Evaluation task 4 - Software - my skill developments

Internet explorer:
is the software that allows me access to sites such as youtube and most importantly blogger.com. It is the very software that enables this project to take place. Without this software i would be unable to update my blog with evidence of my progression. It also allows my to long onto hotmail.com to access my online email account to communicate with the group. When i was without my usb i realised i was able to store data online and access it at any location. This became more efficient as the network in the school didn't allow you access the your shared documents on different computers. This meant that which ever computer you were working on, you would have to remain on that particular computer as you couldn't access any of your files from any other computer. By saving files online it overcame the problem.


Youtube:
is a video sharing website and is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, globally! A fairly recent feature allows you to annotate your videos, superimpose comments and pause still frames directly to the video without effecting the offline data. I used this to complete an evaluation task. I paused a particular part of video to allow the viewer time to read the comments i wrote. This is easily adjusted and edited as there is a visible time line below the video clip that allows you to place the comment anywhere in the video and at any lengh of time. This can all be done with a click of a mouse and is very self explanatory. There are limited features, although for a simple annotating task it's most effective otherwise there would have been endless screen shots. As it is an online facility it allows you to log on and retrieve any data you were walking on. This is beneficial as you would not have to go through the procedure of saving files onto usb sticks and is also provides a back up of any files in case of damage or loss.


iWeb:
I was fairly familiar with the software and used this to create my website. Previously i would have used Microsoft's alternative, Front page which i believe is more difficult. I found iWeb very user friendly as it hides all HTML coding. It was arranged that the class visiting CLC (computer learning centre) which i found very useful as we were all show demonstrations and had a live tutorial of all the main functions. We had spent 2 hours in the centre experimenting through trial and error what the functionality of the software is like and what we're able to do with it. It seems all our work was lost from the CLC although it was fairly simple to recreate work. As apple Macintosh has very friendly interfaces and designs it was very simple to add images and videos to a particular web page. If an image was stored on the desktop you can simple click the image, drag it across onto the web page, drop the image and then it will appear onto the web page (the same applies to videos and other files). This was very efficient. The software also offers you a variety of templates from forums to galleries in very unique styles. I thought it would be most challenging, creative and fun if you were to begin with a blank page, so i did. As the software is designed for beginners it didn't allow me to change background colours nor was i able to get rid of the margins aligned to every page. It allowed you to chose from a black or white background only as i can imagine most people opt for a pre-made site. I was most concerned with the margins as computers with different screen sizes (like wide screen) may distort the appearance of the sites layout.


Windows Movie Maker:
This is a free software that comes with most Windows operating systems. I have been very familiar with the software since several Windows ago, and the functions have not changed drastically. I view it as a more simplistic version of the Mac iMovie. I used this software to create a few slide shows. It's very easy to use as you simple import all the files you wish from any folder on your hard disk. You simple drag the files into a time frame and edit any transitions or soundtracks by basic cropping, pauses and deletions. Your also able to choose from a variety of video effects. One slide show in particular i experimented with a variety of functions including video and sound FX. I used video transitions with newspaper templates. I mixed 3 songs in together yet this was rather unsuccessful as they faded off beat which takes away from the smooth continuity (i never boasted about my musical ability). I chose to use various title displays from stars superimposed onto the image to 'fly-in' titles.


IMovie:
This was the program that i had used to edit the trailer. It was the older iMovie version which was limited in it's functionality. It had the same principle as Windows Movie Maker (WMM) offering a variety of title templates and animations, video FX (slow motion) and also allowed you to divide footage into chapters. I found iMovie most helpful as it organised the croped sections of the trailer into a side bar that was easily accessible. The layout was reminiscent of WMM and Youtube as it had a time line that allowed you to see all the layers of the trailer (sound, video, transitions) although i Movie allowed you to also view it in storyboard form which was useful when swapping video sections to experiment with different sequences. There was a feature that allowed you to zoom in to view the time line so you were able to make very detailed amendments to the video.
I had spent many hours experimented with all the different features. I was particularly joys when i discovered the title fonts were the same as those offered by adobe photoshop and iWeb. This is beneficial in terms of the whole project. Rather than this discovery being a fluke perhaps i should have investigated in case of any future problems.
I became confident with iMovie towards the end of the project as i found myself using shortcut keys more which made the editing process more efficient. Rather than navigating through the menu bar i was able to delete, undo, copy and paste which are all simple functions although in creative moments these are all you need. It helped me progressively quicker as when i had an idea i was able to demonstrate it fairly quickly without forgetting. I wished i had used my initiative early in the project and researched shortcut keys rather than spending hours adjusting to the interface/software.


Adobe Photoshop:
I have never approached photoshop before and already i felt quite intimidated as it appeared very complex. I felt bombarded with jargon and this was indeed frightening, i thought the only way was to just try out all the features and guess what icons could do what. I was very impressed the magic wand tool. This feature automatically selects a section of your image that is of similar colour tones (contrasted to what it's parallel to). This was useful as it allowed you to divide an item in the foreground of an image from the background with ease. There was a selection of gradient tools which allows you to fade an image to black, white and even transparent! By fading an image transparent or even selecting the back ground to be transparent made it very efficient to add to the website. The software separates your one image into layers, one layer may be some text or a separate image superimposed on another. The layers are presented in a separate window, this window box is very small and helps you bookmark your progression. You can choose to view one layer alone to help you work on a particular section of the image without fear of disrupting/changing the other layers. This became useful when designing the posters as you were dealing with many layers that superimpose upon each other. Seeing the layer in isolation is very useful when working on finer details although at times you need to see the whole image when making minor adjustments such as colour to see whether it compliments the overall style. I found you were able to also lock layers which means if you click on a layer accidentally it remains inactive and blocked from any amendments. This was a feature i used often. I felt i had made significant progress with photoshop, i had watched a few tutorials on youtube that demonstrated how to carry particular functions. I believe for me personally i had to figure out the features myself by making many mistakes and beginning again. Photoshop offers you so much and i had barely scraped the surface. When selecting font you were able to add texture, embed, shadow and add many other effects. If i was granted more time i would have spent more time on fonts; experimenting with what effects can be created as i believe i was safe with my font choice to avoid complications.


Garageband:
I chose to use this program, regardless of my musical know how. I thought i could experiment and create my own music although this proved to be much harder then i anticipated. Perhaps i was complacent yet i believe my knowledge lacks in musical composition. I uploaded my soundtrack onto a timeline and adjusted volume levels when there was dialogue in the trailer. This meant that when Aya was speaking it would be much clearer and the music would not dominate. Maybe i could have experimented with moments of silence as she's about to announce the job loses to create suspense/tension. I did however attempt to raise the overall volume towards the end although this was not as effective as i had hoped. By using Garageband i believe the trailer has improved as it allowed greater music features that iMovie enabling me to create a more professional trailer.

Website main page annotations

My final poster design

Originally i had retrieved inspiration from the footage to create a poster as i thought this will instantly add a correlated style to the advertising campaign. The below poster design was one of my first. I created a dark feel to it from the original as it would imply a negative and dramatic narrative image which i would assume most people associate the recession with. The mannequin communicates an ambiguous message of fashion manufacturing, designing and the non-glamorous-business orientated side of general high street fashion. The style is very simplistic as this adds sophistication. Nothing is super imposed onto anything with flamboyant borders or bold colours. Instead, everything is very symmetrically aligned.

Below is the digital design of my original idea. The angle of Aya's face is different yet the overall positioning of the cigarette and her face in the frame is awkward and artistic. The font styles remained the same as i thought the simplistic serif contrasted the sans serif style for the pitch slogan is very effective. The title is bold and clear for the reader whereas the pitch is very flamboyant to add more complexity to the design to draw viewers attention. I don't think the below image is striking enough it appears to similar to that of a postcard. The design and communicated message is simple although it doesn't have the impact needed to be a poster i thought i could perhaps use this for a header for the website.

As smoking is dominant prop for the trailer i thought it would better correlate with the poster if it featured a cigarette. As the style was intended to be for a sophisticated theme for an older generating, smoking (cigarette and smoke) i thought would visually satisfy this. Smoking 20 years ago was seen as a very glamorous habit, although now many older people are trying to quite they still grew up with this marketed onto them. I believe I'm challenging the current conventions that damn the idea of smoking by making it sophisticated, glamorous and yet still damning it by implying it's a negative habit that's due to a negative mental state (stress!).

Above: This design is the one i favoured, as it was very dark and can be conventional to that of a horror/thriller film poster. This may be because it's very ambiguous, it appears claustrophobic, the red font appears shocking and it makes a bold statement to the viewer by centralising in the frame, direct rhetoric. I believe these similarities can be compared to 28 weeks later film poster, where the poster is tinted vermilion red with an extreme close up of the characters face.

I understand we're not creating a film poster in the slightest although as it is premiering a new soap the advertising style must be bold and is acceptable to be misleading. As eastenders and various other soaps are already established there is no need for this. Specialist advertising is also seen when the programmes anniversaries arise, they may focus and highlight a specific storyline or theme (this can be seen in the Xmas specials). As our soap is new and is introducing a realistic horror style scenario (a business being hit hard by the recession) i think the exaggerated poster can be enigmatic although accurately and abstractly portraying our narrative image.

To add impact i wanted everything to be centralised so when i added the cigarette image, which was copy written free, i creatively decided to mirror it to create a symmetrical and centralised style. I believe this draws audiences in more effectively as visually its more organised and not as scattered. It helps define the communicated message and has a stronger impact on viewers. I decreased the opacity of the images as i didn't wanted to make them the focus but almost make the smoker a border for the poster. I believe has improved the poster drastically and I'm contented to say this is my final design.

Evaluation task 1 - How i used, challenged or developed conventions.

Top Left

Characters:

We chose to represent unconventional characters in the office environment to represent a multi cultural community that reflects the greater location of suburban London that will portray realism. By this i mean; we developed the conventional use of white male characters for any high hierarchical business positions but rather a female replacement. The dominant female character is conventional archetype in soaps. I believe we have developed the conventional representation of the Islamic culture with the Boss as a clear example. What's shown through the media is an extreme spectrum of people following the Islam faith, forgetting the majority who don't follow the scriptures as strictly, this too can be seen with all faiths. She's shown to act as anyone would under enormous stress and pressure to succeed. She's seen smoking which one could argue is unconventional to cultural traditions but perhaps seen as conventional in terms of modern London society.Most characters in the soap would speak with general London accents although as the company off shores certain activities (meaning the business interacts and does 'business' in other countries around the world) so lorry drivers for example may be featured that have very little English skills. Characters can have strong regional accents due to a enriched ethnic background. We followed conventions of typical soaps by displaying a range of characters to appeal to that broader audience. As the business is divided in different job positions on different levels this may reflect their determined social class and IQ. The boss will be very intelligent and of course wealthy whereas the cleaner is recreational 'pot' smoker that may consequently not be as bright. I believe that the characters we've chosen can unconventional to normal soaps as we have not proceeded with the common archetypes but have developed to create an alternative soap that's dynamic and interesting.

Top Right

Soundtrack:

For advertisements in particular there is no correlation they all range immensely. It's a case of what effect are trying to impose on your audience and what's catchy. I wanted audiences to feel a sense of adrenaline which will excite viewers and entice them to tune in. I chose a hard rock soundtrack that is energetic and gives the impression of a dramatic and powerful prelude.I chose the piece because it's quite epic as it begins fairly quietly then the layers of instruments build towards the end. This fits the style of conventional trailers as they build tension towards the end that help highlight the drama. The only photo i had taken that can correlate with a rock style soundtrack would be an image of a truck. This is associated with a stereotypical image of a 'trucker', which is more of an American culture although can be commonly associated with a rock 'n' roll attitude.

Middle Left

Setting/Location :

We were lucky enough to have access and permission to film at a large organisation. The location was perfect as the offices inside were stylish with brick wall features and glass walls/doors. The building was very large which helped us portray large national companies which employ most people in the country which adds to the realism.Setting our soap in a smaller radius helps us portray a larger radius. A large organisation is dynamic enough to feature a variety of characters with sufficient relation to each other to be known as a community. Although we're able to show few individual characters and their home lives living in the same borough and showing greater diversity. We have developed the idea of a small external community that is commonly defined as a high street with local independent businesses and market places were locals are familiar with each other. We've developed this common convention as i believe our society is no longer set on a foundation of independent shop owners or known 'regulars' and the local pub for example the inaccuracy shown in Eastenders with Ian Bill and his local shops and the Queen Vic as a meeting point.

Middle Right

Costume and Props:

The costumes will resemble traditional business attire. Some employees will be more formal than others. Characters will not be seen wearing tracksuits in the offices, nor will everyone be dressed as though they're attending a wedding, but wear realistic and appropriate outfits for their job title. The male employee in the trailer is seen wearing a suit (blazer and tie included) he will be of middle management, this conveys a realistic office environment and more believable characters. The costumes will be the near enough the same style on a regular basis as it is a uniform and is business procedure. Soaps generally show characters to be in similar costumes regularly to portray a certain stereotype. We have followed this conventional thought although went on to develop it further as characters/employees can be seen in their homes or other locations wearing their casual day outfits which will add greater depth to the characters.The boss wears a headscarf to highlight her religious following, this is a conventional prop to highlight someone following the Muslim faith. She is smoking heavily and drinking plenty of coffee which is a very conventional associated ritual of one who's under enormous stress. The desk she's sat on has many folders and documents spread across it to highlight the mountain of work that needs to be completed. Folders, computers, telephones, pens, notepads and calculators are common items to be found on a desk, we featured these items to follow a conventional view of an office.In the trailer the boss changes clothes every time she says a different sentence to signify the passing of time. It was to represent a different day and her speaking to a different employee.As the offices we were filming in were in use we didn't need to bring significant props. The offices already depicted realism with the computers, desk space, folders, shredders, cupboards and documents.

Bottom Left

Narrative/Storyline:

As the recession is an economic crisis it will affect everyone in many ways so this will be our focus point to most story lines. Whether your an aristocrat or homeless the recession will affect you and therefore everyone can have relevance to it and form some opinion of it. It is a developed narrative concept (to revolve most all most story lines around the recession as a theme), as traditionally soaps will have continuing dramatised story lines with no correlation such as murders, love triangles and issues of current time. These will involve different characters and all will intervene in a complex community. Whereas we're converging the concept of a Drama and a Soap but having a focus point and showing individual tangents off this central issue. Showing the smaller story lines allows us to follow the convention of a complex relationship dynamic where all characters and story lines inter play. Soaps would not change the dynamic of their storyline foundation to adjust to the current state, perhaps the situation of people losing their homes and jobs will go unnoticed in Eastenders or will not be emphasised enough and only be featured in one storyline. Whereas our story lines will blossom from a realistic setting and we will feature the conventional story lines like love triangles but will have a consistent theme as that similar to Holby City.

Bottom Right

Camera work/Editing:

The beginning of the trailer shows slower paced shots that have fade out transitions in between each shot to introduce the location in an abstract style. This is intended to draw audiences with suspense. There are two main shot types that are used, these are medium shots and a range of close up shots (extreme close ups to general close ups).The medium shots show the boss conversing with what appears to be the viewer. Most of these shots are face on. We could have made it more clear and separate from the close up shots by having all shots of the boss face on so she appears more direct with audiences. This may have also created greater tension as audiences would have felt more involved in the moment giving them the impression that they are the employee who doesn't know what's going on yet but can feel the stressful environment.The close up shots were supposed to be creative sequences that emphasise the bosses stress. These shots are a combination of smoking, drinking coffee, typing on keyboard and facial expressions. It's conventional to have abstract sequences although my trailer is centralised around one person and not; many characters. This trailer implies other story lines/characters but is left completely open (enigmatic).Originally the trailer was going to feature more characters through certain intervals in the trailer although this made viewers confused and unclear as to what was going on. The only shots we were able to use (due to bad filming) were of only two characters. The shots were edited in after the boss announces redundancies to form reaction shots. The trailer ended with this which is a cliffhanger and is commonly used in trailers to highlight the main dramatic storyline of the moment to attract audiences.

Title:

Verve House is the title i chose and i was inspired by the company we used to observe and mainly conduct our market research from which was called Verve. Originally we though we could call our soap Baird Road as this was the street name Verve is situated on. We all agreed the name Baird Rd didn't present itself to audiences as well as Verve House.Coronation street reads perfectly for its particular target audience as it represents a very working class living and is intended to be presented in an everyday normal style. We hoped to stylise our soap because we wanted to base it in a working environment rather than having a street life focus. I say street life and by this i mean the general style of having neighbours conversing outside and occasionally meeting on the streets and so on.
Verve House implies a more professional and respectable name compared to Eastenders for example. The term 'eastender' comes across quite degrading the the people living in the east end of London. I understand its a colloquial adjective and perhaps it was not intended for that purpose although it does categorize people in such a way that implies they're inferior to you. Considering it focuses on the idea that the east end people are of a lower social class also reinforces this idea yet i believe these ambiguities cannot be seen in a name such as Verve House so overall this was a successful name choice.
The main phrase for the poster, "how are you surviving?" i would think is extremely effective. At first glance you would read this and it would appear quite enigmatic. Your unsure whether its intended to be rhetorical or are you supposed to react to. It's very direct towards the viewer and confronts them on a personal level. It has a strong impact and follows in the style of the famous 'lotto' adverts that state "it could be you" with the giant pointing finger. This has further connotations to the infamous army recruitment poster back in one of the world wars ("we want you")
The verb surviving implies a life threatening circumstance. Audience may wonder what horrid circumstance they're personally struggling with (hint to the recession). It follows styles of a horror show yet remains enigmatic and ambiguous with its intent. The grammatical tool of rhetorical questions is a common convention for advertising products and is often misleading audiences thoughts.
The style of all the fonts used across all 2 media products were mixed between serif and san-serif designs. Verve house was written in the same font although the style varied slightly due to limited software functionalities. The spacing for the font varied between the trailer and the website as iMovie didn't allow you to adjust the font as much as iWeb allowed. The font was white which contrasted well against a black background. The trailer featured an animation that was supposed to give the impression of the spaced out lettering which was intended to add correlation between all the products. All the font aimed to be fairly central to the space given. This can be seen in the trailer, and the first page of the website which features only the title. All sub headings had similar font styles. The trailers titles were of a generic times new roman font which was feature for some sub headings on the website yet perhaps these may appear to scattered. Next time i will have a maximum of 2 font styles in order to formulate a more correlated 'house style/theme'.

Genre:

The trailer suggests soap conventions as it highlights a particular dramatic storyline that is a basic foundation for a soap. There's a huge essence of a realistic representation and a naturalistic acting.
The editing is often incoherent and more abstract than what would be shown on the programme yet it does reflect an essence of 'real time' (a realistic passing of time that is an editing tool to create this impression). Aya is seen having a discussion with someone (you are unsure who it is until the end), where this strangers reply should (as Aya's answering questions) there's a short sequence of abstract shots that highlight her daily stresses and yet every time you return to view Aya you see her continuing her discussion as though real time has passed (gives the impression that the stranger she's speaking to has responded yet you were unable to see it). This build of enigma's can also reflect the style of soaps, as enigma's build until there's a finale cliff hanger. The cliff hanger is the main technique used to 'hook' audiences. A cliff hanger is used at the end of the trailer as it shows Aya dismissing her two employee's yet the idea was that by this point audiences are so drawn in that they must see what happens next (defined as a cliff hanger). I think this was successful and had the right affect on audiences. It could have been improved if there was more employees shown and with varied appearances/characteristics although we were short on cast

How I targeted my audience

Evaluation task 3 - Who my target audience is for my media product(s).

Soaps conventionally have such broad audiences it's hard to identify primary target audience groups. We have been following the guidelines of a broad audience base although there is a recognisable group of people that may be more interested and relate more to our soap then others. This is office staff. Now the question is; who? Who exactly are we talking about when we say office staff?


Perhaps the first thing we may think of is a male executive at a law firm, aged 47. Our successful business man of 2010 will live a luxurious life with a nice car, electronic organisers and designer shirts as he must always be presentable.
Having a lifestyle of high monetary value would imply a conservative mind state. The executive would have to regularly shave and have neat hair. He would wine and dine in fine places. His attire would be smart, owning a variety of designer garments. He would loose all credibility if he arrived late to a meeting looking like this...

The average person in employment will work 41 hours per week, Mr. Executive may exceed this, spending many more hours working with his leather cased briefcase. Maybe he travels overseas to go on important business ventures so, what's in his man bag?

- Prescription pills
- Pain killers/head ache tablets
- multi vitamins
- Styptic pencil (contains aluminum sulfate or titanium dioxide and which will stop a small cut from bleeding, should you nick yourself shaving or get a nasty paper cut)
- Contact lenses/reading glasses
- Energy/breakfast Bar
- Coffee (machiatto - espresso with steamed milk)
- Important paper work
- PDA (personal digital assistant)
- Phone (Blackberry and iPhone)
- Laptop (dell notebook)
- Cigarettes (Benson and Hedges Silver)
- A nice wallet (leather versace)
- Personalised pen (black ball point, Parker)

So whilst Mr Executive is on his travels he may unable to remain up to date with his soaps, or will he be to engulfed by the bloomberg channel. Well with his laptop and new smart phone he will be able to remain up to date where ever he is with the use off bbc iplayer and other online streaming sites. Perhaps he can download a new application supplied by the BBC on his iPhone that allows him to watch Verve House at any time.

Whilst Mr Executive is dealing with the long term planning of his firm which may involve the consideration of decreasing the scale of the organisation, moving location, removing employees and other strategic decisions. During the times of hard thinking perhaps he would like to relax and chose to e entertained by more intellectual sources he may wish to inspect Verve House's current state of affairs and join in discussions on the web page forum as to how they can over come their business difficulties. As Mr E is able to be connected to the Internet 24/7 due to business practices he's able to be an interactive user for the site sharing his wisdom with others.
Mr Executive is married. His wife enjoys the show as she relates to 'Peters' (character from the soap) wife as she barely sees her husband who's always at work. Our dynamic location is able to appeal to Mr executive's wife and perhaps watching Verve House can allow them to spend more time together as they both have interests in the Show.

Mr Executives highly pressured work is represented through the stress of the Boss. He will be able to identify himself with characters higher up the business hierarchical. He's smart attire is reflected in some of the staff. His smart phone is part of a new phenomenon of never escaping work as your always able to be contacted in some way. This lifestyle is conveyed and not only will Mr Executive will find an interest but also the people closest to him will be affected by his lifestyle and can also find characters in Verve House to relate to as it won't concentrate solely on the business perspective. He can easily spread the word of Verve House through mobile communication (viral marketing) as sharing information has never been made so easy.

So Mr executive is in a minority group, not everyone is top of their game, driving nice cars and wearing designer items. Perhaps our average Joe is more likely to fit the profile with a basic office job.

Now Joe's attire is fairly similar but rather than designer brands he must settle with the high street retailers such as Marks and Spencers to purchase his shirts and ties. His evenings are much more leisurely than work, work and further work. He has time to sit with his wife and watch Eastenders, BBC News, Dragons Den, Top Gear, Dirty Sexy Money and documentaries featured on celestial TV. When Joe and his wife sit down on the sofa to begin their TV marathon in the evening they would open the TV guide magazine to see would be on, the poster can be have a feature page inside. They also indulge in some treats.

If the trailer was shown on the BBC after an episode of Eastenders or Dragons Den it will attract Joe and his wife to watch an episode to see an alternative representation of office work rather than The Office (sitcom). The trailers focuses on the Boss firing employees can potentially present a reality for Joe. His wife may watch the trailer and be surprised by the casting of the Boss and would like to see more.

Joe likes to relax when he's at home and forget the worries of work. He'll be interested in Verve House as he's able to imagine how dramatic it can be from all positions of the organisation and grasp a basic understanding of how the recession is affecting all levels. It's not a drama so it won't focus on the working environment and be so realistic that people will not be entertained, it will have the dramatic story lines that Joe may often imagine. His wife will enjoy understanding a business organisation whilst enjoying the drama occurring through peoples personal lives.
Joe has an above average IQ, living in a 3 bedroom house in North London, Wood Green with 2.5 children (shall we just say 2) and driving the company car (5 year old Ford Focus).

Joe and his wife spend most of their time watching TV together once their children have disappeared to their rooms, at 9pm. Joe may occasionally play on his sons Xbox games console whilst his wife begins cleaning (perhaps have a marketing campaign with a leading fabric softener brand). Joe and his wife do occasionally go out for the evening for cheap entertainment such as; attending local comedy shows and cinema screenings with their 2 for 1 orange Wednesdays (orange phone contract - Orange can send text alerts about Verve Houses premier).

And obviously the female market is our largest proportion (there's no reason why all these women are overweight). The working women are still a minority market but the majority of women aged 25 - 45 stay at home with the children. Many of these women do not work although many wish they could.

Our women Dianne is a mother of 4 living in a small 3 bedroom house in North London, Finchley. Her husband James owns a local DIY shop and works 50 hours a week. He's an ambition business man who reads the financial times to remain updates on the small shares him and Dianne share (advertising possibilities in the financial times). Dianne was a manager of a small women's fashion boutique on their local high street before having her children almost 7 years ago. Her interest in fashion, which is common amongst most women, can be found in Verve House as it's a fashion manufacturer. Dianne no longer works in her vintage boutique nor can she shop in it, she shops in high street stores like most people today (primark, river island, next and peacocks). She mainly shops online as she doesn't have the time any more as her children are all aged under ten. To get her attention perhaps an add on high street fashion chain's websites, the kind of adds that drop down automatically and begin some sort of animation. When a user visits Next's home page our trailer can appear and begin playing but perhaps a shorter version will be better suited. The poster may feature in their seasonal catalogues as Verve House is fashion orientated.
Dianne would dress smartly and walk to her local high street. As London has an incredible public transport system (a bus stop every 100 yards on any main high street) a poster may be placed by the bus stop. As Dianne was a manager she would understand the stress involved with females in the work place.

Before having their offspring James and Dianne were able to work part time supporting themselves comfortably although Dianne made the sacrifice to stay at home and raise the children. She now spends her days preparing lunches, maintaining the house and is an active member in the community whilst participating in her neighbourhood watch to fill her days. She found out about ways to volunteer in the community by visiting the coffee shop and collecting the local magazine that gets distributed around the area (advertise Verve House).
Dianne is loyal to her work although she now struggles to find working employment because she must collect the children from school and many employers (if not all) don't allow flexible working. Many employers also see Dianne now as a family person with the potential to have more children regardless of what Dianne says to them. Dianne now puts her time in volunteering for the local community as she feels if she's unable to earn more money for her children's lives she can help improve her children's greater surroundings.

Dianne represents a majority of women who stay at women waiting to get back into work or perhaps dream of what could have been if they didn't have children and continued to work. She represents the women who are unfairly treated in the work place, who have been refused employment due to maternity leave or can't get work because of a lack of child care support. So perhaps targeting mothers in child day centers, creches, or perhaps mothers working in the industry who support the right for freedom to work whilst having children.

More photographs of characters

The Trailer!

*I chose the more 'rock' style song that had a build up to it.

**I also chose the following titles:

- Fashion.

- Office.

- Recession.

- Are you feeling the crunch?

- Can you last another month?

- What are you doing to survive?

- BBC2

- Coming Soon

- What will you do?

- Verve House

Post-Production progress: Titles.

I've officially decided to finish the trailer off independently. I've completed near enough 99% of the 'groups' trailer and i felt it's crucial for the group to have some involvement with the editing as they all need to have developed their skills in some way. As I've mentioned before I'd received feedback that the trailer was unclear. There were a few options available to try solve this. I believed the footage was adequate yet to clarify it's intent i want to add titles in between some shots.

In order to show a continuing style i felt it's most appropriate to have rhetorical questions. I believe this will have a strong impact, will evoke enigmatic questioning and will imply the content of that particular episode.

It's conventional that a soap trailer would have a voice over to announce a simple title that's specific to a main storyline. Although as my trailer is an introduction to a soap i may consider inputting more than one phrase.

Titles i've brainstormed:

- Who's getting the sack this week?

- Who's feeling the crunch?

- Who's not surviving?

- Who's losing the race?

- How are you surviving?

- They're feeling the pinch/squeeze

- They're taking each day as it comes

- Can you last another month?

*As big name soaps have easily recognisable characters there have no need to feature the title of the show on the trailer. As this trailer is introducing a new show it is important that audience's know what the program's called.

Copywritten free music for my trailer

These are two songs that I'm considering to feature on the final cut of the trailer. I found these two songs from website on the Internet that host thousands of free sounds and beats (there's endless listing on search engines like google if you search: copy written free music). The instrumental below is described as a hard rock/techno/funk sound which i felt personal enjoyment for. It has an up beat/normal tempo and builds as a crescendo. It also has an 'edgy' sound which contrasts with the sophistication of the soap creating an alternative style. This alternative style would fit in well with the odd advertisements that are about, it also portrays the alternative conventions we've chosen to highlight. The smoking that is a main feature of the trailer is now a huge taboo amongst advertising and in general 21st century life. There was a ban on cigarette advertising a few years ago, i researched into this and found that the cigarette brand advertisements were illegal. As we are only featuring a character smoking heavily this is not in breached of any rules as we are not trying to sell cigarettes but we are implying cigarettes to be a negative habit when a person is under enormous stress. It all depends how one can interpret it; either to advocate or condemn, you make the decision?

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I particularly like the one below although as it hits the 55 second mark the beat, noticeably changes. The music can be described as industrial trip hop This can work in my favour as i can choose to show titles during this time but this is something that will have to be tried once the trailer is complete. There's electronically mixed vocals briefly featured in this instrumental which i think adds that edgy/alternative style I'm seeking. My only criticism with this song is that it immediately goes into the beat with no crescendo. This may lose the effect of building tension as the trailer progresses, the impact of a dramatic ending may not occur. Yet again this is something that will have to be trailed.

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*I struggled to find a way to upload the audio alone onto the blog. I over came this problem by creating a brief slide show on Windows Movie Maker.

My photoshop skills and website progress

Having went to the location to collect photographs of staff i particularly like this image as the rails behind Andy appeared abstract and eye catching. I asked him to show his cheesiest grin possible. I chose him in particularly as he looks like a very ordinary man, and a soap needs a character like Andy to show that the programme features a variety of people in order to appeal to that broader market.
I wanted to cut Andy out of this image and superimpose him onto another. Photoshop, i was advised, is the best program to use. This is the first time i have every done this and it took me a while to understand the tools available. I first selected the magic wand tool which automatically selects a section of the image that's of the same colour. I first did this to get rid of the background.
I then used the free hand crop tool which allowed me to crop around Andy.

Once i copied Andy onto another image i realised there were very small gaps of white. I didn't know how i could undo them or amend them as the nature of photoshop is quite complex so i hoped it would go unnoticed. The next was to get rid of the sky in the image so it can blend better into the background of the website. I used the magic wand tool which highlighted the sky. When i deleted this the background immediately went transparent.

I then positioned the image where i wanted it to go on the website. Rather than adding text boxes on the website to accompany the image i chose to do this on Photoshop to enhance my skills with the software. Andy's name goes vertically down and is in a different font as though it's a title. This will be a hyperlink onto another page, either a character or storyline page.

I was hoping to imitate these two images that were featured on the Eastenders website. The images of the characters are superimposed onto a photographic image or a plain image. I will further experiment with this style as i feel it's very effective.

Photo slide show experiment

Today i had gone into our location to take photographs of the premise and some employees at work. As our target audience is for more viewers i thought it would be important to feature adult characters.

This video is a slide show of some of the most useful images i have collected. I featured some copywritten free music which was produced by my friend Sam. You can see a small selection of his music at ..

http://www.myspace.com/djsamwiseuk

I used various transition effects and title animations on windows movie maker. This is an extremely beginner movie maker although for a simple slideshow it's most effective. I added some basic structure with some witty and sarcastic remarks through out.

It implies various storylines and im debating whether to feature this on the website as extra footage.

These images are an archive and i shall be using some of them for the website.

My suggestions to the group.

This was my message to the group via the group blog (which is quite inactive). I shall also discuss this with them in person.



Hey guys, hopefully you all read this in time..


The trailer still needs completing. Please post any suggestions you may have for titles, eg: we can have rhetorical questions (Who's losing the race? Do they have enough time? How are you surviving?)


THe website needs further developing. Can we affirm who's going to be doing which page. For the website we should all take pictures of ourselves or discuss main storylines we want to highlight and what pictures would go with them.


One more thing... Research background music for the trailer.As most of you have had little to do with the post production and im concerned you won't have much to right for your skills development you can create a small video with the footage of an extra feature video for the website. Anyway, it's only a suggestion.


Zoe.


I don't feel satisfied with the group i've been assigned with this project as i feel as though i carry the burden to complete the project alone. Half the group are relaxed and resting on my effort to carry them through. They're laughing whilst i'm sweating to fill in all the gaps. It's unfair for me to produce the work of others considering i am also taking other a levels. I can't express myself more clearly, i hope this issue is adressed for the sake of future students.

Final header design

This is the final design for the header. All images correlate to Verve House.

• The first image: Bosses chair
• Second image: Fashion mood board/work
• Third image: Meeting room
• Fourth: Boss smoking, stressed out

As a collage they were intended to communicate that the environment is fast paced and ever changing due to the nature of the fashion industry changing every few months with the season. It shows the boss being under enormous pressure constantly and stretched to breaking point as the recession hits.

Perhaps we can feature images of the building outside to show that it's not as glamorous as it appears from the inside as we do want to highlight the reality.

As of yet there's been so much emphasis on the offices and we've forgotten to include our extended locations of the characters homes. This may be something we want to discuss and feature.

In need of new images!

As the practical element of this project moves forward into the experimental stages I've noticed that there is very few photographs to work with. On Wednesday i shall arrange to go back to the offices we filmed in to take some more images. I have discussed this with my group although their response was not positive. It appears that there is also not enough emphasis on the characters and this communicates to audiences that this is a "documentary" or "film" (as quoted by some feedback from viewers).

It's particularly needed for constructing our website to an adequate standard. Below is a section from the eastenders website. As you can see it features a variety of storylines, characters and situations as this reflects the nature of the programme. The use of rhetoric accompanied by a simple photograph is the main theme amongst most website soaps. It helps generate the suspence amongst viewers and engages with their curious minds.

My slogan i want to feature on the poster, "how are you surviving?" relates to the soap and to the viewer. We may choose to use rhetorical questions as titles for our trailer and perhaps feature some on the website.

Further poster experiments/designs

The first change i made was the size dimensions, i thought to create a poster that's a similar size to that on a bus stop (common poster size). I decided to keep the same image although i wanted to some how featured other images to make the narrative image clearer. I'm extremely inexperienced as using photoshop so i began very simple by copy and pasting one image in a collage form. As you can see the positioning of the images of the mannequin is unsymetrical, this was not done purposly. I found it fairly easy to adjust the font, i had changed the font that i had used originally to see what difference it would make. I believe the font here is not bold enough, although i think it's still elegent.

This is my second attempt of this

particular style. I had successfully managed to position photographs in a structure i was fairly happy with. It seems half of the photos are not visible as i was experimenting with a newly discovered feature that blends all the 'layers' of the image with the background. I did this slightly in the first attempt with the main image and i think it was successful as it appeared more stylised yet for this attempt i became too excited. My idea behind this poster was to link the style of the website with the poster by featuring the collage effect with the same/similar images. Although i don't think this structuring is particularly effect as it appears too structured and not exciting or eye catching enough. More slogans should have been featured or better use of colours.

Website footer (bottom banner) research and design.

This is an example of the Eastenders website 'footer'. It's a photographic image of the most common sightings of 'the square' and audiences can instantly recognise it. There's features at the bottom on a black banner that allows people to follow updates via facebook, twitter and other social networking sites although there's no information via text message newsletters (we may want to incorporate this idea). The image is very detailed and brightly lite which goes against the pessimistic nature the show presents.



This is coronation streets footer, as you can see both of them feature the broadcasters logo as this is a trademark. Coronation street also have the distinguished road sign, Eastedners featured this as their header, perhaps we need to include this somewhere to represent where it's located in London to relate to our wider audience. Coronation streets footer is, visually, more simple at fades from the background brick work to black. I think the simplicity works much better as i believe it appears neater.

I designed this footer that can feature at the bottom of our web page. I've chosen to follow the theme of our header and create a collage effect as i think this has a very good impact. I featured the photographs i had taken of the inside of the location to show the offices where all the drama will happen.I tried to choose images that had unusual angles and frames and would create an abstract impression. To help create an overall style within the site i used the same font that will featured on all the articles. I included the channel we're hoping to host the show on. Coronation street feature, very elegantly, the days it's on, perhaps i can develop this design further and include the days it's on and the time.

Website progress.

I thought we may stray from the normal appearence of soap websites. It's conventional that the home page is overflown with information about all sorts. Although as this is a new soap perhaps there could be a specialist home page that features the new exclusive trailer and kept very minimal. This will then navigate onto a main page (aka normal home page) and the conventions should be all the same there after. The first page will highlight the speciality of the promotional campaign. This is done usually when an anniversary of the programme is coming up and it helps generate a viral marketing strand. I thought to make the background more exciting by adding the photographs i had taken of our location.

Below is an example of a website page header. All websites have them, this is eastenders current style (they can often change, perhaps every month). It's plain and stylised as features the BBC logo, the Eastenders title and the tradmark road sign that highlights its location that generates its mass appeal.

The first step we had taken to generating our house style for the website was to create the header, as this is feature at the top of every web page. We thought to create the header from images to create a collage effect. We exerimented with various fonts but decided against them, instead we cropped the image that was initially going to be our poster design

and used it as our title. We he had previously discussed that our website was to appear elegant and professional to portray the professionalism of the business and contrast this with the dramatic storylines that will feature. Our chosen images, which are still to be decided were to convey this impression of professionalism that highlights the primary location the soap is based in. It's common to also see the names of the pages below the featured header to allow users easy use/navigation of site. We have followed this common theme to prevent any confusion amongst our audiences.

Poster Design: Digital Draft

Reverting back to my original idea as to what the poster would look like i digitally designed this draft. Ideally i would have liked to have had a different image although i believe it's too late to re take any images as there's increasing tension amongst the group and co operation is proving to be quite difficult. So this image of Aya smoking will have to do. The photo is not staring at the audience and may not have the impact i had hoped. The angle of the cigarette within the frame is effective. Now i may begin different designs following this similar style of aya smoking and the trademark slogan.

Poster experimentation 2

My research of soap posters highlighted to me the common convention of featuring one main photograph to highlight a main element of the programme, for example Top Gear featured a styles image of the Stig and all background features were kept very simple. So i chose a different image convey the correct message to our viewers. I had taken this image on my digital camera of the stairs inside the office buildings we shot in. This again portrayed a very ambiguous message although i hoped people would understand it's supposed to communicate the idea of a working environment that's 'hell'.

I had adjusted the contrasts, sharpness and other functions to create the very striking impression. The black and white colour scheme can appear dull although i hoped it added to the suspense. Yet again there is no clear indication as to what this is advertising. I'm probably right to assume that most people will predict this is a film poster rather than a soap poster.


I tried to solve this problem by once again featuring the pitch to help indicate the surroundings (work place) and a vague identification of what the storylines will be based upon (the recession). The font remained as i believed this was elegant and presents itself beautifully.

I featured the slogan "How are your surviving?" as i felt this engaged with audiences effectively and emphasises the struggle and tension that are to feature in the programme. I placed the slogan in the middle as i wanted to have a symmetrical layout as i believe if everything on the page is organised it appears more professional. It also catches viewers eyes and draws them in. The red font heightens the impression that this is a horror film. I understand it is not crucial to convey an accurate representation of the product (as all advertisements are misleading one way or another), although i believe it implies an inaccurate narrative image which is not a good thing and so needs re thinking.

Poster design: Experiment

I thought i would be able to design a new draft for a potential poster design by exploring the software. I hadn't used any conventional design software as initially i wanted to design pages for the website, so the below images were created with iWeb (website developing software by Macs).

The image below is a still frame from the trailer, this is a scene i had originally shot. This image is dark, sinister and is intended to symbolic represent the depression/recession. The old, beaten manequin higlights the fashion trade although it's very unconventional for a soap advertisement as it does not indicate a location or characters (which are the two main elements which reach out to audiences)

I made adjustments to the image to make it appear more stylised. This involved adjusting the contrast, exposure, brightness, tint and saturation. I found this fairly simple to use. I'd then copied the photo onto a black background as i felt this added sophistication to the overall style. I typed Verve House above the image in a simple font. I had increased the spacing between the characters as i felt this too enhanced it's professional appearence.

The impression i receive from this poster idea is that of a horror. I thought the image alone is too ambigous for our audience to feel a compulsion to watch it. I reverted back to the idea if inserting the pitch to help summerise the overal idea of the soap. This will hopefully allow audiences to interprete a unique response as to what this could mean. I doubt this poster design will be feasible as it primarily uses the technique of enigmatic questions and this alone is not enough.

Photographs of Our Location

Music research

I believe this song would work perfectly for our trailer as its up beat and very catchy. Although due to laws such as the Copyright Design and Patent Act 1988 which states copy written material cannot be copied for personal use without consent of the owner and many more other things, we cannot use this song.

The resources that are available to us are provided by the London grid of learning so we will need to extensively research what music styles would best suit the trailer for its intent.

Editing Review.

The editing to the trailer is almost complete. As i was the one predominatly taking part in this stage it was difficult to stick to a strict shooting script (which was not completed). I followed my shooting script i'd completed which briefly states the structure of the trailer. These two images are screen shots of the software program, iWeb that i'm using. The shots are a comination of extreme close ups to medium shots. It appears that the footage is extensive although there's too much emphasis on the boss habits.
I'd show the trailer to a selected few and all of them responded in a similar way. As it's not completed i was too suprised when they said it was confusing and unclear as to what's going on. They hadn't guessed it was a trailer to a soap, they susected it was based around this one character, the boss as no other characters are shown. I believe this may be a problem. We originally would have had 3 other characters (the employees) featured in the trailer although during the post production stages this became obsolete. The shots of the empoyees appeared as jump shots as it was a breach of the 180 degree filming rule.
The feedback also highlighted the uncertainty of what the soap would be about. It was said that there was too much smoking and coffee drinking. They said there was no dramatic highlight. It seems our intentions are not executed as well as we hoped. To help clarify the intent we placed titles on some of the beginning scenes that said "Fashion. Office. Recession". This our pitch and due to the ambigious style we've used this almost as a slogan.
A group meeting needs to be established so the whole group can see the trailer and reach an agreement as what to do next. We may need to film some extra shots of the characters, or we can choose to take some more of the boss and make it clear she's getting rid of staff. We need to re plan the trilers intent to highlight exactly wat we want to be communicated. A group meeting may be unlikely, if this is so then i'll re plan and take directive action.

- Music needs to be researched and decided upon.