The Editing Process

Alice and I (Sarah) have learnt how to change the volume of the audio in Final Cut Pro as some of the dialogue was too quiet and we wanted the music to fade down so you could hear them. But we have now made the necessary improvements. The quick-paced frames which come in after all the characters are introduced are going really well and they work effectively with the music.

Alice has created the title screen 'Insiders' with the basic information using Photoshop.

In our group outside scene, originally we intended to freeze frame the different characters so we could overlay text with their name and a comment from their character. We decided to change this and Jess spent a lot of time using Photoshop to edit the freezeframes to give them another colour and use our house style font 'Cracked' for the text. We imported the pictures back into Final Cut and it now looks better. It was also suggested that instead of a comment from them we wrote their sentence length and so we made this improvement too. Alice and I looked at a lot of music on Soundtrack Pro, trying to find some good backing music for the first half of our trailer, but we have decided to not use any at this point in time and to use diegetic sound from the video footage instead.

Re-Filming

We refilmed some of the outside courtyard scenes today so that we had more footage to edit and so we could get the shots we wanted. We wanted the following shots and got them:

• A full pan of the characters outside


• Reaction shots to our character Harry being introduced


• A slow hand held shot from the POV of the two boys walking round to introduce them


• The group hanging out and a bit of fighting occurring

We are now happy with our amount of footage and think we can get further with our editing.

Before we went and did the filming, Alice and I created a one line bio for each of our actors to guide them slightly in their character portrayal. We based their characters on characters from Skins/Misfits/The Inbetweeners, as not only is it relevant to our targer audience, but we knew that it would help our actors who have all seen one of those programs at least. We also planned the actor's postures for the freeze frames, aiming to depict their main character trait.

Magazine & Poster

Thursday 25th November- We've decided to use this time to work on our print productions. Alice is working on the magazine front cover with the images took on the day we filmed in the half term which shows the actors in character and posing in character- this will help establish main characters to the audience and the soap.

Launa and Sarah are finding screen shots to involve on our magazine cover special because this will show the actors in character.

Thursday 25th November Problems

Unfortunately only female actors could make it in today and we're left with such short notice that would could not refilm anything today, however we've rescheduled once again and will include the male actors so hopefully tomorrow our courtyard scenes will be finished!

Editing Problems!

As a group we have decided our footage of the courtyard scenes are too windy and our actors cannot be heard and therefore we feel these scenes are unusable and would be a waste to use them.



We've now rescheduled actors to come in on the Thursday 25th of november to refilm our courtyard scenes to then be able to continue editting.

Editing Begins

Our whole group has now reviewed all of our footage as it stands on the tapes we used.

We've put every scene on the Mac's and are ready to begin editting to create our new soap trailer!

We've begun to add each scene and cut scenes to the right length and position them to create the trailer's structure, i.e. beginning with the opening establishing shot of HM Prison Canterbury and ending with the great piece of footage with the girl screaming 'Let Me Out'

We have been using Final Cut Pro 6 and Soundtrack Pro to help edit the sound together.

Day 3: Final Day of Filming

Today we had several of the same actors back to film more of the shorter scenes. We really enjoyed filming some of them and had to stifle our laughter at some of the great acting that was coming out of the people we had asked to help us in our project.

Most of the filming again took place in school, although I (Sarah) went to Alice's to film one small segment with one of our prison guards.

Today we also took the chance to take photos for our magazine front cover and on both days we took photos for our poster. The images look really good and quite believable too, I think. We will post some of them onto the blog quite soon.

We managed to get everything done, except for a gate which we still need to locate, and we hope that it is going to come together now in the editing process.

Day 2 of Filming

We felt today was quite succesful as we managed to get quite a lot filmed, despite the fact it was freezing outside and quite windy. We feel that the sound quality could be slightly affected by the wind, but we played it back on the camera and it seemed okay, so we will have to check this when we get to the editing stage. We filmed the scene in the courtyard today and our actors got into their roles quite well. We are worried about how some bits will fit together as it was difficult to get all our actors/actresses there on time, but hopefully through the editing we will make it look professional. Some of the short clips were filmed too, although some didn't end up so long, we filmed as much footage as possible so then we have more to 'play' with at the editing stage. When filming we tried to be very aware of the mise-en-scene and anything that may have been in the background, resulting in us having to move tables, chairs, etc.

The Start of Filming!

Here is our film schedule:




We began filming today, but our film schedule didn't go exactly to plan because of issues with actors, so we decided to make the most of our time by driving to Canterbury to film the front of the HM Prison there.

Unfortunately however, Jess, in our group had become quite ill and had to go to hospital and was therefore unable to partake in any of the filming on the three days. Although she is however back to health now.

When we arrived at Canterbury, we thought it was best if we went to ask permission before we got a camera out and started filming a real prison as otherwise people may have been asking questions. We were told that as long as we were standing on the pavement outside the gates, they couldn't do very much to stop us from filming. They didn't seem overly happy about it, but grudgingly said we could, so we went ahead. It took a while to actually get the shots we wanted as typically we arrived at an end of a shift, so many of the prison wardens were leaving and we couldn't have them or their cars on camera.

We filmed several shots at different paces, but we were quite disappointed that the inscription wasn't very visible.

Mug Shot Preparation

We prepared the information boards before the filming days, so we were ready to take the photos of each character to create our poster.

Story board.

As part of our planning for the trailer, we created several drafts of a storyboard containing our ideas of the storyline we wanted to produce.

Draft 1:

 Draft 2:

 Draft 3:

We updated our story board several times as our ideas constantly changed, from adding props, including different camera angles and even changing location of the set. All of these elements collectively add to producing a realistic media text.

Change of Location

We have also decided to change the set of our production as it felt like we had reached a dead end with trying to find an inside canteen restaurant that we could use for filming purposes. However we are going to stick with the same narrative and instead do it as an outside in a courtyard scene. We decided this would be suitable as from our research we saw that outside activities were included in the provisions for the Young Offenders.

We emailed our Head teacher to ask for permissions to use the tennis courts outside our school during half term and got the following reply.

Our Email:
"Dear Ms Stubbings,

Would it be possible to have the use of the tennis courts by Main School for a couple of days in the first week of half term?

As part of our A2 Media coursework is to make a trailer for our own new soap and it would be really useful if we could use the tennis courts as one of our sets. We don’t know if this would be possible as obviously most staff won’t be in and therefore the courts would most likely be locked – but if you could let us know asap, if you could help, that’d be great.

Many thanks,
Sarah"

Headteacher reply:
"
Sarah,

The PE department are happy for you to use the courts and they are not locked during the holiday.

From a health and safety point it is vitally important that you notify the site staff of which days and times you will be here at the school. Once you have made a decision about when you will be here please notify them before the half term holiday and then when you come on to the site you should let them know you are here and when you have left the site. They will be here between 9am and 4pm so you need to come on site between those times too.

The site staff will be here working, and there are a few other things – drama workshops etc going on at school that week.

Good luck with the filming.

Best wishes

Mrs Stubbings"

So that was a great response and after doing our Filming Schedule we will inform the site staff about when we will be in at school.

We have now informed the site staff when we will be in school so that is all organised and confirmed.

Theme music - permission.

To be able to use the music we want for our trailer, we need to ask permission from the music artist. From browsing through the band's youtube account, a link to their 'myspace' profile was listed:

http://www.myspace.com/youngoffendersinstitute

From this, we e-mailed the band:

"Hey,

I am currently studying A2 Media Studies and, in groups, we have to create a trailer for a new soap opera. The group and I want the soap to be set in a young offenders institution. Which is where you guys come in.

Like any soap, we need a theme tune but for any music we use we need permission to use it, unless we make up our own. We were wondering if we could get permission to use part of your song "we're the young offenders" for this coursework because, as you can probably tell, it would fit our soap perfectly. If we could, that would be great! Otherwise it's back to the drawingboard.. ):

Once again, it would be greatly appreciated if you could help us out and let us use your song.
Thanks!
Alice, Launa, Sarah and Jess. :)
x"

We are currently still waiting for a reply.

We also emailed the management company behind the band, whose contact details we found on the following website, as the band myspace hasn't been used for a while and wanted quite a speedy reply.

We sent them the following email:

"------Original Message------
From: Sarah Marie Baker
To: info@nuxx.com
Subject: Permissions
Sent: Oct 12, 2010 18:37
Dear whom it may concern,

The following website shows your contact details in regard to the band 'The Young Offenders Institute' and I am emailing to enquire after one of their songs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2004/12/09/young_offenders_institute_unheard_music_group.shtml
For our A2 Level Media Production Coursework we have to create a trailer for a new soap, and we have set ours in a Young Offender's Institution. The Young Offenders Institute's song 'We're the Young Offenders' is perfect for our theme tune music for the end of our trailer, however obviously we cannot breach copyright laws to use this song in our production. So this email is really to ask about whether there is a chance of us being given permission to use this song.
If you are no longer involved with this band, could you please point us in the right direction as that would be really helpful.

Many thanks,
Sarah Baker"

We then received this reply on 12/10/10

"
Sure you can use the song Sarah
Yours,


Joe"

Which we were delighted about, but we are still waiting for confirmation from the band itself, as we don't want to abuse anyone's right to Intellectual Property.

Theme Music

Soaps conventionally have a recognisable theme tune and with issues of copyright we had the option of finding a piece of music that the writers/performers would let us use, or we had to create our own music.

We are unable at the moment to find the contact details, because of school security website blocks, for the people who own the following piece of music. But we are hoping we could use this music as our theme tune! As its catchy and very relevant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-p22D9CXpQ

Young Offenders Institutions Research

We realised that we needed to do some more research into Young Offender's Institutions, so we could provide a realistic representation as a code and convention of soap is that it is a dramatised version of real life.

Below are some links that we used to learn more about the YOI's. We didn't want to copy and paste information as there are copyright laws protecting information such as on the following websites.
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/adviceandsupport/prison_life/juvenileoffenders/
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/adviceandsupport/prison_life/youngoffenders/


We were particularly shocked by stories such as the following:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207011/Child-inmates-living-extraordinary-squalor.html
And used this for ideas for storylines, that could be seen in the last flashing montage of plotlines that the soap would cover.
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/adviceandsupport/prison_life/bullying/
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/adviceandsupport/prison_life/selfharm/
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/PrisonAndProbation/DG_181856

We also looked at news stories about young people being convicted and used these as background stories for some of our characters.

Trailer Planning.

When filming the soap opera trailer we want to set it out like this scene from the film "Mean Girls":

Apologies for the bad quiality*

By setting the trailer like this characters within the soap will be revealed, allowing the audience to grasp an idea of the different groups within the soap's community; it's fast and easy for the reader to understand.

We are trying to find the sets for our trailer, and for this we need an external establishing shot to set the mood and to create good mise-en-scene. We are going to visit Canterbury HM Prison and get a pan shot of the front entrance to use. Here is a print screen from Google Maps of where we are going.

Pencil Drafts for the Poster and TV Listings Magazine

We have made pencil drafts for our promotional poster and TV Listings magazine in order to plan how we will create the products on the computer. Alice has decided she will make the TV Listings on Photoshop and I will make the Poster using Microsoft Word 2007. However we need to wait until our days of filming for the pictures.

Trailer Research

Before we began to plan our own trailer, we looked at several Teen TV Drama Trailers and some soap trailers. Although TV Drama is a slightly different genre, it was important for us to see how Production companies targeted the Teen audience in Dramas such as Misfits, Skins, The Inbetweeners, etc.









And additionally the trailers at the following links. (Youtube wouldn't allowed these videos to be embedded into other sites)
The Inbetweeners - First Day of School Trailer

Audience Questionnaire

We constructed an audience questionnaire to gain an idea of what the general public would look for in a new soap trailer, a TV Listings front cover and a poster advertising the new soap. We included questions that required qualititative answers - as its good to get a mixture of quantitative and qualititative results. Below is the questionnaire questions we asked:

Soap Trailer
1. Suggest some names for our soap
2. What do you enjoy most about soap opera?
3. Which soaps do you watch and why?
4. How do you watch soap?

Scheduled TV Online

With Family With Friends By yourself

5. Which are your favourite soap characters?
Why?

6. A new soap produced by which channel would you be most likely to watch?
BBC 1 BBC 2 ITV 1 Channel 4 Channel 5

E4 Sky 1

7. What time and on which day(s) would you be most likely to watch a soap?
8. How many characters would you expect in a trailer for a new soap opera?
9. What information would you want to see in the trailer for a new soap?
10. What style and pace would you like for a teen soap trailer?

Black and White Slow motion Accelerated

Colour Sepia

11. Which camera techniques would be appropriate?
High-Angled Low-Angled Pans Zooms

Tracking Mid-Shot Long Shot Close Up

Shot-Reverse-Shot Over the Shoulder Shot

12. How many locations would you like to see in the trailer?
13. What narrative would most encourage you to tune into a new soap?

Poster Questions
1. What information would you find useful to have on the poster?
2. Where would you like to see the posters placed?
3. How many characters would you like on the poster?
One 2-5 Most of the Characters

4. Would you like the characters to be looking at the camera in the image(s)?
Yes No

5. Would you like the people in the poster to be in or out of character?
In Character Out of Character

6. Would you like the image to be taken on set or a studio shot?
On Set Studio Shot


TV Listings Front Cover Questions
1. What type of image would you like?
2. How many characters would you like on the cover?
One 2-5 Most of the Characters

3. Would you like the characters to be looking at the camera in the image?
Yes No

4. Would you like the people on the cover to be in or out of character?
In Character Out of Character

5. Would you like the image to be taken on set or to be a studio shot?
On Set Studio Shot

6. What colour scheme would you like for a TV Listings front cover?
7. How much would you pay for the magazine?
50p or less 51p-£1

£1.01-£2 £2.01 - £3

£3.01+
8. How often would you like the magazine to be released?
Weekly Fortnightly

9. What font style would you like?
10. Would you like lots of information on the front page or snippets?
Lots of Info Snippets

11. How many other soaps would you like advertised on the front page as well as ours?
One Two Three Four Five

12. Which soaps would you like also advertised on the front?
13. Would you like TV Drama being advertised on the front cover or just soaps?

TV Drama too Just Soaps

Channel 4 Reply

Here is the reply we received from Channel 4.


"Dear Alice,
Thank you for contacting Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries.
We would advise that Channel 4 do not actually make any of the programmes that we broadcast, they are all made by independent production companies. As such, we would not be in a position to assist you with your project as we get a huge volume of requests from students for information on their chosen project/assignment. We simply don't have the time or resources to answer individual enquiries.
We are sorry we could not assist you further, but we wish you all the best with your project.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us here at Channel 4.
Regards,
Ed Black
Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries"

We were a little dissappointed by this email as it's a 'non-response' email and didn't really answer our question, but this is quite typical of institutions. It however did leave the option open to create our own '4' brand of magazine which we have decided to do for our coursework.

We felt supported in our decision by the fact that X-Factor now has its own weekly magazine, called 'X' which stretches from the music magazine to TV Listings to Women's magazine genres, but it also shows that a more specific magazine can be successful and as Channel 4 is a successful franchise - it is quite possible that a '4' magazine would sell.

Research and planning.

To grasp an idea of TV listings magazines, we enquired Channel 4 about whether or not they would make their own as a promotional tool for their tv channels and programs.

Here is the confirmation email of our enquiry:

Subject: Your Channel 4 enquiry [Ref 992009]
Dear Alice Sarah Launa,
Thank you for your enquiry.
A member of our Customer Support team will review your email and get back to you within the next 7 days.
Your Enquiry Case number is 992009. Please make a note of this.
Please be advised, that we don't send individual replies if the information you require can be found on the FAQ section of our website
(www.channel4.com/faq) so please check there for your answer.

Initial Ideas Mindmap

We have decided not to opt to do a school soap opera, despite having easy access to a perfect set, but to do something new and exciting, set in a Young Offenders Institute. Our initial ideas map is below.

Research into Codes & Conventions of Soap Opera & Soap Opera Trailers

We watched several clips from soaps, e.g. Eastenders, Coronation Street, etc. to develop a clear list of codes and conventions that we could use in our trailer.

Magazine Codes and Conventions

We researched into the codes and conventions of magazines, listed below is what we found that were common in magazines:

• big title-top left mainly (mastheads)


• one main centralised image


• smaller images of scenes surrounding


• main image - studio shot, eye contact, out of character


• main storyline goes with the main image


• colour scheme - mainly primary colours


• main headline is usually vague to tease the reader


• ellipses, exclamation marks - emphasises drama


• usually quite busy on the front cover


• mainly aimed at a female audience

Codes and Conventions of a Trailer

We researched into the codes and conventions of trailers for films and tv dramas, listed below is what we found:

• usually are fast paced to keep you entertained


• advertisement of the title of the film/programme


• music to accompany the image


• introducing the characters


• variety of colours - depends on the storyline etc.


• the time that the programme will be on


• the date it will start


• the channel the programme will be on

Introduction

Hi our names are Alice, Jess, Launa and Sarah, this is our A2 Production Blog.




The aim of our project is to produce a TV Trailer for a new soap along with its front cover of a TV listings magazine and a poster. We are going to update our blog at each different stage to show our progress within the assignment.