Production Log planning & research

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St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Candidate Number: 6094
Candidate Name: Esme Quantrill
A2 Media Studies
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media –
Production Log
Evidence of Planning & Research

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Aims and Objectives
 AO2 – Assess candidates’ application of knowledge and
understanding in evaluating their own work, showing
how meanings and responses are created.
 AO3 – Assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct
media products using appropriate technical and creative
skills.
 AO4 – Assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and
present appropriate research.
Brief Chosen
A 45 second – 1 minute 30 second trailer for a NEW Soap Opera
that will be exhibited on at 8:30pm (after Eastenders)
that will appeal to a Male and Female audience.
YOU SHOULD research when Eastenders is scheduled (Day –
Time)

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Contents
Textual Analysis
 Eastenders
- Soap Opera Codes & Conventions
- Multi Strand Narrative
 Coronation Street
“..the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as
such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
‘Masculinity and Popular television’ – Rebecca Feasey (2007)
- Is this evident and how is this presented to the audience?
Research
 Purpose of a Trailer
 Multi-Platform promotion
 Textual Analysis – Coronation Street and Hollyoaks
Deadlines – Production Work
Filming Dates:
Edited Trailer – Complete:
Promotional Poster – Complete:
Promotional Magazine Cover – Complete:
Evaluation – Complete:
Production Work
 Director – Roles & Responsibilities?
 Producer – Roles & Responsibilities?
 Institution research – BBC Two

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Soap Opera Codes & Conventions – Lesson 2
1) What are some of the Codes & Conventions of this genre?
‘Repertoire
Of
Elements’
(Steve Neale)
Setting
 Pub
 Housing estate/ street
 Market
 Café
 Central meeting points
 Houses
Narrative:
 Relationships
 Murder/ death
 Adultery
 Flash back
 Family issues
 Sexuality
 Continuous
storyline
 Plots
 Sub plots
Characters:
 Manipulative
 Killers
 Famm fatale
 Bully
 Range of active and
passive
 Gossip
 Caring
 Religious
Icons:
 Community
 Regional identity
 Theme tune
 Over arking
storyline
 Plots and sub plots
 Christmas specials
 Sudo realism

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2) Codes & Conventions of the Soap Opera Genre
The Soap Opera genre can be categorized by the ‘repeated’
(S teve Neale ) elements of:
1. Romance
2. Family relationships / conflict
3. Focus on working class
4. Antagonism and conflict within community
5. Fixed regional identity
Eastenders (1985 – Present)
Key information regarding this text:
EastEnders is a British soap opera; the first broadcast was in the United Kingdom on BBC
1 on 19 February 1985.
EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live
and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End of London. The
series primarily centres on the residents of Albert Square, a Victorian square of terraced
houses, and its neighboring streets, namely Bridge Street, Turpin Road and George Street.
The area encompasses a pub, street market, night club, community center, charity shop,
café, a wine bar and various small businesses, in addition to a park and allotments.
Runs on week days excluding Wednesdays.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastEnders
Textual Analysis Task
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye51O8WBVVM&feature=related -
YOU MUST complete the Table below whilst watching the TWO promotional
trailers for the BBC Soap Opera Eastenders.

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YOU SHOULD aim to identify key examples (Verbal, Non-Verbal, Technical)
from each trailer that demonstrates your understanding.
Extension - YOU COULD apply relevant audience theory to explain what
impact these key examples would have on the target demographic.
In your opinion, according to Hartley’s Seven Subjectivities, what is the
target audience for Eastenders?
Age
15 – 80+
Gender
Predominantly women
Nationality
British
Trailer 1)
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Theme of violence
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Roxy hugging a man This is a form of escapism for the audience as to
see romance on a TV people aspire to it and
want their lives to be like that.
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Family- buys pub
Tightly framed family
raising glasses
Dialogue ‘stay away
from my sister’
‘it was me’ conflict
 Maslow – ‘social climbers’
The family buying a pub shows social climbers
as they have wanted to own their own pub and
have achieved it ‘raising glasses’
 The conflict shown by Ronnie saying
‘stay away from my sister’ makes the
audience interested as people like to
watch soaps for escapism and they like
the conflict.
Focus on
working class
communities
Accent ‘out me nut’
(nut meaning head)
The new Family -
Buying Queen Vic pub –
Nationality –speak using slang/ east ends
London accent stereo typically working class
people speak with an east end accent.
The new family buying the Vic denotes working
class communities because the Vic is seen as a
working class icon. Also the new family buying
the Queen Vic have some young characters
involved (Hartley characters) aged between 18-
40 this can make the soap appeal more to the

7. younger audience as they can relate to the
characters that are of a similar age group.
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“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
 Carter’s Buy pub
 Ronnie tries to
protect Roxy
from her new
boyfriend as he is
not a nice man
 Killed husband –
Money
This trailer is a conventional multi-stranded
narrative as it has multiple story lines running
alongside each other at the same time. This
makes the soap more interesting to the
audience as if it were only one story line
running at one time the soap could become very
boring as the storylines tend to run entwined
with each other for long periods of time.
‘Disequilibrium’
(Todorov)
New owner of the pub – The new owner of the pub creates a
‘disequilibrium’ as the Queen Victoria pub is an
iconic part of the soap and has been owned for
a long period of time by the ‘Mitchell’s’ a new
owner creates a disturbance in this and poses
the questions of :are they going to change the
pub? Are people going to like them? Etc.
Trailer 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qbVKqCojoY
What is the Focus of this trailer?
Find the cheater
Code
&
Convention
Evidence
(Verbal, Non-Verbal,
Technical)
Impact on the Audience
(Katz, Maslow, Hartley)
Romance
Kat and Alfie
relationship
Kissing close up
Maslow’s ‘care givers’ –the audience
sympathize with the situation because Kat
and Alfie’s relationship has been on screen
for a long period of time and most people in
the audience can sympathize with the feeling
of mistrust. The audience create a ‘personal
relationship’ with Alfie as they feel sorry for
him through the close ups of his face
showing his emotion.
Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Quick pace, slow angle
Dialogue “I trusted you”
Conflict- Branning
brothers –one cheated
with Kat but who?
Burning paper
Katz interaction and escapism –people
watch soaps as a form of escapism and to get
out of their own life and look at and relate to
someone else’s life.
Focus on
working class
communities
Markets Christmas fair
Queen Vic pub
Hartley- class (working class)
Class is shown through the Soap to be
working class for example the ‘markets
Christmas fair’ is run and is for the working
class market traders on the square. Also the
Queen Vic pub is a working class symbol as

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to have a regular pub that you drink at every
day is a working class trait.
“Multi-Stranded
Narrative”
One story line, which
challenges the usual
expectation of multiple
narrative strands.
The trailer only uses one story line of Kat
and Alfie’s relationship however it
includes many of the other characters
within this one story line. The normal
convention of a soap opera is to have a
multi-stranded narrative (meaning lots
of story’s running alongside each other
at one time)
Multi-stranded narrative
A Multi-stranded narrative can be defined as…..
1. Telling a story from more than one person’s point of view.
2. Telling multiple stories about multiple characters in an open narrative
episode for example
YOU MUST deconstruct the 10-minute extract from Eastenders and identify where
the following elements are presented to the audience:
 Multi-stranded narrative
 Family relationships and/or conflict
 Focus on working class communities
 ‘Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
 Romance
YOU SHOULD write down x1-2 examples for EACH of the elements above that are
presented.
Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
 Multi-stranded
narrative
Girls having fun – long
shot
Boys having fun
Phil and jack locked in at
the club
It is a multi-stranded
narrative as they are part of
the same story however
there are two different
things going on in different
places (Hartley – gender
roles) as the males and
females are separated for a
stag/hen night the men are
in the pub (stereotypically
more of a male place to be.)
And the women are in the
club.
 Family
relationships
 Carol kissing her
daughters
The bright lighting on Max
and his girlfriend could be

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and/or conflict
probation worker –
conflict
 Max’s girlfriend
pregnant
Bright lighting compared
to dark in Phil and Jack
because pregnancy is a
happy thing (Maslow’s care
givers) however audience
may question well-being of
the baby within this
relationship.
Phil and Jack being locked in
together is to entertain the
audience and create humor
as they are locked in on a
stag night.
 Focus on working
class communities
Queen Vic heart of
community
Team football – mid shots
(Katz –escapism )
Vic is portrayed to feel like a
family /community place
through the warm colours
and homely feel.(working
class ideal to have a ‘Local’
and be a ‘regular’ in the
pub)
 Romance
Lauren texting someone
Dialogue ‘can you stop
texting your men!’ close
ups.
Audience interested in who
Lauren is texting. Also
(escapism) as the audience
look on someone else’s life
rather than their own.
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 3
Textual Analysis
According to Rebecca Feasey in ‘Masculinity and Popular television’ (2007), the Soap
Opera genre tends to focus on:
“the home, the family, domestic tribulation and the strong women, and as such, it
has long been said to appeal to the female viewer”
- Personal identity
- Stereotypes
1) – Do you agree?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_ApPT6isY (First 5 minutes)

10. Next Page - YOU MUST deconstruct the opening 5 minutes of a sequence from the
popular ITV Soap Opera Coronation Street (1960 – Present) to identify examples of
where this ideology is presented to the target audience.
YOU SHOULD also try and identify, to demonstrate your knowledge and
understanding of the genre, any Codes & Conventions associated to the Soap Opera
genre.
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Code & Convention Evidence Impact on the audience
Rebecca Feasey (2007) Ideology:
1.Woman cleaning
- men not helping
- Yellow gloves.
2.Mother thinking she is better than the other woman
- Sarcastic comments.
3. Girl wants to go out for a meal
- ‘Swanky’ and ‘slap up meal’.
4. Women putting on their make-up before going to the shops.
5. Girl is a strong independent woman
- She doesn’t think romance is all that great.
“Multi-Stranded Narrative”
Multi- stranded narrative is when two or more story lines run
entwined with each other or at the same time.
 Family
relationships
and/or conflict
Mum cleaning – dad looking after child
Mum thinking she’s better than the other woman
 Focus on working
class communities
‘slap up meal’ gives the connotations of a working class
community as the use of slang is stereotypically seen to be

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working class.
Also doing your makeup before going to the shops is seen as a
working class (stereotypically ‘chavy’) thing to do.
Disequilibrium’ (Todorov)
Conflicts of arguments between mother and grandmother is a
disequilibrium because it disturbs the peace however conflict is
expected within soaps.
 Romance
Marries couples
Honeymoons
Soap Opera Codes & Conventions continued – Lesson 4
Textual Analysis
1) What is the purpose of a trailer?
To build hype, gain larger audience, display that show, appeal to a larger variety of
people, promote the show and to get people talking.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
2What are the benefits of Multi-Platform promotion of a media text?
 Can reach larger amounts of people
 More advertising
Ultimately, some form of convergence is important when promoting a text to the target
audience.
Textual Analysis –

12. Next Page - YOU MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this
sequence from Coronation Street:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NtpTSYZhIM
The trailer starts with a non-diegetic sound track, the song is quite creepy feel to it the
lyrics are ‘we’re going to the chapel and we’re going to get married.’ At the same time we
see a mid-close up of a woman in a white wedding dress with Low key lighting on her this
gives connotations that she may be making a mistake and the verbal code may represent
that things are not going to run smoothly. The camera pans to the right throughout the
trailer changing to different people and different scenes however still continuously
moving giving connotations that things are happening quickly and that maybe she is
trapped in the relationship. Diegetic dialogue of ‘evil, pathetic vile little man’ also gives
this representation. Throughout the trailer there is a voice over of the wedding vows also
giving the connotations of being rushed and entrapment.
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 Multi-stranded narrative
 Character dilemmas
 ‘Personal Identification’ (Katz)
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od
The above link will take you to some of the latest episodes of Hollyoaks.
1. What are the connotations of the identity for the popular Channel Four Teen
Soap Opera Hollyoaks (1995 – Present)?
Hollyoaks is seen to be for a younger age group then the typical soap operas such as
Emmerdale and Coronation Street this could be due to the age group of the characters for
example most of the characters ages range from 10- 35 meaning the audience would be
similar age ranges as they are more likely to be able to relate to character of a similar age
group. Also the characters are all very attractive and ‘sexy’ the female characters
especially therefore a younger audience would aspire to be like this. The storylines in
Hollyoaks may appeal to a younger audience more as issues raised link more to the
younger generations for example ‘sexuality’ storylines are often shown on Hollyoaks and

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for a younger audience they can relate to this as an individual and others around them
may be going through similar experiences shown on Hollyoaks.
Next Page - Hollyoaks – “White Wedding Trailer” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2sW-r9Vb4
2. YOU MUST make notes on the following areas when deconstructing this
sequence from Hollyoaks:
 Binary opposition of the non-diegetic music
 Symbolism of the non-verbal code of the tear
 Representation of Pregnancy
 Any other examples that would impact the audience
The binary opposition (Levi Strauss) of the music with the verbal code of ‘it’s a great day
for a white wedding’ and the colours and lighting gives connotations that the wedding is
bad and there is a deeper darker purpose to the wedding rather than love.
The symbolic code of a black tear looks like blood this could represent that the character
has done something wrong or is about to do something wrong the non- diegetic voice over
also gives this representation as it says: ‘to love, honor and betray.’ The representation of
pregnancy is also seen as dark due to the symbolic costume as she is wearing black
clothing and has her hand placed on her stomach the cut to a china doll smashing on the
floor may represent that the baby is doomed and will not have a good life.
Production Work
1) What is the role of a Producer?
Decision making, oversees production, organized, consider target audience, finance and
budget, building up production and contacts.
What is the role of a Director? Visualization of scene, they are the audience, rate acting skills,
leader, calm, focused and strict
3) Institution research –
YOU MUST research the institution that your trailer will be exhibited on.
Tips: Programming, Target audience, Audience figures, History of the channel.
It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more "highbrow"
programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other
domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence, and is therefore
commercial-free. It is a comparatively well-funded public service network, regularly
attaining a much higher audience share than most public service networks worldwide.

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Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Two