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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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