Audience Feedback

For us to improve and make our production to the best of our standard we needed to get audience feedback. We got feedback from our classmates for the rough cut of our soap trailer and our two ancillary tasks. We were given many points to consider and ways to improve.
We were told that our music was too loud and that it made it seem more like a music video.
We resolved this by lowering the music and and selecting certain parts from the soundtrack to cut out.
We also had to slow down the beginning, showing more of the area and include shots of the area throughout the trailer, relating back to Warwick Avenue. Adding effects to our trailer made it appear more professional with a higher quality of work and more appealing to our target audience.
We were told our storylines weren't very clear and it was hard to understand what was going on, some being too short and some shots being too long but with no real meaning, so we had to edit our storylines to flow better and tell the narrative better.
Our ancillary tasks weren't understood well, with many people commenting that they didn't go together well enough or show any special effects. So we decided to change the poster completely and to fix the magazine front cover by adding more colours, effects and making it stand out more. The poster before was too busy and didn't really explain the storylines the way we wanted it to so by changing it, making it simpler yet still get across our soap.

Our feedback on our final product was that all three tasks had a great sense of brand identity and worked well in relating to our target teenage audience.

Magazine and Poster

After producing our soap trailer we created a front cover of a magazine and a poster for it. Before making our own ones we researched different types of mags and posters to see what type of characteristics they have and how they are presented in the real media.

Because our soap trailer is aimed at a younger audience and is about teenage life we decided to make them a bit more playful and not too serious. The poster and magazine has the same dreary backgrounds which fade in using Photoshop and Indesign, showing that they think they are living in a dream but, when the audience watch the trailer most of them will connect with it and see what problems are going on from a different point of view and that they are not alone.

Because everyone knows Warwick Avenue is not very posh and we filmed all our shots within this area, we decided to play with this idea and make the word Warwick Avenue in a posh font (Zapfino), it adds humour with a little twist. We put the actual area for the backgrounds of both this is for the people that do not know where Warwick Avenue is and I think the gist of it works out and makes it look professional but also unique.

The main colours that are used is black and white, these colours show love. danger, evil alone which is what the soap is about. On the mag we put the main characters with the main story bigger than the rest to catch the readers eye, the same was done for the poster putting the characters together on how they appear in the soap trailer. Also did this in the trailer not mixing the characters in anyway making it nice ans clear for the audience.

Editing

After capturing everything we filmed onto Final Cut Pro, we watched through the footage and sorted the scenes out into storylines. This meant that we could edit the individual storylines separately and then collaborate them with other storylines much easier.
After watching our footage we realised we had some scenes missing and it was difficult to tell what was going on in the soap without them, so we can go re-film certain parts to achieve continuity.
Unfortunately many of the characters were unavailable to re-shoot these shots so for some parts we had to change the actors and get rid of an entire storyline, however this didn't disrupt us too much and we were able to continue with editing without any problems.

After sorting the shots into storylines and editing out the useless parts, we then had the difficult job of bringing these storylines together in a way similar to current soap trailers. We had to make sure the storylines were still clear and easy to understand even when there are multiple plots, but also for the trailer to flow well as a whole. This was sorted out quickly and we swiftly moved on to making our trailer more look and flow better.

This was done with the help of effects, we chose the effects which made our soap trailer seem more like current soap trailers, following certain forms and conventions. Effects such as split screen and motion path made our soap appear more interesting and modern, relating to our desired target audience of teenagers. Using the split screen we were able to link our storylines and help the audience understand what is going on better, such as the love triangle between Ali, Darine and Mohammed. We also used a split screen for Dammy's shot showing us two different views. Other effects used were to make the trailer more appealing to teenagers and in keeping with our storylines.

We chose to use an original soundtrack, however we didn't want to make it appear as it is is a music video so we had to edit the soundtrack at certain parts, lowering the volume and bringing it up at other parts. We wanted it to be a catchy yet work well in conveying the area and adding to the storylines, so we chose to use a song with a strong hip-hop feel to it, bringing a street feel to the trailer and helping to relate better to our teenage audience.

To finish with we had to add a voice recording stating when and where our soap will be shown, this was very straight forward and easy to do, choreographing it well with the titles and production logo. This was the final step and we were very pleased with the finished product.

Filming

Day 4

Today we had to wait untill after school to film because we needed to get a boy into the girls toilets and this can only be done after school and when Adam and Louena had free time. The recording went well, and the echo in the toilet works well adding to the realistic feel. The ariel shot was a bit fiddly but it worked out in the end after a few shots.

Filming

Day 3

Today me and Insaf planned to go film the cafe storyline where the same girl i filmed at my house would try steal a coke can. We shared the equipment between us as it was more manageable. Insaf asked her uncle if we could film in his cafe at Queens Park still keeping it around the area. It worked very well as there was not a lot of customers if any at this time around 4 o'clock. Plus, it as very spacious and the lighting didn't need to be adjusted.

Filming

Day 2

I had to record a small part in my house taking all the equipment home this wasn't much of a hassle as i live 10 minutes next to the school. As my initial actress let me down i just moved to the next as there was no time to waste. Recording in the corridor to the kitchen went smoothly as there was enough efficient space to maneuver and keep the story line in tact. Furthermore, because the house was so quiet the sound was perfect keeping up with the realism.

Filming

Day One

The first day of filming went really well, we met up in Paddington Rec with the actors and had all the filming equipment. We only had 2 hours to film as the park was closing and it was getting too dark to film, even with the flashlights. We only had to film a few shots, but it took a while as the park still had other people in it and we couldn't include them in the shots as it wouldn't have a sense of continuity. We also picked up a lot of background noise, some of which is useable and some we will have to edit out.

Location

These are the locations that we have used to film. Here we filmed Darine on the phone. It looks like a casual place where someone would wait for someone or somewhere where a young person would hangout connected with the audience. The light was nice and bright which made the filming nice and clear plus, not filming at peak hours helped with noise so we could hear the phone ringing.

Filming in the toilet makes the soap look more fun and dramatic, especially in the school toilets furthermore, when the characters talk the sound is nice and clear and kind of echos to add to the dramatic feel.

Here is Paddington Rec something that the audience can connect to also it's around Warwick area also connecting to the soap. Filming at the park at night also adds to the sad feeling that something is going to happen creating dramatic irony. A parks a place where children go and have fun play on the toys and this is showing the opposite.

We shot the story line with Ayla (actress), I chose my house to film in because it's close to the area and so it's less time consuming and also keeping the brand identity (Warwick Avenue). Furthermore, it was an efficient place to use the camera movements and angles that i needed for example the panning which worked out nice and swiftly.

Broader overview

Warwick Avenue is a new soap that depicts the life of teenagers growing up in an urban environment it is different to other soaps as it is set only around this area, it shows us all the things and problems that are going on that most people might not notice you could call it showing awareness. The characters are specifically chosen so they look the part combined with the personally that's meant to be shown.


Throughout, we will have a range of characters different from each other keeping up the individualism which teenagers should have, it could make them think about it while watching it. Some will be mischievous, quiet, sly, funny, goths(something that every school has) plus from research of other soaps I've seen this. Story lines are going to be inspired by other soaps; Hollyoaks and Grange hill mostly because they are my favourite and most dramatic but we will make them our own, always leaving the audience with cliffhangers to keep them interested and wanting to watch more. The story lines will still be aimed at teenage life but will have other age groups coming in for further realism.