Focus Group Questions

The idea of creating a focus group is get thoughts and opinions from people outside the group to get a non bias view on our given assignment. When creating the group, we thought that it would be better for us to have as many people involved as possible in order to get a variety of opinions which we can feed off. Sometimes asking friends can have an impact when asked what they think as they can be bias; this could result into receiving a dishonest answer which may affect our final product.

1. Do you watch soaps?
2. Having read our treatment, what do you think of our initial ideas?
3. Does this follow conventions of a soap?
4. What would you like to see more of?
5. Is there anything that you didn’t like or could be improved?
6. Would you watch our soap?

Each of these questions, will hopefully help us a group analyse and evaluate our soap and produce it to the best of our ability. 

{Written by Vinita}

Analysis of Questionnaire

Looking through the questionnaires which were handed out; we were able to conclude various ideas for our soap trailer.  We asked both open ended and closed ended questions. This allowed us to get specific responses which are quick and easy to record, as well as longer question which we are able to elaborate on. We handed out our questionnairs to a small group of our targeted audience.

Our target audience are teenagers aged between 15 – 18 who generally watch soaps such as, Eastenders on a regular basis. Some of the key aspects which our audience want to view are humour, twists and tragedy. In particular, one person said that ‘ there is no soap without twists or tragedy’. Scheduling times are crucial as we have to avoid times which clash with other, well established soap operas such as Coronation street and Eastenders.

Having done the questionnaires, it has enabled us as a group to establish exactly what our audience want especially our target audience. As we have a very specific audience, it is crucial that the correct conventions are followed as well as portraying social realism which we hope will relate to teenagers through various storylines.

Having established our findings, as a group we had to clarify our target audience as this would reflect on our scedhuling times. Initially, episodes would broadcast at round 18.30 due to other popular soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street would be aired after. However, due to further planning when producing storyboards and track shots, we decided to add storylines which included drugs, therefore we have to consider a later time, maybe around 21.00

{Written by Vinita & Michael}

This Life; Treatment

This Life; treatment.

16 year old Jacob Griffiths is an aspiring DJ/musician. His dad was laid off at the security company he worked for so Jacob takes it upon himself to make money. After a few failed job interviews after a bad case of nerves, his friend, Leigh Collins, introduces him into the dark world of drugs by the local gang; The Shadows. 

Jacob’s girlfriend, Julia Burton, is terrified about getting into trouble; with her father being the chief of police, she has every reason to be. She begs him to stop at the start of the London Riots.

On the second day of the Riots, Jacob approaches Leigh and tells him he doesn’t want to deliver drugs anymore, even though the money was good. Leigh asks him to help him get something from his aunt’s house for his mother. They arrive at the house and Leigh goes around the back, breaks open and window and opens the door for Jacob, telling him that he found a key in a plant pot.

He tells Jacob to make himself at home. He goes to the kitchen and takes out a carton of milk and drinks it. Minutes later, sirens can be heard from outside. Jacob jokingly calls out to Leigh. Leigh rushes down the stairs, pushes a bulky bag in his arms and tells him to run.

They run down the street, trying to avoid the police dogs and Julia’s father. They turn a corner and Leigh threatens Julia if Jacob doesn’t give himself up and only himself. Jacob has no choice but to give himself up to Julia’s father. After being released, he finds that his actions have caused his parents to be evicted from their council flat and they have to move in with their religious grandparents momentarily.

Our soap will have different issues, mainly surrounding family, drugs, gangs, unemployment and urban life in London. The issues we introduce in the first trailer are:

• Crime/drugs/gangs/police.
• Pregnancy/relationships/family/divorce.
• Domestic abuse.
• Death of sister in gang crossfire. 

[Combined effort; written by Naomi and Vinita]

Questionnaire For Soap

Questionnaire.

Key: / = 1
// = 2 
// \ = 3
// \ = 4
***** = 5 

GENERAL:

Age;16    17 *****    18    19

Gender;Female //    Male. // \

Race/Ethnicity;Black // \    Mixed /    Other; Asian. /

QUESTIONS:

Do you watch soaps?Yes //    No // \

If yes, which ones?Eastenders //    Coronation St. /    Waterloo Rd. //    Hollyoaks //    Other?

If no, why not?I’m busy.    I don’t care. /    I don’t like them //

What would you like to see in a soap?Humour *****    Tragedy //    Romance //     Deaths //    Twist in storyline //   New characters /

Do you record soaps or watch them as soon as you can?Record //     Watch ASAP /    Don’t Watch // \

Other information:

Most of the people I asked responded that they have to record the soaps they watch because they haven’t got the time to watch them as soon as possible; things such as jobs, homework, etc.

The people that didn’t like soaps said they didn’t like them because they were ‘pointless’ and would be more interested in them if they had more ‘humour’. 

[Written by Naomi] [Written by Vinita]

Title Sequences - Coronation Street

The title sequence for Coronation Street hasn't changed much since the soaps very first episode as the short graphical sequence contains shots of terraced streets which represent the programmes setting of Weatherfield; this is played along the soaps theme music which is composed by Eric Spear. 

From 1999 to 2010, the episodes writer and director were credited in the title sequence, although in 2010 the title sequence carries no credits and ended with the Coronation Street logo instead.

With very few changes since its debut in 1960, the sequence has pretty much followed the same formula although have changed very slight variations to incorporate recent trends. 

The very first title sequence was in black and white as the titles provided viewers with a glimpse of the programme in 1960 when it first started. The establishing shot consisted of rows of terraced houses, taken from dock buildings on Ordsall Road in Salford with St.Clements Church in the distance, after which the view changed to tilting downwards shot of Archie Street which again was in Salford on which the architecture of fictional Coronation Street was based.
This sequence was used until episode 336 (2nd March 1964), after this, there was a three month period where there was no title and the programme title was shown exclusively over the opening scene or location.

As said the before, with hardly changes, with the programmes move to high definition, a new title sequence was made which made its debut on the Internet first on the 27th May 2010. Within the programme it was first used on episode 7351 (31st May 2010). This particular sequence incorporated shots of Manchester City Centre, including the Castlefield basin, before dissolving into shots of Coronation Street itself. As a new producer of Coronation Street; Phil Colinson moved the Coronation Street logo was moved back to the very end of the sequence with the writer and director credit was displayed over the opening shots of the actions shown in the episode.

End Credits:
The end credit sequence is also a crucial part as a list of all actors and key production teams who worked on the episode were listed. Actors are usually listed in order of appearance. If two or more episodes were broad casted on one day (Mondays and Fridays) then only on the final episode contained the end credits which showed overall cast credits rather than individual episodic credits.
Until mid 2010, Coronation Street's ending credits had changed very little as it usually consisted of an image of the street itself, terraced rooftops or cobblestones, or a black screen which was common in the mid 70's. Since 2000, most ITV programme end credits have been standardised. The programmes credits currently use images from the title sequence, with cast credits displayed at the base against a black backdrop.

Analysis of Coronation Street Trailer - Siege Week

A trailer is a form of advertisement which is exhibited either on TV or in the cinema's. They are used as a form of marketing in order to get audience's watching that particular film or soap. Soaps frequently use this form of marketing as they have big story lines very often in which they need to promote in order to keep their audience watching. These extracts are usually drawn from the most exciting, dramatic and noteworthy parts of the soap but in a abbreviated form. Trailers can last from about 30 seconds up to about 2 minutes as short snippets of the episode are shown as they cannot give too much away. 

Most trailers have a 3 act structure:

Act 1: The beginning; the basis of the story is shown.

Act 2: The middle; The story is shown further in more detail and usually ends with a dramatic climax.

Act 3: The end; usually features a piece of music which is very powerful. This last act consists of a visual montage of powerful and emotional moments of the piece.

Voice over narration is also used to outline the basis of the story and provide explanation when necessary and since the trailer is a highly condensed format, voice over is a tool which is used to enhance the audience's understanding of the plot.

Music is another key element as it helps set the tone and mood of the trailer.

'Siege Week' (Coronation Street):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CKb92mdL8

The trailer starts off with two policeman's coming into the factory to tell Carla something about her ex husband Tony; then goes to Claire revealing that he has escaped from prison creating an atmosphere for the audience as they know something that Carla doesn't. The news slowly get around to the whole community where they are all talking about it and are worrying at the fact that he may come back to Coronation Street. As the news it getting round, there are quick short edits of a man with his back turned, not revealing himself and slowly the camera is panning up to reveal who he is. He then turns around and it is revealed that it is actually Tony Gorden and is back in town to kill Carla and Haley as he traps them in their own factory. The trailer itself is very fast paste which creates a sense of urgency and intrigues the audience more and makes them want to know even more as well. The use of soundtrack adds to the tension as again it is very upbeat and fats paste but in a more casual tone where as the situation at hand is urgent and serious.

Storyboard for Individual Soap

 






Establishing shot of Jade fidning out she is preganat with her boyfriend, Max's baby





Everyone at a house party. Loud music playing.

Hannah’s mum injecting drugs into herself.

Fight breaks out between two boys. One of which is Hannah’s boyfriend as she is seen to be dancing with another guy.

Jade crying, wondering how to tell Max and also her family.





Hannah and Joe (her boyfriend) arguing.