Assignment 1: Magazine cover key conventions

Today's lessons are all about learning the 12 key conventions of magazine covers and starting to develop our written analysis.

The detailed notes on the key conventions of magazine covers can be found here.

Your blog task is as follows:

1) Use Google images to find a magazine cover of your choice. Make sure it is a UK-based magazine.

2) Copy the image into PowerPoint.

3) Find as many of the 12 key conventions of magazine covers as you can on the front cover and annotate the key conventions on PowerPoint using arrows.

4) Choose three of the key conventions and write 50-100 words of analysis for each. The key here is to explain how the key conventions target the magazine’s audience. Example:

5) When finished, save your PowerPoint slide as a JPEG and upload to your blog with a brief explanation of the task.

Good luck!

Target audience

Notes from today's lesson on Audience

Demographic classification:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Social class
• Race/ethnicity
• Job/profession/earnings
• Home (city/village/countryside)

Social class classification

Advertisers have traditionally classified people into the following groups:

• AB – Managerial and professional 
• C1 – Supervisory and clerical 
• C2 – Skilled manual 
• DE – Unskilled manual and unemployed

Audience profiles

Advertisers these days are interested in more than just a social class classification. Now they try to sell a brand or lifestyle.

So you also need to think about the kind of brands your audience will be interested in.

Armani and Porsche? Banana Republic and Apple? John Lewis and The Times? Nike and PlayStation? Peppa Pig and Haribo?

Audience profile task

Create an audience profile for a magazine of your choice using Photoshop.

First, use demographics: Age, gender, education, social class, race/ethnicity, job/profession/ earnings, home (city/village/countryside).

Then write some statements that your target audience agree with. Look at the NME example for inspiration. Statements such as 'It's important to look good' or 'Enjoy life and don't worry about the future' work well for this part of the profile.

Then use brand logos that the audience will use or enjoy and build them into your profile.

NME magazine example:

When it is complete, save your audience profile as a JPEG and post it to your blog at the end of this afternoon's lesson.

Brilliant blogs

Aside from a few minor issues, marking your summer projects has demonstrated what a brilliant start we've made in Media. Across the classes we've seen some excellent choices of Science Fiction film and some really detailed analysis and research.

In my class, there are several blogs that are worth checking out to see what A/A* potential looks like... Avneet, Krissah, Sabrin, Shivani and William have all made a terrific start in Media and their blogs are an excellent example of what we all need to be doing.

Keep up the good work!

Matthews' Blogscar of the Week

Matthews' Blogscar of the Week for week beginning 21/09/15 is Ranyodh Sahota. If you are not sure what good GCSE Media analysis looks like - look no further than the blog of this hero. A close second was Melania - who has formatted her blog in such a way that it is now an absolute joy to access her work and provide feedback.

Typography

Typography – task 1

Create an A4 document in Photoshop. Choose a font to represent the following words.

Think about:

UPPER or lower case? Font size? Angle? Position on page?

Mistake

Harmony

Falling

Personality

Elastic

Emperor

Brittle

Globe

Radiation

Relax

Madness

Camerawork: Minority Report shot-by-shot analysis

We are now going to use everything we have learned about film language (camera shots, movement and editing) to produce a shot-by-shot analysis of key shots in the Minority Report sequence.

Remember, writing analysis in Media means picking out the interesting or important aspects of something and then examining WHY or HOW they have been put together to create an effect on the audience.

The images are below and also on the M: Media Shared drive > Resources > Camerawork - Minority Report

Here's an example of what you need to do:

Over-the-shoulder / medium shot (OTS/MS)

The over-the-shoulder angle allows a point-of-view shot from the perspective of the man reading the newspaper. The medium shot allows enough background to establish the location as a metro train. The corner of the seat immediately in the foreground also helps place the location. The over-the-shoulder shot also means the following shots, with the newspaper man recognising the fugitive, are easy for the audience to interpret.

The shots you need to analyse:

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3 

Camera shots: photo storyboard

Your photo storyboard needs to include the following ten shots and angles:

Camera shots recap:

• Wide shot / establishing shot (WS/ES)
• Long shot (LS)
• Medium shot (MS)
• Medium close up (MCU)
• Over-the-shoulder shot (OTS)
• Close up (CU)
• Big close up / Extreme close up (BCU/XCU)

Camera angle:

• High angle: makes subject look small and weak.
• Low angle: makes subject look big and powerful.
• Unusual perspective: can be used to surprise the audience or show danger (e.g. looking down off a cliff)

To get an example of what your photo storyboard should look like, have a look at this example from last year or this one - both very good.

Remember - all ten shots/angles and write an analysis to go with each shot to explain what it tells the audience.

Good luck!

Summer Project Update

Summer Project Update!

Well done to those people who uploaded their summer projects early and I have already read some excellent work. Thank you to all for their contributions.

However, some people are still missing their summer projects on their blog which is very disappointing. Can I remind people that this is a one year course and time keeping, deadline meeting and organisation is very important?
Some people's Summer Projects were also somewhat brief - this is a project and should have taken several hours to complete.

Please see the following excellent examples of GCSE level media terminology and detail for inspiration:

Abdullah- Guardians of the Galaxy
Abdullah Blog
Hussein - Maze Runner
Hussein Blog
Emman - X Men: Days of Future Past
Emman Blog

Well done to those people who have made an impressive beginning to the new year!

Miss Fowler

Good Morning Media!

This week saw the GCSE Media students doing some fantastic Photoshop wizardry, designing their own Fruit Bowls using the eye dropper tool and learning to use masks to really make an impact on their designs. All the students (from all 3 classes) produced some unique work - well done!

A shout out to the following Media Stars from B2:

Abdullah - for managing to complete 3 different fruit bowls and also help everyone else with their Photoshop struggles.
Gus- for teaching the second part of the lesson - they say teaching is the best form of learning!

The joint winners of the 'best fruit bowls' are Samie for his beautiful design and Mya for her interesting take on the project (using different skin tones). Special mentions to Amear for his design work, Abdullah for using a football shirt as inspiration, and Tyriq for a unique, comic book design based on conceptual Batman art.

GCSE Media Key Concepts

If you missed any of the notes from today's lesson this should help:

Language

• The Language of Media Studies
• How we ‘read’ media texts
• Recognising the codes and conventions of media texts
• Key media terms e.g. genre… denotation… connotation… narrative… 

Institution

• The companies or organisations behind the media
• Most aspects of the media are a commodity: something that is bought and sold. There is competition and a demand for profit.
• Huge institutions are called multinationals e.g. News International
• Smaller institutions can include media texts we create ourselves (blogs etc.)

Audience

• The people who consume media products
• How does the media influence its audience? Who holds the power?
• How is an audience targeted? What do the audience enjoy or learn from the media product?
• Audience research: who exactly is buying our product?

Representation

• The people who consume media products
• How does the media influence its audience? Who holds the power?
• How is an audience targeted? What do the audience enjoy or learn from the media product?
• Audience research: who exactly is buying our product?

Key Concepts blog task

1) Find a sci-fi film poster of your choice (use Google images)
2) Write an analysis of the film poster on your blog using the four key media concepts: language, institution, audience and representation.

Finish for homework if you don't complete it during today's lessons.

The key questions to ask:

Language: how do we know it is a sci-fi film poster? What impact do the key conventions have on the audience?
Institution: who are the companies behind the film? Who directs or stars in the film? Who is making money?
Audience: who is the target audience for this film? How can we tell?
Representation: what representation of people or groups can we find in this poster? What does it tell the audience?

Example: Splice (2009)

Language

The title and tag-line, release date and billing block (information about the Director and the production company) all follow the expected codes and conventions of a film poster. The effect created here is…

Institution

The film was produced by Dark Castle (for Universal Entertainment) who are associated with horror… It was executively produced by Guillermo del Toro who is a well known director. It was commercially successful (being the highest grossing Canadian feature film in 2010)…

Audience

This looks like it would be targeted at an audience of mixed gender (although perhaps slightly more female?) An adult age range might apply due to the 15 certificate and the content which includes hybridity and genetic experimentation…

Representation

The focal picture shows a female in a dominant position with another female confronting her. There is a male in the background which is perhaps unusual, particularly in science fiction…

Welcome back!

Welcome back to all our GCSE Media students. We made a great start in the summer on the move-up days and now the real business of getting a top grade in Media begins. We've got a lot to live up to: last year's results were...

95% A*-C

25% A*/A

I don't think we'll match those results - I think we'll beat them! We've got a great exam topic in Science Fiction Films and the coursework gets better every year.

Make sure you can log in to your blog and you've uploaded your summer project. If you're having problems with your blog, don't worry: we'll have some time in the first lessons back to sort things out.

Have a great year in Media!