Final Cast

We have around 15 people who have volunteered to help with filming when we go to Boys Village. Those people include:

Filmers:



Stevie Anthony
Hannah Parker
Stephen Pearce


Girls:
Zoe Smith
Lauren Barber
Megan Mctravers
Nia Jones
Eve Thomas
Sophie Bees
Paige Rees
Hannah Parker

Boys:
Jevan Cannon
Zak Rossaye
Brandon Frowen
Ben Hunter
Karl Deacy

Trainspotting; Choose Life.

We have been looking at voice overs from different films to inspire a voice over for our own trailer. We were looking at the film 'Trainspotting' and really like the 'choose life' opening. Although we can't use the exact quote we would like to create our own dumbed down version. Below is the clip and quote itself;

'Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?'

- The direct quote from trainspotting.

Analysis of trailer

For my soap opera research I'm going to analysis an Eastenders trailer from 2009, it is a trailer involving one of Eastenders most famous characters, Peggy Mitchell played by Barber Windsor. I chose this particular trailer to analysis as it is modern but completely separate from the soap, people who don't even watch the soap would be able to enjoy this advert. Without knowing the storyline of this soap we know it involves a wedding day, Peggy Mitchell's, and about how the man she is about to marry has changed her from, loud and fierce to a quiet old woman. In this advert we can see the physical changes that happen to Peggy, this is a metaphor for the mental changes that have happened to this character. Below is the trailer and full analysis:

The trailer starts with a pitch black room, in the middle of the room is a woman it appears, she is wearing white sitting on a cream white chair at at a vanity table of the same colour. A non- diagetic 'plinky' almost wound up music box music is played through out the trailer, - this piece of music is called I'll tell you a story by Colleen, I think the name of the song fits well with the trailer, it is not a stereotypical trailer that uses a lot of scenes that have already been filmed, this trailer is surreal and completely separate from the soap itself - The next scene is a medium close up of the vanity table, there are pink flowers on the table and our eye is drawn to the glass perfume bottle centre of screen, the bottle is picked up and the next shot is of Peggy Mitchell dabbing on perfume, she is in white and face and make up is done. It is clear that it is her wedding day she is preparing for, she smiles as she puts the perfume on. Next shot is an over the shoulder shot of Peggy looking into the vanity table mirror, a silhouette of a man in a wedding suit is seen in the mirror, at the opposite end of the room, he is illuminated by a single white square. Peggy looks up at him and her face changes, she is immediately saddened.

The man in the background of the shot is not clear to see, how
ever watchers of the soap who have followed the story line know
that the man is Archie.

The next shot is a medium shot of the man, the audience can confirm their ideas that it is Archie, Peggy's fiance. He is the juxtaposes with the shot of Peggy who is in white surrounded by the black, the only light of Archie's shot is his face and white shirt. The white of Peggy shows her innocence and vulnerability, whereas the black that surrounds Archie suggests dark, dangerous and makes the audience not want to trust him. After this we have a long shot, Archie is in silhouette again and before him white squares light up. Peggy, in wedding dress walks from the vanity table across the white titles towards Archie.
As Peggy watches towards Archie, almost 'robotic arms' come towards Peggy, the first arm on the left of he removes a big white corsage. As the arm removes things from Peggy's outfit there is the diagetic sound of the arm moving, it contrasts with the picture as the scene using two members of the older generation at a traditional vanity table in traditional wedding wear. The robotic arm is cold, modern and alien. There are shot reverse shots between Archie and Peggy being stripped of her personal touches on her wedding dress, we can see the shot in her face and a growing anger as the train of her dress is taken away, she has her tiara swapped for a much more dumbed down, older version and a frilly piece of material is placed over her chest, Peggy looks down confused, shot reverse shot of Archie smiling at this. There is a medium close up of Peggy's face, a laser goes across her face followed by another long robotic arm that sprays some sort of liquid across her face. As the mist clears a plastic face that can't move is revealed. It is shiny and 'perfect' looking. An over the shoulder shot from behind Peggy shows Archie looking very smug, the next shot we see him placing a pearl necklace around Peggy's throat, he looks menacing as if he might strangle Peggy. Through out the advert the audience can feel the tension rise as Peggy is changed, we grow to hate Archie by the end of the advert for what he has done to Peggy.
A woman voice over says "He's got Peggy under control, but for how much longer?" As this is said there is a close up of Peggy's left eye, the pupil dilates and the BBC red background swirls itself around  the black pupil until all the screen says is 'Thursday 2nd April. Eastenders: The Wedding.' The final non-diagetic piece we hear is the famous drums of the Eastenders theme tune. This trailer is only 0.41 seconds long, however it tells a lot in such a short time, if we can create a grabbing trailer like this, our teen audience that we have chosen to aim, are bound to love it.

Auditions

To get the best actors and actresses for our soap opera trailer, we thought it would be best to hold auditions. We are going to mock up a script for people to read and see who is best to star in our trailer.


MOCK SCRIPT:

Alo: We are the children of the revolution!

Anwar: I'm praying to my God here, Cass.

Cassie: Oh... wow... is he listening?

Anwar: I hope not, otherwise he'll know about all those pills I necked last night.

Cassie: Think quietly.

Red: [narrating] I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

Our mock script includes a line from our actual trailer, a conversation from a skins episode to see how well they act and react and a monologue from the film Shawshank Redemption. If we are happy with the way they have preformed we'll ask them then to be in the filming process, also if we particularly like anyone, we might get them to read our voice over if we chooose to have on over the top of our trailer.

Here are some of the auditions we filmed:

 

The Valleys

Due to the new release of the MTV's welsh 'The Valleys' we looked at the trailer for the new series as it follows a party scenario and is filmed so close to home. Although it is degrading it is a very well put together sequence.

Final Idea with Scenes.



Here are the stills of the 1st scene we want to recreate.

1. Crabbing shot of Zak and Paige (in bed, must see photo of Zak and Brandon) phone ringing, lots of missed calls from Brandon. Zak closes eyes - fade to party.

This scene is inspired by a particular scene from Skins series 4, where there is a crabbing  shot of a bedroom across to the bed where the characer Freddie is sleeping, he opens his eyes and there is a cut to the next scene. I have posted this scene in other posts, it runs from 0.16 - 0.24 in the video, and here are some stills of the scene we want to recreate.

This is the 'we are the children of the revolution' scene we which
to make our own.

2. Establishing shot, of keep out sign camera follows someone running to party - pool with people - Karl at the top of the pool 'We are the children of the revolution'

3. Low angle shot - general party

4. Pan - general party

5. High angle shot - Brandon and Zak - close up establish relationship

for shot 8, running scene inspired by this shot.

6. General party scene

7. General party scene (climbing out of pool.)

8. Running to church - lead by Karl.

9. Cut to inside church - (drugs in a separate room)

10. Ben walks off with Hannah.

11. New scene in bed, Ben wakes up, phone call 'it's positive' he says 'f***' he hangs up - he closes his eyes.

12. Hannah and Ben alone, 'suggestive intimacy' closes eyes.

13. Ben in room, phones Hannah -goes to voicemail.

Shot 15, we like the idea of a window shot, as it creates
alot of new ideas, layers and meaings for the soap.

14. Slo-mo of Karl and drugs.

15. Our effy character Paige at the window, smoking. Zak leaves room looking distressed.

16. Kiss between two characters.

17. Brandon texts Zak.

19. Hannah smokes pipe.

20. Paige walks towards Zak

21. Title.

E4 Company

The company we are going to show our soap opera on is E4.

E4 is a British television channel, it is a companion to Channel 4 and has been live since 18th January 2001. The 'E' stands for entertainment and the channel is mainly aimed at the 15-35 age group. They include both British and U.S programming such as The Ricky Gervais Show, Glee, Scrubs and formerly Friends. British shows include Shameless, Hollyoaks, Skins, The Inbetweeners and Misfit.

The age range is perfect for what we want to aim at, plus we are mimicking a 'Skins' like soap and E4 are a company that are willing to show some more 'cutting edge' storylines that we want to portray.