MS2 Media Studies Coursework

Research + Planning

Chelsie Hextall

Index Page

Slides 5 – 37– Research into a wide range of competitors/intertexts.

Slides 38 – 44 – Research into my target audience.

Slides 45 – Planning my text.

First ideas• My first ideas for my Pre Production

choice is to choose between moving image of doing a trailer or the opening sequence i have then thinking to do a print based production of a double page magazine review and a DVD cover. At this present time im not too sure on the genre, I think a good choice for me would be to choose either a thriller or a horror, possibly a hybrid genre.

Genres

• Thriller and horror are closely related genres both are designed to elicit tension and suspense, taking the audience through agony and fear.

Research into a wide range of competitors /

intertextsTextual analysis of several

similar texts

Horror

• Examples of horror films consist of;– Hatchet 2– The Last Exorcism – Red Hill– Apollo 18

• All these films have at least one convention similar to each other for the genre of horror

Conventions of the genre horror

• Mis-en-scene –– Knifes

• Colours – – Blacks– Reads

• Lighting (artificial) – Dark specific places where light would be shown, can be done artificial

to be made look real for instance spot lights could be used instead of the moon.

• Gesture codes – – A character resembling some sort of creature or resembles the

movements made

• Music (diegetic/non diegetic) – – Diegetic – footsteps

» Screams– Non diegetic – Music

Thriller conventions

• Mise-en-scene –– Desks

• Colours – – Blacks– Reads

• Lighting (artificial) – Dark specific places where light would be shown, can

be done artificial to be made look real for instance spot lights could be used instead of the moon.

• Music (diegetic/non diegetic) – – Diegetic – footsteps

» Screams– Non diegetic – Music

Thriller

• Examples of films consist of:– "The Bourne Identity" was adapted into a

movie starring Matt Damon which used many of the thriller conventions. Though its sequels, "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum",

– Phone Booth" is a thriller about a man trapped in a phone booth by a deranged sniper. He finds himself surrounded by police who have no idea of the sniper's presence.

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/149473 - Accessed 29th October 2010.

Thriller• Examples of thriller televisions programs consist of:

– “24" is a fast-paced television series with a premise inspired by the War on Terror. Each season takes place over the course of twenty-four hours, with each episode happening in "real time". Featuring a split-screen technique and a ticking onscreen clock

– "Lost", which deals with the survivors of a plane crash, sees the castaways on the island forced to deal with a monstrous being that appears as a cloud of black smoke, a conspiracy of "Others" who have kidnapped or killed their fellow castaways at various points

– "Prison Break" follows Michael Scofield, an engineer who has himself incarcerated in a maximum-security prison in order to break out his brother, who is on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/149473 – Accessed 29th October 2010

Idea change(summary of previous thoughts

and research)• After researching into moving image films

and TV programs of the two genres thriller and horror, I have now decided to switch my genre ideas and have started to look at different genres of magazines including horror such as the magazine Albedo and soap operas. The main soap opera magazine is called inside soap other information about soaps get turned into the format of a TV guide.

TV

A majority of soaps have similar storylines with murders, weddings and affairs for example EastEnders and coronation street have both recently had a wedding and fire.

• Coronation Street fire had 9.1 million viewers for each instalment.• EastEnders fire – “The episode in all pulled in 8.5 million viewers

with a further 1.5 million viewers watching on BBC Three at 10pm. This gives the episode a combined figure of 10 million viewers and when final figures are released the overall rating is likely to be higher.”

Rating from http://www.atvnewsnetwork.co.uk/today/index.php/atv-today/3811-monday-ratings-eastenders-tops-9-million-viewers

Ratings

• Those rating show that no matter what soap it is big excitement brings in a lot of viewers so if I was to include a big event on my magazine front cover like Inside soap does, then it would make the magazine look more exiting and people would be drawn to it.

ReviewsOn a website where viewers can place there own reviews it shows that the newer more modern soap operas are liked more than the old running ones such as coronation street and Eastenders

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews69540.html – Accessed 14th November 2010

Reviews

• “sunset beach was a great soap opera it was a very unique soap yes it had cheesy story lines and the actors where not the worlds best but it was watched all over the world loved by students and housewives and there where some good acting scenes and serious story lines i loved”

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews80057.html – Accessed 13th November 2010.

The Reviews

• The reviews have shown me the type of target audience that watch the shows.

• It also shows me that my storylines and actors have to be younger to relate to the audience as the audience would watch the soap opera for personal identity

Industry research (production companies / directors / stars)

• Directors of EastEnders vary depending on what episode and they consist of– David Andrews – Jamie Annett – Paul Annett – Karen Kelly – David Kester – Tom Kingdon – Tim Leandro

Created by - Julia Smith Tony Holland

Written by Various writersDirected by Various directors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastEnders – Accessed 20th November 2010

Main Stars of EastEnders

A majority of the main stars in EastEnders are unknown actors and actresses so on my front cover for my magazine I will be using unknown actors, as the target audience also prefer that.

•Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt

•Dot Branning - June Brown

•Pat Evans - Pam St. Clement

•Ricky Butcher - Sid Owen

•Janine Butcher - Charlie Brooks

•Phil Mitchell - Steve McFadden

•Carol Jackson - Lindsey Coulson

•Bianca Jackson - Patsy Palmer

•Jim Branning - John Bardon

•Billy Mitchell - Perry Fenwick

•Kat Moon Jessie Wallace

•Patrick Trueman - Rudolph Walker

•Alfie Moon - Shane Richie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_EastEnders_characters – Accessed 14th November 2010

Different types of magazine genres

• Horror and Soap operas

Soap opera front covers are completely different than horror front covers. The colour scheme is the main difference as they follow the conventions of the genre for instance in horror films its conventional of it to be dark and to have some sort of blood. On the next slides you can see that the front covers follow this.

Examples of a horror front cover of magazine

Soap operas however use there colour scheme differently, they think about how conventially a soap should be packed of activites and things going on within family's e.g. EastEnders in the family house of the Jacksons its busy a manic with the children. Soap operas uses bold colours to make it seem busy

Different soap opera magazines consist of TV inside soap, TV times and TV

Examples of Soap operas front covers

Comparing magazines from two genres

Visual Codes-

Dress Codes

Light ColoursDark Colours

Headlines

Maslow's Hierarchy Of needs

Visual Codes - Gesture Codes

• All the characters on the soap opera magazine are looking towards the camera this is so the audience can see the emotions in the actors faces

• The facial expressions are different on both the magazines, the soap opera magazines gives the conventions of a worried look, determination and anger.

• The facial expression on the horror magazine is connoting pain

Dress Codes

• Every one that is on the front of a magazine for soap opera are dressed casually or fit in with the setting in which the big scene will take place, this is so the audience can relate to the characters, and relate the characters to the moment of the event.

• Because of this in my magazine cover I will follow the same codes.

Colour Scheme

The background of all the soap opera magazines is white this is due to keeping the locations and mise-en-scene a secret so the magazine draws the target audience in however leaves them in suspense so that the watch the episodes.

The colours that they use are white, red and orange this makes the colours bold and stand out so it can catch peoples eyes if they were to just walk past.

The colour scheme on horror magazines are completely different they are dark colours that are bold and still make a statement within themselves so they still get noticed.

Headlines

• The main headlines used on a soap opera magazine are for murders, weddings, affairs and pregnancies.

• However on a horror magazine there are hardly any headlines and uses the main photo to grab the target audiences attention.

Technical Codes

In the horror magazine front cover one camera angle is used this is a low angled shot this shows that he has a low status , so when he connoting pain its as if he's falling to the ground and become useless.

The soap opera magazine uses a vary of different camera angles so it provides different emotions for instance close ups are used to show facial expressions to promote someone being worried.

For the soap opera magazines there is also a variety of photos place in different settings however in the horror magazines it makes the target audience focus on the one picture and the one narrative they are trying to achieve.

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

• Soap opera magazine fit in Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory this is because the target audience would see the magazine and give them a choice to talk about a narrative to other people this will fit in with their social needs and needs to feel safe as once the target audience has something they can talk about they can feel safe in a group when talking about it and not feel left out at all.

MagazinesI have been going out and buying different magazines on soap to find out

about the different content and the different ways that they organise their front cover.

My findings showed that all the front covers are similar they were all busy with different main events from the different soap shows, for instance murders (who killed who), weddings and affairs.

Most of the camera angles used are close up to show the different emotions in the characters faces whether it is determination, sadness or happiness.

The fonts that are on the front cover are usually blocked letters and bold so everything stand out and grabs the target audience attention.

The way that everything is written on the front of the magazine are written as short sentences that give clips of what's happening in the week.

Summary

• After researching about the different types of magazines and genre I have now decided to do a print magazine front cover for my coursework with the genre of soap operas. I have chosen this because it is a genre that interests me, and a genre that I feel I could do well with my coursework.

The price range

• The price of a soap magazine can vary to from the normal magazines at between 69p up to £1.45, or if you were going to by a yearly annual soap yearbook that would cost the target audience around about £2.90.

• The price that my magazine will be placed at is £1.20

How often?

• The magazines are printed and put on sale weekly, it includes several articles about different soap operas and TV dramas. It also includes a weekly TV guide and states when which soaps are on what channel and when.

Who buys the magazines for soap operas?

• The main target audience for soap opera magazines are females.

• They are normally aged between 17-25 years.

• Students + housewives may read the magazines.

Applying Audience Theorys

• Uses and Gratification Theory – the audience would watch EastEnders for personal identity where they can relate to the soap opera through there own personal experiences, sometimes to identify with others for example Drugs, alcohol problems, bullying, grief, jealousy, love or betrayal. The different subjects of the story line can change how people feel for example happy, sad or worried.

• Soap magazines can also do this in reviews and when telling the storyline, before the episode is shown magazines put the main story lines on the front pages that can relate to peoples life and relate to them.

Audiences• Two step flow Theory – People can watch

EastEnders to fit in with others when a major event happens for instance when the queen Vic got burnt down and the story of who was Archie's killer. This can cause rating for EastEnders to go up or down if something else happens similar in a different soap. People can talk to family and friends to make conversation with others.

• Soap opera magazines also do this with pictures they print that people can discuss with others and with any reviews written. The copy on the front of the magazine also pulls an audience towards reading the magazine so they can discuss the storyline with friends and/or family

Research into my Target Audience

Questionnaire• The questions that I have included in my

questionnaire consist of age and gender because the different gender can effect the results for instance it may be just females that buy and read soap opera magazines and it may be the age group of16-19 that buy magazines more often. I have also included open questions where the target audience can right their own opinions such as where they think the best soap opera setting is. Also included in the survey is how many stories the audience would prefer on the front cover. The link to my questionnaire is placed below.

 http://chelsie.wufoo.com/forms/media-studies/

Results (graphs)• The two main questions from my survey

was to find out what the best setting for my soap opera to be placed and what is the best story line here are some of my results the full report is placed on my blog.

Storyline Settings

More Results

Results analysis

• From my results I found out that the amount of stories on the front cover should be a multiple amount rather than one story this is also conventional for a soap opera magazine front cover.

• The settings of my soaps should be places that people see every day so they can relate to for instance a village with local shops

Audience theory applied to your text

• The theory that I will use in my magazine front cover will be Maslow's hierarchy of needs. My magazine will include big stories and will be a social need that people can talk to their friends and family about.

Detailed Target Audience profile

My 1st target audience for a draft design is going to be:

• Female gender• Age range 17-25• Students Demographic group C1• In this magazine it will consists of more soap

opera storyline. • The colour scheme for the magazine will consist

of orange reds and whites this will make the magazine stand out but still look classy enough for my target audience to buy the magazine.

Detailed Target Audience profile

My 2nd draft design is going to be aimed at a different age range.

• Female genre• Age 6-10year old • This magazine will consist more of TV programs

such as Disney programs Hannah Montana, Fineas and Pherb and Lillo and stitch. This is because on a children's magazine big narratives like murders and affairs would not be appropriate.

• The colour scheme will be changed as well due to the age range. I will use bright bold colours so it will appear to them and because it’s a girl magazine pink will be used as it is also appealing to them.

Planning my text

Drafting ideas – titles, logos, narratives/stories etc.

• The narratives that I am going to include in my front cover of my magazine will consist of the main story of a murder, the murder will include a one person medium close up shot to show that person scared as if on the run from the police for killing someone

• Sub narratives that I will include will e a variety at the moment will consist of an affair and a pregnancies without knowing who the dad is

Organisation of actors, locations, costumes, props

• For the main narrative of a murder the main character will be placed in front of the other actors and stories

• The costumes will be casual wear so that the target audience can relate to the characters rather than wearing posh expensive clothes that not the middle class demographic C1 can afford to wear daily.

1st Draft Design

The pink lines at the bottom of the page is due to the scanner.

2nd Draft Design

The pink lines at the bottom of the page is due to the scanner.

Analysis

• From my two draft designs for my pre production I have realised that they need to be more detailed so I have now chosen names for my magazines for my first draft design the magazine is now going to be called luminary and my second draft design is going to be called starlight.

Font choices, articles, contents drafts etc.

• In my double page article review it will include several pictures.

• In the review will consist of interviews from the actors talking about their characters and there thoughts and feelings about the storylines.

• The main age range for this article is for it to be placed in my first draft design age ranging from 17-25.