Animatic Storyboard

This our animatic storyboard which we have created using iMovie as a template for our final piece. It will enable us to make sure that we film all the footage and give us an idea of how the final product will look. If we are unhappy with any final details, this will be the time to change it so that we don't run into any problems whilst filming.

The soundtrack is different from our photographic storyboard as we wanted to experiment and see which tempo, instruments and style of music would be best for our trailer. It also helped us to look at camera movements and transitions and ensure that we've used the right ones for our trailer.



Charlotte Morrison and Emily Wallace

Soap Opera Posters Research and Analysis

As part of our research into how our poster should look, each member of Armadillo Productions has individually analysed a poster advertising a soap opera or a TV show with an open narrative. We have also looked at a poster created by a past media student for their G324.

Eaton (previous student)

This past AS media group created the soap opera called Eaton. It shows the basic information needed for effective advertisement such as date, time and channel. As well as including the unconventional web address.

There are few positives about this poster. It clearly has a wide range of character ages connoting the show is targeting no particular audience, but instead all audiences. The background is original, taking the characters out of their sets/environment and placing them in this grey, dark world. This works well with the title, the red outline of Eaton making the title bold and eye catching.

However, despite these good features this poster is poorly developed. The colouring of each character makes it obvious each shot was taken in different locations. They should have taken this shot as a group photo then added the background. This would avoid the awful colouring of characters. Also, looking at the bottom of the poster you can see sudden cuts of the characters bodies, showing the characters were poorly cut out of their photos. This suggests the poster was rushed and as a result looks unprofessional.  

Scott Collins

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Hollyoaks

The Hollyoaks poster is mocking other soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street on characters and locations. The picture on the left shows old, fat, grotesque stereotypical British soap opera characters. They look dirty, vile and unhealthy. If you compare this to the Hollyoaks picture you can see the characters are glamorous, attractive and young. They are not stereotypical to soap opera characters and from first glances connote which audience the show targets. The colour comparison from the picture from the left to the one on the right is huge, easily making Hollyoaks seem much more glamorous. Even the dog characters have a huge difference: one is ugly and peeing on a carpet showing little respect and the other is cute, clean and even in fashion wearing doggy clothing.

The characters that stand out are the two women wearing red dresses. The fat, old one looks horrible and even the ‘nice’ red dress can’t connote glamour or beauty. Her laugh is hugely unattractive and is misplaced, for she is in public. The young, blonde woman however looks like something out of a film; she is attractive and looks extremely glamorous. The laugh of this young woman is a polite smile, much more suited for public, this connotes that the woman has some class.

The drastic difference with both locations connotes a lot of information.

Mainly that the old, dungy, stereotypical British pubs are a thing of the past because Hollyoaks, with its photoshopped interior location, will glamorize British Soap operas forever. Everything from the chairs, flooring, tables, wall paper and lights are very modern, sending enigma coded information that this soap is for the young, ‘cool’ average teenager/young adult.

The slogan ‘RUB SOME HOLLYOAKS ON IT’ easily helps connote that Hollyoaks isn’t just good television, but instead it will transform your life.

Many mise en scene factors have been incorporated during the poster's development. Colours for instance are a huge feature. Hollyoaks uses bright red with connotations of love, lust and evil, blue  which connotes youthfulness and silver and gold with connotations of glamour. This compares to the traditional soap opera dirty red with connotations of old, dead glamour, brown connoting boredom and the old and other dark colours connoting negativity in general.

Scott Collins

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The Only Way is Essex

Though not a soap opera, we can still use The Only Way is Essex as an example as it has an open narrative, a continuous and opening editing style and also includes the same themes, such as relationships, seen with soap operas today. The post also includes minimal text and bold images.

Charlotte Morrison

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I have chosen to analyse a poster for Neighbors. Although it is not a brand new soap opera it has moved channel. Therefore this poster not only advertises the soap opera but also the change. This poster also includes very little text and replies on the images to advertise the soap.

Emily Wallace

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I have analysed a poster for a new series called 'Minder'. Although the poster is not advertising a soap opera, this analysis would be relevant as our group is creating a poster display for a brand new show.

The main colour of the poster is white, which has connotations of innocence. This juxtaposes with the bruise under the eye of the man on the left side of the poster, which shows that the show contains violence. The font is printed in black and both men are wearing black suits. This conflicts with the connotations of innocence that white is associated with, as black connotes death. This suggests that the show may be about crime/law.

The character on the left looks bruised and battered and is looking at the second character angrily. This suggests that the two characters know each other and are linked in the show's storyline (eg. partners in crime, good friends, enemies, etc.).

The font used in the poster is associated with the 'PRIVATE' or 'CONFIDENTIAL' words stamped on case files and private documents. This suggests that the show is about mystery and crime. The unusualness of the characters being stuck to some kind of billboard or wall tells the audience that the show includes adventurous and funny situations.

The background colour is quite bright and eye-catching, and attracts viewers to the poster display.

The tagline of the poster is 'Same old London. Brand new MINDER'. This tells the viewer where the programme is set and gives the audience the impression that this show will bring something new to the table by turning 'same old London' into a fresh and exciting setting for a new show.

The amount of writing on the poster is minimal, but all the key information the viewer needs in present. This allows the audience to focus on the visual display and colours as opposed to the writing.

The characters in the poster display are male which shows an inequality in gender representation. This shows that the target audience of this poster is males, as women would not be able to easily engage with the characters.

The characters are wearing suits, which goes hand in hand with the location of the show, as London is recognised as the city of business. The suits also denote professionalism and career success, which is traditionally associated with the men.

Devon Dalton

Soap Opera Magazine Covers Research and Analysis

As part of our research into understanding the conventions used when creating a TV listings magazine cover, each member of our group has analysed a front cover, using media terminology and detailed notes.

Charlotte Morrison

Scott Collins

Emily Wallace

Devon Dalton

Soap Opera Name

Throughout the process of creating our soap opera trailer, we had to create a name for our actual soap. This is a mind map to show some of our thoughts and ideas. This helped us to brainstorm and make a final decision.

Emily Wallace

Our soap is called Mill Lane. The reason behind the name choice is simple: it's named after the location of our soap and is short and memorable, making it easier for the audience to understand where the soap is based by using the street sign to establish the setting.

Scott Collins

Stock Characters Research

Hollyoaks Generic Characters

Scott Collins

All character info was found from the E4 website.

The Bad Boy

'Warren always puts himself first, and will do anything to get what he wants - be it money, women or business opportunities.' Warren is the typical bad boy character found in soups. He is sexy, tough, disobeys all the rules and gets what he wants.

This clip highlights the mind of these ‘bad boys’. They respect the rules of being ‘even’. They get whatever girl they want, even if it is forbidden such as Calvin’s girlfriend, Louise.

Bad boys are rare; they fit in both the roles off protagonist and antagonists; widening their value as they can take on twice as many storylines. In some cases the bad boys can be seen as a protagonist and antagonist during the same storyline depending on the individual audience member perception.

The Villain



'Having wreaked havoc throughout the village Clare eventually departed in dramatic fashion when she kidnapped Katy Fox and drove the car they were in over a steep cliff.' Clare was the typical villain character found in not just soaps but other forms of media. She was clever and planned ahead, what she lacked in physical strength was shadowed by her pure insanity. She was a hated character and would often gain allies with seduction.

Clare is the most evil villain imaginable. Capable of murder and abusing a small child, Tom, she was the most shocking character in Hollyoaks history.

Villains are limited with their roles. They usually have a big storyline but the fame is short lived, audiences’ always want to see the villain punished and this usually results in the character leaving the show.

The Old Person/ The Wise One

Hollyoaks targets audiences of younger generations and as a result it has a lack of old people casted within the show. This woman is the oldest and the wisest of the characters.

‘Myra. The McQueen Bee. A sovereign lady, with a penchant for sovereign rings; she sits at the head of perhaps the village's most fearsome tribe.’

This sarcastic video to the generic characters of the old/wise shows Hollyoaks breaks the conventions of the older cast. Myra could be seen as the typical lower class British woman and to the common person, would be seen as stupid.

Yet in the show she remains the eldest and the wisest, often giving advice to younger characters (no matter how bad the advice is).

These type of characters can features as vladimir propp’s helper or dispatcher and can be featured in near to all storylines. They are nearly always liked by the audience, as well as being liked by the cast.

The Strong Woman

‘If there is a female equivalent to short-man syndrome, then Nancy's a certified sufferer. With a temper as short as is her stature, many a man (and woman) has fallen to the wrath of Miss Hayton. ‘

Nancy the sweet looking girl who’s been in the soap for many years appears to be harmless, yet she has a feisty tongue and a stubborn attitude that would belittle both men and women. Afraid of no one she uses a mixture of petty come backs and genius observations to win every argument.

The clip is of Nancy when she was a child, yet it still shows a glimmer of courage/confidence that will mould her into the strong character she becomes.

These strong woman characters quickly become fan favourites, epically by the female viewers. They stand up for woman power and often will battle with the villains. These characters can appear in many storylines as the protector, advice giver, helper, confronter of the victim who eventually rise to power.

The Boss Figure

‘If Christopher Walken and Heath Ledger’s ‘The Joker’ were to give birth to a love child (yes, we realise that’s beyond the realms of possibility) the end product would probably come out something like Brendan Brady. A fine blend of sarcasm, twitchiness and violence.’

Brendan, former owner of the club has all the typical conventional characteristics of British soap opera bosses; including being accused of murder, being violent and powerful, having a mixture of calmness and aggression and wealth.

These characters usually take on many forms of roles but all will include the bosses’ power being threatened.

Brendan breaks the convention of the boss having a feisty wife or being a ladies’ man who attracts gold diggers; this is because Brendan is the first powerful boss figure who is gay; opening a new window to gays being physically violent, an unknown convention of soap operas

The Joker

Hollyoaks being overly dramatic has a lack of characters (like the joker) to calm the audience and to give realise of tension by humouring the viewer.

Thankfully, though not a joker, Carmel is lacking so much common sense she creates the needed humours’ moments to eject the tension. These jokers or ‘tension removing’ characters are used to make moments seem funnier or happier than what they actually are. This is achieved by the audience having sympathetic feelings towards this brand of character.

The Homosexual

John Paul had the typical role to play for a gay soap star. He’s in denial, finally realises he’s gay and has (like all other soaps) an opposing family member who disagrees to his attractions. Yet the John Paul case had a twist, John Paul was gay for his best friend and had a girlfriend of his own. He also was still a teenager at school, possibly pushing the boundaries what is acceptable to exploit on television before water shed hours.

The Gold Digger

'This WAG-supreme' called Mitzee is the typical gold digger found in soaps. Traits which coincide with this brand of character include selfishness, evil, scheming and all seem to have an attraction to the older wealthy men. They usually are seen as an antagonist and appear in storylines involving ‘gold digging’. They nearly always will go for men already in a relationship, they thrive from being bitches.

This clip highlights how Mitzee like most over gold diggers love themselves. They usually look extremely fake; covered in makeup. Another convention involves them being up to date with fashion and often are seen wearing the newest trends.

The Couple

'Hollyoaks couple Carmel and Calvin give their marriage another try as they renew their vows in 'flash forward' episode'

After numerous conflicts including cheating with another family member Carmel and Calvin decide to get their relationship a second chance. They follow the normal conventional traits of soap opera couples which include being young (usually only the younger couples follow this list of traits), having a second chance, cheating, arguments and a wedding disaster; the wedding disaster in this instance is Calvin’s death.  This generic brand always has plots that include their traits.

The Pregnant Woman

Married to Dominic Reilly, the most sensible girl out of the McQueen clan shocked her family when she announced that Russ Owen was the real father of her baby.

Following typical soap opera story conventions the plot of a family member or a close friend carrying a siblings or friends baby is expected from each soap opera at least once.

This story follows Todorov’s theory of narrative.

Step one: Equilibrium exists; the part of the plot which coincides with this step is the agreement of carrying someone’s child.

Step two: A disturbance is caused, usually by the carrier of the child deciding she wants to keep the baby or by the waiting un-pregnant mother deciding she doesn’t want it.

Step three: Realization of the problem, this step was shown in the clip above; the carrier admits she wants to keep the child.

Step four: Dealing with the problem, a solution is concluded leaving one member of the plot in step 5: equilibrium once again being restored.

This story is usually concluded in soap operas and this character can perform in many plots, all usually questioning the baby’s father or putting the child’s health into question (E.G. mother may drink, father may be violent and so forth.)

Coronation Street

Emily Wallace

Emmerdale

Charlotte Morrison

Character Names

As we started thinking about our final trailer and what would actually be included, we decided we should start creating names for our characters. To do this we created a mind map of names that fitted with the character description. We used stereotypical names as it is a signifier. For example using hard, short names for the bad boy mechanic. This is the mind map we created:

This is the final list of Names we came up with. We also went on to look at actors we could use for these parts.

Farmer Wife - Susan/Sue Collins                 Madame Hammoudi, Mrs. Gold

Farmer Husband - Charlie Collins                Mr. Watts, Mr. Roy, Mr. King

Farmer Girl - Harriet Collins                         Jo Hyde, Lousie Bridgeman, Melody Platford

Bad Boy - Ryan Parker                                 William Howlett, Stephen Barnard

Essex Girl - Rachel Mannings                      Charley Boughen, Jo Hyde

Pregnant Woman - Jennifer Ward               Leah Kirby, Miss Wooley

Pub Owner - Barry Brooker                          Mr. Hannon, Mr. Watts, Mr. Morgan

Pub Owners Son - Marcus Brooker              Kieran Young, Minur Ali, Mr Smart

Vicar - Simon Claude                                   Billy Walter, Mr. Franklin

Old Woman - Edith Jones                            Mrs. Goodchild, Brenda Bruford

Emily Wallace

Initial Design Ideas for our Magazine Cover

Using a programme called G.I.M.P. (GNU Image Manipulation Programme), we have created a detailed impression of what our TV listing magazine might look like. The images were collected from various websites, and we have added special effects to create a realistic magazine display.

Strengths

• The special effects (eg. the white glow around the celebrities, the shadows behind the shapes and fonts, etc.) highlight certain stories and events, and make the magazine cover more flashy and appealing.
• The use of bright and vibrant colours ensures that the magazine would stand out on the shelves.

Weaknesses

• There is a lot of space around the images and cover lines that could be used up.
• The bar code in the left-third could be smaller to allow room for another cover line.

Improvements

• Add more cover lines and stories to the front cover to add to the business of the page.
• Reduce the size of the bar code and move it to the side to allow room for more important information and TV show gossip.

Devon Dalton