Poster Draft

We have been set the task to create a magazine cover of a soap opera poster. We decided to specifically focus the poster's content and how they advertise our new soap, Helen How. By creating the draft, we are able to consider the elements of a poster. and what we need to include to attract our target audience.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/poster-plans.html

Auditions

We held auditions to find the perfect actors/actresses for our roles. We looked specifically at actors/actresses who have similar personality traits to the characters we had created. We had advertised the auditions with posters and with people who we asked to come along as we felt the were fitting to the roles. My input was to film the auditions and i focused mainly on the performance given by the auditionees and how these related to their chosen character. Jo had devised scripts for each character and they read these whilst auditioning. We then added a voice over on why we chose each person we had cast each person to each role.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/auditions.html

Due to many actors having to drop out as we had conflicting time tables, many new actors were cast in their place and we have added the auditions for each of these characters.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/more-auditions.html

Draft Magazine Cover

We have been set the task to create a magazine cover of a soap opera magazine. We decided to specifically focus the magazine's content on the story lines of our new soap opera, Helen Howe. By creating the draft, we are able to consider the elements of a magazine cover and what we need to include to attract our target audience. The magazine trailer was hand drawn and we have used Danielle as the main focus on our trailer as we feel a younger audience can relate with her teenage pregnancy storyline. We have considered typical conventions of a magazine including a price and bar code as well as filling the page with borders of other story lines.

See Group Blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/draft-magazine-hand-drawn.html

Location Scouting

As we were in a group of 4 we thought it would be easier to divde the costume, props, lighting and location task and allocate a section to each person. I was allocated the location scouting.

For the location scouting, i walked around the village i live in and took pictures of possible locations for our soap opera and why we could use each location i took a photograph of. We wanted to film in our village as it has conventions of an old village to attract an older audience as well as modern housing estates being introduced which would attract a younger audience, we have chosen to have Helen and her family move into a cul de sac as when she is walking to her home it will be easier to portray everybody around her looking.

See group blog: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3188536067312542572&postID=2803458341878575921

Analysis Of Soap Opera Magazine And Poster

Soap Magazine2

Soap Opera Magazine And Poster Analysis

Soap Magazine

Stopmotion and Animatic Storyboard

We created our stopmotion trailer to display how we would like our trailer to look in more detail than the photographic storyboard. We used stop motion photography to film our trailer and this enabled us to explore different filming techniques that we could possibly use in the future.
We created a set with books and stuck pictures of houses, shops and a pub onto them to make it apparent how our Hall family will be entering a village and catching the villagers attention. We also used a different character for each role so it was less confusing for our audience when watching. We took the still images and then put them into the editing programme Final Cut Pro, we then shortened the time frame on the photos so that they flowed together better. We also added the diegetic sound over the top of the car, the heels and the child speaking.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/animatic-storyboard.html




On receiving feedback on our stopmotion sotryboard, we felt that it was quite hard to understand what is happening in the soap as the animatic is over quite quickly and has no narration over the top to explain what is happening. We then created an animatic storyboard and took new photos for it, we all had an equal input in this as we all had to pose as different characters and all added narrations into the animatic storyboard.


See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/12/animatic-storyboard.html

Photographic Storyboard

We created a photographic storyboard to display what we want to happen in our trailer. This helped us to present our trailer the way we visualised it. Myself, Jo and Sophie took the pictures outside in our school car park, we all played various characters and used a jumper stuffed up my t-shirt to show how Danielle is pregnant. I then put these pictures together in word and used a bold comic book theme to show how we are aiming it at a younger audience, i got inspiration of this from the Hollyoaks trailer involving Nancy, Ravi and Kris. This trailer follows a magazine cover and then goes into more of a comic book style to show the storyline in the soap.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/whodunnit-photographic-storyboard.html

Storyboard

We created a storyboard to map out what we would like our trailer consist of. Creating this helped us to decide what we want our characters to be doing in the trailer, what they wear and how they are presented to our audience. We all inputed an equal amount into the storyboard and contributed with drawing, and decided what the images would be of.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/10/original-story-board.html

First Draft Of Script

We created a script altogether for the trailer to enable us to think about the speech we want in our trailer. We would like our trailer's dialect to consist mainly of extra-diegetic sounds and narration of when the show will be broad casted. We have decided to feature the line 'Do the Halls create hell in Helen How?' as this plays on how the Halls could be a troublesome family when they move to their new home on the street Helen How.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-draft-script.html

Initial Plot Narrative

We created an initial plot narrative to focus on the style we would like our trailer to follow. We decided on a Hollyoaks-esque trailer that reveals elements of the trailer in quirky ways without explicitly telling the audience the storyline. We decided to use Hollyoaks because it is aimed at a younger audience and we would like to aim our trailer at a younger audience. We have also gained inspiration from the virgin atlantic advert which has the air hostesses in red dresses and heels and the advert makes use of the Male Gaxe Theory, we would like to have our female character in red to connote how she is a seductress and to attract male audience members into watching our soap.

See group blog: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3188536067312542572&postID=4621388228067031633

Character Profiles

Myself and Sophie created the character profiles in order to gain a wider understanding of how these characters would be portrayed in our soap opera. We have tried to base our characters on typical characters found in soap operas. For example: Jack the lad, pregnant teenager and a lovable family. We hoped that the character profiles would help us relate to our characters and create them so they relate to our target audience. We also added images of different soap opera and film characters that we found defined their role, we hope to find characters who are aesthetically fitting to the role they are playing.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/09/character-profiles.html


Character Profiles

Initial Ideas

We created our initial ideas to combine each of our ideas on how we would like our soap opera to be and to brainstorm the sorts of characters and locations we would like to include as well as storyboards. We all agreed instantly that we should film in Essex and aim our soap opera at a younger audience.

See group blog: http://whodunnitproductions.blogspot.com/2010/09/initial-ideas_10.html