Student Voice

Click on the image and complete the questionnaire.
You need to do this for both your teachers.

10W - Research and Planning Deadline

All research and planning must be completed by the first lesson back after the summer holiday. 

You can print it out upon your return if you wish.

It should include the following:

• Research the genre-conventions of the magazines within your chosen genre
• Examples of existing titles within the genre
• Analyse a cover, contents page and double page spread from an existing title within your genre
• Colour palettes-five examples of colour palettes you may use. Add examples from your genre.
• Fonts-five examples of the type of font you may use. Add examples from your genre.
• Language register (A/A*)
• Moodboard-create at least one for the ideas that have inspired you.
• Audience research (UK Tribes)-which tribe would buy your magazine? They are the tribe/ target audience you are aiming your magazine at.
• Use SurveyMonkey to create a Questionnaire aimed at your audience. Ask at least 5 people to answer it.
• Create audience profiles for a male and a female audience member.
• Analyse the media institution that will publish your magazine

New Year 10 Summer Homework 2016

Gcse Media Studies Summer Homework 2016

Year 10 Induction Lessons - Create a CD Cover

1. Make two CD covers (follow the instructions below). 
2. Print out the CD covers and stick in your books.

CD Cover Activity

• Choose two different music artists and make two CD covers. 
• These can be for existing albums or for ones you have invented yourself. 
• One must include an image of the artist (see example below for American rapper Kanye West).
• One must not include an image of the artist (see example above for American punk band Sonic Youth).

PHOTOSHOP FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Where do I find it?

In the start menu, select - all programmes - common programmes - Adobe Production Premium - PhotoShop (64bit)

How do I get started?

In the upper left select - file - new

What page size do I need?

CD covers are SQUARE, alter the height and width to 120mm. Ensure the colour mode is 8bit, the resolution is 300  pixels/inch and the background colour is white.

How do I add an image?

You should have been able to save your image from google. In the upper left select - file - open and locate the image you downloaded. The image will appear in a new tab, DO NOT PANIC, pull the tab down by pressing and holding the left mouse button until it appears in front of your white square tab, next press shift + v to drag and drop the image onto your white square tab

The Image doesn't fill the square!

Press ctrl + t, now press and hold shift, pinch the corner of the image and stretch it until it fills the space. You can use the move tool (shift v) to align it properly.

How do I add text?

On the left hand side it a T, click on the T and then draw a text box where ever you wish. Type the name of your band and select a font and a size just as you would do on word.

Why doesn't it look quite right?

In really, really basic terms, design is about symmetry. Try and imagine your CD cover is divided equally into thirds, in 2 of these thirds something 'different' should be happening to the remaining third. Try and align yours along these principles.

Magazine Analysis Improvement

When analysing your magazines, it is essential that you use the correct media terminology.

TASK

Read the three posts below and improve your analysis by identifying and then including the correct terminology in your work.

Extension task

Reflect on what you have found by answering the following three questions

1. What do you think is the most important element of a magazine page and why?
2. What idea will you use in your own work and why?
3. What will you not use in your own work and why?

Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

When analysing magazine double page spreads, you should be able to identify all of the following elements:

Alley: the space between columns within a page.

Bleed: when the image is printed to the very edge of the page.

Byline - A journalist's name at the beginning of a story.

Copy - Main text of a story.

Cropping: the elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.


Deck - Part of the headline which summarises the story. Also known as deck copy or bank.

Drop cap: a large initial letter at the start of the text that drops into the line or lines of text below.



Headline - The main title of the article. Should be in present or future tense to add to urgency. Must fit the space provided. If it doesn’t, you are using the wrong words.

Kicker - The first sentence or first few words of a story's lead, set in a font size larger than the body text of the story.

Pull quote: A brief phrase (not necessarily an actual quotation) from the body text, enlarged and set off from the text with rules, a box, and/or a screen. It is from a part of the text set previously, and is set in the middle of a paragraph, to add emphasis and interest.

Standfirst - Lines of text after the headline that gives more information about the article, or about the author.
Talkie headline: a quote from one of the people in the story used as a headline

This vocabulary is essential for any student aspiring to a B or above.

Magazine Contents Analysis Terms

When analysing magazine contents, you should be able to identify all of the following elements:

Alley: the space between columns within a page.

Bleed: when the image is printed to the very edge of the page.
Boost: picture boost (usually front page) pic promoting a feature or story in later pages

Strap boost: as above, but with a strapline, not a picture

Cropping: the elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

Flush left: copy aligned along the left margin.

Flush right: copy aligned along the right margin.

Sell - Short sentence promoting an article, often pulling out a quote or a interesting sentence.

Talkie headline: a quote from one of the people in the story used as a headline

This vocabulary is essential for any student aspiring to a B or above.

Magazine Cover Analysis Terms

When analysing magazine covers, you should be able to identify all of the following elements:

Boost: picture boost (usually front page) pic promoting a feature or story in later pages

Strap boost: as above, but with a strapline, not a picture

Centre of visual interest (CVI) - The prominent item on a page usually a headline, picture or graphic.

Cropping: the elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

Filler: extra material used to complete a column or page, usually of little importance.

Flush left: copy aligned along the left margin.

Flush right: copy aligned along the right margin.

Golden ratio: the rule devised to give proportions of height to width when laying out text and illustrations to produce the most optically pleasing result. Traditionally a ratio of 1 to 1.6.
 Masthead - Main title section and name at the front of a publication.

Sell - Short sentence promoting an article, often pulling out a quote or a interesting sentence.

Talkie headline: a quote from one of the people in the story used as a headline

This vocabulary is essential for any student aspiring to a B or above.

10 Media - Work To Do

1. Complete the film poster work
2. Start researching magazines
3. Analyse a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread
4. Look at a full marks example

10W - Schedule

You have three lessons to finish your posters.

1. Wednesday 20th Period 3 (Mr Ford)
2. Monday 25th Period 4a (Mr Smith)
3. Thursday 28th (Mr Ford)

You will then have two lessons to complete your evaluation.

1. Friday 29th Period 1 (Mr Ford)
2. Friday 29th Period 4 (Mr Ford)

Poster Evaluation - From The Specification

The production exercise should be supported by an evaluative commentary, reflecting on decisions made and explaining how codes and conventions and media language have been employed to convey messages about representation. As with the comparative analytical assignment, the commentary may be written or submitted as a podcast or a slide presentation such as PowerPoint.

As guidance, the commentary should be around 350–750 words in length; or 5–10 slides if using a PowerPoint style presentation; or around three minutes for a podcast.

In the commentary, the following areas must be covered in whatever form the candidate has chosen:

• an account of the research and planning carried out
• how the production is targeted at a particular target audience
• an explanation of the ways in which media language has been used in the production exercise to communicate representation
• an explanation of the ways in which codes and conventions have been used in the production exercise to communicate representation
• an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses within the finished production.

Year 10WMS1 Schedule (29th February- 23rd March)

Over the next six lessons you need to complete the following:

• Finish the research tasks (here & here)
• Decide on the sort of action adventure film you will be making the poster for
• Choose a suitable title for your film
• Decide on a tagline for your title
• Write a brief plot outline for your film
• Decide on the stars who will appear in your film
• Create hand drawn mock ups of the teaser and full posters
• Create A3 Photoshop documents
• Create layouts
• Add a suitable background image
• Add all text including credits
• Decide on the images that you want to use on your posters
• Complete the audience profiles
• Make moodboards for your target audiences

Make sure you use the mock up to help with your layout.

Use the posters you researched to help with further ideas.

This is also your homework and is posted on Show My Homework.

Terminology

Antagonist       The character whose function in a plot is to oppose the protagonist. In straightforward hero's journey plots (most action adventures), the antagonist can be referred to as the villain. However, in character drama, the antagonist might not be a "bad" character, just someone who stands between the protagonist and his/her goals.

Archetype        A universal type or model of character that is found in many different texts, e.g. ingenue, anti-hero, wise old woman, hero-as-lover, hero-as-warrior, shadow trickster, mentor, loyal friend, temptress

Audience         The recipients of a media text, or the people who are intended to read or watch or play or listen to it. A great deal of media studies work is concerned with the effects a text may have on an audience.

Binary Opposition       The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts or things that creates conflict and drives a narrative e.g. good/evil, day/night, male/female, presence/absence, old/young.

Connotation    Way in which meaning is created.

Connote = meaning by association, the deeper meaning (e.g. red connotes anger, passion, love, danger).

Convention      The widely recognised way of doing something - this has to do with content, style and form eg the conventions of music video they are the same length as the song (somewhere around 4 minutes, say) they present the band, who look as though they are singing  they have lots of fast edits.

Denotation      Way in which meaning is created.

Denote = literal or surface meaning e.g. red is the colour of a flower

Genre   A way of categorising a media text according to its form, style and content. This categorisation is useful for producers (who can utilise a genre's conventions) and audiences (who can utilise their expectations of the genre) alike.

Ideology          This is a complex concept - in its basic form it is a set of ideas or beliefs which are held to be acceptable by the creators of a media text. For example, a text might be described as having a feminist ideology, meaning it promotes the idea that women are the equal of men and should not be discriminated against on the grounds of gender.

Narrative         The way in which a story, or sequence of events, is put together within a text. All media texts have some sort of narrative, from a single photographic image to a sports report to a feature film. Narrative may be reduced to one simple equation which is equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium.

Preferred Reading      The meaning of a text which the producers intended. The opposite of 'preferred reading' is 'aberrant reading', such as when people deliberately interpret a text (the Bible is the source of a lot of mixed messages) to further their political agenda rather than the author's original intent.

Protagonist      The character who drives the narrative forward, through the choices they make and the actions they take.

 

Realism           The techniques by which a media text represents ideas and images that are held to have a true relationship with the actual world around us. Realism means different things in different texts - realism in animation (eg the movement of single hairs in computer animation) means something entirely different to realism in soap opera (eg the depiction of people eating breakfast and talking with their mouths full). it is important to assess how much a text strives for realism, how much audiences are expected to think it is realistic.

Representation           The way in which the media "re-presents" the world around us in the form of signs and codes for audiences to read.

Stereotype       Stereotypes are negative (usually) representations of people that rely on preconceived ideas about the group that person is perceived as belonging to. It is assumed that an individual shares personal characteristics with other members of that group eg blondes are all stupid, accountants are all boring. Although using stereotypes saves a lot of explanation within a text, it can be a very lazy method of characterisation. Stereotypes may be considered dangerous, as they encourage audiences to think large groups of people are all the same, and often have the same negative characteristics.

Film Poster Research (10WMS1)

Today you will be researching ideas for the next piece of work-the creation of a poster for an action/adventure film aimed at a teenage audience.

Your task is to find at least twenty different examples of movie posters for action adventure films. Save the images in a folder and add them to a PowerPoint. Make sure they are all clear and of the same size on your page. 

Categorise the posters in two ways:

• posters promoting films for a teenage audience
• posters promoting films for an adult audience

Extension task:

You will notice that some movies have multiple posters. Choose a recent action/ adventure film and find as many posters for that film as you can.

Analysing Movie Posters

Task:
Select a poster of your choice from the action genre and answer all the questions below.

Posters occupy a space between art and advertising. They have a clear commercial purpose - to promote an event or product - but they also have artistic value. People buy them and hang them on their walls. Museums have whole galleries devoted to poster art. When analysing a poster it is important that you evaluate both how well it fulfils its purpose (i.e. promotion) as well as its aesthetic value.

First steps

• When analysing a poster, you should consider the following broad questions before you start to focus on the details:
• What are the main colours used in the poster? What do they connote?
• What symbols are used in the poster? Do you need audience foreknowledge to decode the symbols?
• What are the main figures/objects/background of the poster? Are they represented photographically, graphically, or illustratively?
• Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or both?
• Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster?

Given that all movie posters have the same purpose - to get audiences to go see a movie -

• What persuasive techniques are used by the poster?
• Which genre conventions are referred to?
• Is a star used as a USP (Unique Selling Point)?
• Are "expert witnesses" (i.e. critics) quoted?
• What pleasures (gratifications) are promised by the poster?
• How is attention gained (humour, shock, surprise familiar face of a star)?
• How does the tagline work? (humour, pun, alliteration etc?)
• Who are the institutions involved in production?

The poster can also give you important information about the production context of the movie:

• How much does the poster tell you about the institutional context of the movie's production?
• How important is this information on the poster (think about information hierarchies)?
• How important a part of the whole marketing campaign is the poster? Where is the poster placed?
• How expensive was this poster to produce?

Critical Evaluation

Finally, you have to pass judgement on the poster.

• Is it a good poster?
• Does it communicate effectively with the audience?
• Are there any alternative readings which might harm the message of the marketing campaign?
• Is the poster offensive in any way? e.g. representation of people or places

10YMs1 Work To Do

Period 1 Monday 22nd February

You will need to design two posters (a teaser poster and a main poster) for an action adventure film (of your own creation) aimed at a teenage audience.

In today's lesson you need to make progress on the following:

• Decide on the sort of action adventure film you will be making the poster for
• Choose a suitable title for your film
• Decide on a tagline for your title
• Write a brief plot outline for your film
• Decide on the stars who will appear in your film