Soap Opera Genre –

Ancillary Product Analysis

Name: Bethany VaughanCandidate Number: 4137Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

OCR Media Studies – A2 Level

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

Outlines around secondary images and cover stories separates them from other stories and causes them to appear bold and important.

Masthead ‘informs’ (Katz) the audience what the magazine is. The non-verbal code of colour red is associated with love, passion, and energy so therefore connotes a loud magazine, reinforced through use of exclamation marks throughout the front cover, and suggest a love and passion for TV.

Main Headline, bright yellow with black stroke causes it to stand out. The capitalization of the verbal code ‘KIDNAPS’ signifies it’s importance and the word connotes danger and crime.

Use of the verbal code punctuation to sensationalize the story and reinforce the sense of danger.

Use of puffs is eye catching, draws focus to the content of the puff.

Date of issue Blue background (consistently used in front covers of ‘What’s on TV) connotes stability, and is effective in creating a vibrant design.

Man in background in the non-verbal code of mise-en-scene black costume has the connotation of bad/evil intentions.

The non-verbal code of mise-en-scene facial expression suggests happiness, baby is obviously comfortable with woman so contrasts the main headline, further suggesting Phil’s negative intentions through his dissatisfied facial expression and the verbal code puff text ‘Phil’s custody victory!’ which suggests that he is the antagonist.

Bold text with stroke stands out, the capitalisation of the verbal code ‘EVIL PLAN’ highlights the words significance and the language suggests drama and an antagonist.

Shows logos and text used to inform the audience on the content of the magazine. The inclusion of a certain show could attract certain readers to buy the magazine.

Main image has no background so heads appear in front of the mast head causing it to stand out, which is reinforced by the outer glow effect used on the image casing it to further stand out against the magazines blue background, which causes the image to appear as the most important image on the front cover.

Secondary images appear in front of the main image, framing it, with a rounded edge bubble effect causing them to appear attractive, informal, and eye-catching. As they appear in front of the main image they stand out so would could easily catch the eye of an audience.

The strapline gives the audience an idea of what the magazine includes, The verbal code of “every secret every story every week” connotes that there is a large range of content as the buzz word “every” connotes the inclusion of all topics. The word secret attracts an audience as people love gossip and being nosey so people will pick up the magazine to see what the secrets are. The use of the rule of three creates a progression causing words to appear important. The bright blue, yellow, and white are eye-catching so would attract an audience. The colour yellow is associated with happiness, blue with stability, and white with coolness so these colours together connote that the magazine is happy, clean, and constant which reinforces the verbal codes of the strapline.

Date of issue

Price

Masthead tells the audience what the magazine is. The non-verbal code of colour red is associated with love, passion, and energy so therefore connotes a loud magazine, reinforced through use of exclamation marks throughout the front cover, and suggest a love and passion for TV. The white stroke and drop shadow used causes it to stand out and appear bold while the san-serif font connotes a casual friendly feeling to the audience.

Bright whites and reds used, are very bold and eye catching. The red could connote passion and anger and grabs the attention of the reader.

“Revenge!” in the main headline connotes some form of crime or something evil which Tanya is going to do, as well as suggesting that it is deserved of the person she is going to hurt as they hurt her first. The exclamation pint, as seen in many other headlines sensationalises the story so causes everything to appear dramatic and get attention from the reader, encouraging them to pick it up and read inside.

The puff used for this promotion appears impactful and therefore catches an audiences eye.

Tanya’s facial expression of a smile contrasts the headline that goes with the main image, the baby held in her arms connotes innocence and vulnerability suggesting that her “revenge” will be well deserved. The bald man stood behind her wearing dark clothing makes his presence seem dangerous and his moody almost sinister expression connotes dangerous intentions. The smiling man on the other side contrasts this, his happiness and the positioning of the men on both sides could suggest an affair and connotes them to be like the good and bad angel in binary opposition (Levi Strauss) to each other. This is further highlighted through the use of the verbal code “hell” suggesting the devil and the verbal code “secret” may ‘signify’ an affair in a similar way to the main image.

Conclusion

and

In my magazine I would ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale – 1980) the use of bright colors and a bold background color. I would also repeat the use of exclamation marks and language to sensationalize the story. Another thing I would repeat the use of puff promotions and secondary images and headlines as they are eye catching and attractive.