Character Profiles

I chose social media pages to represent each character as this is a sixth-age-range related platform where most students communicate after, or during, the school day. Also, through doing it this way you can see where they live, their family/relationships, what school/sixth form they attend, photos of them and three of their social media interactions, being statuses representing current worries or generally to get a feel of their personality, shares of things they're interested in, or photos they uploaded.

Lucy Blake (played by Eleanor Rose)

'Lucy Blake' confirmed to be played by Eleanor Rose, will be my main character in the whole soap opera. Everything is related or centered around her. She has a younger sister, Melody Blake (Molly Bishop), is in a 'complicated' relationship with Nathan Mathewsonn (Harry Colgan), has a friend who's just learnt she's pregnant at a very young age (Pixie Clinton playing Justine Webber). I also am going to feature either one or two of my friend's parents to act as Lucy and Melody Blake's parents who're going to be playing the part of going through a very distressing divorce.

Melody Blake (played by Molly Bishop)

Melody Blake will be one year younger than Lucy Blake, so will be in her first year of sixth form (year 12). She will find her parent's divorce much more distressing than Lucy, she's going to be seen bottling up how she feels about it all. She is going to ask the local known drug dealer (Nathan Mathewsonn) for some pills, Mathewsonn unknowing she plans to take them all in one go eventually ending in her own suicide.

Nathan Mathewsonn (played by Harry Colgan)

Harry Colgan has agreed to play the role of Nathan Mathewsonn, a drug dealer, no good-er. He is in a 'complicated' relationship with Lucy Blake but without her knowledge has cheated on her and got the character Pixie Clinton is playing, pregnant! He will be seen being arrested for supplying Melody Blake the pills she overdoses on and pleading guilty in court.

Justine Webber (played by Pixie Clinton)

Pixie Clinton has agreed to play the part of Lucy Blake's best friend. She tries to support both the Blake children through their parents divorce but becomes aware of Melody's plan to commit suicide. She is in the early stages of pregnancy, Nathan Mathewsonn being the father.

Reflective Comment:
I am pleased I did the Prezis social media style, I think this works well. Also all actors have agreed to playing their role so I am feeling positive about the whole production. More explanation will probably be done on each character, regarding costumes and general characteristics.

Storyboard

Need to upload pictures of my storyboard, annotate and reflective comment this post.

Script

Unfinished

Background Music

I have often struggles with background music, as I am not a musician in any way. Copyright free websites, understandably, often do not have a lot of varying music as they are not profiteering from this music. However on a website called Purple Planet Music, a copyright free music website owned by Chris Martyn, Geoff Harvey and Mark Fildes. Geoff and Chris compose, perform, record and produce and mix all Purple Planet material, and leave it available for anybody to download and use for free. I have found two songs I like the sound of and think they fit a school-like theme and beat. 'Ecstasy' I only really like the first 8 seconds of as a starting beat for the trailer.



I would like to start my TV trailer for my teen-soap with a Rock genre-y song with a strong beat. These are five examples, by four different bands, of what I mean - I would love to use these but that would break Copyright laws so I need to look into copyright free music that's similar to these, if there is any, or look at creating my own music.

Analysing and Seeing What I Could Use From Other TV Soap Adverts

BBC 1 EastEnders Ad: Kathy's Back

This whole advert is given the feeling of being filmed backwards. This is an idea I have never seen in another advert for a soap opera storyline. Obviously it cannot have all been filmed back-to-front as otherwise when she speaks it wouldn't have matched with words. I also chose to look at this advert as it is in first person - something I've been looking into doing for my TV Soap Opera Trailer.

Script:
Kathy: Ten years ago, I faked my own death, I turned my back on my life, my family, my sons, for a man, but I miss my boys, I won't stay away any longer, they're going to hate me but I'll win them back. I'm coming home because home is where my heart is'
Voice over: Kathy's back, Eastenders, next Friday at 8 on BBC one

I picked up on these features of the advert above:

• Gives background storyline

'Kathy' says 'Ten years ago, I faked my own death, I turned my back on my life, my family, my sons, for a man'. This gives anybody who didn't watch EastEnders around the year 2000 a recap of what happened. This can allow new people who don't watch EastEnders a gateway into getting into it without needing to research existing storylines as they will already start to understand. It also leads the audience into wanting more into what was so good about the 'man' that she left her life behind for him? Why is she no longer with the 'man' and wanting to go back to her old life?

• First person (I, me etc.)

This gives the advert a more personal feeling and helps the audience see how much hiding she was alive so difficult. I want to use first person for part of my trailer for the main character to introduce themselves as I think it'll make it stand out in comparison to other soap operas that may be looked at as similar, being that it'll be prodominately filmed in school, sixth form.

• Introduces characters

'Kathy' covertly introduces her sons (or 'boys') in this advert by saying 'I turned my back on my life, my family, my sons, for a man, but I miss my boys'. When 'sons' is said we see Ben Mitchell (her on-screen youngest son) and when 'boys' is said we see Ian Beale (her on-screen eldest son).

• Gives insight into her character

Kathy shows how determined she is as a character by saying things like 'I won't stay away any longer, they're going to hate me but I'll win them back'. Script is a very important part of any advert as this is the audiences first impression, usually, of that product or service. I will do a post soon on script alone.

• Introduces where she's from

Calling Albert Square 'home' shows the audience she is an original EastEnders character and shows people iconic buildings of Walford such as the Queen Vic pub. 

• Voice over gives day, time, programe & channel

Very important to let the person viewing know the main details so they can watch it. Otherwise the trailer will have been pointless.

Peep Show

Peep Show is a British sitcom.  It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2003 until 2015. In 2010 it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history. Peep Show follows the lives of two flat mate friends who live in London. Stylistically the show uses point of view shots, with the thoughts of main characters Mark and Jeremy audible as voice-overs. In September 2013, Channel 4 announced that the show's ninth series would be its last. I analysed the promotional trailer released for the last series:



I picked up on these features:

• Eachother's point of view (POV) and that we hear what he's thinking:

The point of view shots and the voice-over-ed thoughts of main characters are what has drawn me to the Peep Show, in relation to the TV Soap Opera advert I will produce. To make my Soap Opera more unique and have an edge on other soaps, similar I wanted it all based around one character, likely to be a young women, probably 17 or 18 years old who attends a Sixth Form college. This makes it different from programs such as Waterloo Road and Skins as it'll all be problems that are directly affecting that main character (such as friend's parents getting a divorce, exams that main character has, the sighting of drugs in the school and wondering whether to tell etc.) Many, many British soaps do not follow this format and instead have 6 or 7 storylines happening at once all concerning different people. British comedies, however, have been known to follow this structure such as Peep Show, Miranda, Mrs. Brown's Boys and The Catherine Tate Show. Quite often in these programs the main character breaks the fourth wall (meaning they talk directly to the camera, to the people watching at home). I do not wish to feature this in my soap but instead indirectly talk to those at home, like Peep Show does, by having the voice over being the thoughts of that main character.

• Upbeat music:

This is import to give the program a youthful feel. If I put classical, slow music in the background it would give the program a different feel and probably appeal to the wrong audience. Usually, TV dramas or soap adverts only have slow, upsetting music if what it's advertising is a sad storyline or a drama centered around a distressing event. As my Soap Opera is going to be based in a sixth form, it would be good to have a sixth-form-feel to it, maybe featuring a school bell, or the noise of many young people from a playground or something similar. 

• Titles to break the advert up:

Although I do like this and think it works well in this advert for the Peep Show, I don't think it would be conventional to put them in an advert for a new soap. In the EastEnders 2013 advert for their Christmas Special, it uses 3 title screens. One of 'It's all', one of 'about to', and one of 'Change'. This worked well but is an existing soap and I don't think would make sense in a new soap trailer.

• Gives insight into life at home:

I think this in important in a trailer so the public can see to what extent they would be able to relate to this character they know nothing about, if the main character lived in a normal working class house with a ordinary family structure, the majority of people are likely to be more interested in watching this program due to normality and relatibility, whereas if the main character lived in a mansion with butlers then the general public would probably resent this person more if they were to complain about things not as important.

• Shows other main characters:

Although the main character will be the people most featured in the trailer, it is vital to show some other members of the cast so the audience can get a taste of what else they will be seeing in the program. This also gives more of an insight into the main character's life and what problems may be occuring in this new series of a new British soap.

• Date, time, title of program & channel:

Crucial! How else will the viewer know when, where and what to watch? This is normally shown in a format similar to the channel's ident. I will either look into using an existing channel that would appeal to the audience of youths (e.g BBC 3 or E4) or will create my own channel and channel ident, probably using Adobe After Effects.