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

What's on TV Magazine Analysis

The main image of this magazine is of Ronnie and Roxy, accompanied with a main cover line that says in big, black bold letters “DEADLY BLAZE!” They are presented in front of a yellow background which gives a “caution effect”. There is a rhetorical question under the main cover line which says “Will Roxy and Ronnie perish?” this gives away an idea of what the next episode of Eastenders may be about and we instantly know the main focus will be on the two sister, just as it is on this magazine cover. The masthead is presented on the top left hand corner in white writing in a red box, which is created to symbolise a TV. There is a lure right under the masthead which says “ONLY 47P” suggesting t is cheap and affordable for readers. Another eye catching lure is also under the masthead which say says “X FACTOR Secrets Inside!” with a white star background, the red colour on the text makes it stand out from the rest of the writing along with the ‘X FACTOR’ logo, which most TV viewers are familiar with.

Direct address is used to draw the readers in emotionally; both sisters are looking straight at the camera with mysterious smiles which complement the rhetorical question written beneath them. The date of issue is written on the top of the masthead. The TV magazine website is also on the cover written underneath the masthead giving the readers another place to look up more information about the TV magazine. Other soaps are also included on this cover including Corrie, Emmerdale, The bill and Spooks in order to attract a larger and wider audience.

Posted By U3.TV

Inside Soap TV Guide Analysis

This magazine cover has so much going on however it’s the words in big, bold writing that grab your attention. The main cover line 'Heartbreak' is a word reflected by the main image of Stacy and Bradley's facial expressions. It is the lead article and is the first thing you notice when you look at the cover. This may be because that is the hottest news out at the time. We get a plot of what is happening to everyone just by looking at the front cover, so much information is thrown at the audience it either makes you want to read on inside or not feel like you need to. Different characters from different soaps are all included on the front cover and information about each one is given. This may be to attract a bigger audience that is attracted to various soaps or one or the other. There are lots of red, orange and blue used.

The mast head of the magazine name is printed in red to stand out from the rest of all the writing. On the cover line it says 'Walford Car Crash!' as if it's a news headline; this brings the soap story to life. There are lots of images of the characters in the soaps and below them is a little phrase about each one. On Ronnie’s picture it says "PREGNANT!...by a dead man" this is attention grabbing as the word 'Pregnant' is in big, black, bold letters, the word 'dead' is emphasized by being coloured in yellow. All characters in the main image use direct address, looking straight at the reader and making them feel connected to the character. These captions give you an idea of what the story for this week. On the skyline of the cover there is a lure bribing the audience “First for BIG soap news”. Big is written in big, bold red letters to catch audience’s eyes, it also includes a ‘7 day TV guide’ if you are not satisfied with the first offer.

The use of mainly primary colours is conventional for TV magazine covers, these colours used will be able to contrast against the different characters shown through it and also attracts the attention of the reader as the colours in the magazine shows that there is a lot going on. The font that is used in the magazine is in full capital and in bold letters also this is placed like this so that it is the first thing that attracts the audience right away, this has been done in many TV magazines that i have viewed so far. Also the layout is very conventional the main one in the middle and the least important are scattered around the page.



Posted By U3.TV

Eastenders magazine front cover analysis

This magazine front cover cleverly amazes the reader with its vibrant colour scheme and the way in which the pictures and text are merged with each other. This was well thoughtful in order to attract their target audience. The image of Kat & Alfie bang in the middle of the magazine attracts immediately the readers attention as the image is a direct address to the reader. The text is placed in the right positions as so that it can draw the attention of the reader right away. The main cover line text which is yellow in bold writing, exclaiming ‘KAT & ALFIE ARE BACK’ draws the attention of the reader’s eye as soon as the magazine is looked at. The outline of the cover line being black behind yellow allows the text to stand out and grab the attention of the buyers. There is a smaller caption placed right under kat and on the left of Alfie saying ‘she’s pregnant- but is he the dad?’ this simply engages with the reader and tells them who the main characters will be in the story line of that weeks episode.

The magazine is layed out in a specific way so that all the main events that will be happening in the soaps, will appeal to the audience. The skyline at the top, cover lines at the bottom and the lower third of the magazine cover are focused on different soaps and advertisements such as ‘TV choice Awards 2010’. There are two lures on the magazine front cover which shows the readers the price of the magazine. One of the prices is on the top right in a fairly relaxed shape, and the other one is in the middle of the magazine next to the image of kat & Alfie in a jagged shape bubble with an orange background stating that the magazine is ‘Only 42p’, this draws the attention of the buyer as the word ‘Only’ is meant to suggest how cheap the magazine is. In addition to this having the price in orange helps the text stand out more on a baby blue background and it is eye catchy. The magazine cover is packed with images and text this keeps the reader engaged with different main cover lines and images which then will lead them to read on or maybe actually buy the magazine.

The masthead of the magazine front cover ‘TV choice’, is placed the top left of the magazine front cover with a red coloured bubble behind a bright white text. Part of the masthead is covered by the character Kats head, this may implement that the two characters story line is way more important than the magazine name or it could mean that they don’t have to show the full name as this magazine is known to its target audience anyway, so they are familiar with the magazine as soon as they see it. Underneath the Mast head there is the website for it this is for the people who want to go deeper and want to know then what the magazine has to show this also shows us that the magazine could appeal to a  younger audience as the internet is where you will find most young people in the world of today. It also gives the magazine a more modern edge to it.

In general the colours used in the magazine are controversial and is typical of an advertising magazine, all the bright colours and stand out text allow the magazine to become friendly with the audience as it feeds them in with all the information they need to know about their favourite soap. The main reason these magazines are packed full of information and pictures is because they want to interest their target audience and get these magazines selling.

By U3.TV

A2 TV NOW TV Magazine Analysis

This magazine cover was created by last years A2 media group. We felt the writing wasn't eyecatching enough as their wasnt enough outline or shadow especially around the question "Who will Russel choose?" We felt that their wasn't enough catch phrase on the cover. The skyline has still images of different soaps, this is something we definetely want to do, however we would like to add many more captions to persuade the audience and give thm a sense of what may be happenning in the storyline. Also we would like to use a four colour code and make writing big and bold, especially the main cover line. We want this to stand out and be eye catching along with the magazine logo which must be very appealing. I feel that the main image is not in focus in this cover as it is not big enough. The magazine logo looks misplaced and as if not alot of effort was put into it.We will make sure our main image is in the centre of the magazine and everything else around it doesn't take away from the main image's attention. We will also try to create a professional looking magazine logo.We will also use a blue background just like the magazine cover above. On the bottom of the magazine cover they used the whole space to show still images of only one soap. This takes away from the conventional style of magazines and multiple storylines being shown on the cover.

We will try our best to make our storylines vary and use bold, outlined, eyecatching captions on each one. They have confirmed that their magazine is 'A dead end issue'.We want our magazine to be a 'U3 TV SPECIAL' issue. This is another way of promoting our soap. We will use the price tag more than once to persuade and lure our audience into buying the magazine. Also we want our magazine to look realistic, so we will follow tv magazine conventions as much as possible and also create a barcode which hasn't been done here.

A2 HARROW ROAD POSTER ANALYSIS:

This is a soap poster from the soap 'Harrow Road'. We felt that the font was quite tacky and clichéd. As our soap is not only based on urban culture, but also on ethnic backgrounds; we felt that our font should be a mixture of urban with a middle eastern style. This group have done more than one poster for their soap each one featuring a different character from the soap, however we thought it would be effective to have one poster only that features the main character only, leaving the audience intruiged about if they're is anyone else starring in it. The soap title Kareem may also make the audience wonder if it is a soap starring just one person and even if they figure out their are more characters, the fact that their isn't any information about them, will make the audience want to find out more. We also chose red and white to be Kareem's signature colours to represent his two different personalities and lifestyles. In the title we will try and fit in red and white in the title to show this instead of keeping it plain white like in this poster.The background of this poster is a harrow road estate, this shows the audience where the saop is set, this is a good idea and follows conventions, however we felt that we wanted to present where our soap is set in a more creatve way through using photoshop. We also didn't like the fact that the poster was very crowded, we agreed that our poster will not follow conventions and will be kept simple with a plain background but make sure it remains very effective and shapes meaning. We will give out very subtle information about our soap e.g where it;s set, the genre, what channel it's on and as like the poster above we will also inform our audience of when it will air on this TV channel. We will also have our Channel Ident on our poster somewhere, even if it's on the side to make our audience familiar with who created this soap and the fact that they will now us as a 'urban' channel will help then gain insight into what the soap will be based about. 

Soap Trailer Analysis of Eastenders - Ronnie and Danielle BBC One

The trailer of Eastenders was very emotional; this was conveyed through some of the dramatic scenes shown in the trailer along with the soundtrack. The shots pretty much told the storyline, props, costume and location gave us an idea of where they were and what was happening .It was edited for continuity and everything made sense, the audience automatically knew they were at a wedding and Ronnie was arguing with her long lost daughter. Costume showed they were at a celebration. The storyline was set all in The Vic, an iconic place which is known for its drama. We see lots of characters involved in the trailer and how they are all included and affected in some way by the storyline. Soaps often have multiple narratives running through each episode and even through individual trailers; this trailer however offers another conventional approach, by having one singular narrative that encompasses several characters. The soundtrack was very slow and forebodes a somewhat tragic ending; the calmness of the music is contrasted by the loud, confrontational conflict between the characters. This puts a huge impact on the audience and draws them into the reality of family confrontations. Again, we see a key convention of soaps exploited here- that of real-life drama, an aspect that deals with, and tends to appeal most to, working class families.

Editing was at a fairly slow pace, however the very strong scenes kept the excitement in the trailer. There are a lot of mid shots, from the shoulders upwards, bringing us close to the characters and making us sympathise with them, and the music also helped us get emotionally involved. The opening shot was of Danielle placing her locket on the table, the low angle, close up shot of her face doesn’t make her look powerful but however it highlight he vulnerability and fear, this is highlighted by her facial expressions. The slow motion shot of Ronnie contrasts with Danielle’s vulnerability as Ronnie looks very confident, happy and powerful at the beginning of the trailer, whereas by the end we sympathise with her as she is left looking lost, confused and shocked. The locket is mentioned and presented right at the beginning of the trailer; it signifies the truth, which is not seen by Ronnie till the very end of the trailer. I like the idea of how props are used as a symbol and become a strong position in the storyline.

In our trailer we will use the same theme of focusing on one storyline and use different locations, both external and internal. We loved the use of different camera shots and how they reflected on characters feelings at certain moments in the soap. Our editing will definetely be much faster and so will our music as its goig to be more of a young, upbeat, actionfilled trailer. We will also being using dialogue. Im not quite sure our costume will be anywhere near the characters in this soap as our theme and genre is quite different. We want to have the same storyline structure of Eastenders, however we want to create it in our style and with our conventions of a urban soap trailer.

Posted By U3.TV

Eastenders soap trailer analysis

The soap trailer judgement day for the soap eastender’s conveys a lot of emotions through the way the camera shots and sound were used. The opening shot shows the main character’s shoes as he steps in to a dark environment; this creates tension right away as it keeps the audience thinking where the character could be heading. An over the shoulder shot is used to introduce Bradley Max’s son, the costume giving to him is a security guard outfit and he gives Max a nod with his head for Max to head to the right this gives Bradley a sense of power over him and the tension rises from then. A close up shot is used to show the emotion through his facial expression as if he is accountable for everything that is happening in the trailer, an unsurprised face of the main character spotting Stacey as a cleaner walking up to him in a seductive way shows us that this could be Max’s future if he carries on the way he is. This shot of Stacey allows the audiences to see the dirty nature of her and the link she has with Max.

The soundtrack used matched the camera shots and emotion, and gives the trailer a dark and mysterious feel as we don’t know what will happen. There isn’t any dialogue throughout the trailer, we see all the communication through eye contact and body language this gives the audience an insight that his family and friends don’t want anything to do with him which makes Max isolated from the rest. Non - diegetic sound was used throughout the trailer with the lift doors opening and the movement of the trolleys this also helps the audience see the emptiness and lone feeling; it was as if max was walking into death. The voice over used in the trailer is given to us in a deep and rough way which simply fits in with the soundtrack and the heaviness of the trailer overall.

The lighting that is used in this trailer is unusual of what east Enders will normally use, the use of the lighting goes with the character being lonely and isolated. The lighting used also shows the characters shadows which could suggest that he only has his shadow with him as he is isolated away from his family and friends. The main part of the trailer which keeps the audience wanting more is the end part of trailer when jack is holding the ticket this leaves the audience wondering of what will happen next and will leave the audience with questions flying across their minds.
At the end of the trailer the we see a shot of Jack holding a ticket with Max’s name on it, this suggests Max is walking straight into his death bed it is all ready for him but will he sleep in it?, this is followed by the same deep voice exclaiming ‘’judgement day for max’’ this puts the character Max into frame and makes the audience look out for him in the next episode of this soap. The satellite map of the east end which they always use at the beginning of the soap this is used to create a brand identity bond with the audience. The audience will know right away due to the drumming which starts and ends the soap that this trailer is from the soap eastenders right away due to the iconic bond their identity has with the audience.

In all soap’s multiple narratives are used and each of them are fitted in really well, even though this soap trailer focuses on one main narrative it shows us the outcomes of this one character and how the character has an affect on others.

By U3.TV

Hollyoaks Niall's Revenge: Michaela Trailer Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WdMbTMqCgM

This particular Hollyoaks soap trailer begins with a camera tilt upwards onto a character talking directly to the camera using direct address to the audience, they all speak directly to the camera as they want them to be emotionally involved. We see parallel editing here as both characters are talking one by one, and the camera goes back and forth, we get a sense that this was a moment for confession; each person is in an empty room. Each person has different emotions when speaking. The man is in a comfortable position and a deceiving grin upon his face shows he is careless, this instantly portrays him to being a dominant yet evil person, the female characters seem to be saddened and looks vulnerable, and we as the audience instantly feel sympathy for them more than the man. The following shot of a woman, it shows her slowly facing the camera in an uncomfortable mood and the camera slowly zooms in and focuses on her facial expressions, we then go back to the man as a close up shot, showing his face with a mischievous smile that looks deceptive. The man seems more powerful and less guilty than the women. The shot of the woman in a close up shows her emotions which seems as if she is extremely upset she is almost in tears; this definitely tells the audience that the man in this trailer looks bigger and more dominant than the female and makes us turn against him. This gets the audience emotional involved with the characters in the trailer.

The use of camera shots in this trailer, as it moves in a pattern with the man being in a mid shot then the woman being in a mid shot then the man being in a close up shot, the woman following in a close up shot, this shows that how the power status between them is desperately trying to get equalized. We see no sense of equality here whatsoever.

In the final shot we see a long medium shot of a woman, her eyes wandering around looking confused and not knowing what choice to make. She looks emotionally hopeless with her hands together, this shows she’s scared, the camera zooms in on her and the man in background says “It’s decision time for Myra”, this gives the audience more of a chance to understand what’s happening and gives a better understanding of the storyline.

The editing has been done for a purpose as it is gloomy and dark forebodes that something wrong has happened and something has to be solved, as the trailer starts, the audience instantly can see that the background is dull boring and lacks colour. This is to convey that they are in a bad situation and to put the main focus on the characters. Costume is kept simple too again to focus on the characters and not their surroundings. The music is very slow, dark and lacks energy; it is not upbeat or loud. It sounds like the kind of music you would play at a funeral or if someone has died, this may be hinting that something terrible might happen, the parallel editing between the characters are sharp paced with only a few seconds of each shot, and in the background you can see the lights aren’t turned on, this gives the audience a sense of fear, suspense and terror.

Posted By U3.TV

90210 Trailer- Backstabber Analysis

The American 90210 soap trailer starts by introducing us to the characters of the soap. We see a shot of a school locker with the word 'slut' graffitied on it. This automatically gives us an idea about the bitchy lifestyle of Beverly Hills, where 90210 is set. The locations are all very beautiful, places you would go on holiday to. The characters are very young, attractive looking people; we know they are young as they attend high school. Costumes were very attractive and looked expensive; this shows they come from wealthy families. The iconic location where all the trouble starts is Beverly Hills High School.

 I think this is definitely targeted at a young audience as they may relate to the drama that occurs in this soap. There is alot of kissing and sexual scenes which shows these young people are sexually active, so the audience should not be too young as it would be unsuitable for them. The soundtrack chosen was very clever as it related to pretty much all the characters in the soap 'Backstabber' is a word that can define most of the girls and boys in this soap. The soundtrack was very upbeat and youthful and reflected on their carefree, fun but hard lives. We see how everyone is affected and how everyone has their own problem. Each character is presented in a certain image from the things we hear other characters say about them, but also from what they say to others. Dialogue is a big influence on the audience when it comes to judging these characters. “She wants to screw me over.” And “She is a psychotic...” gives the audience a negative view of Naomi, who justifies their point by presenting herself as a bitch, fighting with other girls over boys and threatening them. On screen texts appearing on characters like “Backstabber” and “This is what you’re all about” which appears on a shot of a man’s torso presents Andrea as a promiscuous girl who is just after lust and a cheating backstabber.

The trailer ends with a ‘squeaky clean’ image of all the characters sitting on a couch smiling with information on screen with information on when the episodes will be returning, the channel ident is presented along with the soap name logo. Just before the final blackout we see a mid shot of Naomi with a mischievous look on her face. On her right the channel ident is presented along with their slogan. The purpose of this may be for her to promote their channel.

Posted By U3.TV

Hollyoaks Christmas soap Trailer Analysis

We get the narrative of the storyline right from the first shot of the trailer, we see that Warren is very much disliked by the girls of Hollyoaks and they are all out to get him. He is presented as a bad guy at the beginning as we see he has been kissing different girls and got one of them pregnant. We do not feel any sympathy towards him however the very last shot is of him crying, he looks vulnerable, his last words are "I'm sorry". Dialogue helps us understand the storyline. He is described by the girls as 'Dangerous'. Costume gives us an idea of what is going on, in this case it is Christmas time and at one point there is a wedding. Props include Christmas cards, Christmas hats and Christmas decorations which help us identify what time of year it is. Lots of characters are introduced in this soap and we feel different emotions for each character.

Soundtrack is fairly slow and calm; there are no lyrics as the dialogue of the characters gives us the information we need. There is a voice over at the end informing us what time it will be on T.V and on what channel. We see a channel ident at the end of the trailer along with a website and name of the soap and the time of appearance. Trailer is kept short and editing is short and catchy and gives enough information to the audience on what to expect. Most characters appear in this trailer and we see that they are all involved in one problem, which they want to sort out. We do not see what happens to Warren or anyone’s. This creates suspense and persuades the audience to want to watch the soap.

What we decided to do was keep our soap trailer different, using different conventional ideas and making it into one isn't always going to work, so what we decided to do was first compare our story line with different story lines, this particular trailer didn't give us alot of inspiration.

Posted By U3.TV