How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

New media technologies have enabled me to plan and research, produce and evaluate both my main text and the ancillary texts. Without new media technologies, I would not have been able to complete this coursework.

Planning and Research:
During the planning and research stage, the internet has been the most important form of new media technologies that allowed me to do what I needed to do in order to create successful media texts.

This is a print screen of the website YouTube, which allows audiences to watch videos. I used YouTube to watch other soap opera trailers from popular soaps such as Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and Neighbours. Being able to watch these videos allowed me to learn the conventions of popular soap opera trailers, and therefore I could transfer some of these into my own trailer to make it successful.

This is a print screen of the social networking site, Facebook. Being able to use Facebook meant that I could communicate easily and quickly with other members of my group. For example, I could write on their 'wall' to arrange meetings for filming or taking still photgraphs. It also meant that I could communicate with the actors that I used for my trailer and ancillary texts. The use of Facebook definately made the process of planning and production a lot more efficient because I could arrange specific times and places for everyone to meet.

The use of a still camera allowed me to take photographs of characters and settings. This was useful because I could then show the photos to other members of my group and get their opinion. I could also upload the photographs onto my computer and share them via email or Facebook. The photographs meant that I could visualise what my trailer was going to look like, because I had the photographs of settings and characters in front of me. This helped me to be more creative.

This is a screen grab of my email account, on MSN Hotmail. Because everyone else in my group also had email accounts, this meant that we could share information such as important website links, music tracks, photographs and even videos with each other. It also meant that if we took photographs as a group on one camera, we could share them through email and then upload them onto our own computers to use as we wished.

This is my folder on my personal account. By having my own personal account, I could create folders and files to keep all of my work organised. The things that are in my folder range from video files to music tracks and photographs. I created several folders such as 'Final Drafts of Everything' and 'Music for Trailer', so that I knew exactly where everything was. I found this extremely useful and time saving because I was very organised and could find what I was looking for quickly.

Construction of my main and ancillary texts:

Here are some photographs other members of my group took of me whilst filming our soap opera trailer. We used the video camera Sony Zeiss:

This camera allowed us to film for up to an hour at a time, which was useful because sometimes it took that long just to get a couple of minutes of footage. The video camera also allowed us to zoom in and out, which was extremely useful because we wanted to have close ups as well as long shots, and so we were able to get a variety of different shots. To ensure that the camera was as still as possible, we used a tripod to keep it steady. As you can see in the photographs above, the tripod was adjustable, which meant that we could use a variety of different camera angles. This was useful because it allowed us to ensure that our trailer would have a variety of shots and angles, which would improve the quality of the trailer, as well as following the conventions of other soap opera trailers.

This is a photograph a member of my group took of me using the editing software Adobe Premier Pro. This is the software I used to edit my trailer once we had completed the filming process. Adobe Premier Pro allowed me to take around 4 minutes of footage and turn it into a 43 second long soap opera trailer. I learnt how to do things such as cut out all unecessary footage and put each sequence in the order that I wanted, unlink the sound, add in music tracks and a voiceover. I also learnt how to adjust the contrast and brightness in the 'drug dealing' scene, because we shot that in an alleyway and so it was very dark. I also used KeyNotes, which allowed me to have my music track fading in and out when I wanted it to. This was useful because I could make it fade out at the end so that the voiceover could be heard clearly. I could also add BBC1's logo in the bottom right hand corner, which meant that the audience would know immediately what channel my soap would be shown on. Adobe Premier Pro also allowed me to add in a title at the end of my trailer, which allowed me to provide information such as the start date and time, the channel, the name of the soap and the relevant website. This not only contributes to the realism of my trailer, but also provides information to my audience so that they know when and where to watch my trailer.

This is the website, http://www.freeplaymusic.com/, that I used to get my music for my soap opera trailer. I used this website because there is no copyright on the tracks, so I could choose from a huge variety of genres and use what I wanted from there on my trailer. Being able to do this ensured that my trailer followed the conventions of other soap opera trailers, as they all contain music. The website's homepage has a list of genres such as 'classic rock' and 'hip hop'. This was extremely useful because it categorised all of the tracks so that I could browse the site according to the genre that I wanted to use. After browsing the site for some time, I knew that it would probably be a beaty track that I wanted to use because it would make my trailer seem exciting. I had used a sample track for the first draft of my trailer, so that I could experience what my trailer would be like with music. After I recieved audience feedback that stated that the track wasn't suitable, I went back to http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ and chose another one, which didn't take long, because the website was so well organised.

This is my magazine front cover in the picture editing software, Adobe Photoshop. I used Photoshop to create both my magazine front cover and my poster. Photoshop allowed me to take the photographs I had taken of my characters and create them into a magazine front cover. I started out with a blank A4 sized file, and made the background blue, because that was the colour that seemed to be the most popular when it came to tv listings magazines. From there, I created a title by making a red square in the Shapes tool, and adding text to it. From there I uploaded the three 'affairs' characters photographs that I took, and used the Magic Lassoo Tool to cut around them. I then used the Eraser tool to erase and parts that I may have missed, or did not want. I then transfered them onto the blue background and layered them up so that they were all the same size and looked good. I used the Shapes tool again for the star shape that shows the price, and for the coloured boxes at the bottom that features the other programs. I also used the image of a barcode from the internet, so that my magazine cover looked realistic. 

This shows the Blending Options in Adobe Photoshop, which were extremely useful when it came to editing the text. During the planning and research process of my coursework, I noticed that a lot of magazine covers used an outer glow on their text to make it stand out. I learnt how to do this in Photoshop in the Blending Options, along with lots of other tools such as 'Texturise' and 'Inner Glow'. I found this useful because I could edit my text to exactly how I wanted it to look. 

This is my poster that I created, also in Adobe Photoshop. Again, I started out with the photgraphs that I took of the characters in my soap opera trailer, and I was able to create an entire poster from scratch. This time I used a landscape background because most posters would go on a billboard. I had already planned to have my characters at the bottom so I chose a background. I knew that I didn't want to just simply use a colour for the background as this wouldn't look realistic or effective, and so I chose to keep it simple and have the sky as the main background, with the characters line up against a fence. This way, the poster looked realistic because it seems as though the characters are all standing together, rather than it being separate photographs. 

This is just a photograph that I found on the internet of a fence, and in Adobe Photoshop I was able to crop it, change the size and postion of it until I felt that it was in the right place.

This is a screen grab of some of the tools that Adobe Photoshop has to offer. As you can see, I was able to alter the colour of the text that I used, which was extremely useful because I could make it as eye-catching as I wanted. Photoshop layers up all of the images and text, so by having them listed in order like this saved me a lot of time and effort of trying to work out what was supposed to go where. 

Evaluation Stage:

This is a screengrab of my blog, on www.blogger.com . Throughout the entire process of my media studies coursework, I was able to document everything I have done, from the planning and research to the evaluation. This was useful because I could always go back and look at what I had done so far, and I could check to see if I had left anything out. I had never used blogger before this coursework, so I learnt how to do simple things, such as create a post, and upload photos and videos into them.

For Evaluation Activity 2, we had to record a voiceover explaining how our main and ancillary texts worked well together. I then unlinked the audio from my final soap opera trailer, and added in the voiceover.

This is the Sony voice recorder that I used. It was simple to use, and picked up sound well so I was able to record my voiceover easily. If I made a mistake, I was able to delete what I had done, and start again. When I had finished recording, I connected the voice recorder to my computer via USB, and uploaded the file.

Because the voiceover was 1min 20secs longer than my trailer, I cut the trailer at certain points, and added in my magazine cover and poster so that they appeared on screen when I was discussing them. I then imported the file so that it played on Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player allowed me to view my final trailer and voiceover clip properly, which I found useful because then I could see clearly what the final product looked like. Also, because the video files were able to be played in Windows Media Player, this meant that they were the right format to be added to my blog, where I could then analyse them.

This is the program called Paint. It could be argued that Paint is a simplified version of Adobe Photoshop. I used paint to crop photographs, so that they would fit in on my blog. I also used it to paste print screens of websites and programs that I used so that I could document them on my blog as well. Without Paint, I would have struggled to put photographs and print screens onto my blog.



In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. This frame is the very first that appears in my soap opera trailer. It immediately sets the scene, as the soap opera is called 'Eaton' and the pub is called 'Eaton Oak'. We wanted to do a mid to close up shot of the pub, so that the sign was clear and could be read easily. We also thought the pub was too large to fit into a whole frame, and because of this we thought that our audience may not even recognise it as a pub. We wanted to include the windows and the door to emphasise the realism, and ensure that the sign was obvious. We wanted to include a pub in our soap opera because they are a conventional setting in other soap operas such as 'Eastenders' and 'Coronation Street'. Pubs allow characters to be social, and we wanted to incorporate this idea into our soap opera trailer because it is emphasises the realism. I also included a 'BBC 1' logo in the corner of each shot. This is to create realism, as it makes the trailer look more professional. I also wanted to include it so that it was clear to audiences that the soap would be aired on BBC1, so that they would know what channel to watch it on. I chose the bright red colour because it is the colour that BBC1 uses in its logos, and it is also an eye catching colour that would draw in the audience's attention.

2. This frame is from the 'drug dealing' storyline we included in our trailer. We decided to include a midshot of the physical exchange of 'drugs' for money. This is because we wanted to make the shot look as realistic as possible, and to make it clear that was what the two male characters were doing. The mid shot allows enough detail to be portrayed, while at the same time showing the males from the neck down, and their arm movements when they do the exchange. This enables audiences to see clearly what is going on without the shot looking too 'busy'. Initially the shot looked very dark as we wanted to have darker lighting for this particular storyline to give off a 'dangerous' and 'mysterious' mood. We shot this scene in the winter time, and it gets dark very quickly so when we started shooting it was just beginning to get dark, but it was still light enough to capture footage successfully. However, by the time we had finished, it was too dark to see our footage clearly. This meant that I had to lighten the contrast on Adobe Premier Pro during the editing process. I made sure that I did not make the shot too light that it looked unrealistic or too different from the rest of the trailer because that would look odd, so I still kept in an element of darkness, but lightened the contrast enough to make the shot clearer. In other soap opera trailers, and even full length soap opera episodes that I have watched, there seems to be a lot of storylines dealing with social issues. I wanted to incorporate this within my soap opera trailer as other soaps such as 'Eastenders' has dealt with social issues such as drug addiction successfully.

3. This frame is from the 'poisoning' storyline. We needed to ensure that the storyline was made absolutely clear so that our audience would understand what was going on. To do this we used a few close ups to emphasise what was occuring, and to make sure it was obvious too. We used a close up to show the elderly female physically placing a tablet of some sort into her husband’s tea. We made sure we used a tea mug that would be recognisable, so that it was obvious that her husband was drinking from the same mug the tablet was in. We used quite large white tablets so that they could be seen going into the tea, which makes it clearer to our audience as to what is going on. We also made sure that the elderly lady wore a recognisable top, and so we included this in the close up so it was made clear that it was her that was putting the tablet into the tea. The elderly female's wedding band is also clearly on display, this is to emphasise that she is married, and helps audiences to work out an obvious connection between her and her husband.

4. This frame is from another one of the storylines included in my soap opera trailer, which is called the 'peer pressure' storyline. We wanted to use an over-the-shoulder shot from the victim’s point of view. This is to emphasise that she is standing alone, and has 3 girls ganging up on her. It also allows the audience to see what she sees, and thus in a way they are able to experience it and empathise with her. While the victim is evident in the shot, it is the three bullies that are the focus of attention. We used a mid shot to incorporate all of their facial expressions which could be described as sneering or mocking. The roles of the three bullies are also made clear, as there is a female stood on either side of the 'leader', who is in the middle. In other bullying storylines other soap operas such as 'Hollyoaks' has looked at, there are examples of group bullying, but there is mainly a focus on the one main bully who then focuses on one victim.

5. Frame number five is also from the 'peer pressure' storyline. The act of peer pressure that is shown within my trailer is a group of teenage girls pressurising another girl to drink alcohol. We wanted to emphasise that this was what was happening, and so we ensured that we used an authentic alcohol bottle, but filled it up with water instead. Because the alcohol that was in the bottle was clear vodka, water still looked realistic. When one of the girls who is enforcing the peer pressure pushes the victim with the bottle, she drops it. We wanted to make this look as dramatic as possible, to make our audience interested in what the storyline will develop into, which means that they will want to watch the soap when it starts. To do this, we cut when the vodka bottle touched the victims chest, and cut to a shot of the bully and the victims feet. We had to ensure that in between shots neither of the characters moved, otherwise the shots would not match up because they would be standing in different positions and then the audience may not be able to recognise the characters. We then got the bully character to drop the vodka bottle so that we could film it falling and landing. We filmed this sequence in a park, and so the floor was a rubber material which meant that the bottle would not smash, but instead bounce which would look more interesting and dramatic. It took a few takes to get the bottle to move in the right way so that it was in the shot, but eventually we worked out that it should be dropped slowly and deliberately to ensure that it still looked good. The bottle represents social issues that are relevant to teenagers, who are also a part of our audience; because alcohol is often a factor in teenagers lives in one way or another.

6. This frame is of the end title, which is the last frame of the trailer. Because we intend for our soap to be shown on BBC1, we wanted to make this obvious to our audience so that they would know where to watch it. Therefore I decided to use the familiar red background that BBC1 uses in trailers for all of its programs, including its own soap, Eastenders. Sometimes, BBC1 just uses a small logo but I personally thought that the red background was more eye-catching and familiar. After I had found a suitable background, I needed to look at a font that was very similar, if not the same, as the one that the BBC1 uses. After investigation, I found out that in October 2006, BBC1 began using a font from Fontsmith, and it is not avaliable to use unless you purchase it. On finding this out I decided to use Adobe Photoshop to find the closest font I could, and then to layer it over the background. After trying out many different fonts, I found that Gill Sans MT was the closest match. I ensured that the font was white, to match BBC 1's, but I also thought that it was the colour that stood out the most against the red. I made sure that the 'BBC One' was the centre of the title, so that it seemed to be the most important information provided. This was because it is the channel that the soap will be shown on. I made sure that the title of the soap 'Eaton' was slightly larger and at the top, so that it is the first thing that audiences will read. This is so that they are aware of what the soap is called, and therefore what to look for when they want to watch it. Next, I included when the soap starts 'Starts Monday' and then underneath, '7pm'. Here I provided all of the information that an audience would need to know for when the soap begins. By doing this, I am ensuring that they would not miss the start of the soap, and because the trailer airs before the start of the soap, it gives them enough time to plan their evening so that they are able to watch it. At the bottom of the title, I included a website link that is on the BBC's UK website that will link to a page dedicated to the soap. This will give the audience an opportunity to find out more about the soap, and due to technological convergence, they will be able to watch episodes online. The use of a website is a successful way of reaching a wider audience.

7. This frame is from the 'affair' storyline, where a middle-aged woman is having an affair with a middle aged man. To make this clear to our audience, we needed to establish who each of the characters involved in the storyline were, and what role they played. We initially needed to establish the female character, and her husband, whom she is cheating on. To do this we decided to include a shot of the female saying goodbye to her husband so that she was alone in her house and therefore able to invite 'the other man' inside. In this frame, we have the male standing outside the door with the female inside. This makes it clear that the male is leaving and the female is staying at home. We decided to use a midshot, so that we could do an over-the-shoulder shot from the female's perspective, but still have enough detail to make the faces of the characters clear and recognisable. The female goes to embrace her husband and then waves to him, which establishes the relationship between them, and further emphasises that he is about to leave.

8. This frame is also from the 'affairs' storyline, and is a deliberate contrast to frame number 7. This is because although the female character is the same, the male character is 'the other man'. I thought that the audience may have difficulty in telling the difference between the males, and so when the female comes to greet 'the other man' I ensured that he came in through another door. I also used a long to mid shot, so that it was easier to tell that the door was a different one to the one that the husband went out of. The shot that is used is effective because it also allows facial features to still be clear, and this helps the audience to establish that the male is different to her husband. I still wanted to film from the female character's point of view, so we shot from behind her. This allowed us to show the male's face more clearly, because the female character is easier to recognise because she is the only female in this particular storyline.

9. This frame is from the 'poisoning' storyline. We used a mid-shot on the elderly male so that you could still recognise his facial features, but also see his surroundings. Most importantly, it needed to be made clear that he was drinking the poisoned tea his wife had made him. By using a mid-shot, you can clearly see his upper body and the table where the tea was placed. Again, it is obvious that it is the cup that had pills added to it because it is the distinctive one with a yellow flower on it. We wanted to engage our audience's attention and interest, but also leave some curiosity so that they would want to watch the soap when it begins. To do this, we filmed the elderly male raising the mug to his lips and taking a sip, but then cut there. I did this because audiences would know how the storyline begins but not what happens next. To find out, they would have to watch the soap when it starts.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This is a voiceover I recorded of myself explaining how well my two ancillary texts (t.v listings front cover and a poster) go along with my main text (soap opera trailer). I tried to be as synergistic as possible by using the same characters logos and fonts. This is because I want my audience to be able to recognise and remember certain factors of my soap opera, and as a result of this, hopefully create an interest in watching my soap opera.