Analysis of Radio Times

My group has decided to base our T.V guide on the current successful TV listings magazine the Radio Times. Through researching this magazine, we noted that it usually features a TV drama on the cover instead of a soap. We are challenging this by basing our magazine on the Radio Times but advertising our soap on the cover. This is a successful magazine was first published on the 28th September 1923 and has been successful ever since.


first edition 1936



War-time edition 1939

one of the first colour editons 1967




Christmas 1988

It is easy to see the development of the covers through the years and what has remained the same (house style). The covers have always had one main image and the title has always been written straight across the top.

Filming - Day 1

Sunday 15th November 2009

Today we began filming for our opening to the episode which we have decided to put onto our website. Before we started filming we discussed the part of storyline we would be focusing on and decided what type of shots we would use and how we wanted the scene to end up looking. Thegla was our actress and the rest of us (me, Elena and Natalie N) all took turns with the filming and the holding of the microphone and the listening to through the headphones to make sure the sound was ok.
We started filming the main character 'Andrea' having her breakfast in the kitchen when she gets a text saying 'Are you in school today?', her mum then walks past and tells her to hurry up otherwise she is going to be late. We used a variety of shots, including:

• close-up shots
• over the shoulder shots
• panning shots
• wide shots
• a shot which included thegla in the foreground and her 'mum' in the background and each one going into focus as they speak/react to the other one
• reaction shots

We filmed a variety of these shots so that when we go to edit it, we have a large selection of shots to chose from.

Ater filming this scene, we decided to begin filming the interview of the cast which we are also going to include on our website. It was my job to act as the interviewer and i was asking the other group members questions about our soap, such as, why the name I.V, whether the meaning behind the title reflects back on the lives' of the characters and a bit about the characters in general.

After filming these, we went out and took some more practice photos for our magazine cover and for our website. We took these outside so that we could get the length of the road in behind us giving the photo more depth.

The camera we filmed with.

Elena and Natalie N using the camera

The microphone we used.

Me and Natalie N using the camera, and on the table is a white piece of card that we used to reflect the light onto Thegla.

I think we are up to date on our work so far and we are working well. We managed to fix the lighting problems we came across and completed all the filming we plannned to do. We had originally hoped to film a different part of the soap but due to the wether we had to change our plans.

Recce Forms

These are the location recces for all the possible locations. The date we will be filming will be added at a later date when they have all been fully decided upon.

LOCATION:
Street

DATE:


TIME:
Morning/day

WHAT WE WILL FILM HERE:
Students making their journey to school. The main girl (Andrea) is bunking from school, smoking and a group of girls from her school walk past and one of them asks for a cigarette.

WHAT WE LOOKED AT:
The location is suitable for filming as there is enough space for the whole group to work effectively. The lighting outside should be suitable, just depending on the weather. There may be a variety of hazards and things to think of such as:
· If the weather is bad, people might slip on the pavement
· Making sure the road is not too busy with cars and us not standing in the road.
This will be suitable to use any time of the day, but we are choosing during the day when it is light outside.



LOCATION:
Bedroom

DATE:


TIME:
Morning/day

WHAT WE WILL FILM HERE:
The main character Andrea looking at the notes she was getting and then having the flashbacks. The letters coming in through the post box.

WHAT WE LOOKED AT:
The location is suitable for filming as there is enough space for the whole group to work effectively. The lighting will be suitable as we can use lights. There may be a variety of hazards and things to think of such as:
· People tripping over wires
We do not need to get permission to film here as it is one of our bedrooms and it is available all day.


LOCATION:
Garden

DATE:


TIME:
Morning/day

WHAT WE WILL FILM HERE:
The dead body

WHAT WE LOOKED AT:
The location is suitable for filming as there is enough space for the whole group to work effectively. The lighting outside should be suitable, just depending on the weather. There may be a variety of hazards and things to think of such as:
· If the weather is bad, people might slip
· Keeping the equipment dry


LOCATION:
Cafe

DATE:


TIME:
Day

WHAT WE WILL FILM HERE:
The main character (Andrea) gaining another note

WHAT WE LOOKED AT:
The location is suitable for filming as there is enough space for the whole group to work effectively. The lighting should be suitable. There may be a variety of hazards and things to think of such as:
· Tripping over wires
· The layout and size of the Cafe
We need to get permission to film in this location and find out from the manager when will be suitable times to film there.


LOCATION:
Kitchen

DATE:
Sunday 15th November 2009

TIME:
Any

WHAT WE WILL FILM HERE:
The main girl Andrea, having her breakfast, her mum comes in and tells her to hurry up because she will be late for school; Andrea walks out and slams the door behind her.
A boy cooking his breakfast, he gets a phone call and tells the person he is going to be late for school.

WHAT WE LOOKED AT:
The location is suitable for filming as there is enough space for the whole group to work effectively. The lighting should be suitable and if it gets too dark, we can use lights. There may be a variety of hazards and things to think of such as:
· Tripping over wires
· Possible fire hazard while the breakfast is being cooked
We do not need to get permission to film here.

Refection on Pilot Focus Group

Prior to the pilot focus group, we discussed what sort of questions we would ask and what we hoped to gain from the experience. Our pilot group consisted of people from our class who have a knowledge of Soap Operas and the conventions needed to make them successful. We realised that when we carry out our real focus group, the participants will not have the same background knowledge.
As a group, we learnt that we need to be well prepared when pitching our idea to the group in order to make the group understand what we are planning on carrying out.
We came to the conclusion that we need to keep our questions broad and our pitch and treatment clear to understand.