Assignment 1 Analytical Task

It's now time to complete the Assignment 1 Analytical Task. A reminder of the task AQA have set you:

Analyse the cover pages of two popular magazines. How do the covers appeal to their audiences?

Word count: 750 words
10 marks

AO2: Analyse and Respond

Remember - we add a couple of details to that. Firstly, the two magazines must be from the following choices and aimed at different audiences:

Magazine 1: GQ OR Men's Health
Magazine 2: Glamour OR Empire

Secondly, you also need to analyse your own magazine cover.

You can find guidance for the layout of the Assignment 1 Analytical Task here.

Use the official magazine Media Packs to help you with the target audience:

GQ Media Pack
Men's Health Media Pack
Glamour Media Pack
Empire Media Pack

Remember, we analyse something by explaining HOW and WHY it is produced in that way and the EFFECT it has on its audience. For an A*, you need to explain in real detail and offer alternative interpretations.

One of the ways of doing this is making sure we use those key words and phrases to show connotation:

This tells the reader...
This could signify...
A possible interpretation of this is...
The reader could infer that...
This shows the audience...
This suggests to the reader...
From this, the audience will understand that...
This connotes...
This is significant because...
This creates...
This emphasises...

Assignment 1: planning and sketching

Some great work going on today planning our Assignment 1 magazine covers. Here are the notes if you've missed anything:

Things a teenage audience may be interested in:
Sport, Football, Crime, Fashion, Basketball, Technology, Music, Celebrities, Movies, Comedy, TV shows, Politics, Gaming etc.

Design skills

Reading path
The standard reading path for western audiences is left-right, top-bottom.

Rule of thirds
Graphic designers and photographers often divide pages/images into thirds to create a balanced composition.

Visual centre

The visual centre is just to the right and slightly above the actual centre of the page

Assignment 1 production brief

Produce a magazine aimed at a teenage audience to be given away free with the i newspaper.

You need to complete a detailed planning document – giving you a title, slogan, target audience and what features you could include in your magazine.

You then need to produce two A4 sketches of your front cover (one with colour).

These three planning documents need to be in your folder before you participate in the photoshoot.

#MatthewsBlogscarOfTheWeek

#MatthewsBlogscarOfTheWeek this week was a 2 horse race between Ryan Masters and Ali Hammoudi - I literally cannot seperate them so for the first time in he history of the Matthews Blogscar awards the metaphorical statue is shared between these two great minds. Phenomenal contribution in class boys; I hope the verbal answers translate to quality courseworks soon...

Task: magazine audience profile

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

NME magazine example:

Right and Left Wing - What Does it Mean?

A lot of students have said to me: "Teachers keep talking about ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ - but what does it mean?" Well it basically means what people believe a country should do for its citizens.

Left wing beliefs are usually progressive in nature, they look to the future, aim to support those who cannot support themselves, are idealist and believe in equality. People who are left wing believe in taxation to redistribute opportunity and wealth - things like a national health service, and job seeker’s allowance are fundamentally left wing ideas. They believe in equality over the freedom to fail.

In the UK the main left wing parties are the Labour Party and the Green Party. They believe in making laws that protect women, ethnic minorities, and gay people against discrimination. They believe that we should tax rich people more to support people less well off, and they believe we should regulate big businesses so they serve people’s interests. They believe that a good welfare system means people are healthier, more able to work, and will put more back into the economy. They also typically believe country-wide tax-funded action on climate change is necessary.

Right wing beliefs value tradition, they are about equity, survival of the fittest, and they believe in economic freedom. They typically believe that business shouldn’t be regulated, and that we should all look after ourselves. Right wing people tend believe they shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s education or health service. They believe in freedom to succeed over equality.

In the UK the main right wing parties are the Conservative (or Tory) Party, and UKIP (who focus on the UK not being a part of the European Union). They believe that if you have more money, you should get to keep it, and buy better education and health services for yourself. They believe that businesses should be less regulated, and that the more money they earn, they’ll bring more benefits to the country. In 2008 2/3 of Tory MPs didn’t think climate change was a priority, but their leadership says it’s important. They are more likely to focus on energy security (oil and gas are set to run out very soon, and they won’t want to rely on other countries).

Matthews Blogscar of The Week

Matthews' Blogscar of The Week is shared for the first time ever this week - and it goes to Ryan Masters (aka The RyMa Republic) and 'Scroogey' herself...Chloe Ebinezer!

Both produced phenomenally creative graphic identities using photoshop. I'll post their products soon...

Well done guys #A*

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 VLE > Departments > Media > Shared documents > Minority Report shot 1/2/3.

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.

Here is the original clip, in case you want to check what shots are juxtaposed with the shots you are analysing:

The shots you need to analyse:

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3