Work coming up

1. Blog, Product and Evaluation all completed and uploaded by Tuesday 12th January.
2. When we return you will go straight into your mocks. The Media exam will be on Wednesday 6th January in the morning. You need to go to the conference room as you will be watching a 5 minute extract from a TV drama and answering questions on the

Camera Angle, Shot, Movement and Composition

Mise-en-Scène

Editing

Sound

and an element of Representation.

Evaluation Questions

Each candidate will evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work electronically, this evaluation being guided by the set of key questions below. This evaluation may be done collectively for a group production or individually. Examples of suitable formats for the evaluation are:
A podcast
DVD extras
A blog
A powerpoint
In all cases, candidates should be discouraged from seeing the evaluation as simply a written essay and the potential of the format chosen should be exploited through the use of images, audio, video and links to online resources. Marks should be supported by teacher comments and may be supported by other forms such as audio or videotaped presentations.

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:
•
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
•
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
•
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
•
Who would be the audience for your media product?
•
How did you attract/address your audience?
•
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
•
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Research and Planning may be presented in electronic format, but can take the form of a folder or scrapbook at AS Level only. Centres should ensure that blogs or other online evidence are easily accessible for moderators, preferably through a central hub or gateway with links to the work of each individual candidate properly signalled with candidate numbers.

Friday 4th December

I really think this point needs emphasizing:


'There should not be a dominance of images of the same subject amongst the four original images'

What this means is you need to take photos of more than one person.
You may want to consider your front page featuring a different subject than your double page spread (although you don't have to if it features a band).
You will have to do more than one photo shoot.

At this point in time your first draft of your front cover should be complete. You can always come back to it and reflect on it later, its better really if you do.

You should be starting on your double page spread and consider whether you need to take more photos this weekend. You don't have to use the SLR camera, an ordinary camera will be ok, a mobile phone camera won't be good enough quality.

You should aim to have the double page spread complete by the end of of this coming week & start on the contents page.

A reminder of how many images you need to use from the exam board:

Found photos may not be used as part of the project; all photos must be original.
There must be a minimum of four original images included across the pages of the magazine.

Original images should be included as part of the planning evidence and the process of changing them should be evidenced (e.g. through screengrabs of Photoshop process).

There should not be a dominance of images of the same subject amongst the four

There needs to be more attention to mise en scène in the construction of images.


Be careful you fulfill this criteria!

Here is the finished version

Xtranormal

Here is the movie whilst in the process of being rendered. You can see how the computer starts with the very basic outline then adds to it.

Double Page Spread

You need to start thinking about the approach you are going to take for your double page spread. Consider:
Images
Graphology
Copy
Representation
Language.

You also need to consider and respond to the following question:
What role do music magazines have in the establishment of youth subcultures?

Double Page Spread

View more presentations from shsgmedia.

You may respond in any form you like. You could try this application out. Xtranormal ( only works on Windows at the moment), if you don't like recording your own voice. You simply type in your text and it turns it into a movie!

Deadlines

Your Magazine must be complete and printed off by Monday 14th December.
In the week before we break up there will be opportunities for focus group feedback which will be filmed and you can edit and upload it into imovie.

You can update your blog and do the evaluation over the Christmas holidays.

Friday 27th November

Cover Pages

The front cover is a persuasive selling tool. They attract and motivate audiences to purchase the product.
They go to great lengths to make their magazine jump out from the shelf & establish their own identity to cultivate a brand loyalty.
The front cover shapes readers expectations and reader are invited to join communities with distinct cultural identities.

We read from left to right and from top to bottom. So the prime position for important info is on the top left hand corner.

Consider the layout and graphology ( the size & shape of the font) & colours used.




Titles can signifiy a particular genre. eg 'Mojo', 'Smash Hits', 'Kerrang' & titles can have connotations.

Read this PP for more info

Music Mags

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Friday 20th November

Today we looked at this powerpoint and read the article, 'Analysing media Language In Magazines'.
For homework, you need to choose a double page spread to conduct a close textual analysis on.
Pointers are given at the end of this powerpoint, for aspects to analyse.
This should be up on your blog in time for Wednesday 25th Novembers lesson.
You should also have all your photos for your music magazine taken, you may now work on your magazines in Miss Aldridges lesson as the aim is to have this project finished before Christmas.
Remember to keep uploading drafts, ideas, podcasts etc, you should have several updates each week.

Music Mags A2

View more presentations from shsgmedia.

Work to be completed by Friday 13th November.

Points one and two must be completed by the end of the week, point 3 is on going.

1. You must have your student magazine front cover and contents page completed and uploaded to your blog.
2. You should also record a podcast or video commentary to explain your decisions and how you believe it adheres to conventions you identified in your research. Who exactly is your target audience and how have you targeted them?
3. When this work is completed you need to start researching the music magazine industry and start thinking about what genre you will focus on.

Points to consider:

Analysing Magazines

Some useful prompts to think about when analysing magazines.

Consider the title of the magazine: Why is it called that?What are the significant words?What connotations do they have?
The publisher of the magazine: Who publishes the magazine? What other magazines (if any) does it publish? What other media interests (if any) does it have?
How much does the magazine cost? How often is it published?
What is its circulation/readership?Does the magazine have a website?

The target audience for the magazine: What type of reader is it targeting?
How do you know this (i.e. types of articles and advertisements)?
How does the reader ‘interact’ with the magazine?
The cover of the magazine: Analyse the images on the cover; the types of facial expressions, body language, clothing, etc used.
What do they tell us about the target audience for the magazine? What else appears on the cover?
Why are particular typefaces, types of graphics, colours, etc used? Why are particular items in the magazine featured? Does the cover look similar to other magazines? If so, why? If not, how does it look different?
The ‘style’ of presentation of the magazine:What do you notice about the magazine’s presentation? Does it look cheap or expensive? How does it compare with other similar magazines? How does it use colour, print style, artwork, etc, to convey an overall effect?

The ‘mode of address’ of the magazine: How does it address its reader? How and when are readers allowed to address the magazine?What types of articles/features does it contain? What subjects are covered?
The advertisements that appear in the magazine: What are the main types of products being advertised? What is their price range? Who are they aimed at? Why are these products featured particularly? How do the models featured in the advertisements relate to the target audience?

Representations in the magazine: How are men and women represented? (look at both the images and the text) re there conflicting representations? If so, why is this? How do these representations relate to readership? Is there a limited range of representations for men and women? If so, what are they and why?
What groups do not appear in the pages of the magazine? Why?
Are celebrities featured in the magazine? If so, what kinds of celebrities? Why have they been chosen? The competition for the magazine: What other titles are in competition with it?What are their circulation/readership figures? How much do they cost? What are the similarities/differences?
and finally...
What do you think are the reasons for its popularity (or otherwise)? What does the magazine offer its readers? What ‘values’ or ideologies are implicit in the magazine?

You need to analyse in depth at least 3 contrasting genre front covers and double page sreads. You should also conduct a case study into one 'brand'.

Work to be completed by Friday 16th October

1. Reader Profile for your student magazine. Try putting it into imovie and adding music to it.
2. Flatplan suggestions for your front cover, do a couple and show them to your focus group, ask them which they think is the best & why, that is what they are there for!
3. Take photos for your student magazine.

Upload all of these to your blog. You can always take a photo of your flatplans and upload them that way if you cant scan.

This is the exam boards definition.

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.
Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). Maximum four members to a group.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of FOUR images per candidate.

Reader profiles

Reader profiles are used by the media industry to promote their product to potential advertisers. They are also really useful to writers and contributers to assist them in targeting their features to ensure they are of interest to the target audience.

You can often download the information from these magazines that give you loads of info about the target audience but you have to look carefully for it. The info is usually found in the advertisement and/or marketing section and is sometimes labelled 'media pack'.

Observer

OK Magazine

NME

You will find a good example here of a mood board for a reader profile, it would be very useful for you to design your own.

Note how the magazine publishers refer to their products as 'brands' or as Wikipedia would say, "cultural accessories and personal philosophies'.

Work to do by Tuesday 29th September

1. Create an Audience Focus Group. You will show them all your ideas for both the student magazine and the music magazine. Find at least 4 people, who are moderately reliable and won't mind being interviewed.
2. Put their profiles up on the blog, you want to find out about their media consumption habits and in particular, to do with magazines.
3. Create an audience questionnaire that you will distribute amongst your target audience. You need to find out their opinions on student magazines & their thoughts about school/college involvement at this point.
4. You should also find at least 2 more examples of student magazines to annotate and put onto your blog.
5. Read the articles on this blog, they are your reading matter and you should make notes on them.

Remember, the more cross-platform, multi-modal (singing & dancing) your blog is, the better!

Audience Research

You need to conduct first hand research about your media text. The most important aspects of audience research to bear in mind are:

1 Asking members of a sample audience about their experiences with similar products

2 Product testing on an audience sample, post-production

You could take a sample of say ten to fifteen people from the designated audience sample, however you need to remember that it is just a small sample and therefore not guaranteed to be fully representative.

Existing Products and practice
You need to show that you have investigated the market place, and/or competition. You should include an analysis of at least two existing products that are relevant for your chosen media.

Analysing Magazines

Some useful prompts to think about when analysing magazines.

Consider the title of the magazine: Why is it called that?What are the significant words?What connotations do they have?
The publisher of the magazine: Who publishes the magazine? What other magazines (if any) does it publish? What other media interests (if any) does it have?
How much does the magazine cost? How often is it published?
What is its circulation/readership?Does the magazine have a website?

The target audience for the magazine: What type of reader is it targeting?
How do you know this (i.e. types of articles and advertisements)?
How does the reader ‘interact’ with the magazine?
The cover of the magazine: Analyse the images on the cover; the types of facial expressions, body language, clothing, etc used.
What do they tell us about the target audience for the magazine? What else appears on the cover?
Why are particular typefaces, types of graphics, colours, etc used? Why are particular items in the magazine featured? Does the cover look similar to other magazines? If so, why? If not, how does it look different?
The ‘style’ of presentation of the magazine:What do you notice about the magazine’s presentation? Does it look cheap or expensive? How does it compare with other similar magazines? How does it use colour, print style, artwork, etc, to convey an overall effect?

The ‘mode of address’ of the magazine: How does it address its reader? How and when are readers allowed to address the magazine?What types of articles/features does it contain? What subjects are covered?
The advertisements that appear in the magazine: What are the main types of products being advertised? What is their price range? Who are they aimed at? Why are these products featured particularly? How do the models featured in the advertisements relate to the target audience?

Representations in the magazine: How are men and women represented? (look at both the images and the text) re there conflicting representations? If so, why is this? How do these representations relate to readership? Is there a limited range of representations for men and women? If so, what are they and why?
What groups do not appear in the pages of the magazine? Why?
Are celebrities featured in the magazine? If so, what kinds of celebrities? Why have they been chosen? The competition for the magazine: What other titles are in competition with it?What are their circulation/readership figures? How much do they cost? What are the similarities/differences?
and finally...
What do you think are the reasons for its popularity (or otherwise)? What does the magazine offer its readers? What ‘values’ or ideologies are implicit in the magazine?

What you have to do:

Print
Preliminary excercise : using DTP and Photoshop, produce:
1. The front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead.
2. A mock-up of the layout of the contents page.

3. Main task: the front page, contents and double age spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original and produced by you. You must include a minimum of four images.

4. Blogging: Presentation of the research, planning and evaluation should be done in the format of a blog. This MUST be kept up to date. It should be as multi- platform as possible, for instance, you can film your focus group & interview them about magazines. You could film your photo shoot. Scan your flatplans & include those. You should include screen shots of links & quotes to research sources. Try nimating your mood board & include background music. You could keep a video diary of your progress through the work. You can create powerpoint presentations & upload them to slideshare to include on your blog. You can record a podcast of you answering the evaluation questions.

The more imaginative and multi-modal, the better!


Assessment:This unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for presentation of the planning and research; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation