Plan for Magazine

In our group we decided to individually complete draft Magazine front pages, paying steady attention to the conventions we had researched when analysing existing magazine front covers and also completing other research on existing TV listings magazines, this is one of my draft magazines, I have not rendered it but am aware of the importance of eye-catching colours, i have taken all the conventions on board when creating this draft such as minimal unused space where the background is peeking through, also the left third and all the other key features were taken into account, the taglines were snappy, the pictures were dramatic as were the stories they were revealing, the main focus was originated towards the middle of my magazine featuring a very large story focusing on only two of the many characters within the soap opera, a bar code is also included for continuity and for a more professional look.

Initial notes on a soap opera magazine

As for our project as well as a trailer and a poster for our soap opera we are creating a soap opera listings magazine, my initial thoughts on a soap opera magazines conventions, convantions we will have to follow when creating ours are as follows.

An example of a soap opera magazine

Eye catching - The magazines I have looked at are all very similar aesthetically, they contain very eye catching colours and many different colours for the writing, the background of the writing and the general scheme of the magazine.

Photos - The photos of characters are always very large and facing outwards towards the reader, the main story seems to involve at least two characters and they usually represented with a large photo, as well as the less important stories still have a large photo of the soap opera characters involved relative to the size of the text and the box they are in.

Lack of Blank Space - There is always a lack of blank space, the entire surface area is usually covered be it with photos of characters, the barcode, large block capitalised writing or information about the magazine itself.

These three initial ideas of the certain conventions within a soap opera magazine will aid me and my group once we decide to create our magazine product and when researching further into this type of product as a whole.

Analysis of existing student trailers.

Mise-en-Scene.

The trailer starts off using a lot of the colour green in trees, fence panels and moss within the shot, this can be used as well as the obvious body language and text to connote envy and deceit, the costume used in this scene seems to be primarily black connoting evil, lies and death, and the overall location of an alleyway connotes crime and anti-social behavioral that you would associate with younger adults.

We next move on the a kitchen setting, the woman included within the shot in the stereotypical gender associated with this location, the colours of white and pale green and yellow connote a calm, and peaceful setting as well as the white being used to connote innocence and purity, although the woman's red jumper may connote incoming danger or rage,

the next scene is separated by some very powerful transitions which include key words contrasting with black and white, which may connote that in black and white this is what's happening although the trailer contains scenes which start the explain how it is not simply black and white, the next scene is an argument between two men, one is in a white shirt whilst the other is wearing black once again, this may connote that the man wearing white is good and the man in black is evil, which can be concreted by the conversation taking place. 

the final scene is in a subway, connoting already a dark dirty location and situation also uses blood to connote death before it rounds off into an old fashioned whodunit, with two males in white, smart dress and a woman shooting them, this break in stereotype may have been used to shock the audiences and raises questions that need to be answered.

Sound

Interestingly there is a lack non-diegetic sound within the trailer with is not conventional within soap opera trailers, it is just filled with diegetic background sound such as birds singing and children playing this helps ad the the verisimilitude of this soap, causing the audience to feel similarities to the characters, I believe that due to the overpowering sound and repetition for each character the foley effect is used for the gunshot at the end, which is very powerful to the audience.

Narrative

Narrative is strongly feature within this trailer, there are many different storylines within the trailer about many different subjects, this is conventional to soap operas as drama is shown between relationships with characters, although a voice over is not included at the end of the trailer which breaks stereotype as they usually are included. 

Camera Movements
A wide variety of camera movements and angles are used within this trailer, including:

• Long shot
• Two shot
• Point of View
• Over the shoulder
• Close up
• Mid shot
• Pan
• Tilt
• Zoom

These are all conventional camera movements that are used within soap opera trailers, we will be sure to include a variety of camera movements also when creating our product. 

I will be sure to use the information I have gained here when creating our product, analysing these past student created soap opera trailers will help me to know exactly what to include from these and how to elaborate in order to receive the best marks when creating our soap opera trailer. 

Specific Knowledge of Soap Operas

Detailed Knowledge of Soaps


I have created a mind map with more specific knowledge of soap operas before I research deeply into the production, exhibition advertisements of a soap opera in order to aid my course, when research is composed I will make sure I refer to this specific knowledge of soap operas from before in order to see how much knowledge I had before and how it had improved.