notice. As we have clung to the edge of our seatsawaiting numerous revelations, the standard of acting has rapidly improved.

This years soap awards have seen Chris Fountain secure bestactor for his role as Justin Burton, the vindictive school boy whobedded his teacher only to have her incarcerated. Emma Rigby followedhis triumph by securing best actress for playing Hannah Ashworth thepretty A Level student ravaged by bulimia. Roxanne Mckee maintainedHollyoaks’ reputation as the soap that stuns, by once again beingnamed as sexiest actress. Overall Hollyoaks swiped 6 awards, puttingour usual favorites to shame!

Aside from its award victories Hollyoaks has smashed the storylines that have broken others. In thepast month incest has been on the tips of everyones tongues, in Brookside it was gut wrenching, but the cast and crew of Hollyoaks made it heart wrenching. Elliot Bevan, the resident geek, broughtabout the tricky subject of alien activity. This was far removed fromEl Dorado’s ridiculously farsical attempt, instead it was a tearjerking story of a confused young man searching for his father.The story lines may be slightly obscene, the characters may be overly gorgeous, but theres no denying that in the past twelve months Hollyoaks has really come in to its own.

[ By: ljmckeever1 May 07, 2008 09:59 PM ]

Group Meeting

Discussing general ideas, pitch and treatment

Tuesday 15th SeptemberStart Time: 11:37am

People Present: Elena Christodoulou, Thegla Savvides, Natalie Michael, Natalie Nicolaides

As a group we decided to involve our soap around a teenage lifestyle, involving school, relationships and typical teenage problems.

We discussed various locations and central meeting points like school, home and cafes.
Characters we decided are based around a stereotypical teenager. leaving the audience the ability to relate to them.

Heirachy:
-Popularity Vs Geeks
-Rich Vs Poor
-Popularity/Rich/Education
-Relationships/Jealousy/Revenge

We also discussed targets for the week and allocated eachother different assignements in complete. e.g research (questionnaires, tv soap analysis, trailer analysis evaluation of questionnaire etc.)

Finish Time: 12:26pm

Hollyoaks Trailer

The project we have been given is to make a trailer of a soap. Soaps do not usually broadcast trailers unless a big, life-changing storyline occurs. I am hoping this will benefit me and my group when we go on to deciding how we want our trailer to look like and portray. I hope to use these trailers to guide us to make our trailer successful.

The trailers I have picked are all based on the same storyline. It involves the McQueen family; the girl’s long lost brother, Niall, and Myra, their mother, are all featured in the adverts saying the same lines whilst each one features a different McQueen sister. Niall is trying to make his mother choose between him and one of the sisters, but the use of different trailers doesn’t give away which sister he has kidnapped. The trailer is called “Niall’s revenge”. The 6th trailer only features Niall and his lines, then Myra saying her bit then a narrator saying “its decision time for Myra”.
Myra hasn’t told the girls that Niall is their long lost brother, as she gave him away as a child. In each trailer, the girls are trying to talk to their mother whilst trapped or held hostage, trying to convince her to pick them over crazed brother, Niall. In the background of the trailers, it appears to be a living room but it is wrecked with pictures out of place, symbolising a broken home and a destroyed family, and that Myra’s decision is vital and can make or break the family.

Trailers:
1. Tina McQueen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMgyuCHOjeQ&feature=channel

2. Carmel McQueen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17qQjGOfGk4&feature=channel

3. Michaela McQueen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91OFJ5dETbY&feature=related

4. Jaqui McQueen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1eNjVrB7wI&feature=related

5. Mercedes McQueen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgqHU73L1Vk&feature=fvw

6. Niall's individual trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK1iSoYmLJ4&feature=related

My research on 'Hollyoaks' trailers has shown me that more than one trailer can be used to tell the same storyline. The huge storyline makes this successful and enables the audience to view the situation from all angles. They feel involved in the narrative and are eager to see what happens. From this i have learned that a trailer including drama and terror appeals more to an audience. Therefore, our trailer must have a certain 'scary' appeal and make the audience want to watch it. Mystery is a key element in a trailer.

Analysis of Group Questionnaire

Questionnaire

1) What is your gender?

Male female

2) What age group are you in?

10-14 15-19 20-24 25+

3) Do you watch soap operas? If so, which ones?

4) How often do you watch soap operas?

5) Where do you watch these soaps?

TV, Internet

6) When do you watch these soaps?

During the week, omnibus, on the Internet

7) What do you think makes a good soap opera?

8) What type of characters appeal to you?

This is an example of the questionnaire we sent out to a randomly selected group of people. The results showed that;

. Mostly females of all ages tend to watch soap operas.

· The most soap was Eastenders which was viewed on TV during the week.

· Most people wanted to see good storylines and appealing characters they could relate to.

We are going to use these findings to make sure we include what audiences want from soap operas in order to make to our work as successful as it can be.

Group effort. written by Natalie Michael and Thegla Savvides

Analysis of an Episode of Hollyoaks

By analysing an episode of 'Hollyoaks', I hope to achieve an insight to what is expected from a soap appealing to a young-adult based soap. This research will enable me to see what is conventional to this soap and what I should include and what should not be added. I was looking for specific forms and conventions, realism, and narrative structure.

LIFESTYLES: The generations lead different lifestyles; for example Anita lives differently to her sister Leyla or their mother. Students and teachers also have different lifestyles.
Different classed/statuses characters live differently as well, for example Darren lives different to a student like Elliot. These different lifestyles can also occur within a family; Ash lives a high, rich life whist his sisters live a simple student life.

RELATIONSHIPS: Relationships vary from family, sexual and loving. Family relationships are usually united and strong, but in such soaps the drama can tear a family apart. In the episode I watched, Ash was disowned by his family because he had told his sister she was adopted and had put his brother in a coma and lied about it. Another relationship seen in this episode was lust, between Cheryl and Calvin. She fancies him and when she has nowhere to go she stays at his house Calvin’s dad takes a shine to her.

PLOT: The plot of this episode mainly circulates around Ash being disowned by the family, and trying to get his sister Anita on his side, after telling her she was adopted. This branches into another family situation because of his previous relationship with Hannah, who was once diagnosed with anorexia. After an argument with Ash, Anita tells Gilly, one of Hannah’s friends, that Ash had hidden food in Hannah’s room to make it look like she was having eating problems and depend on him. Gilly told Hannah’s family what had happened and her mother went and apologised to her daughter for not believing her when she denied it, this resulted in them having a heart to heart and growing closer as a family. Ash realises that he has nothing left to stay for and after wrecking his restaurant, leaves the village for good.
Hollyoaks differs from other soaps by the way it shows special effects. Most soaps, like Eastenders, don’t use special effects, whilst Hollyoaks uses non-diagetic music, and imaginative beginnings that uses a short scene, which fits with the contents of the episode but is irrelevant to the story; for example, in one episode there was a large chess board and on one team was Darren and Hannah and on the other team was Tony and Cindy, this represented they games they were playing against each other and who had been caught up in the “game” but was not actually part of the characters lives.

By watching this episode, I have concluded how different 'Hollyoaks' differs from ordinary soaps. It challenges the forms and conventions of a typical soap and uses types of 'dream' scenes. The narrative structure has shown me what and how me and my group can appeal to a certain audience. I've taken my research and compared it with my group members research and a final conclusion of episodes of soaps has been included on the group blog.

Opening Credits Of Hollyoaks

I decided to analyse the opening title sequences for 'Hollyoaks'. I feel this will benefit me and my group when we are deciding final ideas for our own soap. We hope to take ideas both positive and negative and apply them to ours to make it the best it can be. Things like music type, colours, pictures and even the length of it will be taken into consideration and applied to our existing knowledge of soaps.

Shows each character one after the other and allows them to act out an action that represents them, for example Ravi is hitting a punching bag in his clip which shows his sporty, athletic personality and “skin”, meaning how people see him.
The background is mainly plain or with spiral lights or wallpaper. The plain backgrounds represent a blank canvas which allows the character to let their personality paint the background. The spiral lights show how their lives are spiralling out of their own control and how they are involved in many different storylines. The wallpaper background, however, could represent a fake front put on by the person, either to hide or to cover up some sort of fault in their own personality.
The opening begins with a woman’s eye with “Hollyoaks” written in it, this could show how the audience gets to view the whole of Hollyoaks village. At the end, the “o’s” in Hollyoaks have male and female sex symbols which join together and zoom forward to the screen to allow the episode to start.

I feel that researching the opening credits of 'Hollyoaks' has benefited me and my group. I found that by using an up-beat tune in the title sequence that the soap would generally appeal to a younger audience whilst a soap like 'Eastenders' has a neutral tune and beat that would appeal to a range of ages. 

A catchy tune would appeal to a younger audience. This is evident because whilst I was watching the opening credits, my class mates were standing around me singing and humming along to the tune.