In depth Research

Skins

Firstly i looked at Skin trailers, as this is one of TVs biggest British drama.

First Trailer;


This is an up-beat trailer with no voice over, chart music playing. This straight away tells us the type of audience. You can see the story line as soon as the trailer starts. A youth party/gathering at somebodies house, flashing lights and slow motion camera movements tell us alchol is involved, as this focus on their eyes and body movement.
This reflects on what the audience's social life is like.

Second Trailer;



This second trailer is very tense and dramatic, however it still has the same storyline (youth's party/gathering)but totally giving off a different feel towards skins and creating a different feel towards the audience.
It has two different story's happening as one male is in the bathroom on his own looking like hes trying to commit suicide and the other, in the same house a party full of students getting drunk not caring whats going on.

Skins Series 3

The trailer that inspired us the most is 'Skins series 3 trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyveuqtCR4k

This includes the features and similar storyline that we intend of creating in our soap opera. The voice over is out main feature with the music reflecting the storyline and audience. The positive and negative scenes show the different contrast in what the TV series includes. It is packed of different shots.
Each character has there own moment. This shows us what part they play in the drama. It also helps the audience to understand who's in the drama.
Flashbacks are show for past events that happened which become an problem in the future. Only certain speech quotes are made such as ' so i want you to stop putting ideas into her head, shes not gay'
Close up shots are repeated throughout to show the emotion between the characters the feeling that they have.
At the end of the trailer is shows the first shot of the skateboard that is the first thing shown in the start. This is an example of the 3act structure.
Background noises are included such as the rain and the back channel nosies like the screaming.

Adulthood

Looking at another British drama with the audience of young adults 'Adulthood' we start to collect repetitive techniques that both dramas use in attracting their audience.



Adulthood freezes certain images and links a minor sentence with them to help the audience focus on the characters emotional feelings and reflect on the pass and the effects that it had. An example of this is 'Sam' taking a baseball bat to a head (which is the camera) then it freezes using a minor sentence saying "6 years locked up". This is a flashback from the first movie 'Kidulthood' and tells the audience what he has experienced from doing this crime.
The song for the trailer is especially written for the film. It tells the story instead of a voice over. This is effective as you can feel the emotion just from the facial expressions and the lyrics.


Shank

Shank is a recent movie that has just been released and is already a massive hit with the young audience.



It attracts to their audience well due to the use of language and age of the actors. The directors have used a slang language such as "block blud" "you get me". this is common language used in this age group. it also shows that different groups are involved. this reflects of the media of young gangs and violence.
Certain clips of fights and blood has been shown to create the tension and a cliff hanger effect to the audience.

Also on certain clips, a selection of the script is just said. This is very effective because key words such as dead, killed, remember me" are all words that have a cliff hanger to them if they are not answered.

To attract the normal teenage audience the directors usually include violence, sex, drugs , alchol, gangs and music. This is similar to what my group and i want to include in our TV Soap Opera. Background noises are also included such as ' the motorbike'. You hear the changing of the gears going up, this shows the drama increasing and the scene's becoming more epic.

Chosen Task / start of research

From getting into groups of no more than four, and taking a brief look at three different short stories, my group and i have decided to select question 2;
A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer, together with two of the following three options:

o a listings magazine front cover featuring the new soap
o two hyperlinked webpages (with video extract) for the soap’s website
o a poster for the soap

Now we have a chosen task we have started to research soap opera trailers. some which have a similar audience to what we wish to attract
We have started to focus on younger generation such as looking at trailers from 'Skins' and 'shameless'.
An example of one of these we have looked at is Skins





This have given us many ideas and features that we want to include in our final outcome, such as a voice over with background music. I feel that this really interacts with the audience. it also tells us a little part of the story line and points out certain parts of the script which is going to make us want to watch the soap. This can be left on the cliff hanger which is antagonising

Research on short stories

Here are three short stories which were advised to watch as they all include 'Todorov's Narrative Structure'. However each of them have a different narrative.
Firstly we watched 'The black hole',


The Black Hole ;



I found the black hole very intresting and inspirational. It was a clear understanding of what the story line was. It showed the 3act structure clearly, such as firstly, Him discovering this black hole on a piece of paper, secondly realising his hand/body could go through this hole and disappear and thirdly using this to an advantage by unlocking doors and stealing money from the safe, which then lead him to greed by putting his hole body in, to collect all the money this showed a re-establishment of equilibrium: he has learned a lesson (not to be greedy) and the camera dolly's back at the end of the film to lead the audience back into the office, with just the sound of the photocopiers.


Zoo Logic;




Zoo logic had another clear 3 structure story board. However it was cartoon animated. This made our ideas expand as it widened our options.
I really liked the idea of how it incorporated humor with out it being seen as a joke.


and Pound, By Evan Bernard;



Finally i found 'Pound' the most different narrative for a short story as it could have a link to a music video. It clearly show's repetitive sequences, however it wasn't very intriguing to watch especially to watch a second time.

Outline for the coursework unit for A2 Media Studies

For this years A2 coursework unit, student have been giving a choice out of 3 questions. The main task is set in groups and is a group grade. The three ancillary tasks included in each question are individually marked. Here are the following question that have been provided,

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

o a website homepage for the band;
o a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
o a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

2. A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer, together with two of the following three options:
o a listings magazine front cover featuring the new soap
o two hyperlinked webpages (with video extract) for the soap’s website
o a poster for the soap

3. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
o a poster for the film
o a radio trailer for the film
o a film magazine review page featuring the film

The three options included in each question are individually graded.

From these briefs i will have to produce either,
o a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts
o a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in electronic format(s)

I will analyse and reflect upon the creative process and my experience of it. All so i will evaluate my work electronically, from using the options given by the set of key questions below:

A podcast
DVD extras
A blog
A PowerPoint

In my blog i am going to include the use of images, audio, video and links to online resources and each source will be analysed and describe the use to my task.