Final cut of trailer

Trailer 2nd cut with changes made

This is the second draft of our trailer which we created using our previous feedback. General feedback this time was positive, saying that our music choice suited the different plots within the trailer. However, our music needs to make use of better transitions where we joint different bits together, as everyone who watched the trailer picked up on this detail.

Feedback regarding the footsteps throughout the trailer was positive, but it was said that the ones used in the very first shot are too heavy for the stiletto heels that Helen is wearing and so we will try to re record this. It was also suggested that we carry the footsteps on throughout the whole trailer, as opposed to just in parts of it.

We were told that the audio levels needed to be lowered in the part where the two women are speaking because they are drowned out by the volume of the music, so we will change this for our final trailer.

It was noted that the reveal shot of Dannielle being pregnant was far more effective with the music in place and so we have decided to leave this shot in our final trailer.

Feedback On Rough Cut

We showed our class the rough cut of our soap in order to gather feedback from other media students. Some of the feedback we recieved commented on our use of camera angles, including the tilt revealing Helen at the start which was said to be very effective. With the shot of the boys outside the pub it was suggested that we either extend it to show more of them laughing or to cut it to before the laugh. With regards to music, we will use probably use one single piece throughout the trailer. The feedback we recieved informed us the sound of Helen's footsteps was effective so this is something we will probably try to enhance throughout the trailer. It was suggested that we re-order the shots where the two women are watching Helen walk past and where the woman is getting out of her car because the contiunity is poor here. This is something we will definitely try to rectify. The shots of Deano seeing that Danielle is pregnant had mixed reviews - some people thought it was very effective but others said that it looked out of place. We will probably try and change the lighting levels to make it flow better and look more like the other shots. Our feedback suggested voiceovers throughout the trailer; however, we think it'll be more effective just having one at the end of the trailer as the music is dieing out and so we will try this in our second draft.

Rough cut of Trailer

We have made a rough cut of our soap opera trailer which we will be showing to friends and family to try and get feed back from the people who we would be aiming our soap opera at. For this, I will be trying to set up somwhere online for people to leave their comments and suggestions. We have uploaded the trailer to www.youtube.com to try and get it seen by the largest amount of people we can.

Virgin Airline Advert Analysis

When putting together ideas and storyboard for our soap opera trailer, one of the main existing products that inspired us was the Virgin Airline 25 Year Anniversary advert. The way that the air stewardesses are portrayed is very glamourous, with them wearing red suits and heeled shoes, with red connoting lust, passion, love and sexuality.


Because of this, we decided that the first shot in our soap trailer would be a close up of our main character Helen walking down the road in bright red heels, replicating the start of the advert. Another way in which we drew inspiration from the advert is how we plan on including shots of people going about their every day lives and stopping and staring at Helen as she walks past; in the Virgin Airline advert, men in particular stop everything they are doing in order to watch the women pass them. Our character Helen is intended to be a sexually desirable figure and so by having other members of the cast watching her, it connotes the possible storylines that will arise from her appearence. We will also include women watching her to show how the women of the soap opera react to her.

Research into Viewing Figures

I have been looking into the viewing figures of Soap Operas for the week 22nd November - 28th November and how the soaps compare to reality television shows or dramas. I focussed on BB1, ITV and Channel 5, who are the main British television channels who air soap operas.

I found that during this week, no Soap Opera was the most viewed program on any channel. On BB1 for example, Strictly Come Dancing got the top spot, which perhaps indicates that the general public is slowly moving away from soap operas. However, every Eastenders episode was ranked highly for the week, which rather dispells that idea. "Strictly Come Dancing" took the two top spots for the BBCs viewing figures with 12.43million viewers on Saturday and 11.94million on the Sunday. Eastender's highest figures for the week was 10.6million on the Monday. Eastender's ranked far higher than the television Drama's aired on the BBC such as Holby City and Casualty who gained 5.88million and 5.64million respectively.

These are the viewing figures for ITV for the week 22nd - 28th February. The top three spots are taken by reality television programs, with "The X Factor" being 1st and 2nd and "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" in 3rd place. The highest number of viewers was 14.42million for "The X Factor" on Sunday. "Coronation Street" gained 10.14million viewers on Monday, which was its highest ratings for the week. "Eastender's" on BB1 did have more viewers but they are roughly around the same numbers. "Emmerdale" was ITVs lowest viewed soap opera of the week, with it's biggest number of viewers being 8.14million, and its lowest being 7.47million.

Channel 5 had the lowest viewer figures out of all of the television channels I researched into, with "Neighbours" only drawing in 1.73million viewers on its best day and at worst "Home and Away" with only 1.01million viewers. Soap Operas gained more viewers than the television drama's did on Channel 5.

Viewing Figures found on:

http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammesOverview

Filming day 4 - 26th November

This was our final day of filming, where we managed to get our whole cast together. We re-filmed the scene with the four boys outside the pub to ensure that we had the perfect shot, and we filmed the very last scene where the entire cast group around Helen and her children. Due to our change in casting we also had to re-film the reveal of the children and of Danielle's pregnancy. This was a very successful day because we finished all of the filming we required for our trailer, and so can now start to edit and put together our soap opera trailer.