Photographic Storyboard

We have created a Animatic storyboard which gives us more of an Idea about how our soap will look (compared to the normal storyboard), this is just a basic understanding of what we want.

Since doing the photographic storyboard we found our ideas changed compared to when we did the initial storyboard. Initially we liked the idea of setting it in a party environment but later realised that we could potentially find this challenging and would not be as effective for a soap trailer. We all agreed that we preferred the idea of a photo shoot setting as its an opportunity to have all the characters in one room together. We felt this was a better idea for a trailer as the characters could come across better and the storylines could be put forward as the location is a sort of blank canvas that we can experiment with. After doing the photographic storyboard we knew for definite that we wanted to carry on this idea as we felt it worked well in images and hoped for the same when it comes to filming.

Storyboard- Initial ideas

In our group we have discussed a variety of ideas for our trailer. We have drawn two storyboards to show our different ideas that we have had. By creating these storyboards we are able to see how our ideas could potentially turn out.

Storyboard 1- This storyboard shows a glamorous party that would be used to introduce the characters, personalities and possible story lines.

Storyboard 2- Here is our second idea, which is a glamorous photo shoot. We will include the majority of the characters especially the main ones. All the characters will congregate for a photo and we will use voice overs to show their real thoughts and give an insight of what their life is really like. From this we will be able to show characters, relationships and possible story lines.

As a group we have discussed our two ideas. We believe that they are both good ideas that would give the viewers an insight into the new soap and not give too much away. However, we feel that our second storyboard will be more accessible and better to evolve, as the first story would need to involve a lot of extras to give a real part vibe.

Flowchart

Millie

This flowchart shows the order of the shots that we want to include in our trailer. This is a rough idea of what we want to include and the shots we will use for each part. We like the idea of showing each character walking into the studio. We agreed this was a good way to introduce not only the characters but their individual storylines and how some of them intertwine with another. As shown in our flowchart we intend to make all the characters be a part of a storyline but think its best to leave the most outrageous and dramatic one till last. We believe this is the best way to capture audiences and to hook them with the most interesting storylines that will leave more of an impression on them due to being put last. The way we have set out this flowchart makes apparent not only our storylines but an idea of what camera shots and angles we want to use. This is to get a basic idea of how we want the trailer to be and to give ourselves a rough guideline to follow when it comes to filming.

Initial Plot/ Narrative for our Soap Opera

Initial Plot/ Narrative for our Soap Opera on Prezi

Storyline Moodboard

Here is a moodboard with many different storylines that are incorporated in soap operas, to follow the generic conventions of a soap opera we needed to add some of these storylines in ours. We did this moodboard to help get ideas of different storylines that we could potentially use in our own trailer. The images we use all relate back to previous storylines in existing soaps and some are ideas that we have already thought of and want to include.

Target Audience - Moodboard

By doing a target audience mood board it has allowed us visually see who we are aiming our soap at. Also when having to do questionnaire's on our target audience we can base them on the mood board and see if they match up to what we want. The moodboard basically tells us we want to aim our soap at a young modern audience who could either be students or working class. We want our target audience to like watching Hollyoaks and The Only Way Is Essex because that is what our soap will be similar too.

Target Audience Profile

Here is a Target Audience Profile which will tell you who we are aiming our soap opera at and who we would expect to wa\tch it. By doing this it will help us to make sure that we use certain story lines/characters which will attract the type of audience we want.

Class

The class of our audience would be a mix of people from working class right through to the unemployed, in the demographic groups B through to E. Even though we would like our soap to contain more high class characters and show a sophisticated lifestyle, we still want to attract an audience of this kind to show them that living the high life does have its downfalls. Also, from our target audience research we found that people from these demographic groups are the ones who watch soap operas.

Gender

Our audience will be a mix of both males and females. We discovered from target audience research that soap operas are enjoyed by both genders. The story lines included in our soap opera will allow both genders to relate to and enjoy. By aiming it at both genders we will also, attract a wider audience and it will be more marketable.

Age and Race

Our soap opera will be aimed mainly at the younger generation ranging from the ages of 16-30, like those who watch programmes such as, Eastenders and Hollyoaks. We have decided this because our soap will include young characters fluctuating from  the ages 16-35 and therefore a younger audience will be more likely to relate to their life and their character. Also, from previous audience research that we carried out, we discovered that the age range of people who watched the soaps such as Hollyoaks ranged from 16-25. We are also, aiming our soap to viewers of any race and ethnicity.

Interests

We would expect our audience to be interested in finding out what it is like to live the high life. Also, such things as shopping, socialising, gossip, going to the gym, watching TV and reading magazines. These will be some of the things which the characters in our soap will be interested in as well so, they will be able to relate to each other and these are the types of things that people from our age range would like to do.

Uses and Gratifications

Our Soap will use the Hypodermic needle theory and just feed the audience the information. We want our soap to be easy to watch. Also, viewers tend to watch soap operas after they have had a long hard day at work and we want our audience to be able to relax and unwind, while watching it but still have an enjoyable experience.

Initial Soap Opera Ideas

As a group we came together and discussed our first initial ideas of what we would like to make our new soap about. We have presented this in a mind map and have included such things as possible characters and themes.

Initial ideas on Prezi

Soap Opera Brief

We are creating a trailer for a new soap opera and also a poster and listings magazine that would be used to promote our new soap.

The initial idea for our soap is to be a glamorous, high class soap as we feel this is a gap in the soap opera market. We got inspiration for this idea from programmes such as Hollyoaks, The Hills and Footballers Wives. These programmes have all inspired us in different ways, Hollyoaks as they are young, The Hills because of their lifestyle and relationships and Footballers Wives because of the money and classy characters but they still include dramatic story lines that can be included in a soap.

In the first few episodes we would like to introduce the characters and their lives, show the area and significant locations. We would also include story lines such as a hint of an affair, family troubles and a drug scandal. We want to show the audience that it isn't always happy in paradise and that money can't buy you happiness.

The purpose of the soap opera trailer is firstly to promote our new soap and entice possible audiences. We want to show the viewers what they are likely to expect to see in the soap and give a brief insight into the characters. The purpose of the soap opera poster is to promote our soap and inform people about it. It will help us to show our soap to the biggest and widest  possible market as not everyone may see it. The purpose of the listing magazine cover is to advertise our new soap. It will show the target audience what else they can expect to see on the market and that a new and exciting soap is coming onto their TV screens. We will be able to show further story lines and show the look of the look of the soap. All these products will link together to advertise the show they will also follow the same sort of format including fonts and include the main characters and slogans.

We would like our advertisement to make the audience intrigued about what might happen in this soap and what they may expect to see. In the trailer we would like to use a small cliffhanger to make them want to query what is going to happen. We want to give enough information to the audience about the new soap but also, leave them questioning and wanting to find out more.

All three products will use a variety of different technologies. The trailer will use a video camera to film and then it will be edited on a Mac computer using a special film programme. The poster will use a camera, be edited on a computer and a high gloss printer to produce the product. Finally the magazine will use a camera for the photographed images and an editing programme to pull it all together.

Location Moodboard

Here is a mood board about the different types of locations that we may want to include in our soap opera. We have included such places as houses, clubs, restaurants, gardens, boutiques and household rooms. We have gone for the glamorous feel to our soap so we have chosen images to represent this. We have been looking at larger houses to represent the wealth and the glamorous interiors to go with it. In many soaps they include a pub as a main place to socialise however, as we want to add a bit of glamour into our soap we would like to include a nice and elegant bar. Also, we would like to include lavish gardens with pools, Jacuzzis, padded sun loungers to really give a sophisticated look. Other locations such as boutiques and clubs we would also like to include as other places to set dramatic scenes.

Glamor Moodboard

For our soap opera trailer our group have discussed different ideas for what we could make our soap like and the kind of soap it would be and whether it would be like any other existing soaps. We wanted to create something glamorous as we thought that there is a gap in the market for a glamorous weekday soap that also shows the lives of these people and the drama involved.We will have to think about everything including locations, props, costumes etc when it comes to making it glamorous. We want to include things that are going to make these characters seem like people who are of a high status and make the area they live in to be a high class environment.  We want to put across that even though these people are perfect on the outside their lives are not all as they seem.


Mood Board

Character Moodboard

Here I have done 2 character mood boards, the first one shows the sort of characters we want to include in our soap opera, these include:
Sugar Daddy, Young Glamorous Couple, Bad Boy, Druggies, Businessman, Airhead, Comedy Child, Homosexual boys and girls and a dreamboat boy.
The second one shows celebrities that represent the characters we want to use in our soap.

Character moodboard


Celeb Character Moodboad

Conventions Found In Trailers Compared To Full Episodes

Soap Opera Trailers
Snippets of different shots.
Variety of different shots -  mid shot, two shot, close up etc...
Cliffhanger
One main character
Few characters of Props Theory
Showed any time
One main storyline
Low key lighting 
Ends with information about the soap (where to watch it, time etc..)
Logo shown throughout or makes an appearance
Music Juxtaposes trailer (EastEnders christmas one etc..)
First or Second of Todorovs Equilibrium theory




Logo shown throughout trailer




One Main Character

Snippets of Different Shots

Ends With Information About The Soap



 Full Soap Opera Episode
Starts with signature music 
All steps of Todorovs Equilibrium theory sometimes used over 1-3 days
All scenes flow into each other
One or two main characters used
Played at a certain time on a certain day - scheduled.
On going - doesn't have an ending
One main storyline with lots of minor ones going on at same time.
Same length of time usually 30 minutes or an hour.



Starts With Signiture Music

Same length of time usually 30 minutes or an hour

Played at a certain time on a certain day - scheduled

On going - doesn't have an ending There is a big difference between a full soap opera episode and a soap opera trailer, mostly being because their is a time limit. If a trailer was to be the same length as a full episode most of the conventions would be the same apart from a trailer having snippets and always ending on a cliffhanger. A trailers uses its conventions to entice its audience into watching the soap regularly but the full episode is ongoing everyday and drags the story lines of the trailer out over a period of time.

Soap Opera Trailers

When comparing our results from the individual soap opera trailer task we realised that for most of the findings they were quite similar. A lot of the trailers were shown either during the adverts of that soap or either before or after. The time the trailers were shown usually depended on the contents of that trailer. But most of the ones we watched were audience friendly and could have been shown at any time of the day.

Soap Trailers

After comparing results and creating a chart we realised which soaps appeared at what time the most and the most popular times for a trailer to be advertised. The most common time was around 7pm-7:30. We believe this to be because these are the times most of the soaps are on or are on its advert break. Advertising a trailer at a similar time to when the soap itself on creates interest to the audiences and gives them a chance to see what plots are developing. We found that more trailers were shown during the evening rather than early in the morning. Sometimes this could come down to the contents of the trailer and whether they are audience friendly to show at a certain time. We want our trailer to be audience friendly so it can be shown all throughout the day to give it more of a chance to be seen by a wider variety of audiences that would not perhaps usually watch the soap.