Evaluation – Unit G324

Stevie Pell
 Conventions
Uses and Developments
Our soap is similar to many of the common conventions of a soap. We have both used and developed these conventions
within our advert and soap storylines. Below shows quotes of the typical conventions of a soap, taken from the BBC website.
I have explored these conventions showing the similarities or developments our soap provided.

“It features continuous narratives dealing with domestic themes and personal relationships”:
Our soap advert uses these domestic and personal narrative themes producing relationships, homosexuality and personal
issues, for example the suicide and the personal situations with that character. These issues are also shown in the poster and
the magazine. These storylines are extremely common within soaps. When I analysed a soap advert, Hollyoaks used this
homosexual storyline within a love triangle. This storyline is similar to that of our primary shocker. We used these effectively,
allowing the audience to relate or escape their own reality. Our primary shocker enhanced these themes, adding controversy,
encouraging controversial views for the audience to discuss, inevitably promoting the soap.
“British soaps most often feature common, ordinary, working class characters”:
Although our characters were younger, from our target audience and planning, the actors are working class. The house the shots are filmed in or outside are
working class places, not an upper-class setting. This relates to the audience further whilst presenting a reality theme throughout the advert. We developed
this convention further using younger actors to encourage both young and older audience, within demographic groups C, D and E.
“As a rule, British soaps are realistic or, at least, aim for realism”:
Through the themes of a real soap media, our primary shocker and meta-narratives are all realistic, including a love triangle, personal suicidal issues,
revengeful storyline and the loss of a close person, though some unlikely circumstances, the narratives are still aimed for realism. This allows audiences to
relate to specific narratives or characters. Even though the primary shocker is controversial, it is still a realistic narrative, even though it may be uncommon in
the present time.
“The plots are open-ended and usually many storylines are featured or even interlinked in an episode”:
Although we just produced the main product and ancillary tasks, the storylines are all shown to be open-ended, allowing further storylines to occur. Similar
to the advert, the soap shots and narratives will be interlinked providing variety and different realistic storylines.
Source for Convention Quotes: BBC website – The History and Conventions of Soap Opera:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1087193
This site was extremely helpful, producing bullet points of the conventions and other information on soaps.
 Conventions
Uses and Developments
•“Three, four or even five storylines will be in progress during any one episode, with the action switching between them”:
We used and developed this convention through the many meta narratives and the main primary shocker we showed. The advert interlinks the
narratives just like the soap opera itself would do. We have a total of around 4 meta narratives, some combining with the main primary shocker.
By using the advert as a prototype model of the soap, the storylines switch between themselves, varying the pace of the advert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnpVcrjTBgQ Our soap advert presents many different storylines. We have the primary shocker, reffering
to the love triangle, and other meta narratives such as the suicide, murder and the lost girl. These narratives will be lengthened and added to
within the soap episodes themselves.
•“British soaps deal with controversial issues such as homosexuality, drugs and underage pregnancies”:
These issues stir up public debate and media interest, consequently pushing up ratings and, of course, the issues themselves get more and more
controversial as time goes on. Therefore we developed these theme conventions to make our soap interesting and produce controversy between
the target audience. These conventions relate to the purpose of the soap, allowing the audience to escape or relate to individual narratives and
characters. We developed this convention by using the homosexuality theme as our primary shocker.
“Strong emotions, female orientation and unlikely circumstances”:
We used strong emotions through our advert in the narratives used, the physical contact near to the end of the
advert showed anger, creating a juxtaposition between the first shot of lust and love between the two
homosexual characters. Therefore we also used female orientation in our soap, using two females in the primary
shocker as well as loosing a female presented on the magazine. As well as this, the posed photo on the
magazine cover presents the woman in front and the male behind, in competition with another female
representing gender. The unlikely circumstances we produced was the lost narrative and the explosion fire,
which was hinted at on the magazine cover and the poster.
The use of fire in our soap presents the unlikely circumstance. However, we have made this realistic by added
the cause of this, relating to revenge. Revenge is a very common emotion in reality. The extent of revenge is
the situation that changes.

Source for Convention Quotes: BBC website – The History and Conventions of Soap Opera:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1087193
 Conventions
Uses and Developments – Similar Media Works
Hollyoaks
Our soap advert is most similar and shows more features of Hollyoaks. This is shown through storylines, target audience and characters within the soap.
Both our product and Hollyoaks soap are aimed at a younger teenage target audience, reflecting social realism though the age range of teenagers. The similar storylines show the connection
between the character and the target audience including, homosexuality issues, suicides and relationship troubles. These storylines are all extremely controversial, however, it allows the younger
audience to escape or relate to the narratives.
As well as this, other similar storylines include murder and kidnapping. Another similarity is the challenging forms of setting. Unlike other soaps, such as Eastenders (family orientated) the
younger generation has not got a specific setting.

This image shows the controversial issue

This shows a relationship or an
of a homosexual relationship within the
affair which are both common
soap Hollyoaks. It also presents the
conventions within a soap
younger characters attracting a younger
opera.
target audience.

Eastenders:
However, there are similarities between our soap and Eastenders relating to storylines and the traditional convention of female characters being central to the programme. This similarity is
shown through the female narratives, concentrating on present the females feelings, making the audience empathise with them. Homosexuality is again a similarity between our advert and this
soap. Again it presents working class or the middle class characters.

Working class and Controversial storylines. This soap

middle class characters – presents the homosexual relationship
a convention of soap as a storyline like Hollyoaks.

opera.

Stereotypical Soap Narratives

Other narratives typical of a soap opera are teenage pregnancies, abortions, drug addiction and shoplifting. With our target audience range and the characters used within our
soap, we could use these narratives and include them in our soap, using more forms and conventions of a stereotypical soap.
 Conventions
Challenged Forms
We challenged the structure form of the soap conventions through the characters used. We didn’t follow the common character types, instead
we combined types of character to produce more interesting and controversial storylines. We used the independent woman and young couple
along with a homosexual theme to create a contentious primary shocker. The meta narratives then followed the common structure of the
narratives. As well as this, the characters shown on the advert, posters and magazine cover are fairly compact as there aren’t many characters.
Although this differs from the main conventions of a soap, the storylines allow more characters to be introduced within the weekly soap opera.
A soap convention is, ‘British soaps are deeply community based and usually have a central meeting point (often a pub) where all the characters
meet’ which we did not quite follow. Although we included our pub, our narratives are fairly separate to each other, and as the character number
is less than an original soap, the meeting place of a pub would not fit our narratives. If we did the product again, we would research the
relationships between a neighbourhood, involving separate narratives, however having all the character’s knowing each other. This could
therefore produce more storylines for the soap to carry on. However, as we were only to produce an advert, the characters that can be shown
are limited. The soap created from our advert can show relationships between all the characters in the soap, even though this relationship was
not shown in the advert and ancillary tasks.

The above images show the many settings we used without a ‘central square’ or the obvious location of a pub not in the dark. This also shows
the independent woman, our female protagonist in purple. As well as this, these were the characters shown in the advert, showing a limited
number of characters. However, we have more characters planned for the episodes, our advert doesn’t portray this.
 Effectiveness
Advert, Poster and Magazine Cover
The advert, poster and magazine cover are designed and created to promote, encourage and attract the audience to watch to soap
episodes. The effectiveness of these promotional aspects working together to achieve this is crucial to the popularity of the soap.
The combination of the ancillary tasks were effective in the promotion and advertising of the main advert product. The aesthetics
of the poster and the magazine attract the audience and gives a brief outline of the narratives included within the advert. The advert
promotes the soap further by showing clips of the soap, relating to homosexuality, domestic relationships, disappearance and
suicide. These themes we have included in our advert, are reiterated in the poster and the magazine cover, producing clear narratives
for the target audience.
The screen shots as well as posed shots on the poster and magazine cover, create a variety of clips and images from the soap for the
audience. The magazine cover is a promotional aspect through use of images, as well as the rhetorical questions and language on the
cover. This makes the audience ask questions, hooking the target audience and encouraging them to watch the soap. The poster is a
very vague promotional aspect, however, the posed photo provides the characters attitudes towards each other showing confliction
and a hint at homosexuality and cheating.
The advert creates moving clips and snippets for the audience, leaving cliff hangers at the end of each shot. This is a common
aspect of soap opera’s, promoting the soap as well as hooking the targeted audience. Although the poster only presents the primary
shocker, the fire in the background presents tension and relates to other narratives within the soap advert. The shots from the
advert and the posed photo on the poster presents the primary shocker to the audience. This primary shocker over rides the other
meta-narratives in the soap. The magazine covers all the aspects of the soap, both the primary shocker and the meta-narratives.
These three advertisement techniques sell the product by showing all the storylines clearly and hinting towards the rest of the
narrative, encouraging the reader or audience to watch the soap. With the advert, poster and the magazine, the storylines are
produced clearly to the audience. The text on the magazine cover provides titles for the audience on the narratives, producing the
dilemma’s and situations that occur.
 Effectiveness
Advert, Poster and Magazine Cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnpVcrjTBgQ
By repeating screenshots in the advert and
magazine, it portrays the primary shocker to the
audience. This repetition makes the storyline stick
in the audiences mind, making them want to watch
the episode. These two sources combined show the
meta-narratives and sub-plots as well as the main
storyline. In addition, the similarity in the images
with the poster and magazine, using a posed photo,
creates a connection and, again, presents the
primary shocker.

The use of bold lettering on the magazine cover, highlights the main storylines within the soap. The advert and the poster back up
these ideas. The us of ‘cheats’, ‘shocks’ and ‘reveals’ are all common terminology to sell a magazine cover and promote the soap. This
link shows an example of a ‘Soap Life’ magazine that uses this terminology to attract their audience.
http://www.isubscribe.co.uk/images/covers/UK/4/2312/large/Soaplife231209105434.jpg
 Audience Feedback
Survey Questions
To analyse our own product, I created a survey, in which the feedback would define the success or downfall of our
main advert and the ancillary tasks, including the poster and magazine cover. I asked 10 people to fill out the tally
survey. These people reflected our target audience of our soap, therefore presenting relevant and crucial opinions.
Our target audience was the mid teens to early 20’s primarily directed at female orientation, in the demographic
groups C2 D and E. To target our audience, the shots produced different perspectives of life and contributed to
ethnology (observing and interacting with living people). The feedback was positive and beneficial towards our
advert. We asked the following questions and this is our feedback, presented in graphs and charts.

Did the advert make you watch the soap? Did the poster and magazine give you a brief Were the narratives used relative to a
idea of the narratives included? real soap media?

Did the advert make you want to watch the soap? Did the poster and magazine give you a brief idea of the narratives Were the narratives used relative to a real soap media?
included?

8 7
6
7 6
6 5
5
5 4
4
Number of Target Number of Target
4 Number of Target
Audience 3 Audience
Audience 3
3
2 2
2

1 1 1

0 0 0
Yes No Yes No Yes No
 Audience Feedback
Survey Questions
Were the narratives and shots shown in the Did the narratives shown in the main product relate Were the poster and magazine cover
advert used realistic? or encourage you to escape from your own life issues? contents relevant to the advert?

Were the narratives and shots shown in the advert used realistic? Did the narratives shown in the main product relate or encourage Were the poster and magazine cover contents relevant to the
you to escape from your own life issues? advert?

6
5 8
5 4.5 7
4
4 6
3.5
3 5
Number of Target
3 Number of Target Number of Target
Audience 2.5 4
Audience Audience
2
2 3
1.5
2
1 1
0.5 1
0 0 0
Yes No Yes No Yes No

We gained constructive feedback, positive and encouraging for our main product and ancillary tasks. A couple of our audience stated reasons
for their decision. The graph feedback from the ancillary tasks relevance was explained, as the poster only included one storyline. However,
when researching in to posters on soaps, there is only one narrative shown and the others are shown through the advert and magazine cover.

Creating a better product can depend on the target audience. Obstinate audience theory assumes that there is a transactional communication
between the audience and the media resulting in the advert being expressed in different ways for different audiences. With this communication a
product can be changed to make it more appealing to an audience.
Sharing websites, such as YouTube can also benefit a product, with different ideas, additions to narratives or liked conclusions, the product can
repeat these in various ways, therefore creating a better more appealing soap.
As audience members, people are more susceptible to being connected emotionally, expressing ourselves in uncharacteristically free ways, and
forming lasting connections with characters on the television. This gives an audience power, escaping or relating to a particular narrative or
experience. This can create a better product by an audiences reaction to a storyline or episode.
 Audience Feedback
Improvements
We received feedback from a person within our target audience
specification stating that a section of the video was ‘too long’ and
delayed the action and pace of the advert.
This was the frame when the boyfriend was looking at the
protagonists phone. However, there was along delay between the
protagonist leaving and the phone receiving a message. With the fast
pace of the advert, this frame didn’t fit and needed to be changed
and improved.
We chose to add a clip in between the protagonist leaving, and the
boyfriend picking up the phone, so we filmed a shot of the phone
and the name of the text. We uploaded this onto the computer
hardware. However, the software program we used, Adobe Premier
7, it failed to open at some points, others the music played without
the frames moving, and at other times, the software would randomly
close. We were unable to edit properly and upload the film as a
youtube file. However, we added the idea to our evaluation as an
improvement we would have made from our feedback if the
software had enabled us to.
 Audience Feedback
Changes to create a better new product.
Soap Advert:
From the feedback, if we were to do the soap opera advert and ancillary tasks again, we would research further in to soap narratives and
characters, and aim to meet the common characters shown in the soap which will result in all the narratives being similar to a soap opera. I
would also show more use of camera angles, including shot reverse shot for an argument or confrontation. As well as this, I would use
non-diegetic sound to voice over the action and music in the soap opera. This non-diegetic speech will describe the text on the advert. As
well as this, I would include more diegetic sound voice over where there are confrontations, making the volume louder, therefore
attracting the audiences attention further. For example, I would lengthen the argument between the boyfriend and bisexual and use
diegetic sound of them arguing. I would then use non diegetic sound as a voiceover in the beginning with the two homosexuals, having a
secretive chat about keeping the relationship concealed.
We also had feedback stating, ‘the tree to the boyfriend, girlfriend shot is too abrupt’. At first we added a transition to make the shots flow
together. However, this resulted in the music not being parallel and working with the shots in our advert. To improve this, we would
rearrange the advert shots and shorten some so we were able to add a transition, (fading to black) resulting in the transition between the
shots being less abrupt and our music still working well with the advert.
Ancillary Tasks:
If the magazine cover and poster were to be created again, we would include more posed photos of the actors and actresses presenting
dominance, control and the mood for the storyline. This is because, from the research, a lot of the shots on the magazine cover or posed.
However, for our magazine and poster, our actors and actresses were constantly unavailable to take pictures. In result we therefore used
shots from the advert itself. If I was able to create another posed shot for the magazine cover, I would use the female protagonist in the
primary shocker curled up, crying in a white dress. The white dress has connotations of innocence and purity. When contrasted with the
storyline this presents to the audience a victim. The make up, being smudged and dark could show depression as well as a darker side to
the character which reflects the affair. This is similar to the shot from one of the magazine covers I analysed for my research. This
vulnerability reflects the character in the soap and can also relate to the audience, encouraging them to watch the soap.
 Audience Feedback
Target Audiences Influence
Creating a better product can depend on the target audience. Obstinate audience theory assumes that there is a
transactional communication between the audience and the media resulting in the advert being expressed in
different ways for different audiences. With this communication a product can be changed to make it more
appealing to an audience.
Sharing websites, such as YouTube can also benefit a product, with different ideas, additions to narratives or
liked conclusions, the product can repeat these in various ways, therefore creating a better more appealing soap.
As audience members, people are more susceptible to being connected emotionally, expressing ourselves in
uncharacteristically free ways, and forming lasting connections with characters on the television. This gives an
audience power, escaping or relating to a particular narrative or experience. This can create a better product by
an audiences reaction to a storyline or episode.
Audience feedback is so important with media products with relation to the expectations. The ‘genre is a set of
expectations’ Neale. As the soap is a genre, the audience is expecting to see the conventions. The audience
feedback provides these expectations for the producer of the production, each of these expectations being the
conventions. It can also relate to whether the soap follows a niche or mass audience. With the audience
feedback, it can increase the popularity of a soap or episode, with preferred narratives.
Our audience feedback referring to realism is important when referring to the conventions and expectations of
the genre. It is important as the soap advert provides what the audience expects, therefore attracting the target
audience.
 New Media Technologies
Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluating
Research: For the research we used Google tools and the internet to gain knowledge on soaps, adverts and their promotion
techniques. We looked at the BBC website as well as Wikipedia to gain knowledge of soap opera, the conventions and signifiers. We
used Google images more often to view magazine covers and posters and compare and add to our ancillary task ideas.
Planning: For the planning and the overall project, we used new media technologies in the form of the Wiki (Wetpaint) which is a
collection of web pages that can be edited and monitored by a group. This software enabled the group to see each person’s document
that has been uploaded as well as this recent activity. We used this to keep track on the project development as well as the individual’s
progress. As well as this, we used Scribd. Scribd is a digital uploading website, in which conversion tools are used, such as html embed,
to show the whole document rather than using just a hyperlink. By embedding documents, we saved file space on the wiki. We also
saved space on the wiki by creating the animatic storyboard. This was embedded as a widget on the wiki. As well as embedding
documents, we added attachments to the wiki. These attachments were shown as links rather than the full document. We also used
Microsoft software within our planning section, using Microsoft Excel to produce our Gantt Chart and present our time management.
The use of Excel helped us to organise our tasks and hours within boxes, as well as colour co-ordinating tasks and resource names. We
also used Word to document our ideas and research.
Construction: For the construction and editing, we used both hardware and software as well as other media technologies to produce
the best advert, poster and magazine cover. For the advert, we used two media cameras, enabling us to film each shot from different
angles and closeness. We also used Adobe Premier 7 to edit our filming. Although this was a new technology used, we had continuous
problems with the software freezing, therefore increasing the contingency time. To produce the film on our Wiki, we You Tube, a
form of Video Sharing. We then used html conversion tools to embed the advert in to our Wiki. We also used the i-phone in the
construction of our film, involving technology within our soap. For our ancillary tasks, we used publisher and Photoshop to produce a
magazine cover and poster similar to real soap ancillary promotion tasks. As well as this we used Photoshop software and Publisher to
create our magazine cover and poster, making it more unique and creative as well as allowing the rearrangement of text boxes and
images.
Evaluation: The use of PowerPoint enabled the layout of the evaluation to be clear as well as separate the individual sub-titles.
Microsoft Excel was also used to display the results from the survey, created in Microsoft Word.
 New Media Technologies
Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluating
New Media both helped and hindered the progress of my product. However the final completed product was
helped and successful due to media technologies. Without Media Technology, creating a Soap Advert, as well as the
ancillary tasks would have been virtually impossible. Without media technologies, both hardware and software, we
would not have a successful product.
For research we came across no problems. Some images were too small and when expanded, the pixels were too
large. However, with the vast results presented on Google. This was no hindrance as another image was found.
For the planning, software and the internet helped hugely, when presenting our ideas and documents. Wetpaint
proved to be a useful and accessible site to present work as well as embed multimedia. The use of software helped
to present our ideas through documents able to be uploaded on to Scribd and added by html in to the Wetpaint
wiki.
The worst hindrance was in the construction section with the use of Adobe Premier 7 to edit our film. We needed
to cut frames, rearrange frames, add music and titles to result in a successful and flowing soap advert. Although we
produced a successful advert, the software was extremely slow. This caused a delay in our time management and
took us longer to edit than expected. It was also frustrating, as we then had to split our ancillary tasks and advert
between us so the product was completed on time. This separating of tasks was only made possible because of the
media technologies of hardware and software.
For our evaluation, the PowerPoint software was easy to use, present and organise our analysing of our
performance and different sections of the project. This software is classic for presentations, so when concluding a
project, to organise through PowerPoint is a useful and presentable document.
 Conclusion
Overall Conclusion of Project

As an individual in the group, I found the project enjoyable, including the ancillary tasks. As with other projects, I
enjoyed the planning, creating the magazine and the filming. However, editing I found tedious and time consuming as
the software, Adobe Premier 7, was slow and inconsistent. Whilst the music and guide would keep running, the shot
would freeze. This made it hard to cut parts of the movie.
As a group I feel we worked together well, appointing different tasks either individually, in a pair or as a group to keep
the completion of our product within the set deadline. By use of the Gantt Chart and listing tasks, we were able to
separate tasks evenly within the group, allowing everyone to commit the same amount of time, skill and work.
In conclusion, my main task and ancillary products proved to be successful in creating promotional aspects for a soap.
The critical feedback I received was positive and constructive allowing me to see the strengths and weakness in each
product and the overall advert.