Deadline Date: Tuesday 12th December

You will need to hand in your completed coursework by the end of today's lesson. If your bus has been cancelled due to snow, you will need to hand in your work in on Wednesday instead. Please come and sign the hand-in sheet at the English office.


Ensure that you have included the following pieces of work:

• Research and Planning Powerpoint 
• Magazine Product - Front page, Contents Page and Double Page Spread
• Evaluation

Advice for your evaluation
Some are struggling to limit their word count to 800 words. Make sure you are writing concise sentences which describe what decisions you made. Avoid vague sentences like:


I made my magazine colourful to catch the eye of my target audience.


This is not going to add much to your mark. You need to explain why colour appeals by referencing what you have learnt about your target audience. It would be appropriate to comment on conventions of colour or even connotations behind your chosen colours. By being specific about the effect on the Target Audience or the aesthetic appearance of your product you can justify your choices using media terminology in order to secure the marks.


I used bright primary colours for my masthead font to appeal to a younger demographic. The BBC's CBeebies magazine uses the same bright yellow colour to connote fun and happiness, something that parents are keen to promote for their children. Young readers enjoy bright colours as they are familiar with them from nursery and feel confident that they appeal to them.


This would secure many more marks, as it uses media terminology and fully explains appeal and the things you learnt from the pre-production research and planning stage. 


Task: Improve your evaluation

1. Highlight all of the media terminology words. 
2. Check your word count is less than 800 words.
3. Say what you did, why you did it and the impact on the final product's success with everything you comment on.
4. Cut out vague sentences.

Magazine Evaluation

You need to answer the following questions in as much detail as possible. This is a very important part of this project.

Answer each question in as much detail as possible. Add examples from all parts of your work.

• How effective was your research into similar magazines and relevant target audiences. What did you learn from your research into these two areas? In what ways did this shape the creation of your magazine?
• What creative decisions did you have to make at the different stages of your magazine production? How did your magazine change as your work progressed?
• How closely does your magazine follow the forms and conventions of existing magazines? Gives examples of real magazines you reference.
• How successful is your finished magazine? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Candidates offering a written commentary should aim to write between 500–800 words. 

Complete all work in PowerPoint and then add to your folder.

Magazine Research, Planning & Evaluation - Jasmine Aldridge

GCSE Media Studies Coursework - Magazine research and planning from Neill Ford

11W Media - Work To Do

Compare your magazine cover, contents page and double page spread to a real magazine. That means placing the two side by side and comparing. Answer the following questions:

1. Is the text too big?
2. Is the barcode the correct size?
3. Are the margins and gutters the right size?
4. Is the text aligned properly?
5. Is the text legible?
6. Does the colour scheme work?
7. Are the layouts effective (space being used correctly) and easy to read/ navigate?
8. Have you included original images?
9. Is the image quality good enough?

Magazine Evaluation (Year 11)

You need to answer the following questions in as much detail as possible. This is a very important part of this project.

Answer each question in as much detail as possible. Add examples from all parts of your work.

• How effective was your research into similar magazines and relevant target audiences. What did you learn from your research into these two areas? In what ways did this shape the creation of your magazine?
• What creative decisions did you have to make at the different stages of your magazine production? How did your magazine change as your work progressed?
• How closely does your magazine follow the forms and conventions of existing magazines? Gives examples of real magazines you reference.
• How successful is your finished magazine? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Candidates offering a written commentary should aim to write between 500–800 words. 

Complete all work in PowerPoint and then add to your folder.

Draft Magazine Evaluation

You need to answer the following questions in as much detail as possible. This is a very important part of this project.

Answer each question in as much detail as possible. Add examples from all parts of your work.

• How effective was your research into similar magazines and relevant target audiences? What did you learn from your research into these two areas? In what ways did this shape the creation of your magazine?
• What creative decisions did you have to make at the different stages of your magazine production? How did your magazine change as your work progressed?
• How closely does your magazine follow the forms and conventions of existing magazines? Gives examples of real magazines you reference.
• How successful is your finished magazine? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Production Log (Research and Planning) and Evaluation: Magazine

The Production Log

The production log will provide important evidence to the teacher and moderator of the individual
candidate’s role and personal contribution to the production. It must be completed individually and is expected to include the following:

• evidence of research
• evidence of planning, such as outlines, still test shots, sketches and storyboards
• key dates, decisions and deadlines
• a record of the individual candidate’s exact contributions to the production, such as:camerawork, photography, interviews, copywriting, design, audience research, redrafting or editing.

Evaluation

The individual evaluation is to be produced by the candidates under supervised conditions.
The presentation of the evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination, of the following:

• a written commentary
• a slide presentation (PowerPoint, Keynote, Impress)
• a podcast – video and/or audio
• a DVD with extras.

Those candidates offering a written commentary should aim to write between 500–800 words. A slide presentation (which centres may wish to video), should include 10–15 slides. A podcast/DVD with extras should be about 3–5 minutes in length.

Work To Do - Monday 21st November

• Complete a 'To Do List'- do this on the back of your list from Friday
• Work through the five things you have chosen to do - be productive and use your time wisely. Don't waste the lesson.
• Print out and hand in copies of your cover, contents page and double page spread (I will comment on these for the next lesson)
• At the end of the lesson - quickly evaluate your success today and reflect on what you have to do for the rest of the week (do this on the back of the 'To Do List' sheet

Reminder: The deadline is Friday 25th November

Do this now - to do list

Do this now - to do list from Neill Ford

Poster Evaluation Questions

You need to answer the following questions in as much detail as possible. This is a very important part of this project.

Answer each question in as much detail as possible. Add examples from all parts of your work.

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

• How effective was your research into similar posters and relevant target audiences. What did you learn from your research into these two areas? In what ways did this shape the creation of your posters?
• What creative decisions did you have to make at the different stages of your poster production? How did your posters change as your work progressed?
• How closely does your poster follow the forms and conventions of existing posters? Give examples of real posters you referenced.
• How successful is your finished poster? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

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.

CD Cover Task - Evaluation Questions

When you complete a piece of creative work you are required to evaluate it. The questions you need to answer for this task are simplified versions of the ones you will need to answer for your coursework. These are the things you need to evaluate and comment on. 

1. What is good about your work? (Consider image, layout, colour, font, design). 
2. What needs improvement? (Consider image, layout, colour, font, design). 
3. What will you do differently next time? 
4. What have you learnt?

Year 11 Summer Homework

Finish your research and evaluation.
Hand in to me the first lesson back after the summer break.

Draft Poster Evaluation

1. How have you used the conventions of existing film posters in your draft design? 
2. How does your film poster satisfy the action/ fantasy/ teen genre requirements? 
3. How successful do you think your draft is? Give reasons for your answer. 
4. What do you think you will need to change for your final piece of work?
5. What skills have you learned in the design process?