Evaluation Question 4

In this video I did not mention that although the music was changed so it was different in each scene to make it more fitting, it was not conventional for a soap opera trailer to have changing pieces of music. To improve on this I had to find a piece of music that worked throughout the entire trailer. I managed to find a suitable track and I feel that it works a lot better now and has a more generic feel.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

Final Soap Opera Trailer

After showing our most recent draft of our trailer to an audience I picked up a few points that could be changed or improved on. I decided it would be best if I added these changes as I agreed with them and thought it would make my trailer altogether a more effective piece. This main point picked up on was the music. Compared to existing soap opera trailers, which usually use one piece of music all the way throughout, we used several different pieces for each different scene. This was very un-generic and I do not think it worked, neither did the audience. To amend this I tried to find a quite neutral piece of music which would work the whole way through the trailer to make it more conventional and easier for the audience to relate to by being similar to existing trailers. I managed to find the piece of music you can hear in this improved version of my trailer and chose it because I thought it worked well through all the scenes as it built up to create suspense during the negative scenes. Instead of finding a different piece of music for the party scene I faded out the main piece of music so just the background song could be heard. The main piece was then faded back in for the pub scene. I feel this music works a lot better than the music in the last edit as it gives a more continuous feel to the trailer.

I have also added a voice over to the end of the trailer where the titles come up. I did this to really emphasis the important details about when the soap opera is going to broadcasted. By having these details written and spoken I feel they are reiterated for the audience so they are well remembered.

Final Poster

Improved Poster On completion of my last draft of my poster I received a couple of additional feedback comments regarding improvements that could be made. Although I had completed my final design I felt that adding these changes would only improve the product more. The changes I made included increasing the size of the broadcast time and channel. This was to make it stand out more as it is a very important piece of information. Another change I made was adding 'The Walthams' road sign. I did this to create brand awareness so that the audience would recognise this as the shows logo. The final change I made was to lighten the right side of Georges eyes. In the previous draft his right eye disappeared into the background so was not very visible. By brightening it I have made it more visible but still maintained the mysterious feel.

Third Draft of Trailer

This is the third draft of our soap opera trailer. We created this draft as a group. We have made small improvements from the last draft such as colour correcting certain scenes and tidying it up. I have gotten some feedback on this draft as I think there can still be some improvements made. I received the following comments from class members, friends and family:
- the music is not very generic to soap opera trailers as they usually have one piece of music that works throughout the whole trailer.
- a voice over is needed on the title screen to reiterate the important information about the soaps broadcasting time.

Feedback for 2nd Magazine Layout

I have gathered some feedback for the second design I created for my magazine layout. I will use these to put towards our final edit of the magazine. The following comments were made:
- Taglines should be added to all photos includeing the two at the top
- Cut out around George shouldn't be soft, making it more blunt will make him look more bold
- Some photos could be sligtly bigger

Again, these are very small changes but they will help to make the final product the best it can be.

Feedback for 2nd Poster Design

I asked people for feedback points on my second design for the magazine cover so I could use this feedback to put towards our final cover. The following comments were made:
- Tagline could be added to give away a bit of information
- Two main characters could be brightened to make them stand out from the crowd
- Rest of the characters should be darkened to give more impact on the main characters
- The eyes should be darkened to make them blend in more and make the image seem even more mysterious

Although these are small changes, they will help to add to a better effect for the final piece.

Feedback for Second Draft of Trailer

As a group we thought it would be a good idea to do several interviews with our peers to gather some feedback points regarding our second draft of our soap opera trailer. We thought this would be a unique way of gathering feedback as aposed to just making notes. These interviews can be found on our group blog here:
http://thejama2.blogspot.com/2011/01/feedback-for-2nd-cut-of-trailer.html

2nd Cut of Trailer

We have completed the second draft of our soap opera trailer, which can be seen on our group blog here:
http://thejama2.blogspot.com/2011/01/2nd-cut-of-trailer.html

To this cut we have added the things people commented on during getting the feedback in order to improve it. We will get more feedback on this edit to make more improvments for our final edit.

2nd Draft of Poster

This is the second draft of my poster including the improvments suggested.

2nd Draft Poster

Poster Design Feedback

I asked for feedback on the poster layout idea I created so I could improve it. The following comments where made:
- could be cropped at the bottom to make it more confinded and so the eyes are the focal point
- text of the title should be bigger so it stands out more, maybe all the way across the top
- characters should be darkened as they look too bright against the black background
- cut out around characters could be better

I will consider these comments when I create my second draft, and when we create our final piece for our poster. I particularly agree with the comments about the title and the cutting out of the characters, I will change the titles around to see what looks best, and try out different font sizes.

Filming Diary

We have created a diary to explain everything that went on during filming. We discuss any problems we had and how we overcame them, and if any scenes went particularly well.

Draft of Poster Layout

This is a design idea which I created for our poster to advertise our soap opera. I have chosen a black background to contrast with the image of the characters which makes them really stand out. I have darkened the eyes to make them blend into the background and look mysterous. This is a good way to draw in attention as people will want to know who's eyes they are and what they are looking at. I have also added a red colour overlay to the pupil of the eyes to give a sense of danger.

Draft of Poster Layout

Font Ideas for Poster

Here is some research I have done into the different fonts we could use for our soap opera poster. I have looked into a selection of different types of font, giving us some idea of what will work well for our poster. I can use this to refer back to when I create my first draft of my poster.

Fonts for Poster Titles

Magazine Cover Layout Design Improvments

I have taken into account the feedback I recieve about my first magazine cover design and have now used it to help me create a second draft design. Here is my improved cover:

Magazine Cover Layout Design Improved

Feedback for Magazine Layout Design

After I had completed my individual design idea for our magazine cover, using the photographs from filming, I showed it to my class to get some feed back on points that could be improved. By getting other peoples opinions on my design I can improve it to make it more appealing and eye catching. I asked the class to comment on design, colours, layout, font and typical conventions. This is what they said:
Layout
All of the important information is on the left which is good as it will be visible if the magazine was on a shelf with other magazines.
The date of the issue is included so the audience know which week they are looking at, but could be smaller.
The bar code typically goes over the top of images and does not have its own designated area so this should be amended.

I will be keeping all of the important information on the left hand side as I believe it is an important factor in selling magazines due to the way they are positioned on shelves, only the left side is visible. I will be making the date and bar code much smaller and placing the bar code over an image in my next draft so it does not take up important space where I could have another image or more tag lines.

Colours
The use of red connotes love which is relevant to the story lines.
The use of red and yellow gives firey connotations, which suggests something sinister and darker than appears.
The contrast between the background colours and the picture of George clearly shows that he is the antagonist as the picture is a lot darker.

I agree with these comments regarding colour and feel the comment about firey connotations is very relevant and fits in well with the story lines. I do not plan to change much in respect of the colour scheme when it comes to my next draft as I feel it works very well.

Layout
A section at the top of the page could be added to include pictures along the top, meaning the title and everything on the left side should be moved down and made smaller.
Extra pictures at the bottom add more detail by showing more story lines.
Some pictures should be cutout instead of in boxes.

I think having a section at the top for more pictures is a good idea as it is very typical to soap opera magazines. This will mean resizing the title and price on the left, which I think is necessary anyway as I think it might be a bit too big, taking up too much space. I also think cutting out some images instead of boxing them will work well as when they are in boxes it gives a very organised look and soap magazines are usually very busy and crowded. I also think I can fit more in this way.

Font
The font type is very clear and easy to read.
Use of capitals makes it very bold and helps it to stand out.
Similar fonts should be used for any more captions and text added.

I agree with these comments and feel the use of capitals does work well to grab attention as it helps the text to stand out from the background. I will definitely stick to the same font style when I add more text on my next draft as I think it works well throughout.

Typical Conventions
More tag lines needed.
More pictures should be added to fill empty spaces.
The price should be slightly smaller.
Issue number needs to be added.

When I create my next draft I need to include tag lines over the pictures because at the moment there isn't any. Tag lines are a very common convention to soap opera magazines and are important as they give a snippet of information about the storyline. It is important I add tag lines because they will gain more attention and the audience will become more interested. I will also add an issue number because it is an important piece of information to the consumers.

Magazine Cover Layout Design

Magazine Cover Layout Design

After creating our basic drafts, we decided we would each create a design using the photographs we have taken for the final piece so we could properly see our ideas. This way we can pick out the elements we think work best for our final magazine cover. This is the cover I created. The main colour scheme is red and yellow, I chose this because they are very bright colours and stand out a lot. I thought that if this magazine was on a shelf amongst others, these colours would help it stand out from the rest. With regards to font type, I tried to use very bold and large fonts to make the important information stand out. For example the price on the left hand side is very large as this is an important selling point. I also added a yellowy explosion underneath it to gain even more attention.

The magazine cover is missing one photo, of the wedding scene, and in the final piece this photo will be placed above the photo of George.

Feedback for Rough Cut Trailer

On completion of the rough draft of our soap opera trailer, we showed it to our class in order to gain some critical feedback that we can use to improve our trailer. The class made the following points:
- The opening of the trailer needs something to break it in more gently rather than just starting abruptly.
- Non diegetic music should be added to create tension and mood. It should be different for key scenes to make them more distinctive.

- Not sure why in the pub scene the acting style changes quite drastically in the sense that they delivery of the script is very over exaggerated.

We responded to these points and took them on board in order to make best use of the feedback and use it to help us improve our trailer as best as we can.

We agree with the observation about the over-acting in the pub scene and we ourselves had reservations about this. The actresses used an over exaggerated voice and accent as they are meant to be portraying older characters, and in this sense I feel the acting worked. However, in relation to the rest of the trailer, it does not match up to the acting of the other characters. We can justify this by saying that the characters in this scene are talking about something they are excited by hence why they sound excitable and exaggerated.

With regards to the non diegetic music, this is something we were already considering and we agree with the comments about it adding mood. Now its the case of finding the right music for the feel of the trailer and the music that will best accentuate the mood. I also agree that the music should differ in the key scenes, mainly due to the fact that the three main scenes have very different moods, for example an upbeat track would not suit the scene with George looking at the photo of Helen. We will continue researching the music available for us to use and add it in when it comes to creating our next draft.

We are going to consider the comment made about the trailer starting abruptly and we discussed whether it should start with a few seconds of a blank screen with the music slowly fading in. I feel like we are sticking to convention by going straight into the drama and this is something likely to gain more attention from the audience. However, we will consider this comment and try out different variations when it comes to editing our next draft.

Rough Cut Trailer

Today we completed our rough cut for our soap opera trailer. We will use this cut to show to audiences in order to gain useful feedback to apply to our 2ND cut. I think our rough cut went well, however there are still lots of things we can do to improve it. We worked well together when editing and took into consideration every ones ideas and inputs.

Our rough cut can be seen on our group blog here:
http://thejama2.blogspot.com/2011/01/rough-cut-trailer.html