Trailer Soundtrack research

Today as group leaders myself and Anna Philona researched music that we could use for our trailer. We visited a number of websites that offered free music, particularly researching music under the genre of; action and drama.
The music that we will use will have an important role to play as it will reflect how our soap is portrayed. We want the trailer to have a real impact on the viewers attracting them to want to watch our soap. As well as taking into account the nature of our target audience.
We viewed a number of websites in order to have the option of many tracks to be able to choose from. The websites are written below as well as the name of the tracks and our opinions on them.

http://www.shockwave-sound.com/Royalty_Free_Background_Music/

'innovation' we specifically liked this track as although it begins calm it sets a comfortable atmosphere for the audience drawing them in as they await for the climax. It could work well in reflecting the calmer scenes where the story is being established, though as the suspense of the storylines build up so does the music. The sound of the music will help to set the mood, if it does not fit in with the type of storyline we are portraying the wrong message will be passed onto the viewers. Although the track does work well during these calmer scenes it may not be suitable once the action begins.

'hi robot' this track was a little to over dramatised for us and wouldn't really work that well for our piece. Though the sense of the fast build up pace was effective in building up tension which we need to try and do. Almost automatically so soon as the track begins there are heavy drum sounds portraying something bad is about to come. An option could be that we could cut parts of some tracks and mix and match. Though this may be a little complicated and could withdraw the flow we need.

We then choose to view a different website:

http://audiojungle.net/searches?term=action&type=files
'Action Core' this was one of our favourites. The beginning immediately introduces a sense of action, just listening to the track makes you question what is going to happen next. It is almost like a clock, the beat is patterned building up the suspense. This would definitely grasp the audiences attention.

'Pop electro house' this reminded us of the type of music Hollyoaks uses at the start of their soap, which are the kind of audiences we aim to attract. It is a combination of pop and electro, appealing to the modern generation. It would definitely work well in the party scenes of our trailer though I find it difficult to imagine it fitting well with the calmer scenes just before we need the suspense to build in. It is a sort of dance track which then towards the middle changes climax.

http://www.jamendo.com/en/?m=player&url=album%2F31187

'brad sucks- dropping out of school' this was another of our favourites. It is a combination of indie and rock - appealing to our direct target audience. The beat it is exciting yet still includes the right sense of mood. The start is a fast yet calm beat which could show the storylines being established then as the drama begins the track becomes more exciting reflecting back on these characters lives and what is happening to them. The beat begins faster, singing begins which we werent too keen on though it still works well. Imagining the shots that we have currently filmed I can easily picture them working well although we first need to edit the shots then choose which track will work well.

These tracks are just some of many, thousands to choose from. There is not yet one specific trakc to have really stood out for us therefore we will be carrying on and furthering our soundtrack music trailer research to find the right track for our trailer.

TV Magazine / Posters created

As well as our trailer and website I have also made a TV magazine front cover and two posters. These products were created in order to advertise and MARKET our soap. Having researched into former TV magazines I have chosen to make mine similar to those of "Whats on" and "TV mag". These are very commercialized though they do the job of advertising the most current storylines on today's soaps.
In order to create these I used photoshop processed on a Mac computer. At first I found it tricky to use as the software was very detailed.

Firstly I produced a logo which would be symbolic to the viewers as when seen, this can be related back to the soap. This logo could also possibly be used in one of my posters or for other future purposes. I created the logo by using a template of all the famous London attractions to enhance the city lifestyle of the characters, also keeping the logo modern looking. I decided to keep the colours simple as black and white work well together and I didn't want to attract the wrong type of audience. Our target viewers aim to be young adults though the soap aspires to be of sophistication too. The font is kept in house style which will be recognisable throughout all the products produced. Overall I think the logo positively represents the soap in a modern way.

Above is the TV magazine front cover I created. I decided to use bright contrasting colours similar to those of other television guides as these tend to grab the attention of walkers-by. The photograph includes all cast members as the soap is new therefore all the characters should be introduced to the viewers. In the top right hand corner "exclusive" shows pictures of behind the scenes of the soap attempting to appeal to the viewers. The font name of the soap LIBERTY again is in bold white house style in order to be noticeable. Slightly below this in smaller text written is "new soap to hit the screen" communicating with the audience telling them what is going on. I have also included a bar code and a small picture of characters from another soap in order to enhance the realism though the main attraction here are the new characters of this new soap. I am pleased with the outcome of this, although the colours are somewhat too bright I think they work well to stand out. The front cover includes all that the viewers need to know; there is a new soap, these are the characters and this is what it is going to be about. Therefore working to attract them.

This is the first poster I produced. I wasn't very pleased with the outcome as I think that it looks quite animated which isn't the message I aim to communicate to the viewers. I have used the logo in the background to symbolise the soaps trade mark though changed the colours to blue and white. Again quite plain. I cut a previous photograph of the cast (also used above in the TV magazine) and placed it here adding shadows and enhancements. The photograph represents the characters and who they are. The couple Maria and Dervish are sat very close together, with Maria's hand placed on his knee showing their affection for one another. Likewise this can be seen between Moji and Shiffa however Shiffa is almost pulling away representing she feels uncomfortable. The odd character out of place is Joanna this signifies her outside life to the others and how she longs to be apart of it. I placed the soap name on the left hand corner where it will be easy to view in house style font in a bold blue colour to match the theme of the poster.

This is my favourite poster compared to the above. I think that it represents our soap clearer as to what it is about. I have used a floral modern design in order to attract teenagers and used just two main colours. The photograph again represents who the characters are and their own individual roles. The couple Maria and Dervish are sat very close together showing their devotion. As Moji is sat quite awkwardly beside Shiffa representing her hidden feelings for her secret lover Joanna who is sat away and beneath the group. LIBERTY is centered to the right of the page matching the theme and floral design as the y drapes down. Underneath is written "Coming soon..." informing the viewers to be prepared. I think the design works well to attract our specific target audience.

The outcome wasn't really how I imagined the designs to be like. However I am still very pleased with the results.

Filming Day 2 Cancelled

Unfortunately due to personal inevitable issues we were unable to continue our arranged filming day yesterday. The two main characters Shadei and Moji were unable to attend therefore we had no choice other than to cancel the filming day.

This has held our filming process back as we had originally aimed to have finished the filming process by yesterday and we planned to take part in the editing process during the forthcoming Christmas break.

We are yet to have rescheduled a new date as we will need to talk to the whole group and find out when all the cast is available this may be a little tricky finding a day that we will all be able to attend. This will need to be arranged fairly soon in order to get the filming process finished.

Soap Website Production

Today we re-visited the Clc, as earlier this week as we attempted to access our site and edit it we faced a few troubles concerning the software of "iweb"and were unable to carry on our work. Therefore we arranged another session at the Clc where we were offered additional help to solve these problems.

In the visit we were able to get the software problems sorted and the majority of our website constructed and almost finished. As group leaders myself and Anna Philona, we assembled and updated the current pages. We were constantly flicking back and fourth from our own website to the websites of well known soaps. This gave us ideas of extra elements we could add and how they layed out their features.

Consequently this trip was highly beneficial as we have nearly completed the whole website, our next steps include changing a few fonts and the layout as well as adding more images, our trailer clip and the "Sneak Peek" video clip (showing a short 30secs-1min clip of next weeks episode). Also the remaining group members: Shadei and Anna Constantinou will be researching different soundtracks to find one that will suit the theme of our soap, this will be added onto our website.