A2 Media Soap Trailer #2

*Original A2 Media TV Magazine Cover

*Original A2 Media Soap Billboard

A2 Media Soap Trailer #1

This is the draft version of the Borderline Trailer before I received feedback from my intended audience. (Evaluation)

Additional Planning

I have included all my planning in a Prezi rather than on my blog so that it is all together.
This includes preliminary tasks and storyboards.

http://prezi.com/tdxwwneuftkr/planning/

One Tree Hill E4 Trailer

Although One Tree Hill is a TV drama, it uses a lot of the conventions of a soap opera. I chose to evaluate this trailer because it is aimed at a similar audience to what I want to aim my soap at.
The trailer uses lots of fast edits from different scenes with voiceovers from the characters overlapping them and this creates a dramatic feel. The background music is quite fast and along with the fast edits tension is created and the audience feels on edge.
Lots of reaction shots are used which are close ups to show the emotion on the characters faces.

Preliminary Soap Trailer

Downton Abbey ITV1 Trailer

Downton Abbey is a television drama set in 1912.
The trailer has an establishing shot of a manor house which initially sets the period and genre of the drama. Throughout the trailer the camera pans smoothly giving the audience the feel that they are following the characters and time is passing.
There is a candle in the first scene that reinforces the genre as this would have been the only source of light when the drama is set. The candle along with the two shot of the couple shows the closeness and gives off a romantic connotation that they are having dinner together. The expensive costume and crystal glasses all also reinforce the class and period of the drama.
The lyrics to the song "I'll be watching you" reflects the trailer because it shows lots of clips with the characteres all following and spying on each other. The songs speeds up half way through and the scenes become more violent and aggressive with fast cuts making the audience feel apprehensive and on edge.
This trailer is an example of how I want my trailer to look because I like the way the lyrics to the music tell the story of the drama and there are lots of short scene extracts that convey the narrative rather than longer scenes with dialogue.

Comic Strip Soap

The first thing after I picked the comic strip was to write the script. I erased the speech bubbles that were already there and wrote my own to make them more appropriate to a soap.
Using a camera and a tripod I then filmed each scene trying to use different camera movements, angles and shot types. I tried to use lots of different camera movements (ie the fast zoom and a pan accross the screen,) but there are not many different shot types or angles, therefore this would be an improvement for future.
Editing on Adobe Premiere Elements 8 was something I had never used before so I spent a while playing around with it and learning how to use it properley.
I used diegetic sound in my comic strip soap in the form of dialogue for the characters. I recorded this seperately in a quiet room so not to get any background noise and I learnt how to add this in over the top afterwards. 
After I had everything in the right order and I was finished editing everything together I decided to add a 'Previously on..' title card banner. I added non diegetic music to the beginning which gives the connotation of an upbeat, happy soap which ties in with the name 'the suburbs' which is an idealic lifestyle to what would be the target market of my soap. (probably women in their early thirties.)
To improve I would re-shoot the comic strip because you can see the computer screen sometimes  and the camer shakes and it isn't smooth when the camera moves.

Emmerdale ITV1 Trailer

This is an existing trailer for an episode of Emmerdale.
The trailer uses real locations rather than studio sets to create a sense of realism which is a common convention used in most tv soaps. It uses lots of fast cuts to take the audience from one scene to the next which creates urgency and tension to get the audience more involved with the soap. The trailer uses mainly over the shuolder shots which are familiar shot types used in soaps because they are mainly conversational. There is also a point of view shot of the credit cards which gives a close up and emphasises the importance that it has to the character holding it. 
There is also a voiceover to create more tension and mystery as it questions what the characters are doing. At the end it says "what goes around comes around" which is said over lots of fast cuts of the different characters that are involved in the storyline that this trailer is advertising and creating a cliffhanger ending as the audience wants to find out who sent the flowers that seem to have been sent from 'beyond the grave' and therefore would attract viewers into watching the soap.