In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. The first image is taken from the beginning of my media product, the mise-en-scene is important in this scene where conventions of a real media product need to be used. For example, the teenage character needs to be stereotypically portrayed which mirrors the way they are shown in existing soap operas. To be able to achieve a stereotypical look for the teenage character, he is dressed in dark clothing of a hoody, tracksuit and trainers. The audience is able to connote that something bad and mischievous is going to occur due to the stereotype stigma attached to teenagers. The location that this scene is set it also helps to convey stereotypes, as it is set in an alley way which looks hidden; this helps to present the characters more to the audience. Also in the scene the teenage character is looking around, to make sure that no body is around, again this represents him to the audience as a guilty character whom looks suspicious.
2.  The second image is again taken from the beginning of my soap trailer; The Drug Scene. The scene needed to follow the convention stereotypes that soaps would use. The characters need to be represented to audiences in conventional ways, so that the audiences are able to build opinions where uses and gratifications occur.  Therefore by both teenagers dressing is stereotypical clothing of hoddies, tracksuits and trainers and the scene taking place in a hidden alley way, allows the audiences to become enlightened by there way of life and their particular characters. The scene is left on a cliffhanger, which is conventional of a real soap opera. This works well because my media product is a trailer, whereby it teases the audience.
3. This image shows how my trailer has used shot reverse shot, which is conventional of soaps, as soaps are based around conversations and this is the best way of showing conversations. All the stereotypes that soaps would use have been developed with in my media product. As this scene deals with social issues, which are conventional of soap operas. For example, the scene consists of underage drinking and peer pressure. The audiences are able to relate to such issues where they gain uses and gratifications and maybe even nostalgic memories. The characters have been developed from real media products, as teenage girls used in my trailer have been developed from research of other soaps. As you can see, the three girls go with the teenage stereotype of getting drunk down the park which is becoming a well-known and recognisable stereotype in society. However the girl who is being peer pressured is flouting this stereotype as she refuses to drink alcohol.  The way the teenagers are dressed and their body language also helps to convey their characters to the audience. The three girls, the one on the left is laughing at the peer pressured girl, the middle girl wearing stereotypical clothing (hoody) and the last girl conveying an attitude through her body language.
4. This image is of a shot of the bottle of alcohol being dropped on the floor in the scene of underage drinking and peer pressure. This shot may not be a necessarily be a conventional shot used within soaps, as soaps many focus on peoples facial expressions and actions. However, this close up shot, of the bottle hitting the floor helps to draw the audience’s attention to the important part of the scene. The scene is also left on a cliffhanger which is conventional of a real soap opera as it allows the audience to be left on a dramatic suspense, leaving them wanting more. Again as the purpose of my media product is advertise a new soap opera, using cliffhangers when showing characters is a successful way to advertise the soap, catch the audience’s attention and leaving them wanting more.  
5. This image shows the Eaton Oak, which is the pub in my soap. Within soaps, it is stereotypical to have a pub, as it is a place where characters socialise and storylines occur in these places. The convention of pub also helps to connote realism as they are not only dominate is soaps, but are dominate in the lives of the audience. The image also shows the BBC One logo in the bottom, this follows the real media products produced by the BBC. Some soap trailers have the logo somewhere on the screen as this helps the audience members remember the channel which he soap plays on. I think it is important that my soap trailer mirrors this convention because I am advertising a new soap, as most existing soaps audience already know what channel the soaps play on; Eastenders on the BBC and
   Coronation Street
   on ITV1- it is important that my audience can remember the channel.
6. This next image is the last shot of my soap trailer, my research shows that in some way all soap opera trailers consisted of some shot at the end similar to this one; showing the channel, time, website ect. I was able to take the BBC One indent logo from the internet and manipulate it to suit my purposes through Photoshop. As BBC One have their own synergic font, unavailable to me, I had to find a font which best matched the BBC One’s. Once I had done this I was able to adjust the image to fit my soap. After I was able to record a voice over, through an external microphone and add it into Adobe Premiere Pro. The voiceover fitted the conventional voice over from real media products I researched created by BBC One. For example, I used a woman’s voice as it reflects the audience from soaps. As soaps are seen to be watched by more females as it is seen as a ‘feminine genre’, therefore by using a woman’s voice it helps to attract female’s audience members attention when advertising the soap.
7. This image shows a close up, which is conventional of real media products of soaps. It helps to draw the attention of the audience to important and key parts of the storyline or scene. Here is a woman who is having an affair locking her door. The audience is unaware of the affair until the last shot, therefore the women’s reasoning for locking the door, and why it has been so made so obvious is open to be interpreted in different ways by the audience. Audience’s attention will be kept as they will be guessing and read the scene differently. This is something that soaps tend to do, as they are known for their conventional cliffhangers.
8. This image is an example of a mid shot that is conventionally used by real media products. This shot is taken from the affair scene, where the woman is making a cup of tea.  I think that is shot is successful as it helps to give a right amount of information to the audience. It helps to show the location in which the scene is set it, but gives the audience an idea and understanding of the character, through the use of mise-en-scene; clothing. As the image shows her wearing a black dress which is connotation of a business woman, which means the audience members will be able to relate to this particular character on the ground of employment. The shot also allows the audience a peak into the house of the character, which again helps the audience relate to characters. Soaps are based around working class people, and is a genre which is described as a ‘feminine’. By showing female characters is this way, means that audiences (especially female members) will want to watch the show, as they gain uses and gratifications through the pleasure of watching other people and their problems.
9. I have used this screen grab on the grounds of storylines. This is taken from the storyline of the elderly women poisoning her husband.  This type of storyline is typically used in the genre of soap operas; existing media products use storylines like this to help keep audience entertained.  Storylines like this can deem dramatic and over the top however this is something that audience especially enjoy because it allows them to relax after a long day and fall into the soap opera bubble. I think that soap opera would not be as popular if they did not offer the drama. The Audience members high demand for drama needs to be matched through out my soap, therefore I have used many social issues to attract all different ages of audience members. I have used peer pressure, underage drinking, an affair, poisoning and drugs. Although the storyline I have included are dramatic, it can help the audience members to become aware of theses social issue through the way they are represented through my soap opera. Again this is something that existing soap opera are known for because they tackle many different social issues.