Inspired Imagery - Split Personality

Inspired Imagery, an image that an artist produced with a splitting of a face, the artist was inspired by "Split Personality". We found this interseting as it represented the same theme of our soap and persona of our main character.

Islamic Music video influence

This is one Islamic music video which highly influenced us to put in religious acts in our trailer for this two faced character. This video has some attributes to our trailer as this person comes out to a sinful community so does Kareem. The video is showing some of the kindness and helpful acts that one of the Muslim Prophets Muhammad(SAW) had always done during his lifetime as he battles through the community which is full of sin and bad acts.

The real hustle - Editing character Motion influence

The real hustle video that we had uploaded has had influenced us into using similar shots and effects to show the different characters. Just like the Real hustle video we have decided to use stop images for each character with their names so that the audience will get to know them more. We want to use this effect with all the main characters in the soap trailer as it will give the trailer a outstanding effect from other trailers.

Prop : Prayer Mat

This is another prop that we had used, a prayer mat. Muslims use this to get closer to God by praying what is obligatory over them and extra. The opening scene starts off with Kareem praying 'Bowing down to the feet of God' this is the way Kareem repents for the sins he commits daily. The prayer mat symbolises his faith, and the sincerity he has towards his religion. Kareem doesn't take his faith with him in his outside life because of his street pride.

Props used in our Soap

We used these props for the soap trailer to symbolise the two sides of Kareem's life. We chose props as a perfect way to represent different aspects of his life and personality. We used the religious beads to present his faithful, inner self and the silver chain represent the pride, power and money in his outer life and no one can take that from him.

Album Imagery - T.I. vs T.I.P.

This highly anticipated album by rapper T.I. was released late 2007, in this album he is in a battle with himself, his old self and his new self, this is a similarity to Kareem as Kareem is in war with himself too. There are two parts to the album cover, one of T.I. and one of T.I.P. (his old self), this inspired us to attempt to do something similar, this album has influenced us and made us manipulate Kareem's Character. As we can see how he has made a transformation from the old him (bottom) to the new business minded him (top), As Kareem is based on a guy who has a split personality we thought this was perfect for album imagery.

Luther (Character)

Luther is a TV drama based on the character Luther, this is similar to our soap trailer "Kareem", having the titles as the same as the characters name gives the audience an insight of what it could be about, Kareem as we know is a troubled youth that has obstacles in his life, but rather overcoming these obstacles he pretends they aren't there and he carries on, Luther is murder detective who is a genius at what he does, but it's what he does to find out things that can worry the audience, he's got this mind and he doesn't think before he does anything, as Kareem has a split persona, he can't control his passion, we see Kareem struggling to do things, Luther and Kareem definitely have a similar character as they can't control their bad side.

"Rez" Character From Shifty - Jamal Character From Kareem

"Rez" is Shifty's (Shofiq) older brother that is understanding and there for him when Shifty's parents kick him out of the house, he brings him in at his home, Rez is a religious muslim that expects Shifty to do good in life but Shifty being Shifty he secretly does other things that are "Haram" in islam, for example Shifty stashes drugs in the house that he sells in the most unexpectable place for instance we see a shot of him pulling out drugs from the fridge, Rez is like our character Jamal, Jamal expects only good from Kareem but Kareem takes advantage of his brothers kindness and does things behind his back, Rez and Jamal are definitely characters that have alot of things in common, both characters are protective over their younger brothers.

Music Video Inspiration

This music video by G-Frsh has inspired us to take shots from a vide variety of angles, the camera movement and balance in this music video is exactly what we want, with the video colour being that slight bit dark, this gives that edge and depth to the video and also adds that dark gloomy effect, that's what we need in some particular scenes for our soap trailer, again the handheld shots in this video are similar to the handheld shots to our soap trailer, the different perspectives and angles that have been shot have made us experiment with our shots, the techniques that have been used to shoot this music video are somewhat similar to ours, the beat to this music video is edited with the shots having that pattern, we want this for our soap trailer as it will create an impact on the audience seeing something different. The lyrics that G-Frsh has used reflect on our main characters life "Kareem" and his anti social mates, being "cocky" and "arrogant", these lyrics are rather metaphorical and have more than one meaning for people to understand it, quite clever, again the metaphoric use of these lyrics reflect on our character Kareem as he has more than one side to him so do the lyrics. This music video is very powerful and projects a powerful impact on the audience, this is what we want for our soap trailer, not to be a music video but rather have that impact on the audience.

By U3.TV

Inspired by the Musood Family from Eastenders

We like the fact that Eastenders has a family that come from an ethnic background. However we felt that there are not much families coming from ethnic minorities represented in British soaps. The musood family inspired us to bring more attention to the issues that people from ethnic minorities suffer in western societies like London. Just as Syed has a problem of having to choose between his family and faith and what he feels strongly about, our character also has the same problem.

Kareem comes from a strict Muslim background who do not approve of committing sins or ruining the family reputation, just like Syed's family. Syed and Kareem are not entirely alike as Syed is homosexual and Kareem is heterosexual but I do feel they can be emotionally compared by the fact that they cannot express themselves and do the things they want for the sake of others. Both live a double life and feel as though they have to play two different characters so they can fit in. Kareem feels as though he needs to act differently when he is with his friends and differently with his family. This may be because they would not accept him for who he is.

Syed has a very controlling mother who doesn't approve of Syed being a homosexual (which is considered a sin in Islam.)
However Syed has a laidback, caring father who goes with him to the mosque and is very supportive. Kareem has a similar family to Syed.

By U3.TV

Inspiration through music

This is one of many tracks we looked at that really inspired us as a group, mainly because of the title of the track and the connection it has with our soap. The fact that the artist of this track raps about being someone they are not and naming the track two faced, really exposes people who are clearly not being themselves. This helped boost our ideas of being two characters in one body, throughout the track the artists express their two faced character through sarcasm.

By U3.TV

Inspired Imagery

This picture/image is when our whole idea came into perspective for "Kareem", the split image of a good muslim and a split image of a thug, this image inspired us alot to make a soap trailer relating to something like this. This isnt a characer inspiration but the image shown above is our big inspiration of the main character 'Kareem'.

By U3.TV

Inspired by Michael Vasquez (Artist)

Michael Vasquez is an American artist inspired by his neighborhood and his surroundings to produce artwork relating to what he observes in everyday life, as he grew up in gang culture that inspired him alot to express his emotions through art, his art work should relate to our soap as the character Kareem is living up to the stereotype of a  "wannabe gangster", Michael Vasquez Art work theme relates to our soap trailer and it also inspired us to think about what kind of the character he is. We have really thought about making our poster look something like this too
By. U3.TV

WEEK 5 OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

The past 3 weeks weve been researching inspirations and we added all things that we believed will inspire us as to making our soap trailer. We looked at different types of urban music with meaningful lyrics that reflected on our main charcters persona along with different images and artist styles that we may use when designing our final poster and magazine cover. We analysed different charcaters from different urban films and soaps that have  personalities  which link or reflect with charcter's personalities from our soap.

Props used in our Soap

Hats are used to represent a person, Different cultural backgrounds wear hats to represent themselves, some people may wear a hat to show something others may wear a hat to hide something, some people wear hats to hide their insecurities and to feel superior. This is the case with Kareem who believes that wearing the religious hat makes him feel strong and close to god. However the wooly hat is worn to shield his innocent side which he tries to conceal from his peers. The Islamic hat on the right portrays Kareem's religious side. The colour of the hat is white which symbolises new life, innocence and purity. The change that Kareem makes after praying is he puts on a black hat after taking off the white one, this juxtaposes the innocent atmosphere that was previously presented. The connotations of the black hat are evil, mischeve and death.

Inspiration for Kareem - Shifty

 

Shifty also known as Shofiq in the film "Shifty" is a mislead character and also is a Muslim engaged in this life of being a drug dealer, he was our inspiration for the character"Kareem". They both come from muslim backgrounds and urban societies"Shifty" is similar to our character "Kareem" as he is  has no motive to be a bad person, however bad influences take over and do not let them take the right path. The name of the film also inspired us to name our soap after our main character which we felt will have an effect.

By U3.TV

Ying & Yang

Ying & Yang is used to describe the contrast between forces in the natural world we live, for example: high and low, cold and hot, dark and light, female and male, we used the concept of Ying & Yang for our character "Kareem" as he can't control his good side and bad side, however he tries to balance them out but the darker side always oversomes his lighter side, in our trailer we see various powerful scenes of him doing good, struggling to do bad, and casually doing bad, he's sinful, he knows it. On one hand he tries to have a religious bond with "Allah" as he is of a muslim background, but as soon as he steps out of his house, the bad begins. Anti social mates he affiliates with control him to do bad and influence him to a point where he doesn't know what to do but to reach out to the comfort from "Allah". In "Kareem" we see him battling with himself as if he is in war with himself.

By U3.TV

Inspiration for Ameera - Lexi

Lexi is an emotionally distressed character who lives in a council flat in an urban area, she is troubled with drug addiction and fails to find a partner because of her bad reputation she created in the past. The day Sam leaves prison she is the only person who is willing to speak to him, she doesn’t even know him very well yet she takes him to her home. Ameera has been dating Kareem for a while and has been very happy as he treats her better than everyone she has ever dated. But she has become very concerned after his behaviour has changed drastically, she feels as though he is in trouble as he stops answering her calls, she starts to follow him everywhere to get his attention and check if he is alright. She becomes very upset when he starts neglecting her just as Lexi gets extremely upset when Sam starts neglecting her and not answering his phone after having sexual contact in her house. However both characters are not aware of the reasons behind Kareem and Sam's strange behaviour. Ameera and Lexi both come from urban societies yet Ameera and Kareem have a very understanding relationship as they have the same religion, whereas Lexi and Sam come from different racial backgrounds. Ameera dresses in a modest, fairly religious way and Lexi dresses in more revealing clothing. They both use colloquial language in their speech and both have London accents. 

                   

Rough cut of trailer

This is the rough cut version of our trailer we have just about got everything into the order we wanted from the actual script. This is not edited tightly so do not expect it to be perfect in terms of sound. From this we will get feedback and then this will allow us to ensure that finished product will meet the needs of the audience.

Teacher feedback that we had received is that this 'trailer needs to be a bit more specific in showing the two sides of Kareem', the rough cut scenes do not really show the difference between the two lives that he is living. 'Kareem will need to be shown more doing the bad things than the good'. The trailer will need to be more clear in terms of portraying the characters shown in the trailer so that it leaves an impact and interests the audience.
 We have managed to gain video feedback from some of the our target audience and they have suggested some ideas which we can take on board for the final tightened editing of our trailer.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - Inspiration/Comparison

We thought this popular, famous english story could be very similar to what we were looking to do, The story of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde has a precise similarity compared to our story as in the book you visualize a man have a duality and having two different personas both bad and good, giving that contrast between the character, In our trailer "Kareem" we see Kareem being two different people at the same time again giving that contrast in our trailer, this creates an impact on the audience seeing the same guy having two different personalities, there is a conflict within the person, like Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde being the same person, Dr Jekyll being the good person and Mr Hyde being his inner evil, Kareem our character in our soap trailer is in war with himself similar to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde struggling to control himself and his uncountable temptations. Dr jekyll is a man that's concealing his secrets as Kareem is trying to do the same, trying to close his negativity but because he is in "too deep". In both Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde and "Kareem" we see a character in battle and war with himself.

By U3.TV

Week 4 of filming and editing:

This week we decided to not add any more scenes until we recieve our audience feedback on our rough cut soap trailer which we uploaded. After asking a few people to view it, we asked them for feedback on what they enjoyed and what they thought needed changing or removing. We took the opinions into account and decided that we will go and do some filming next week to fulfil our audience's requests. The video with audience feedback is posted on the blog, please do watch it as their is very useful views and opinions. Some of the audience decided that the fact that Rejaul plays two different characters doesn’t work to our advantage as it was very noticeable as he is supposed to be playing two completely different personas. We agreed as a group that this may be the case and that we must find another actor to play the character Jamal as its only one scene he is in and should be easier to change. The main reason we didn’t use a different actor to play him from the start was because we had an issue with shortage of actors. This was the reason we used one actor to play two characters. Other comments included were more use of Ameera and more positive scenes of Kareem doing good things so it can contradict with his bad side. We also took these comments into account and decided to change them by next week hopefully.

Location we filmed in

This is another location we had chosen next to Kareems block of flats, this is the 'Jam' where Kareem's influences started. This Location was used when Kareem was hanging out with  his close friend Sykes. This Location plays a great deal to the success of our trailer as it allows our trailer to have the 'gritty block atmosphere'.

Location we filmed in

This is Kareem's block captured from a different perspective. The reason why we have chosen this location is because the location fits in with Kareem's background and culture as he comes from a wealthy strict religious background. This has alienated him from the local boys in the area. The location has fitted into our soap trailer as it clearly portrays Kareem's cultural backgrounds.

Location we filmed in

This Location in W9 off harrow road, was chosen as it is a perfect scene to portray Kareems Family values and Street life. The block is not ordinary it is a private block of flats, this represents Kareem inner life because he comes from a religious strict background and the private block of flats tell us that his parents didn't want him to grow up in typical council flats. Where as outside the block immediately we can see the gritty feel to his estate. Kareem and his friends have left this estate filthy with all the joint enterprise crimes they commit in the local area.

Location we filmed in

The 2nd location that we had used is shown above plotted with the symbol B, this location had been chosen due to it first of all being local and it allowed us to film some of the finest shots because of the gritty lightning in the car park.

Satelite view of location we filmed in

This is the location where we had filmed our indoor scenes on the first day, inside one of the flats on the block labelled A.
We decided that it will be convenient place to film our establishing shot and other shots which include Kareem praying, getting changed and leaving his home, would be in one of our team mate's home which is very close to our school.

Week 3 of filming and editing

This week we filmed all the scenes we had left that we couldnt get done before. We then captured them on final cut pro and started editing and deciding in what order we want to have the scenes. We realised after we saw what scenes we've got that there is alot missing in terms of showing the contrast in Kareem's personality. We showed too much of the bad side but not enough from the good side. However we agreed that we will upload our rough cut on our blog and get feedback from our audience then we will decide what to change. Our ideas were that we needed to add something like a scene where we create juxtaposition by showing Kareem in a scene which includes either a quran (holy islamic book) and a bag of money or a mysterious bag that we don't see what is inside it. For now we will

Week 2 of filming and editing

This week we filmed the outdoor scenes of different aspects of Kareem's life. When he is out with with his influential friends and when he is being followed by his girlfriend. It started raining so we could not film the rest of our scenes. We decided to go and capture what we have so far and flim the rest another day. Like we did last week, we cut the shots we wanted to use as we filmed the same scene a few times so we can have a choice of which one is best to use.

Week 1 of Filiming and Editing:

This week we started filming, we did the scenes as scheduled, however we had to reschedule some of the times we had planned due to other plans we had. We filmed the same shot a few times from different angles to make sure we got enough shots to edit. After capturing our first scenes we realised that lighting wasnt perfect and so we decided to fix up the lighting through speacial effects and editing. We decided as a group that everytime we capture we will cut the unwanted parts and keep the scenes we will use. However we said that we will not put anything on the timeline until we have got all the scenes we need.

Filming Schedule

18/10/10- On this day we will film internal scenes that will take place in Shihab's home. The scenes will consist of 'Kareem' praying, changing his costume which connotes change of persona and him leaving his home. Every shot must be recorded at least twice so we can choose the best shots when editing.

20/10/10- On this day we will film external scenes which include Skyves and Kareem. The scenes would be of Skyves asking Kareem where he has been and other scenes of Kareem with a of mates hanging out.

22/10/10- On this day we will film external scenes of Ameera trying to get into contact with Kareem and finally showing up at his estate.

25/10/10- On this day we will film scenes with Jamal and Kareem. Jamal is praising Kareem for 'not being like the others'.

27/10/10- This day will be left for any extra scenes that we need that are missing in order for our editing to be successful.

Dream Mclean - Cliche

Here is a song that inspired our idea to have a character like Kareem. The artist (Dream Mclean) is being  sarcastic throughout the whole song, lyrically portraying his thoughts on people who act like people there really not and those that are affected by peer pressure and do things just beacuse other people are doing them. This relates to the persona of our  main character who almost has what you can call a Split personality or double life and doesn't know who he truly is.

By U3.TV

WEEK 4 OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

This week we decided that even though we have our main target audience. We would also like a wider audience that come from different backgrounds and communities. However we realised after writing up our script this week that there will be a downside to this as we use slang/colloquial language in our soap that people other than 'Urban Peeps' probably wouldn't understand. So we created a colloquial/Formal Dictionary to help the viewers understand the meaning of certain words used in the soap. We hope this will help people outside our target audience to not feel as though they are an outcast.

Shooting Script

Text appears on screen: One man...

INT-BEDROOM-DAY

D/S: Kareem is praying in his room. He then gets fully dressed and leaves his room.

EXT-CAR PARK-NIGHT

M/S: Kareem and his brother Jamal have just walked out of the mosque, meanwhile Jamal is praising Kareem.

Jamal

I’m so proud of you brother. Mashalla you’re so different to all the other guys your age. May Allah bless you and keep you on the right path.

Text appears on screen: Growing up in an urban society...

EXT-CAR PARK-NIGHT

M/S: Kareem and his friends are in a car park. They are smoking and drinking. One of his friends Skives asks where he has been as they haven’t seen him for a while.

Skyves

 We ain’t seen u in a while.

Kareem

Nothing man, I’ve just had a lot of shit on my mind.

Text appears on screen: Struggling to keep on the right path...

EXT-ON A STREET-DAY

M/S: Kareem standing in the middle of a road smoking, he is looking up at the sky confused and frustrated.

Text appears on screen: But will anyone know what he’s really been up to?

EXT-OUTIDE BLOCK-DAY

M/C/U: Kareem comes out of his block, only to find his clingy ex-girlfriend Ameera waiting to ask him why he hasn’t been answering her calls.

Kareem

Ameera?

Ameera

I’ve been belling your line bare. Why haven’t you been answering my calls?

EXT-OUTSIDE SHOPPING CENTRE-DAY

L/S: Kareem and his friends have just walked out of the shopping centre and he bumped into Ameera. He tells her to leave him alone.

Kareem

Just leave me alone okay?

INT-HOUSE-NIGHT

M/S: Kareem is arguing with his mum who thinks he is a disgrace.

Kareem’s mum

You are a disgrace to this family. I thought you will be different.

EXT-ON A STREET-NIGHT

C/U: Kareem is walking down the road and someone grabs his shoulder. We do not see who it is.

INT-HOUSE-NIGHT

Ameera crying in her room looking at her mobile phone.

Text appears on screen: Kareem Coming Soon to U3 TV!

Colloquial/Formal Dictionary:

Blazin – Smoking Cannabis

Shottin – Selling something illegally (Preferably drugs)

Bruv/Blood – Mostly referred to a friend but could also be referring to a enemy 

Beef –A fight

Burner – A gun

What you sayin? – A way of greeting. E.g. How are you, what are you up to?

Bellin your line - Calling your phone

Requiem For A Dream - Clint Mansell

This Piece of music has inspired us to create a similar type of music as our main aim is not to make our soap a urban cliché, we decided to use different genre music that most urban films, soaps and TV dramas don’t use. We want our audience to explore a different side to the urban theme. We will definitely be using something similar to this piece of music as we feel it will go well with the religious versus urban atmosphere of our soap trailer.

BY. U3.TV

U3 TV Storyboard

This is our storyboard which we had drawn up to use whilst filming our shots and editing the trailer.

WEEK 3 OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

This week we created a Brand Identity profile; here we talked about our style, purpose and aim. We then created a poster and magazine draft. We scanned the poster and magazine, we then annotated them using Indesign and wrote about why we chose design our poster and magazine in this way. We then uploaded them to our blog. We didn't give our poster and magazine any colour as we wanted to do this after we finish our final piece when using Photoshop.

Images which represent our Brand identity

These are a few pictures which we have used in order to represent our brand identity. The pictures shown above have either been placed on this collage by influence or we actually represent it in our Soap's.

Brand Identity

Tell us about whom you are, what is your brand identity and what do you stand for?

We are Urban3 (U3) TV channel that broadcasts urban realist soaps, films and documentaries. Our companies. Our company’s main target is to make people aware of the real world and the issues that occur in our society today but are not spoken about openly. We also try to portray our soaps in a realistic and believable way so that our audience can have emotional and intellectual bond with what they view.

We don’t talk about nonsense or anything irrelevant. Our main focus is real issues and scenarios. We are the absolute definition of “Urban Realism”. We give recognition to those that are neglected in society and stereotyped without being given the chance to speak about themselves.  We are here to subvert the stereotypes and highlight them.

We will keep our identity simple; we don’t like fussy, unnecessary detail. However even though it is simple, we won’t hesitate to make our brand identity reflect on our personalities and the personalities of our target audience. The fonts that we will use are going to reflect the street vibe that is present in our soap, helping to reinforce our brand identity and establish the authentic style.

We designed a Channel Ident that represents us and our audience. We designed in a way that is unique and recognisable to our viewers.

By. U3.TV

Poster Draft

 

This is the poster for our soap, the direct address is the image of a person split into two. One side of the person is dressed half religious which represents the good side of the main character. The other half of the image is a person with the street dress which represents the bad side of the main character. In the poster we also included the channel Ident this is placed on the poster so that our audience can be aware of where to find this soap. 

We have managed to look at other posters and looked at where they would place their images and where they will place there text also. After anaylsing these posters we have managed to place out main character which can be referred to as direct address.

The main image should immediately attract the audience into what the image is trying to say, for example the split image of our main character should interest the audience who view this poster into thinking what the image is saying about him. The image is a direct address so this should be the main convention that attracts the audience right away. 

The title is placed in english on the top left and in arabic on the top right, we have chosen to place the title at the top so that the main attraction should be on our main character. The reason why the title was in arabic and translated in english so that it leaves people thinking and may allow some people to research what the actual meaning of karim could be.

The channel ident was placed just under the title on the right of the main image this was placed were it is in the poster so that people who look at the poster will see the channel ident because of the main image, the channel ident should be recognisable every time it is seen by the audience.

The released date is placed on the left of the main image so that it informs people about when the soap will come out. These conventions that we have used in our poster have been chosen from analysing posters that we have looked at previously.

We think that this poster is similar to the everyday posters of today because of the same conventions that it offers on it. The font of the title is big and bold which attracts the audience right away. The title is written in two language the first the english lanuage and the second is the arabic language which also spells the title. We thought that this poster will attract our target audience due to the simplicity of the poster, Our target audience is clearly not interested into looking at posters that is why we kept it simple and created this poster with as little text as possible.

Kareem Magazine Cover

This our magazine front cover that we have created. We have thought about sticking to the conventions of typical soap magazines, the layout of this magazine had been created by looking and analysing different soap magazines produced by TV choice. The image in the middle is the direct address which is Kareem from our soap trailer. The main cover line on the magazine front page is Kareem this allows our soap trailer to be recognised right away. The mast head on the front page is by U3. TV we have been influenced by TV choice the way the mast head had  been placed behind the Main cover line. We have done this so that it shows, even if the Mast head is covered people will still be able to recognise that it is by U3.TV. For example the TV choice magazine has the Masthead covered behind the Main cover line this shows their magazine is that known.
For our magazine like other typical magazines, we also used the bright lure and made it cheaper than the others. The price is stated at only 37p this will allow people to think that it is cheap and buy it.  There are also other cover lines in the magazine which allow our magazine to become more interesting as it includes other soaps and whats happening. This will interest the reader as they will be able to see what is happening for that week.
The magazine will be colourful using bright colours this will drag attention to the magazine out of all the magazines out there. The bright lure will have distinctive colours which will allow it to stand out.
The magazine also has another Main cover line placed underneath the direct address stating 'will they find out', this will leave people thinking about this new soap trailer and they will have the urge to watch the soap to find out what is meant by that statement.
Over all this magazine has the conventions of a typical magazine front cover, the magazine should interest our target audience before any other audiences out there. Our target market will able to pick up this magazine and relate to the direct address or the cover lines which is stated around it. We think that sticking to the typical layout and conventions of a magazine we will be able to get recognised more as the people who may not be our target audience may pick it up one day thinking it is their regular magazine and that is when they may be interested in watching the soap that we will provide.

WEEK 2 OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

This week we established exactly who we want our target audience to be and how we will make a soap that they will enjoy and relate to. We created a Target Profile. We created a channel ident draft piece and scanned it then uploaded it to our blog. We decide to name our channel U3 (Urban 3) TV and wrote about why we chose this name and how it can relate to our audience. This is a name that represents both us and our target audience. We have got a idea of what and who we want in our soap now, we wrote a draft shooting script of what scenes we want to use and what dialouge we may use. Finally we came up with a soap trailer synopsis and soap synopsis. We created characters names and decided that we should all star in the trailer even if it was just in one shot.

Draft layout of shots we might have in our soap trailer

1) Kareem praying - INT - Bedroom


2) Walking out of his house –INT-House


3) Meets up with his ASBO friends who are smoking and drinking - EXT- Outside block or Park


4) Family friends speaking to father about his son who he saw smoking, dad denies this and tells him he must be mistaken as his son hasn’t gone out all day. (They continue speaking but shot changes)- EXT- Outside house


5) Family friend walks past Kareem and his friends, he looks shocked to see Kareem, and he shakes his head and carries on walking. Kareem sees him and gets nervous -EXT- Outside block or park.


6) Shot of Kareem and father exiting the mosque. Kareem’s father is telling him how proud he is of him-EXT- Outside mosque


(Pace fastens and music changes or gets louder)


7) Kareem is standing on a corner of a road, smoking- EXT -Street


8) Mum finds plastic bags and weighing scales in Kareem’s room-INT-House


9) Kareem comes home late, his mother questions where he has been. He says he was at the mosque.


10) Kareem asks his friend for his money, he threatens him and tells him if he doesn’t get his money by tomorrow he’s going to be in trouble.


11) Shots of different characters in the soap calling Kareem’s name.


12) Shot of Kareem on the floor with his arms around his head.

By U3.TV

Our Channel Ident

 

This is our channel Ident; there are a number of reasons why we created our logo in this way. Firstly it represents the ideas of the genre that we specialise in. The diagonal crack that is on the screen in the logo represents two things. First of all the two different sides in people’s lives who are trying to cope in their society and all the issues that are in them. Secondly the isolation between “Urban People” and people who are not a part of the urban society and who are fooled by stereotypes and the media’s portrayal of them.

We came up with our channel name by the inspiration from ‘E4.TV’. Our channel name U3 stands for Urban 3. We wanted the name to be personal to us just as it was to our target audience. Urban 3 has two meanings, one in which represents us as a team. We are also young people who all come from a similar background and urban society which allowed us to portray this in our logo. Urban 3 is a way to describe us and people who live in an urban society is our main target audience. We chose to keep our names familiar and with the same meaning. We didn’t want something cheesy or too formal as it wouldn’t be representing our band identity.

This is so far the first draft for our channel Ident, we have been thinking about using colour but we are not sure if that’s what we want as we want people to take us seriously and realise that we are not making soaps just to entertain people but also to help them engage with the different societies and their cultures. Urbanism isn’t just a name; it’s something that exists in our everyday lives and should be portrayed in the right way and send out positive messages to it's audience.

By U3.TV

Synopsis of our soap

"Kareem" is about a misguided, confused young boy who is lost in today’s society in a deprived area in London where its essential to be involved in street crime and gang activities which he tries his best to not get involved in, but somehow always gets tangled in by his so called friends. He tries instead to learn from positive role models in his home like his older brother Jamal, his mother and father who come from a Muslim background and have pride in their family. Being brought up in a Muslim household makes it harder for him to not break the rules of being a good, obeying, illegitimate son who doesn’t get involved in any sort of crime and constantly practices his faith to help him follow the ‘right path’. Being affiliated with people that are involved in gang culture means he breaks these rules everyday but keeps it discreet as possible by keeping his street life away from home. Peer pressure is definitely what you see, as Kareem struggles to keep up with the norms and rules at home which he actually wants to follow.

This soap is about two sides of ones life and how they want to get rid of the negative side but find it difficult as it’s in their everyday lives. Kareem feels some sort of spiritual bond when he prays, which seems to purify him. However as soon as he leaves his home we see him turn into a devil like persona. Like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde he transforms into a violent, destructive person.

Not only is Kareem struggling to impress his friends, protect his reputation and make his family proud.  He is also involved in a relationship that is complicated between him and his girlfriend, Ameera. As he begins to spend more time trying to figure out what he wants to do with life, he doesn’t have time for his girlfriend. As he begins to ignore more and more she starts to get suspicious about what his getting involved in. As he avoids her all the time and doesn’t answer her calls or messages, she begins to show up at his home, when his with his friends and nearly everywhere he goes. She constantly confronts him but he reluctantly answers her with a plain answer like ‘nothing’; not giving her a full explanation makes her determined to find out what is going on as she feels he is in trouble.

In contrast with Ameera’s knowledge, his older brother Jamal has no idea that his brother is involved in crime and his friends are always kept a secret from his family who will forbid him from hanging around with them. Kareem is motivated by his brother’s faith and willpower to stay away from all the negative societal issues and influences in there area. Throughout the soap Jamal is always supportive of Kareem yet Kareem can never brave enough to talk to his brother about what he is going through. Just as he doesn’t want to lose his street credit, he also values his family’s trust and blessing so he never wants to lose that.  Here we see Kareem not only pressured by people from the outside but also his family.

The whole way through the soap mise en scene is used to symbolise the differences in his lives, good and bad. Darker lighting is iconic as it presents the evilness and sinister behaviour Kareem shows, his clothing always changes along with his personality which shows his intentions as he wears darker colours, hoodies and woolly hats. This is to help him keep discreet and not be recognised by enemies and police when he is out late at night doing things he shouldn’t be. Bright Lighting and religious clothing is used to represent innocence and purity which clearly exists in Kareem but is overtaken by negative influences.

 Kareem can't keep running away from the fact that his religion and his street life are forming clouds in his life and in the soap we see the calm before the storm, everything is builds up nobody knows who he really is. Kareem is stuck in a system which he doesn't know how to get out of, he is a lost child and doesn't know what choice to make, confused young man that needs direction in life. Kareem's mother is his motivation to success as he thrives to make her proud. But will he make her proud, or impress the streets?  Either way, what will be the consequences?

This soap is definitely something everyone living in an urban society can relate to in one way or another.

Synopsis of Kareem soap Trailer

This trailer is about a teenage boy, living in today's London society, where ethnic minorities are overly populated in the inner city, because of this, young boys are influenced over rap and hip-hop, this glamorized life about drug dealing and committing. Everyone wants to up their credit and achieve the title of being a top gangster.  Kareem is from a Muslim background, both of his parents are extremely religious people and only want good for him, by day his a caring loving Muslim, by night he’s a cold hearted criminal affiliated with gang culture. In our trailer you will see various shots of him doing good and at the same time doing bad, but there’s a lot more to it, you see him ducking and diving reality as he doesn’t know who he is.  He has a split persona as he lives like two different people, among his mates you see him acting like a thug on the other hand with his family around you see the more spiritual, innocent side to him. You could say he’s in a war with himself as he doesn’t know which path to take, his religion or his street reputation.

The trailer consist of short scenes where we see Kareem struggling to live up the expectation of being a thug, because he knows what he's doing is wrong, we see his mates detecting a difference in his attitude and behaviour and start worrying he may be up to something behind their back. E.g. associating with another gang. In the opening scene we see Kareem finishing prayer, we see the camera zoom in onto the mirror as he start switching his clothes, putting away the Islamic garments and putting on his decretive clothes. This is to show the contrast of him transforming into some thug, this is where we see the personality being split in two through mise en scene. As our trailer progresses we see two sides of his story, we see other story lines such as Kareem’s girlfriend how he tries to avoid her because of him striving to be a good Muslim, yet this is not quite the reason, as we see further on its because he’s too busy trying to find what he really wants and in the process ends up doing more crime. Ameera is constantly being avoided by Kareem and so she is forced to show up at his home and follow him around to find out what he is up to. Just when you think that’s bad enough Kareem is always being hassled with phone calls from his so called friend Fatez and co to meet up and endure in their crime fest nights.  However his family are not aware of any of this and his older brother Jamal, a very faithful, obeying young man absolutely believes Kareem is doing the right thing and constantly praises Kareem adding pressure to making him want to make his family proud.

Our music has been altered many times until we came to a final decision we initially started off with a "requiem for a dream" sample based instrumental that would of  started our trailer with a impact, however we thought this would be too fast paced and didn’t link with our shots as our soap trailer has times where the audience need to understand clearly on what's happening. We ended up considering at least 6 different instrumentals that were made by unsigned people, we came to a conclusion on using a final instrumental that suited our trailer perfectly with the right pace and the melody which fits in with both Kareem’s bad personality and good personality.

 We see a selection of background shots to emphasize that urban reality and the locations at the same time so it's more understandable to the audience. Lighting gets darker when he is being the ‘Bad Kareem’ and get brighter when he is the ‘Good Kareem’. These both present the evil and innocent sides of Kareem. All the characters are involved in our trailer to make our audience familiar with which character is who and how they relate to Kareem. Their are on screen texts to identify character’s names and urban music with very intense beats to contradict with the innocent scenes of Kareem but fit in at the same time as we know it links with his character. The trailer gives a sense of emotion that cannot be described due to the several shifts in emotions you feel towards him. The audience sympathize with him but may also think he’s stupid to not know what choice to make. Having an urban audience is interesting to see the different sides in their lives and which they agree with and which they disagree with. I believe many people will be able to relate to it as this is our impact. We tried really hard to make it as realistic as possible.

Our soap title

After a lot of thoughts and ideas, we have come to a conclusion to name our soap Kareem. This is an Arabic name which will be the name of one of the main characters in our soap. The title will be presented both in English and Arabic writing with the meaning of the name in brackets underneath the title. The basic Arabic translation of the name is generous/ kind. It is also one of Allah’s 99 names. Our character is perceived as a respectful, obedient, religious young man, however he also has a mischievous, bad minded and rebellious persona as soon as he steps foot outside of his house. We liked the idea of giving him a religious, Muslim name which contrasts with his personality which changes from time to time. When he is out on the streets his friends call him by the name K as Kareem sounds too embarrassing for them and isn’t “bad” enough.

We wanted to use something different as in our target audience response we found out they didn’t what something that was too cliché so we gave the title a different style just as we did to the theme and storyline. We really hope our audience would like the idea of our title.

WEEK 1 OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

This week we analysed many different soap trailers, posters and TV magazines. But as a group we found it hard to decide what genre to base our soap trailer on, so we decided to research and get ideas from our target audience which is people around the age of 16- 30 from both genders.
 We created a questionnaire and gave it to people from the age range we chose. We felt it would be better to create a genre that would appeal to a certain age group and not anyone out of this age group as it would be hard to interest everyone from all ages in one genre. After collecting the questionnaires we  had a casual conversation with our target audience and asked if they had the chance to watch a brand new soap opera, what they like it to be based on and what would appeal to them.

The feedback we managed to gather made us come to a conclusion that our target audience would not want to see anything typical that they see in an everyday soap trailer. In addition to this they also added that they would like to see a storyline that is realistic and occurs in our society but is not portrayed in soaps nowadays. In order for us to succeed we asked them to highlight some topics that would interest them as an audience.

Many people suggested we should include the typical conventions of an urban realist genre but with an interesting storyline. But what really grabbed our attention was the response from a girl in our class she said "I think it would be interesting to do something that most people would watch and say hey I’m a bit like that, something that shows the struggle of trying to be accepted by society and by your family. You know the way you dress, the food you eat, the way you talk and the things you do."
We, as a group personally agree with the feedback that we received, as that is what we have had in mind. We just needed some public opinion from our target audience so that we can be sure they will like what we have chosen.

Our main aim is to film a soap trailer that will engage our audience and make them feel emotionally involved with our production. We want our work to send out a message that other soaps don’t, that is our number one priority.


Posted By U3.TV

Target Audience Profile

"URBAN PEEPS"

What have you called your Target Audience?

We have decided to call our target audience "Urban Peeps". We have chosen this time in association with the name of our channel. The channel name is Urban 3 (U3). We have chosen this name as it relates to us as individuals and we wanted it to relate to people coming from the same society and backgrounds as us.

Who are "Urban peeps" and how would you describe them?

"Urban Peeps" are young adults from the age of 16-30, coming from both genders. It's basically about people coming from working class families, ethnic minorities, deprived areas. Anyone who has struggled financially, emotionally, physically or in any kind of way in the areas of London is a "Urban peep". Our soap will relate to a large Muslim community too as it speaks of struggles in religion and culture and trying to fit in with modern day London and the street life that comes with it. Anyone that feels our soap has appealed to them is definitely an "Urban Peep"!


Any stereotypes?

Many stereotypes...erm let’s see. Anti-social, rude, gang members, trouble makers, racist, criminals, tramps...You want me to go on? No I think I’ll stop here.

Are they really any of those things?

All I'm saying is don't judge a book by its cover, just like in our soap not everyone is what they seem they are.

Any films they may watch?

Anyone who enjoys urban realist films will definitely enjoy our soap. Films for "Urban peeps" are Kidulthood and Adulthood, Shank and 4321. Any film that ives out a message they can take away is a film for "Urban Peeps".

Any TV Dramas you might suggest?

Gun rush, Duplate Drama and Prison Break.

What kind of music do "Urban Peeps" listen to?

They don't have a particular music genre as they like to listen to different things.  However you’re most likely to find saved on their playlist anything from Hip Hop, Grime, R&B or even Slow Jams. By the way some of the may not like listening to music at all and stick to just listening to The Quran. (Islamic Holy Book)

How do they dress?

If I told you how they dressed that would make me stereotypical. They dress casually and like to keep warm. Anything comfortable and affordable may be just it. Tracksuits, Baggy jeans, hoodies. You wouldn’t see much designer clothes though.

By U3.TV

Questionaire Results

From our questionaire, we found that most of our decided target audience (which is aged 16-24) felt that their was not enough tv soaps that they can relate to and that they were all very similar and predictable. "We wanna see something different." one person said. Another talked about how they felt soaps are not pointing out issues with youths today or defending them. "Noone is backing the youths today, we're just getting stereotyped and labelled, people are not realising some of us are actually good people with good intentions."
After we got feedback from our targeted audience, we formed a good idea of what we wanted our soap trailer to focus on. We wanted to include all the untouched topics about youths, religion and society.

Questions to finding the interests of our target audience

What do you think of the modern day soaps?

What genres interest you in soaps?

Would you like to see a typical everyday soap and its actions? If not specify what you would like to see?

Would you like to see a soap, which you can relate to emotionally, physically and socially?

Do you feel urban themed T.V dramas and soaps have become too cliched?

If yes would you like to see some different issues and storylines coming from urban soaps?

What current TV soaps do you like to watch?

Eastenders, hollyoaks,Eemmerdale, Coronation Street, Home & Away, Neighbours

By. U3.TV

Poster Analysis of Desperate Housewives

This poster presents the characters in a naughty, sexual way. It fulfils the word ‘desperate’ in so many ways. The image of them covering their bodies in big apples looks morally indecent and subverts the positive stereotype outlook on housewives. The apples can also be an icon of symbolising women and the story of Adam and Eve, indicating that women are not always perfect and have their flaws just as well as men. Each and every housewife is in this picture, this makes the audience familiar with them as characters and with their personalities. The main  focus is on each women’s face, the idea of keeping them naked may be to show they are confident in their own skin but are covered in ‘women problems’. In this case the apples.  The white background and redness of the apples really brings out each characters face and makes them stand out. The apples are a red colour which signifies danger, sexiness,love and femininity. All personality traits of these characters. The girls here look like sexual icons and ooze sex appeal.Each has a different hairstyle and hair colour identifying they all have their own taste and style and do not copy eachother in order to show they are close friends. This may arguably show a sense of independance.

The Soap logo is still the same; however the colour is slightly changed, like I mentioned before the colour red is used to intensify the word 'desperate' in a way that looks dangerous. There is a rhetorical question on the poster which says, “How do you like them apples?”  may be an innuendo of some sort and a play on words with the apples on the poster. I personally think this poster is aimed at men and is trying to get them to be part of its audience and thought this will be a clever way to attract them. We are giving information on when what time and what channel it will be on. It also has a channel ident and has their website. I personally think this poster gives you a feeling that this soap is a comedy and is humorous.

Posted By U3.TV

Poster Analysis of Ghost Whisperer

This Poster is fairly simple, it doesn't give us any detail about any of the characters, however it does introduce us to the main character. The background is kept simple. A light blue, greyish colour with granite like effect. Jennifer Love-Hewitt stands out in her white dress and eye contact with the camera; this automatically attracts us and makes us feel close to her as the audience. I personally believe the choice of making her wear a white dress in a gloomy background is to portray her character as this pure, innocent young woman. For those who have not watched Ghost Whisperer before, they may not be sure when judging whether the main character is evil or not as her facial expression are silent and do not give away too much. This is very intriguing and exciting at the same time. We get some information about where the episode will be appearing and on what channel. However there is no channel ident but there is the soap name logo. I personally thought this poster was mysterious and reflected the theme and genre of the series. The use of font and colour compliments the theme of Ghost whisperer to keep us familiar with their style.

Posted By U3.TV

90210 TV Poster Analysis

This TV poster was created in a way in which the viewer gets drawn in by its 3d effect. You instantly feel like you are part of their surroundings. “90210” The name of the TV drama is presented in a unique way, it is written as if it’s in the pool, giving you the feeling that they are sunk into this 90210 Beverly Hills lifestyle, just like they are in the poster.


The main characters of the TV drama are in this poster, direct address is used as they are all making eye contact with the viewers.  Each characters personality is shown through their different body language. They are all smiling which gives you a positive outlook on this new episode however this is just fooling the audience because we know it's really full of drama, just as the catch phrase says "NEW DRAMA. SAME ZIP CODE". This also gives us an idea of what to expect from this new series. For those that have watched 90210 you would know that their lives are not all smiles and they are certainly not all friends.


 The name, time and date of the TV drama are all shown on the poster; the channel ident is also shown. They are all wearing swimming clothes which give us an idea of where they are (in this case a swimming pool on a sunny day), costume also reflects on their laidback nature and luxurious lifestyles.

Posted By U3.TV

Analysis Of TV Choice Magazine cover:

In this front cover of choice magazine, their are three characters, Roxy, Ronnie & Sean (from east Enders) looking straight into the eyes of the audience, this is direct address which immediately grabs the reader’s attention and portrays some sort of emotion with the audience. Following this we have the articles main cover line which is embedded with red outlining and white and yellow colours in boldness which says “Roxy’s Hell”, this directly tells the audience that something is going on between these three characters which interests the audience even more. Underneath this there is a smaller caption in red outlining and yellow letters which says “Roxy’s Battle with Sean and Ronnie” this connects to the magazines main cover line and gives the audience a better understanding of what’s happening between these characters which grabs their attention even more.

The layout and structure of the magazines cover is to portray the weeks main things that are happening from other soaps to t.v shows, this is appealing to the audience as every ones even more dragged into the magazine, numerous captions of the weeks events are shown in different areas of the magazine to fill the magazine up, this shows there is so many things happening, this makes the magazine look active and attracts the reader even more, for example on the top right hand side of the magazine we have an image of a Doctor Who character with “DOCTOR WHO bbc1 the finale!”, the exclamation mark makes this more louder and makes it something that needs to be heard. The pricing of the magazine is shown not once but twice on the top left hand corner and once again on the left hand side in the middle with a bold font and black colour with a bright orange background to bring the black coloured pricing out even more, on top of the price it says “ONLY” in large letters to make the reader realize how “cheap” it really is, and on the bottom saying “value packed” telling the audience your buying a lot for little which should attract the readers eye straight away.

We have the three main characters of this specific magazine over throwing the actual title of the magazine “TV choice” although you can see it clearly, you have the characters more enlarged and the real focus is on them rather than the title. There are stars within the magazine cover to make it more glamorized. In the magazine cover we have an optional website name “www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk” to give the regular buyers of this magazine more of a choice to see up and coming things that may be put up this could appeal to the younger audience.
Primary colours are used mainly to make the magazine look distinctive and outstanding, making things clear and catching the reader’s attention much more quickly. The font used is mainly bold, to make it seem more louder and bigger so its shown more, the whole structure of the magazine cover is laid out to have a main topic, other topics that relate to that topic and further topics that are on t.v. These are all elements to that are portrayed to grab the reader’s attention.

By U3.TV