Planning: Story Boards

Drugs Scene

Homo Sexual Scene

Engagement Scene









Editing Techniques

The editing software that we used was Final Cut, whereas last year we used Adobe Premiere.

On the software we used a range of different editing techniques, which we felt matched our target audience and the soap genre.

The editing techniques that we used were:

Voice Over
We realised from our research that most of the Soap trailers had a voice over. We decided to get a female to do our voice over because it was used in other soap trailers we watched.

Cuts
We watched a Soap trailer which was for Hollyoaks, and he had a total of 35 cuts, so therefore we decided to include a few simple cuts in our trailer, and it also worked out well that Hollyoaks were boradcasted by Channel 4 too.

Fade to Black
We used this editing technique when the car went past the pub, and the camera zooms into the pub window. The main aim for this type of editing technique is so that we could try and make the audience think we were going through the pub window.

Planning: Shot List

- Long Shot - This is used when the 2 drug dealers approach each other.
- Long Shot - When the 2 actually meet
- Mid-Shot - Them approaching closer to each other
- Close-up - Drug Exchange - Shows props and explains context.
- Mid-Shot - When the 2 walk away from each other.
- Long Shot - When Ryan and Paul are saying goodbye to each other.
- Close-up - Ryan and Paul when they kiss
- Mid -Shot - Paul getting in the car
- Mid-shot to extreme close-up - Shoulder to phone message
- Over the shoulder shot - Paul driving the car
- Long Shot - Paul driving past the pub. - Shows setting and main location
- Long shot to zoom - The long shot when the car goes past the pub, and it zooms into the pub window.
- Long Shot - Mark & Claire talking in the pub.
- Close-up - Mark retrieving ring from his pocket, connoting a proposal.
- Long-shot - Mark on one knee, to further connote a proposal
- Close-up - The ring in Mark's hand, main prop
- Long-Shot to pan - Sets the scene of the road 'Ferrars Avenue'. Pans to street sign - shows title
- Zoom to close-up - Shows the soap title
- It then fades to the title screen

Planning: Scripts

As a group, we decided that the sound in our Soap trailer would mainly consist of non-diegetic sound, which is the music we decided to use for the trailer.

However, we did include a small amount of diegtic language through speech and the car driving past the pub. The script for our speech is below.

Proposal Scene

Mark: There has been something I have been wanting to ask you for a while now.

    (Takes ring out of his pocket)

Mark: Will you marry me?

Voice-over

Shara: Will it be a happy ending? Ferrars Avenue, coming soon to 4 and 4od.

Props & Equipment

Before we began filming, we needed to get a clear idea of what props we needed to use for each scene.

Drugs Scene

• Flour wrapped in Food Wrap (Used as Drugs)
• Money

Homosexual Affair Scene

• Car
• Phone
• Keys

Proposal Scene

• Ring
• Drinking Glass
• The Pub
• Bar Stools

The props that we needed were all got hold of in time for filming, and were used successfully and appropriately.

Equipment

• Camera - These were used to film the trailer and scenes in it. Our group used a variety of different camera shots such as long shots, close-ups, zoom, panning shots etc.
• Tripod - This was used to keep the camera steady to avoid blurring a miss framing. The only scene we did not use the tripod was when we zoomed in to the phone to show the text message.
• Storyboards - The storyboards were vital, and without planning them thoroughly, the scenes would not go to our original plan.
• Shot List - This enabled us to have clear view of certain shots that we needed for each scene.
• MAC Computers - We used the MAC computers as they contained Final Cut Pro. I also used the MAC computers to transfer frames and music to the normal computers. 
• Final Cut Pro - This was our editing software we used to edit the Soap trailer. We learned new techniques as the process went along.

Music Finalized

Finding an appropriate and suitable music for our soap was probably one of the most difficult tasks of this project, as well as being one of the most important, as we needed to find some that related to our target audience as well as the story lines we used. The music also needed to be found before any further editing could take place.

We knew from the start of our planning that the music needed to be up beat in order to fit in and engage with our target audience, and we had many different types in mind.

Eventually, we found the music we wanted, and it was by a Copyright Free Youtube Channel called 'ByeByeCopyright (BBC)', and the song was Faint - Past Futures , which can also be found on Youtube. The music was relatively up beat, but in my opinion the speed also matched our story lines as well.

Characters Finalized

Casting was relatively difficult in my personal opinion, as we needed to include people of different genders, effinicity, sexuality etc. so we needed people to fulfil them roles.

The easiest scene to cast was the Drugs scene, as we needed 2 young teenagers to portray the roles, of which we knew a lot of. However, the 2 characters we did chose were of different genders, which shows that it is not only males that take drugs, which is a counter type. In the end, the actors we used were Adam Thompson and Laura Browning.

The homosexual love triangle was relatively tricky, but at the beginning we thought we needed 3 males, but in the end we only needed 2, as the other character was introduced via a text message. We had to make sure we gave a name to the person sending the text, so we decided to go with the name Kevin, as then there would be no confusion with the gender.

The most difficult scene to cast was the Proposal Scene, as we needed to introduce different efinicites, so therefor we used Mr. Linton who proposed to the woman in the pub. This scene went better than expected and all the footage needed was taken.

Drugs Scene

• Rachel - Purchases Drugs - Laura Browning
• Phil - Drug Dealer - Adam Thompson

Homosexual Scene

• Paul - Cheater - Gareth Davies
• Ryan - Man being cheated on - Oliver Roberts
• Kev - Text Messeger - Jerome Steel

Proposal Scene

• Mark - Male proposer - Mr Linton
• Claire - Woman - Miss Bobbett

Treatment Finalized

We used 3 different story lines for our Soap genre, as there needed to be a variation of characters and occurrences. The 3 that we decided as a group to go with are stated below.

Drugs Scene
We decided to have a drug scene at the start of planning, and followed through with the idea. The main reason for this is that as a group we thought drug use are a major issue in modern day society, and is stereotypical to our target audience. With this in mind, we were hoping to get 2 characters to slowly approach one another and then have a quick trade, and after that both go their separate ways. This would make it clear what was going on.

Homosexual Affair/Love Triangle
Homosexuality is becoming more common and therefore would be a good topic to cover. After watching soaps like Eastenders and Coronation Street, we knew that affairs were very common as well, such as Kat & Alfie in Eastenders. In the planning, we managed to merge both of the subjects, and portrayed them as one. The initial idea for this was to have a homosexual couple saying goodbye to one another, and then one of them getting into a car and receiving a text from what we hoped would be recognised as another man, and hopefully the penny would drop that he is having an affair.

Proposal Scene
Our group all decided that we needed a happier storyline, as the Homosexual Love Triangle and the Drugs Scene were both quite negative, so we decided to go with a proposal. This was also a great way to introduce characters and relationships instantly. We shot the footage in a local pub, so that the audience would suggest it was a date of some kind. We finished the scene without the woman giving the man the answer, and we hoped this would be like a cliff hanger which would make the audience want to see the outcome and her answer.