Borderline - A2 final coursework - soap opera trailer

Original Billboard

Original Front Cover

Choosing a song (titles are links):

Song Choice 1 – Dirty Pretty Things – Deadwood

Why I like it: I like this song because it captures the chaotic feel I want to show in my trailer, and also there are lots of interesting parts to it, such as the beginning and the bridge when the layers of the music changes, and if I edited my trailer to the changes in the music, it could create an interesting effect.

Fitting Lyrics:  
But now I know that
You were the coward
The holes in your soul
In tatters for all these years 

And mark my words
Something's gonna change 

Why I didn't choose it: Because I feel like its a bit too energetic for the content of my trailer, and also slightly too ‘happy’

Song Choice 2 – The Courteeners – Kimberly

Why I like it: The very first few seconds allows me to use slow shots to start with, building up to fast cuts further in. The

Fitting Lyrics: Who is that guy your with?
I hope he treats you really very nicely
The two days you've got left to live

Why I didn't choose it: Although I like the way I could edit my clips to this song, I dont think the lyrics are fitting enough.

Song Choice 3 – The Fray – Little House

Why I like it: Because it combines the soft piano with the harsh guitars, and that symbolises the relationship between Emily and Sasha.

Fitting Lyrics: Something's scratching its way out, something you want to forget about.

Why I chose it: All the lyrics seem to fit, the combination of piano and guitars works well with the themes in my trailer, the negative feel of the song does also.

Location Shots:

Main Character Planning: Emily

Main Character Planning: Sasha

Roles during the filming of the Final Trailer:

Storyboard of Final Trailer:

Hollyoaks Later - 2009 Trailer 1 20s

Downton Abbey ITV1 promo

Downton abbey is a period drama (mid 1800's) being shown on ITV1 at the moment. The trailer for which uses many features and conventions that are key in television dramas to make them how they are.

The zooms used in the trailer are both fast and slow, and are used throughout the clip. A fast zoom is used to show the shock on the girls face when she sees the body being carried through the dark. This accentuates the horror and suprise she is feeling and helps the audience to empathise with her emotions. Slow zooms are also used on some of the more boring shots (shots where not a lot other than a conversation is happening) to add intrest and also draw the audience into the scene.

Non-diegetic music has been added in post production in a choral style, but a fairly modern song. This is so that the period drama targets this generation whereas it might not have if it had chosen an older song. The haunting choral voices give a sense of unease about the clip, especially with the clever choice of words "i'll be watching you" in the song. The cuts of the shots are quite slow at the beginning, however when the music increases in tempo, the cuts get faster and faster until the music slows again and we are left with a closeup of the "main characters" face. The fast cuts are here used to build tension and create a sense of excitment in the audience, without actually telling them anything that is going to happen in the series. This makes them want to watch the drama and therefore makes this clip an effective trailer.

Many different shot types are used in the trailer, although most of them are tracking shots. I think this is for two reasons. Mainly, to give the viewer a sense of following the characters through a very quick synopsis of the programme, so it is almost like a continuous path through the clip. Also, I think that it corresponds nicely with the lyrics of the music; "I'll be watching you", making it seem as though the viewer is literally watching the characters when they arent supposed to be. I think the lyrics have shaped the trailer quite a lot, because most of the clips seem to be people looking at each other and conveying a lot by what their facial expression is.

A long shot is used when a couple of characters are walking outside of the abbey.

shakey shot when boy is carried into house.

text

blurred forground

fast cuts

soft lighting in the romantic bits

graphic frame shots, door mirror window

blurred edges to create period feel

period costumes - sets the time period

long shots to set scene

extreme close up

close up on characters facial expressions

tracking

follow style due to tracking

90210 [UK Season Two Spot #4]

Editing: Overall, the editing of the whole piece is very fast, with only short, relatively unrelated clips. I like the editing style used in this trailer, and hope to let it inspire my own work.

Lighting: The lighting of the whole soap has a warm yellow glow to it. This is because, although the main atmosphere of the trailer is negative, it is still set in "Hollywood" and the lighting conveys a sense of unrealistic happiness, wealth and 'sugar-coated' situations that are stereotypically common in "Hollywood".

The establishing shot at the beginning is used to let the audience know where the soap is set. Also, the image is very heavily representational of a lot of media created connotations of glamour, rich people and celebrities. The establishing shot is followed by a weather shot, and it is the lightning which implies the tone of the whole trailer through use of pathetic fallacy.

The next shot is a two shot of two women comforting another woman. The colour pink in the background makes the viewer associate the scene with many girly connotations, such as high emotions, 'love' and fashion. The fact that the first characters we see in the trailer are women is due to the fact that the programme is part of what would be called a "feminine" genre; its target audience is largely female. The short hair and slightly garish costume of the woman on the right, compared to the frilly blouse and long, wavy blonde hair of the woman on the left, is indicative of the levels of femininity in the two characters, with the blonde woman being clearly more feminine than the brunette. The camera is at a low angle here because the audience is supposed to be empathising with the girl lying on the bed (see next shot) and this way the camera is on her level.

There is then a fast cut to the girl lying on the bed being comforted. Her eyes are puffy, which suggests to the viewer that she has been crying. Also, the dialogue "I would do anything to make my heart stop hurting" is a clue to the viewer about what might be happening in that storyline, because as it is only a trailer, they may not necessarily understand the plot at this time. The eye-line of this character, also, is quite near the camera, so as to give the audience the maximum chance of empathising and connecting with the character, without breaking 'the fourth wall'.

There is another fast cut to a wide angle shot of a man throwing something in a bin, and a woman in the background. The force at which he throws the item into the bin is indicative of the emotions that the man is portraying, and although the shot is only 1 second long, if that, the general theme of the shot is conveyed effectively. The costume of the girl stood behind him suggests that she is a fashionable, professional person.

The next shot is a very wide two shot, with the characters graphically framed within two vertical sheets of corrogated metal. This shot relies on the knowledge of the viewer to understand that they are stood infront of the "Hollywood" sign; the view of LA, the colour of the sign, and the hill they are stood on. Combine this with the prior establishing shot and the producer of this clip can be pretty certain that the audience will 'get it'. The characters are both wearing similar colours, which lets the audience know that they are connected in some way. This is reinforced by the body language/proximity of the two. 

The next shot is a close up two shot of the two characters from the previous shot. This is clear because the characters are of a similar proximity. The girl here is crying, and this, as in the other shots, lets the viewer know a little bit about the general atmosphere of the scene, without telling the plotline.

This trailer has really inspired me in my planning of the final trailer. I really like many of the conventions that it has used and hope to recreate them in my own trailer.

Evaluations of existing Billboards:

Evaluations of existing Magazine Front Covers:

A2 media preliminary task soap opera trailer

I don't think that the title card I used is as appropriate to the genre as it could have been, and that is something I hope to have improved in my final piece. However, the title "the college" is consistent with the general Mise en Scene of the piece, what with the colour scheme of red within the college and the public toilets and also the work the girls in the first scene have with them.

Something I hope to improve on before making my final trailer is the framework of the shots. If you compare the shot at 0:04 with the same shot at 0:07, there is a clear difference in where about in the frame the character is. I believe it would have looked more professional for the two shots to have been more similar. A good way to keep this consistent will be to use a two camera set up, so that there is no need to physically move the camera between shots.

Another thing I wish to improve on is the choice of non-diegetic score I use. Although I think I used a score in appropriate places, and of the appropriate key, I just don't think that the sound fits with the action. In my final piece, I will choose a real song, rather than one already on the editing software, to ensure that I have a wider choice, and therefore pick an appropriate score.

Something that I think went well in this shoot was the slap scene. We used a technique whereby the slap was so quick that the viewer doesn't really notice that the hand doesn't actually touch anything, making this a safe thing to do.

 Also, the fact that one of the characters has large blonde hair is playing on the genre, because it is common in many soap operas that the fiesty, agressive, manipulative female character has blonde hair.

Storyboard of Preliminary Trailer:

Preliminary Trailer Script

A2 Comic Strip Soap

I believe that our camera work could have been improved whilst filming this video, as at times, such as 0:20, the camera is off-angle and also shows a lot of the outside area. The last shot is done with a crash zoom, which I think works well with the plot line, however I don't believe is a convention often used in soaps. 

We did not have to input our own thoughts about the angles of the shots as they were already in place due to the comic strip, however we did have to move the camera around the screen to get all the information on screen. 

I think we could have found a more appropriate non-diegetic score for the introduction even though I do believe that it goes with the title of the soap: Suburbs. The diegetic sound was filmed separately to the visual, and then we removed the visual from the speech shots, and overlapped it to the visual we wanted. Unfortunately, this lead to gaps in the background noise (from when we filmed the speech) that had to be put in when editing. 

At the end of our clip, we used a cliff-hanger. I think this works well because the clip is supposed to be a "previously on" section, to be followed by the rest of the programme. This is also a commonly used soap convention.

In post production we inserted a label on the bottom of the clip saying "previously on... the suburbs." I think that the actual label could have been more visually relevant, as I don't think it quite fits. 

As far as the actual technologies used, I learned a lot about Adobe Premier Elements 8, which I have never used before. I learned how to remove different parts of a certain shot, for example removing the audio clip that is over a shot and replacing it with an audio clip that has had its video removed. 

Next time, I will take more care in aligning my shots and also will film my speech in a quieter environment so that there is no annoying buzz in the background.