IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Shot 1 The first shot is taken from Hollyoaks: Messy trailer. It portrays a love triangle between 3 of the characters, firstly using a midshot of the girl and then focusing on the couple kissing connoting jealousy. The male character has his shirt off which denotes sexuality. This shot, evidently gives the audience a sense of the storylines in the soap but does not give too much away so invites an active audience to question what happens.

Shot 2 This establishing shot is from the Eastenders Christmas trailer and Archies death. The music and lighting in this immediately highlights the Christmas theme to the audience. The shot introduces the location effectively and efficiently to give the audience a sense of the setting (The Queen Victoria). A pub is the hub of the community in soaps and a conventional location featured in every episode of the soap. Shot 3 The third shot I have taken is from Eastenders Maxs Judgement Day trailer. It shows a shot of his feet walking down a corridor and then the shot cuts to a midshot of the character. The opening shot of the feet holds a mystery for the audience and allows an active audience to consider who the character may be. Furthermore, the dark clothing and low key lighting connotes death and holds this sense of mystery that is apparent in the opening. Shot 4 Shot four uses an interior setting of the pub which is a main conventional location in soap opera trailers. It uses a mid-shot to show a group of characters and to highlight emotions. Also notice that BBC ONE is located at the bottom of the shot to remind the target audience of which channel the soap is on. This is a convention of a soap opera trailer. Shot 5 The fifth shot I have taken from existing trailers is the titles shot from a Coronation Street trailer. The final shot used is a conventional shot and used in every trailer to inform the audience of the day, time and channel the soap is on. This specific shot also uses a memorable location as the background so the audience can relate to the soap. Shot 6 Shot 6 I have taken shows how text and dialogue are conventionally featured in soap opera trailers. The shot I have taken uses a tagline on a black background to give the audience and insight into what will appear in upcoming episodes of the soap. Shot 7 The seventh shot I have taken is from Hollyoaks: New Talent trailer. This is the final shot used in the trailer and shows a long shot introducing all the new characters that will appear in the soap which is similar to the task we have been required to carry out. The long shot enables the audience to see all the characters and the clothing they are wearing to denote the stereotypical characters. The props in the shot also connote glamour and an upper class group of people. Shot 8 The final shot I have taken from the Mitchell Sisters trailer for Eastenders. This shows a freeze-frame introducing a new character Ronnie to the soap. Although not conventional and not seen in many soap trailers, the shot uses text to show the audience the name of the character in the shot which gives an idea of the characters personality.

Soap opera trailers sometimes use a non-diegetic soundtrack playing throughout the trailer but sometimes just use dialogue, either non-diegetic or diegetic. A famous jingle for existing soaps is conventionally used in soap opera trailers. Also they tend to follow Todorovs theory of equilibrium

Shot 1 We have highlighted storylines within our trailer and this shot shows the love triangle between the characters. This develops the conventions of a soap opera trailer as it leaves the audience to think about what might happen.

Shot 2 This shows the establishing shot and long shot of the pub location. This allows the audience to become familiar with the setting. Also, this follows the generic conventions of a trailer as many open with a shot of the area. Shot 3 Similar to the Eastenders trailer, we used multiple shots following the characters footsteps into the pub. This leaves a mystery as to who the feet belong to. It uses a conventional shot within trailers and make the audience want to watch to find out who the feet belong to. Shot 4 Shot 4 shows the locals of the community enjoying their drinks inside the pub. We have challenged conventions by using shots of characters who are not important characters within our soap and who are not given storylines. Shot 5 Shot 5 shows the last shot of our soap opera trailer. This shot tells the audience when and where they can watch the soap. We have followed conventions by using this at the end of the trailer similar to existing trailers. However, we have used a plain black screen which is disimilar to Coronation Street trailers as they use a location as a background. We decided to keep our simple and easy for the audience to read. Shot 6 The majority of trailers use taglines or other text during the trailer to give a sense of the upcoming sotrylines to the audience. We have decided not to follow these conventions as we are not focusing on just one storyline. We have chosen to highlight our storylines through the characters and use of camera angles and mise-en-scene. Shot 7 We have followed conventions an used a long shot of all the new characters to introduce them to the audience in a similar way to the Hollyoaks trailer. This allows the audience to relate to the characters. Shot 8 The final shot is a close up of a character presented with the characters name in the bottom right hand corner. Here, we have challenged conventions as we believed this was a good way to introduce new characters to an audience but it is not a generic convention of soap opera trailers. We have used a non-diegetic soundtrack which we edited on Cuebass, a music software. The soundtrack plays throughout the trailer. The song is fast paced and upbeat to reflect the themes and charcaters. This challenges conventions as soap opera trailers usually use slower soundtracks.

1. Title We have challenged title conventions as our title is not as predominant as those of existing magazine covers and we have also incorporated an image within our title to represent our magazine. 2. Price We have followed the conventions of highlighting the cheap price within the left third to attract the audience. 3. Information & Storylines From research, we have followed the generic conventions of the information on soap opera magazine covers and the location in which it is placed (left third). We have followed some of the conventional storylines with a baby shock and a jealousy issue. 4. Text & Colours The colours used on our magazine are similar to those of existing products as they are bright and stand out to the audience. Most of the text on our magazine is conventions, bold and bright. However we have challenged the conventions by using a different writing style which is not seen on existing products.

Soap opera posters generally use a conventional location, interior or exterior, for the setting of the poster. We have followed these conventions by using the interior of the local pub. Both the Hollyoaks and Neighbours posters have used well know locations so the audience can relate to the soap.

Generic conventions of soap opera posters are that they include a tagline, the name of the soap and the time, day and channel it is aired. Our poster follows these conventions like those of real media texts by informing the audience of where they can watch the soap. However, these conventions have been challenged as we have not used bold, eye-catching writing styles but have chosen to incorporate the writing with the upper-class theme of our soap connoting glamour.

My poster challenges conventions by highlighting storylines within the poster. The characters act in a serious manner connoting mystery, where as generically, posters tend to take on a happier atmosphere like the Neighbours and Hollyoaks posters I have shown above.

We have followed conventions by using a channel logo similar to channel 4 where they have used the number 4 to show the channel in the same way we have used the number 7.

In the construction of our poster, we have developed some generic conventions. As we are promoting a new soap opera, rather than stating the days it is shown, we have decided to use starts this Friday on the poster, which is not conventional.