Soap Magazine Annalysis

After completing my soap magazine front cover I have learned so many valuable skills in how to use Photoshop and how soap magazine publishers use and manipulate certain texts and images to gain an audiences attention.

It was apparent from the start from researching in depth all different types of primarily soap opera based magazines that the color scheme I should be aiming for was very bright and color contrasting. This could be seen in other words as 'trashy' and the most sophisticated of styles. However in order to fit in with other successful soap opera magazines It was apparent that's the style guidelines I had to follow. I wanted to create a color scheme with the same kind of vibrancy as Whats on TV and Soaplife so I decided to use a contrasting color scheme of Yellow, White, Pink, Black and Red, however the primary colors that I decided to use were Red, Black and and White. I decided to use different sizes of fonts and colors that contrast to emphasize the story lines to potential consumers. I also thought these bright contrasting color scheme would be effective because it might convey excitement and interest to the potential buyer.

My primary choice of font was Comic Sans.I chose this font because I thought it was clear and sharp and looked effective when making the fonts outlines and shadowed, but also because it held some similar resemblances to Soaplifes's font usage which seems to be effective. I wanted the title to stand out from the rest but also carry resemblances to some of the other subtitles and text so in order to make a clear separation I decided to use a shadowing effect on Photoshop to emphasize that it was clearly the title of the magazine. I used the tagline and primary story line as 'WINTER SHOCKERS' as I thought it would catch peoples eye as it comes across as it was a really big story line of the season of the soap opera. 

For the bottom story line, I decided to use the font red when stating the word 'Revenge' as i thought it contrasted effectively with the blank font and symbolizes danger. Finally for the top story line I used the tagline 'Gemma leaves Dan . for WHO?', I think this was most appropriate as it creates suspension and curiosity for the potential buyer which may push them towards buying it. Underneath have wrote 'heartbreak in corrie'. Calling Corrination Street, 'Corrie' as a kind of slang, might appeal to the target audience of the reader hinting that it's not too serious and has a 'chatty' and gossip feel to the magazine.

Final Draft of Soap Magazine Cover

I decided not to change to a drastic amount my soap magazine front cover, I edited the spelling of 'Betrayal' and also put some necessary spaces between some of the words to make it look more professional  I also did try and change the sizing of the pictures however the pictures became far more pixalated and were ruined by the change of size. 

First Draft of Soap Magazine Front Cover

Filming

For a soap opera as it's supposed to be a realistic representation of real life socially when filming I tried to keep everything as normal as possible. This included the clothing, for my two characters I dressed them in a normal long sleeved t-shirt for Gemma and a plain vest top and leggings for Amy. I avoided putting make up on them because the topic of the clips (heartbreak and other depressing subjects) and in the home environment in real life a person wouldn't be very dressed up and far more casual.

Successful Filming

Finally we found a suitable date and moved forward with filming! Filming took place at my house on the fifteenth of April. By this point we were fully prepared with the equipment I was being expected to use to film clips for our Trailer. Filming went well however we were only able to film some of the clips needed, due to bad weather. Some of the footage needed was shot indoors so this didn't effect filming. However for the footage outside was pros-boned until the 20th of April.

Failed Attempt

Unfortunately we were unable to film on our selected date of the 25th of March because of our own faults. We were unprepared to use some of the equipment we were required to use. We decided we needed some more help from people more knowledgeable than us with equipment in order for our filming to be a success. We have rescheduled our next filming session to take place on the fifteenth of April.

Preparation for Filming

After weeks of research for the filming of our project and organizing we have finally got to the stage when we can start filming our Trailer. We have set a date being the 25th of March. We have decided upon this date as it fit in with both of our work schedules, school schedules and also suitably fit around our actress's schedules.

Location
We have decided to primarily focus our location around my house. We wanted to keep it in a home environment as lots of the topics we are covering are problems that you would deal with in a home environment. In all the different scenes it will show a different location of different events
occurring.

Costume
With the nature of a soap being a 'representation of real life', we have kept the outfit choices for the characters as simple as possible. We have focused upon day to day clothing; eg; - jeans, jumper and trainers. In some scenes to show distress and being emotionally drained we have chosen one of our actresses Amy to wear her Nightwear/pajamas. We thought this would be the best choice for the scene and Amy because it really would help portray her mood in the scene.

Music
We have decided for our trailer we wouldn't have any real life sound effects just soundtrack. After a lot of research to soundtracks, backing tracks and songs, we found that 'Radioactive (137 bpm instrumental version)' would be our most suitable option. We decided just to have a dramatic steady beat going on throughout the clip, we thought this would create effect but also not take all the attention away from the actual visuals.

Soap Opera Poster - My Inspiration

Finding inspiration for a TV Soap has proven to be difficult to me as Soap Operas stereo typically  don't have posters for their up and coming story lines  it's primarily trailers. I have have had to be very creative and imaginative as we haven't got an idea of how a real soap opera poster would look like. For the next best thing, I have been looking at various different TV Drama Posters in order to get a general idea of what we should be aiming for.

I personally think the 'Skins' featured trailer is perhaps the most relate-able trailer to our 'Behind Closed Door's. Skins covers all the story lines that people face day to day, alike Behind Closed Doors'. As our current topic on our story line we are promoting and advertising is involving serious upsetting problems, I think we are going to aim to have our poster picture background taken in the bathroom. This is because in dramas people and stereotypical real life people run into the bathroom for comfort when upset or to run away from whatever problems arose outside. As much of a quirky inappropriate place it may seem to be, for this soap story line, it seems appropriate and ideal. 

What struck me with the skins film poster was with the special effects they have managed to create a dull and depressing look to the picture to give viewers an idea of the mood of the story line and character. The male character sunk into the musky, dirty water in the bath tub indicates that he wants to escape his problems and that he is almost drowning in all of the problems surrounding him. 

What's on TV Magazines - Our Inspiration

After a great amount of research on different soap magazines we have decided to focus our attention upon 'Whats on TV' Magazine. We have decided this because, along with being the most successful TV guide listings primarily focused around up and coming soap story lines, we felt it was the most appropriate for our genre of soap. I really liked the type of appealing text it uses and how the bold and contrast of colors are so eye catching it immediately catches your attention. 

Soap Trailer Explanation and Planning

My work partner Tilly Cook and I have been reasearching throughourly for inspiration and ideas for our very own soap opera trailer. We have seen many interesting and creative ideas which has helped us gather inspiration into which we have come up with our own idea. We have decided to base the trailer on a basis of five themes which would primarily target out target audience and would also attract a broader audience aswel.
The themes are:

• Love
• Betrayal
• Hate
• Mistakes
• Death

 In the trailer we plan to capture images portraying the five themes being a few seconds long demonstrating the drama and tension that a typical soap opera holds. All of the themes are designed to play in a specific order in order to explain the soaps current storyline.

Brief Ideas - note form
Love The love clip will feature a male and female kissing each other with affection on the cheek in a private public place.

Betrayal Our betrayal clip will feature someone walking in and seeing their friend with their boyfriend/ Partner. Innically zooming in of the door opening, then zoom in of the clothes and underwear then two anonymous figures in the bed. We plan to shoot this clip at Tilly's House in her bedroom.

HateWe have decided without having to try and create anything being abusive and violent we decided to film Gemma Clark chucking a photo of her best friend and boyfriend into the fireplace. We will then go onto zooming in on the burning photographs. We plan to film this clip at my house at my fireplace.

Mistakes
We have decided to film a female character sitting in the toilets, perched on the seat looking distraught and upset.

Death
For the death shot we have decided to show two characters staring over a grave stone in a graveyard, staring blankly at it.