For our A2 media coursework, research and planning is key in creating a quintessential portfolio. We will have to include a number of different elements in order for our portfolio.
Research:

• We will analyse a range of comparable texts that are of our genre. These will include such soap operas as Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Coronation Street.
• Analysing camera shots and angles.
• The use of audio and the subsequent effects it has upon the audience.
• The codes and conventions of particular genres of soaps and how this makes them work and appeal to their intended target audience.
• The contemplation of the audience as a general whole, and the ways in which media elements create a bond.
• Also we will research into the institutions that produce the work and how they make their work a success.
• By researching older examples of soap operas we will be able to understand the development and the changes that they have encountered over the years and find out why this has happened.

To Use a Tripod or Not?

Possibly the most important decision of our coursework was whether or not we use a Tripod for the filming aspect of our products. Initially we thought we should take it upon ourselves to decide, yet came to a mutual decision that we should base it upon audience wishes. We did ultimately collect data as you can see on the left hand side which gave us a clear idea of what to do in regards to the Tripod. However, we were unable to change a large amount of codes and conventions within the Soap content itself and therefore we decided to bend codes and conventions to an extent, in regards to the whether or not to use handheld camera. Some may say we wrongly made the decision of using hand held camera as it meant that we were going to potentially bend codes and conventions too far a stretch, and ruin the product.

What are the Most Important Factors of a Soap?

Part of our research involved us looking into what people simply liked to view in regards to a Soap, and what they felt the most integral part of a Soap was, or what made it. Arguably, all three of our options listed are integral to a Soap and must be included for it too look legitimate. However, our question was what would they rather see going on, and the camera focussed upon. As you can see from the graph on the left, characters appear to be the most essential part of a Soap, defining it. Meanwhile, Location in fact did the worst, which we were very surprised about. Deeper analysis however shows good reason behind this thought. Location is simply a place, and is something that the audience can deal with and simply get on with. But because people, are people, the audience as a whole feels a need to get along with them so that they can continue to watch the soap, or in the trailer's case, watch it for the first time. As such, our media filming will take place primarily centred around characters, with locations being a secondary, and perhaps even tertiary aspect of our trailer, if these results are anything to go by.

Research: Favourite Character Types

From the graph above it is apparent that the favourite type of characters seem to be 'solo' types.We imagine that this is due primarily because they have the ability to lead much more interesting lives, as they are not bound by normal conventions of life. For instance, they may well be single, or a traveller etc, and be out of regular norms of society.
This is something that we take into consideration during the making of our trailer as this is clearly what the audience is a fan of seeing, or at least the audience we questioned.

Characters from the results of another research aspect, appear to be the fundamental part of any soap. As such, it is imperative that we take these results into consideration, so that we get it spot on in terms of the character usage. The only slight issue we may have however, is that based on these we may 'air' a character type too much and leave the others in the dark.

Character Types

For part of our research, we had to look into set Soaps and dramas and analyse what set character types are involved. It would be pointless to try and create our own types of characters, when we can mirror currently avaliable characters. For example, the character 'Phil Mitchell' on Eastenders is the quitesentiall representation of a bully, yet still has fatherly instincts and tries to withold the sense of a nuclear family, although this is not always the actual outcome.

When looking into Character Types, we also have to look at what makes certain characters attractive to the audience, which involves the values and effectively, the morals of certain audience members. For example, it is likely that a Nuclear family would have similar values to that of a nuclear family on a Soap drama, as they can relate to the morals and values protrayed by the family. The Dingles on Emmerdale are a perfect representation of this, in the sense that their lives involve relatively typical events, common in reality; yet they still have the stereotypical functions of a nuclear family.

Of course, Soaps such as Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale each attract different audiences for different reasons. This is something we will have to further study with examples in the future, in order to learn what features are incoporated

Audience Preferences

In order for our media product to fit in with current products, we had to research what our audience have preference over in terms of the content that we will display. To do this task effectively, we sought the help of forum goers, as they will provide us with set opinions in a rapid, thorough and interpretable manner.

We chose to you generally social websites in order to return a set of varied results, including Yahoo! Answers, Digital Spy and Facebook. Considering the advances in digital technology, we assumed it would be best to exploit them to our advantage in this case.

From our research we found that (Contributors are displayed by their username):

'Dredwerkz' from Arizona liked bullies within soaps, and wanted the trailer to be focussed primarily on the more violent elements of the soap, rather than the more relaxed and civilised aspects.

'willemijn_94' from Yeovil on the other hand liked soap operas due to the warm nature that is present in most. As a result the user suggested focussing on family elements.

'Lisa D' quoted 'Very strong personalities, preferably with quirky or crazy tendencies. For example, from Days of Our Lives, my faves are Vivian Alamain (60s), Victor Kiriakis (60s), Sami Brady (mid-30s), Stefano Dimera (60s) and Brady Black (30s). This show takes place in "Salem" but I don't know which state'
'Carly' suggested including an intellectual character to reach out that aspect of society. She explained how she felt that elements of society were under-represented in soaps, and a greater audience would result in greater acclaim. 

For the latter part of our audience research we delved further into the character types that are commonly featured within Soaps. For instance, we have listed above: 'Dynamic, Flat, Round and Static' which each have their own attributes

For example:

Dynamic characters essentially are dynamic in that they change over the course of a story. Phil Mitchell can be seen as dynamic in the sense that he goes from being a petty criminal to a murderer.

Static characters however tend to stay the same throughout a story and do not let the events of the stroy effect them in any way. A good reprsentation of this is the Barmaid Betty in Coronation Street, as she typically lets the world develop around her without becoming a centralised figure.

Round characters are similar to that of dynamic in that they can change throughout stories. Round characters however tend to have a grater variation of traits than a dynamic character. For instance, an older chararcter known as Charlie in Coronation Street gave off a sense of being a nice character but went onto murder fellow characters, yet still exhibited typical social aspects such as love.

From the evidence above displayed in the chart, it is inferable that dynamic characters tend to be more popular primarily due to their ability to change throughout the course of the stories