Analysing Contents Pages

In order to meet the criteria for this blog post you will need to make sure that you are using the Contents Page from a valid Music Magazine. If you type in Music Magazine Contents Pages into google, this is what you will find:



Whilst there is a range of images here that are from valid magazines a number of them are from work that has been produced by other students doing this course. It is also a benefit to you to use the magazine you have purchased as you can see how/if the cover image relates to the contents page.

Each Magazine has it's own style and you will need to look at the following in your analysis:

•  How many images does the cover use; what does this mean for your own planning?
• How would you describe the layout? Would you say it was organised? Sleak? Uniform? Chaotic? Ordered? Boring? Interesting? Colourful?
• What does the style suggest about the rest of the magazine? Look at the range of articles and contents
• Does the cover artist feature on the contents page at all?
• Does it have an editors note? If it does what does this say about the ideology of the magazine?
• Does it have subscription information?
• Does it have a competition? How does this attract or appeal to its target audience?
• What kinds of images are on the contents page? How have they been manipulated if they have been?

Minimal: You have put up a contents page and described what is on the front

Basic: You have put up a contents page, described what is on the front and have made some attempt to answer a couple of the questions above.

Proficient: You have answered all of the questions above and along with uploading the contents page you have also uploaded the cover to show the link, if any. You have began to discuss how this will inform your own work.

Excellent: You have answered all of the above questions and done all that has been asked of proficient. In addition to this you have picked out some examples from the internet explaining why you think they may not be successful or why some are. You have picked out a list of what you need to do, based on your research, in order to make your work successful.

Examples of Contents Pages you could discuss are:



Regional Identity Clip: Due Thursday from both classes please!

12opA Period 1 Thursday

Due to Mr McCann being off please can you make sure you have done the following. I know most of you have already analysed a couple of Magazine covers but I want you to make sure that you have enough and that your 'journey' that I spoke of last week is detailed and thorough.

Your task today, is to annotate another Music Magazine from the genre that you are focusing on. You will need to consider the following things:

• What Codes and Conventions of Magazines have been used?
• What is the House Style?
• What is the concept behind the cover? How has the text and the image been integrated?
• How does the cover attract it's target audience?
• How does the Mise En Scene suit the genre?
• What proportion of the page does the Masthead take up? Why is it where it is?
• What is the formula to the cover? E.g. How much text is used? What font style is used?
• What "Work" (photoshop) has been done to the cover? Is there a lot of image manipulation?

Minimal: You put up a Music Magazine and label the codes and conventions

Basic: You highlight the codes and conventions and why this is like what you want to do

Proficient: You address all of the questions above

Excellent: You address all of the questions above, including a print screen of the range of examples, see below, along with a discussion as to how this magazine is typically put together. You will also include a separate blog post bullet pointing what you have learnt from the analysis. 

***Remember to make it interesting, don't write an essay on your blog post, try to annotate the covers using either prezi or Voki or look at other software that will create an interactive experience***

Updated Colour coding

12opA:

12opD:

The Street Class and Status Clip for Essay this week

Review of other work

Examples of work:

http://examplesofwork13.weebly.com/as.html

take a look and blog about what you've seen. Why are some good or bad? What actions do you need to take to make sure yours is good?

No more AS blogging from me today

Hi Lads,

I've now had the training for how to apply the criteria for AS coursework and have had a look at what type of work would get the higher grades. Rest of the afternoon will be spent on A2 coursework. You need to consider the following:

1. Independence; Making sure you are not doing everything we tell you but everything we say and then some! You need to show that you are taking on board what is being said to you and then looking at the genre you want to do. 
2. Audience; how else, other than your questionnaires, can you show you have sought advice from your audiences? How have you made sure that your planning and research reflects audience demands? Have you asked for audience feedback?
3. Organise yourselves; Is your blog consistent and up to date? Are there any massive gaps in your blog? Is your blog organised well?
4. Images; need to be taken for purpose and mise en scene needs to be considered. If you don't then don't expect good grades.

Update from my training

We have a lot of work to do to make sure we are looking at the correct codes and conventions from Music Magazines!

You will be having a specific lesson next week with either myself of Mr McCann on the way the exam board awards marks. You need to make sure that you are in as it is important that you plan accordingly for this coursework.

Construction: Print

• Front Covers Most successful element of  the construction.
• Contents Pages - least successful (image use and form/conventions)
• Think about the layout and specifics of font size.
• Think about the number of images needed.

• Double Page spreads - variable but some issues with rule of thirds.
• No magazine has the same image on all pages and never in the same clothes! MAKE YOUR MODEL BRING A CHANGE OF CLOTHES.
• More variety in the need for costume, pose and background for images.
• Requirement for AT LEAST FIVE images across the three pages
• NO FOUND IMAGES -need to include all originals
• Can use logos from twitter and facebook
• If you want to use logos from Reading or Leeds then if you contact them for permission and screen grab the email you send. 
• Avoidance of friends/facebook shots - needs to be actual photos taken for the actual brief
• ALL IMAGES NEED TO BE SHOT FOR PURPOSE: your holiday snaps 2 years ago were not shot for this purpose...be sensible.
• Focus on the finer details - spellings/copy size/register/font style and colour.

Research and Planning Key Findings

• Best centres encourage balance of the two elements: 
• Must do a mixture and a clear balance of both...need to make sure you are planning as well...not just doing what you are being told.
• Create sense of journey
• You need to show your progression. 
• Doing 1 thing really well DOES NOT make your work good. BE CONSISTENT
• Candidates reflect upon the production and impact during the process
• Don't just analyse the front cover: say what you have learnt from it. What does this mean for your construction?
• Retrospective planning to be avoided completely- clearly obvious
• Teacher- led class work was often the only form of research for some candidates
• You need to do research beyond that of what is done in class. 
• If we teach you the basics of analysis using an NME cover for example you need to choose a cover from your own genre. You also need to make sure if we do NME and you're doing NME then you need to  do an extra piece of work. 
• BE INDEPENDENT
• Specific research into the actual products being produced is needed - music magazines and Videos
•  Look at the specifics of everything:
• Fonts
• titles
• layout
• Edits
• Audience needs more consideration at this stage rather than just in the evaluation
• Need to consider who is the audience?
• What are the background?
• Not just a questionnaire!

Direct from the Exam Board: Something to consider!!!

The practice of students giving out questionnaires and putting all the returned examples in their evidence has been discouraged for a long time. The main problem with this approach is not the survey method per se but the limited nature of the questions and the claims made for the responses. For example, asking ten fellow students their favourite genre of film, finding that seven out of ten say ‘horror’ and then using that to justify making a horror film opening as a result. Audience research is more productive if it addresses the following:

·      What do real audiences consume?

·      Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

·      How do media industries target those audiences?

Those questions require research of a different kind to the local questionnaire method; initial research online looking for data about the industry students are dealing with, such as box office figures for films or circulation figures for magazines would be a good starting point. Part of research involves looking for examples of how marketing works across a range of media- for films this includes considering posters, trailers and their selling points, for example.

Later audience research should be considered in a series of stages, each involving formative qualitative feedback. So, for example:

·      Pitching the product to the rest of the group and taking feedback, noting the responses from this and deciding how to act as a result.

·      Showing early drafts of the work (such as an animatic of the storyboard or a mock up front cover) and asking some carefully framed questions about them to get a sense of the audience’s understanding of the product rather than just a measure of whether the audience liked it.

·      Taking peer feedback at later stages and then again on the finished product; asking things like “can you tell me what happened in that sequence, what the relationship between the characters is and what do you think will happen in the rest of the film?” to look for audience readings of the work. ‘

These approaches can be presented in a variety of ways- video extracts with framing commentary from the makers; audio, written. All would help move away from the pie chart of responses model which tends to be fairly unproductive.

Key Findings from June 2013: For me and Mr McCann mostly!

• 80% of centres presented work online
• Requirement for central hubs
• Candidate record forms need to be a combination of personalised comments informed by the criteria- use interactive forms to avoid clerical errors: Don't copy and paste comments from others sheets and criteria you need to make direct reference to what they have done to get a solid mark from each element. Be specific in your reasons for giving marks e.g. they did  X particularly well in Research and Planning which shows Y.
• Blogs should be clearly organised and signposted: Must put final piece of work on the top of the blog. Last thing to upload is the Magazine pages or the Music Video.
• Cut off Point for Submissions: DEADLINES ARE DEADLINES Nothing after the final OCR deadline will be marked.
• Differentiation for group marking. Why do they deserve the same mark? Why don't they deserve the same mark? IF YOU DON'T CONTRIBUTE YOU DON'T GET ALL THE MARKS OTHERS IN YOUR GROUP WILL

Live Blogging: How to improve our Grades

Initial Tips

• Don't blog for blogging sake: Make sure what you are saying is purposeful and for the progression of your piece.
• Make sure the people you use for your covers on Magazine and in Music Video are confident enough to give you a realistic look and feel to your piece!
• Content before the format for the evaluation. Make sure what you are saying is purposeful rather than simply looking good.

College Magazine

This needs to be done asap please by both classes. You will need to make sure that you are doing the following:

• It looks like a magazine
• You are using a MEDIUM SHOT of students
• You are using photoshop to create it
• You are putting a Masthead and some additional text

You do not need to make it a masterpiece. You will need to male sure that you are also producing a mock up of the contents page too. You need both of these to keep the 15 marks. A description of the choices you made and a blog of the process you went through and how this will inform how you will approach the construction of your music magazine. 

Here is an example of the contents mock up. 

Ethnicity Video

For your essays this week

12opD Marked Blogs

As promised your blogs have been checked and marked. Please look at where you are up to and make sure that you attend any catch up sessions needed to make sure you are on target for your grade and for meeting deadlines.

 

12opA Marked Blogs

Hi,

I've marked your blogs and checked what has been fixed. 12opD I'll have yours up tomorrow night, it's almost 10pm and I'm exhausted so will get yours done as soon as I can.

Major issue at the moment is your application to this work. Everything you do goes towards your final grade, similarly everything you DON'T do goes towards it too. I'm currently at a loss as to how to hit home how important all the work we give you to do is. I think the next step is one to one interviews in some cases about your place on the course. I will be starting these next week, any further interaction will be with home.

Miss Walsh

Remarks of original colour coding: George ->Joe

 Remarks of original colour coding: Jack-> Tom W

 Work since October colour Coding: George-> Joe

  Work since October colour Coding: Jack -> Tom Whittaker

Year 12 Practise Essays: Disability

For those who were absent this week: You will need to pick one of these clips that represent Disabled and Able characters and analyse it in terms of Camera Angles, Edits, Sound and Mise En Scene and how its representation. You may watch it 4 times and should only spend 45 minutes answering your question.

York Film Festival Trip

FRIDAY 8TH NOVEMBER

Leaving School: 6:45am

Bring lunch or money for lunch

OWN CLOTHES...(best clothes please I don't want you to make a show of me)

Back for 7pm hopefully

Some advice from one of the chief examiners...

...All stuff I've told you but this time you may believe me!?

Untitled from PGCEmedia

Newsletters

TV Drama Folders

Can both classes please check that they have the following things in their folders for next lesson please:

• TV Drama Booklet
• Feedback/Marking Grid from 1st Attempt of Exam Response.

I need to make sure you all have these in your folder all the time otherwise you will be loosing notes.

I will be checking these on Thursday for 12opA and 12opD Mr McCann will be checking. Could you let your mates know please if they haven't seen this!

Music Magazine Questionnaires

Please take the time to complete some of our year 12 Questionnaires for their Music Magazine Coursework. I know that they would appreciate it, particularly the ones who have made the effort to do the work and keep up to date.

12opA
Daniel Berkeley (not done the work)
George Burrell
Jack Conway
Matthew Dutton
Jamie Graceffa
Luke Griffiths
Oliver Irving (not done the work)
Dylan Jennings
Alex Laidlaw (not done the work)
Joe law
Jack McKeown
Charlie Newton
Michael Nolan
Ryan O'Donnell
Ian Pelgrave
Tom Quick
Tom Whittaker (not done the work)

12opD
Anthony Black
Connor Burgess
Michael Hickey
Nathan Kearns
Charlie Mossman
Kasey Porter
Nathan Quarless
Lewis Webster
Kieran Winrow
Michael Taylor

Twitter

I will be putting a gadget on the side of this to showcase the Twitter feed for the Media Department but I would like as many of you as possible to follow it as it will give you the information for lessons and changes to rooms or any updates to blogs that you will need to make.

I will also make sure that any trip info will be passed to you.

Past Clips for TV Drama

January 2009: Age

June 2009: Gender

  January 2010: Ethnicity
 June 2010: Gender

January 2011: Gender  
June 2012: Ability/Disability
 June 2013: Regional Identity

Ideology Lesson

Images of the school to compare:

Task:

Questionnaire Embed

12 op D

Hi,

As discussed here is the breakdown of your blogs.


Red = REALLY REALLY AWFUL AND TOO BASIC

Orange= Needs to be improved

Green = Fine

The improvements could be that you will need to look at inserting images or videos, it could also be in some cases that there is not enough information or images to make it a successful post.

For the questionnaire you've all been given orange as I would like you all to embed your questionnaires please.

Year 12 op A Mr McCann Lesson

Hi All, Mr McCann is absent from your lesson today but you all have a lot of work to do. Below is a breakdown of the coursework and I have colour coded each blog post as follows:

Red = REALLY REALLY AWFUL AND TOO BASIC

Orange= Needs to be improved

Green = Fine

The improvements could be that you will need to look at inserting images or videos, it could also be in some cases that there is not enough information or images to make it a successful post.

I am in and therefore I will be in your lesson period 5 and I will expect to see improvements made on your blogs by period 5.

For the questionnaire you've all been given orange as I would like you all to embed your questionnaires please.

Thanks
Miss Walsh