TV Listings magazine
In the TV listing magazine several conventions have been followed. The mast head is located in the top left hand corner in which I have noticed on several other magazines:
It is located here because it is normally the first place the audience look on the page. Also, when on a shelf in a shop only the top of the magazine shows, so the masthead will always be on show for the public to quickly identify it. This would generate more advertisement as a larger audience would notice the magazine and its name.
Another convention we have met is including a price puff on the front. The use of a bright puff helps it to stand out so the audience can quickly discover how much it is if they are in a hurry.
The image above represents the common use of a price puff and how conventional it is in professional TV listings magazines. The puff emphasises it is of a low price as it is lower than a pound which influences the audience to purchase it.
Two other conventions we have followed to make the magazine look more professional are including a tag line and the days of the week down the side of the page.
The tag line advertises the magazine and the catchy on-liner entices the audience to read more. The weekdays provide evidence that there in information on soaps for everyday of the week, letting the audiences learn more.
However, my group and I have decided to challenge the convention of including various other soap opera gossip in the TV listings magazine because we want it to be focused on our new soap and for the audience not to get distracted by others. If others were included we would be advertising soaps that we are competing against so we want our audience to only read about ours.
On the other hand we introduce a separate audience into our magazine unlike real media texts. The magazine is aimed at working class women but we have included an interview with one of the actresses from our soap for a younger generation.
We have done this to widen the variety of audiences and welcome different ages to the magazine. Even though it has gone against conventions of real media texts we believe that if women have it in the house they are likely to have teenagers who will see it. Therefore, it would attract another audience.
Another convention we subverted, was having both characters making eye contact.
The example of real media texts show all actors making eye contact, which is usual on most TV listings front covers. However, we decided to have the bully character not making eye contact because we were trying to create an idea of power. The actress making eye contact is not smiling so is giving the impression she is unhappy with the other looking at her target of ridicule in which she has control and power. We were trying to give the idea that the vulnerable character is looking out to the audience for help, therefore the audience creates sympathy for her.This supports their roles in the trailer as we were aiming to gain empathy from the audience towards the vulnerable character.
Poster
Comparing our poster to an example of a real media text of a soap opera ‘Neighbours’ there is still a contrast in the use of eye contact.
We did not include eye contact because we wanted to emphasise that she is hurt and is experiencing a life of turmoil. Whereas, the example shows happiness with eye contact, welcoming the audience into their soap. The image on our poster creates sympathy towards the character because the audience need to know what has happened to her and whether she survives.
The horizontal page orientation could be conventional or unconventional as research has shown that a variety is used.
The posters could be used horizontally on billboards or vertically on bus stops. The reason for the choice of a horizontal page orientation is to match the image because if the page was vertical the actress would look like she is leaning against a wall. Therefore, this angle depicts a better meaning and shows the disorientation of the character.
My group an I have followed the convention to real media texts and just using one main image. However, in contrast to the neighbours' advertisement poster including several different characters, we used an image with just the main protagonist. The reason for this is to exaggerate the dramatic storyline so the public want to know what has happened to her and why she is laying on the floor. The focus of the main protagonist advertises the soap well because the trailer largely involves her even though others are included too.
Finally, the use of the soap opera name being situated at the bottom of the page could be conventional or unconventional. This is because it is assumed that the title would go at the top of the page, but at the bottom there is the idea of recency and the audience would remember the name as it is the last thing they look at. This is also shown on the real media text of the advertisement for neighbours.
Moving image:
My group and I have attached background music to the moving image. This is conventional in trailers because it help set the mood and create atmosphere, for example in a horror trailer, eerie music would be used.To edit the soundtrack and save it we used the programme 'Sound Track Pro'. We used the song 'Skateboarding':
We used this track because it has a fast pace which supports a fast moving trailer image. We realised it is conventional to use fast paced music during our research of watching other teen trailers. An example of one of the trailers we watched was 'E21', http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3XoDvLuM2Y. This shows the short clips all put together to produce a fast paced trailer with supporting music.
Another convention my group and I have followed is to include several rights of passage.
A popular teen soap 'Hollyoaks' show similar rights of passage to our trailer. Therefore, because Hollyoaks is so popular with the teens, these are what they would be looking for in a soap, and this is the reason why we have included such events.
Our soap opera trailer focuses on one main story line with a few others included but not emphasised as much as the troubled teen with problems at home.
This neither challenges or follows the forms and conventions of real teen soap trailers because there are a variety. As the E20 trailer and some of the Holloaks trailers focus on just one storyline whereas other Hollyoaks' trailers involve several storylines. We chose to include others as well as one main one to show more of a variety in rights of passage and to attract a large audience. As if there was just the one main storyline and not all of our target audiences were attracted to it or could relate themselves to it, they may see others which they enjoy.
The order of the clips of the different storylines needed to be considered. It is conventional to
Another convention we have followed is inserting text before new storyline to emphasise them.
The short one-liners help to exaggerate they storyline and explain what it is about without giving too much away. A couple of our storylines were not clear so we used this to support them. We also, found this convention quite effective as it involves a variety so it is not just moving image but text as well, and sometimes words can have more of an impact. Something else which is evident from the image above is following the convention of including the channel logo in the bottom of the screen. This is included primarily so the audience remember which channel it is on as if it was only shown at the end it may not stick in their mind as well as constantly looking ta it for about 3 minutes. Therefore, we thought it was an effective and appropriate way of reminding people.
All trailers include editing, however some are kept completely realistic so it just jumps from one clip to the next. Others, on the other hand include transitions, change of speed and change of colour. We have included change of speed and some transitions in our soap.
We decided to include these because it makes the trailer more interesting to watch as there is a variety of edits. An example of when we used transitions was when there were two clips of different storylines next to each other, and we wanted to make it clear that there was a change in event. Also, the change in speed helps to emphasise clips as some soap trailers use slow-motion in events which are sad to create the sympathy. Speeding a clip up can be used in situations which are fast paced, for example an explosion because people do not have time to think about it, it just happens. Coronation Street has a clip which is sped up to emphasise the impact of a tram coming off of its rails and it being out of the residents' control.
Finally, we have included dialogue with in not subverting or following the conventions as some soap trailers contain it and some do not. We used it to aid the understanding of the clips and to give meaning to the actions taking place in the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment