Work for 29th January

Timed essay. Please watch the following clip four times and answer this question
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzlH70WpO3c&list=PLFB92252769CEE92F&index=22

Extract: Compulsion (ITV 2009)
Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only.
Discuss the ways in which the extract
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzlH70WpO3c&list=PLFB92252769CEE92F&index=22
constructs representations of ethnicity using the following:
• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene

Work for Friday 8th January

I have had a look at your blogs. Please ensure you read and respond to any comments that I make on there-some of you haven't!
Please email me using this email address if you have any questions or want me to mark your responses.
shsgmedia@gmail.com


You need to revise for your mocks and I would expect you to revise more over the weekend.
It is your choice whether to spend this lesson planning and preparing your answers for the audience questions or to undertake another practice unseen extract question (see below).

Remember these should take 20 minutes for viewing/note taking and around 40 minutes for writing your response so in your revision time stick to this time limit and be careful not to repeat yourself.

Before you complete this have a look at these revision materials to remind yourself of the key terms. Some of the videos are a bit cringe but they are very helpful.





Here are some refresher revision cards that you may want to print out.

Finally, here is another practice extract, this time the focus should be on the representation of Gender.
Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of gender using the following;

Camera shots, angles movement and composition
Editing
sound
mise-en-scene

Click here to access the link

Cover work for Thursday 7th January

Dear students,
Please be aware that my email account has not been working properly otherwise I would have emailed you directly.
If you have any urgent queries or if you would like to email me this response for some feedback before your mocks, can you please use this alternative email.

shsgmedia@gmail.com

You should spend the next two lessons revising for your mock exam. Remember you will spend an hour responding to an unseen TV drama clip and the second hour writing up your evaluation questions on audience (incorporating the feedback you received from each other and from your focus group).


For today's lesson you should;
1. Re cap on your notes from your TV Drama on Regional Identity, spend about 10 minutes doing this.
2. Refresh your memory on the mark scheme- we have done a lot of work on this and you already have copies of the mark scheme.
3. Watch this clip four times (you can do this as a class or on your own).
the first time just watch, subsequent times make notes- don't forget to use the format that you feel comfortable with either divide your page into quarters or use the flow chart structure we looked at.





3. Answer this question with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only.

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of regional identity using the following;

Camera shots, angles movement and composition
Editing
sound
mise-en-scene

You can respond to the question in chronological order or by focusing on each element separately. What matters is that you are thorough and accurate.
remember you are writing a lot about a little
no previous knowledge of Eastenders or character is required it is all about accurately identifying the technique and explaining how it creates representations of regional identity.

You should complete your write up for homework. Refer again to the mark scheme make corrections and when you are happy with it email it to me to get some feedback (don't forget to use the different email address).

Reminder of work to complete by your return to school in January 2016

1. Your front cover, contents and double page spread must be completed.
We will conduct audience research on the first lesson back so you need to have completed a questionnaire for your audience to complete. It would make sense to base the questions you want to ask them on the evaluation questions.

2. You should have completed a first draft of all your evaluation questions ( apart from questions 4 and 5 which need to be informed by your audience feedback).

3. All of your generic and audience research should have been completed before we broke up. You will find it helpful to refer to the text book I gave you at the start of the year. Try and incorporate more media specific terminology and theory into your research and commentary-this is what will raise your grade most significantly- the quality of language.
If you are unsure, have a look at some of the posts from last years candidates, you can find the link to last years blog here.

Be inspired and make yours even better!

Evaluation Questions

In the evaluation the following seven questions must be addressed:
You should aim to use as many different interactive presentational devices as possible.
Media Language and examples are of paramount importance here.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Questions

In the evaluation the following seven questions must be addressed:
You should aim to use as many different interactive presentational devices as possible.
Media Language and examples are of paramount importance here.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Homework for weekend of 4th December

We have seven lessons left until the end of term!
In that time we need to prepare for the Film Industry case study which will take about two lessons.
You need to put aside at least nine hours to work on your Foundation Portfolio. This must be completed before Christmas and I need to explain the evaluation focus to you.

If you feel you are slipping behind now may be the time to sign up for the Adobe free trial of Photoshop and InDesign. This is free for 30 days.
If I were you I would download it and blitz your production in one go.

This weekend you need to write your copy for your double page spread. Save it as a word document and email it to yourself. That will make it very easy to copy and past into InDesign.

Copy means the article. You need to refresh your memory and read some articles from existing music magazines. Music journalism is a very creative and well respected form of writing. Consider the house style you would like to re create.
Do you want it to be a straightforward question and answer interview or will it be a more retrospective analysis of their career and influence?

What synergy can you incorporate?
Have they a new album, tour or collaboration or project to promote? The answer is- probably. Artistes don't tend to be featured in a magazine unless there is some news about them or there is something to promote.

Consider the lexicon of words you created, use as many of those terms as possible and think about the brand identity and house style that you want to establish.

Consider the genre and the target audience that you are addressing- what would they be interested in finding out when reading this magazine?

Checklist of tasks that should be on your blog by now

All posts should be tagged either;
Planning
Generic Research
Audience Research
or Production

All 6th form magazine research, production and product (with commentary)should be finished.


For the music magazine you should have;

Planning
flatplan of design
contact sheet of images
lexicon of words
the brief pitch for your idea
your audience feedback from your pitch and the direction you are going to take with it.


Generic Research
3 Analyses of existing music magazines with a final commentary on the codes and conventions you have identified and intend to use for your own magazine.
Youth Subculture essay
Your film of GLARN (you analysing a music magazine)
Your responses to the Charlotte Church John Peel lecture questions.


Audience Research
Two analyses of existing reader profiles
Your own reader profile


Once your reader profile is completed we will move on to constructing a focus group then designing your magazines.

Music magazine

You must complete the front cover, contents and double page spread for a music magazine. This should be completed by Christmas.

The exam board has said they want us to use indesign. I would suggest you do this for the double page spread and take screen shots of it.
You may start to like it.

4th November

You should have taken your shots over half term. You now need to try out indesign. It is part of the Adobe Creative suite. The idea is that you edit your photos in photoshop then lay them out in indesign with the copy.

It will take a little getting used to but should make pull quotes and the layout of the copy much more professional
you need to watch the first three tutorials from here
http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-indesign-cs5/

after that bookmark the page and have a look and see the other tools that are available in indesign.

Have a go at importing your background image and constructing your Masthead using this.
Post a blog entry with some screen shots of how you have got on using idesign and embed a link to the link to tutorials I have given you.

Work to complete before half term.

1. You must upload your second music magazine analysis onto your blog. This should be in the format of a short film (no longer than five minutes).
You must ensure that you have used media terminology extensively (refer to the pp I sent you).
You must use the 'titles' app to highlight the key words and draw attention to the language of media analysis.

2. The third and final analysis must be uploaded via a third presentation device. You can use scribd, prezi or a JPG of a typed analysis, or, even better research a new app that I don't know about. Extra points if you can surprise me.
The third analysis is due in at the end of half term but you may want to get it finished before we break up.

3. On Thursday I want to see your flatplans and hear your ideas for your magazine. You need to be prepared to 'pitch' your ideas to the rest of the class. It would be a real bonus if you could incorporate some of the theory and research that you identified in your presentations.

You need to plan and think around your plans for half term as the images need to be taken during that time. On the first lesson back we will be uploading them and starting work on TV Drama.

Monday 19th October

In today's lesson we will have the last presentation given.

Your next task is to combine some filming and editing techniques with content analysis.
In groups of three you are to swap music magazines.
One of you will film the other two talking about the 'GLARN' of the content of a music magazine you have not analysed yet.

You will take the footage and edit it individually in iMovie into a short video. If you do it well enough it will count as one of your three textual analyses.

You should take care therefore to use a lot of key media terms for identifying aspects of design, layout and content. (remember your research and presentations on sub culture and genres of music).

When you edit the footage you need to add subtitles to highlight these words. You can do this either in imovie as a title or by writing key words in photoshop and importing them into iMovie as an image.

You may want to zoom in on aspects of the magazine itself to highlight points you are making about GLARN.

You should spend this lesson and an hour for homework to complete it by Thursday.

A reminder of tasks

Textual analysis
1. You need to annotate the front cover, contents and double page spread of 3 different music magazines.
2. Complete one of these annotations for next Monday. Don't complete the other two until I have given you feedback on the first!
3. Look at the examples below for guidance on the level and tone you should adopt.
4. Try using different ways of presenting them on your blog.
5. You will need to buy at least one magazine-bring it into school and SWAP with someone else then donate it to the box!

Theory research presentation
1. You should have met with your study group to prepare your research presentation.
2. I am expecting these presentations to be uploaded to each group members blog and be presented to the rest of the class this Friday.

Deconstruction of NME magazine

Now out dated but a good example never the less. This contains more background information than I would expect you to come up with but its interesting.

NME was one of the longest running weekly music magazines in history after its initial publication in 1952. Originally the magazine was published in broadsheet newspaper format using newsprint , and competed for many year with titles such as Sounds (focussing on Rock and Heavy Metal genres) and Melody Maker (mainstream Pop and Chart music).

Ideology Unashamedly ‘indie’ NME has always championed the cause of UK and US independent music and embraced Punk Rock in the 1970s and 1980s with an excitable fervour – alongside its clear musical preferences promoted by iconic writers such as Danny Baker and Tony Parsons (both now well respected cultural commentators) NME also did nothing to disguise its anti establishment, left wing socialist ideology. Campaigning artists like Billy Bragg and Paul Weller were frequently featured, particularly during the Thatcher era as part of the ‘Red Wedge’ movement.

Institution In 1998 the ‘magazine’ became a magazine finally reverting to a colour magazine ink finish and printing in tabloid size format – ironically perhaps considering NME’s independent credentials it is now owned by international magazine publisher IPC, like Bauer Media Group part of the oligopoly of magazine publishers who in turn are owned by Time Inc whose parent company is Time Warner, the biggest media corporation in the world. Like the monthly magazine Q, it is again no surprise that its weekly circulation is low at 27,500, 60% down on 2003 figures and like every magazine and newspaper, suffering from the rapid decline in print media circulation as a result of the internet and new digital media. IPC still publish however 350 million magazines a year and their eclectic brands include Woman, Woman’s Own, Marie Claire, Wallpaper, Nuts and Horse and Hound. The brand of NME is itself iconic and as a result has survived its early competition in Sounds and Melody Maker. Commentators suggest there was always something that set NME apart and true to this www.nme.com, their online magazine has become critically and commercially successful (see below).

Genre Cross media platforms are also promoted in the print version of NME with the website, like Q trading on the iconic, established brand name New Music Express (NME) itself having positive connotations of immediacy and being at the cutting edge of music evolution which was on many occasions the case - NME can probably lay more legitimate claim than other music magazines to being responsible for kick starting many career. NME have their own radio station but like Q, NME TV shut down in 2012 as a result of high production costs, fierce completion from other music channels and the continued success of YouTube and Vevo.

After Punk in the 1990s NME adopted the Brit Pop and ‘Madchester’ scene with bands like Oasis and later adopting Blur, deliberately setting both against each other on NME covers as ‘northern, working class beer boys’ (Oasis) versus ‘southern, middle class, educated art students’ (Blur). The rivalry boosted magazine circulation, the band’s publicity and for most associated with Brit Pop (including ex Prime Minister Tony Blair) it was a win win situation. NME had been in on the birth of punk and now they adopted a critically and commercial successful (in the US) British music movement.

In the 2000s NME began to adopt a more hybridised format to keep pace with the proliferation of the music scene and electronic technology – artists like Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and and Aphex Twin were foregrounded but their inclusion brought considerable opposition from readers who reacted in the same way when a non indie, guitar based artist (Jay-Z) headlined at the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday night in 2008. This hybridisation and approach was withdrawn and the magazine reverted to its familiar format in terms of content. This realignment was more successful in 2001 with NME adopting another raft of successful artists representing a new indie punk movement. Bands like The Strokes, The Vines, The White Stripes and later on The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, The Kaiser Chiefs and the Arctic Monkeys were the darlings of NME covers going on to become successful artists in their own right. A rebrand in 2008 saw the magazine targeting an older readership become less ‘poppy’ in its format and layout and focussing on ‘serious’ and critically successful bands like Coldplay.

Language The May 2010 edition above is typical of the current approach of NME – ‘NME’ appears as bold, upper case, red, sans serif block text on the left hand side top of the magazine with it stereotypical connotations of masculinity. Opposite the title but still in the masthead a main cover line states ‘Introducing the new NME. 10 special edition covers’ reflecting another mini rebrand. The cover is minimalistic in design and frames female artist M.I.A. centrally in medium shot as the USP (unique selling point) of the cover with her name as a bigger size font and same colour as the name of the magazine.

Representation Although on first glance this would suggest a departure from NME standard representations her inclusion and importance reflects the history of the magazine musically and politically – M.I.A’s music combines elements of electronic, Dance, alternative, World Music and Hip Hop but she cites punk as one of her key influences, particularly Malcolm McLaren and The Clash.

M.I.A. also represents a positive representation of gender and multiculturalism which again fits the left wing, socialist political ideology the magazine has always been associated with. She is of Sri Lankan Tamil origin and fiercely considers herself British as evidenced by her dress code wearing a Union Jack top. Her body language is strong and positive suggesting a post feminist icon status which is anchored by the cover live underneath the title, ‘Lady Gaga sounds more like me than I f**king do’. Lady Gaga, in terms of her representation would also be considered a post feminist icon.

M.I.A’s body language is almost aggressive and confrontational as she stares back at the camera smoking a cigarette challenging the target audience. Although pluralistic in her representation there are still elements of the photograph (a photo shoot for this cover) that suggest she is also sexualised and framed for the male gaze. This would successfully appeal to the magazines demographic which would primarily include ABC1, Individualists and Aspirers , urban and city living, 16-35, male skew but with a significant secondary female readership. The lower price of this weekly magazine is also likely to reflect a younger reader and the audience would also respond to the simplicity in terms of graphic design of the front cover with a basic colour palette of reds, blues and white; use of non standard English on the cover would also have the same effect.

For most NME readers however content would be more important than design as cultural capital and intelligent knowledge and understanding of the music industry are important factors. The bottom right cover line, ‘THE STATE OF MUSIC TODAY’ suggests an authority that the magazine feels qualified to comment on with contributions interestingly by artists from a range of genres and not exclusively indie including Rihanna (Pop) and Laura Marling (Folk). Foregrounded however at the top of the list includes more traditional NME artists such as Jack White and Florence and the Machine suggesting their perceived hierarchy and status within the music industry.

Deconstruction of Q magazine front cover

Audience identification with the iconic, recognisable masthead first appeals to consumers – taking up 15% of the front cover an enigmatic, upper case, bold, white on red, block serif letter ‘Q’ is a box on the left hand side top of the cover.

This departs from the conventions of magazine covers that normally run a masthead run along the top of the front cover. ‘Q’ is enigmatic, just like the regular Spine Line which changes every months because many readers will be uncertain why it is called by this name and according to the Editor it looks original and displays better on newsstands (the magazine was planned to be called ‘Cue’ as in cue the music but it was thought there was an outside chance it could be mistaken for a snooker magazine, a sport which was very popular when Q launched in 1986. The white letter could signify simplicity or purity while a red background has connotations of danger – the founders of the magazine thought at the time that the music press was ignoring older, primarily male music buyers.

Within the masthead, the magazine’s tagline is foregrounded – ‘A DIFFERENT TAKE ON MUSIC’. This again encodes a sense of originality and almost ‘independence’ to audiences which is in fact mythical if audiences engage in content analysis; Q magazine devotes a significant amount of content to established, mainstream Rock artists and belongs to the Rock genre frequently running articles on its favourite British bands including the Rolling Stones, Stone Roses and Blur. ‘A DIFFERENT TAKE ON MUSIC’ however is another successful way to market to audiences who perhaps do not have the significant cultural capital of the primary reader.

Q magazine has high production values and this is evidenced by its glossy, monthly format and also by fact that it is published by the Bauer Media Group, one of the oligopoly of magazine publishers who acquired EMAP in 2008. Bauer own 282 magazines in 15 countries and also TV and Radio stations and are the UK’s largest publishing group. It is with this financial backing that Q can sustain relatively low monthly circulation of 80,400, as with most other consumer magazines a common occurrence with many diversifying into new media as with Q’s website www.qthemusic.com. Bauer’s other music magazine titles include Mojo and Kerrang who, like Q have diversified into cross media platforms like Q TV and Q Radio. The Q Awards are also sponsored by the brand (though Bauer) and remain one of the UK’s most prestigious music awards. It with this in mind that Q sees itself as more sophisticated than other titles offering quality and still attracting high profile advertisers despite the low circulation. Q’s demographic have a high potential for advertising spend suggesting ABC1, aspirers, male skew, urban and city living 25-45 who are ‘into their music’.

Q have hybridised up to a point with the Rock genre very much apparent but with a focus occasionally on quality indie artists like Pete Doherty and Elbow. Q want to be associated with successful music artists and a way of maintaining their place in the market is by flexibility in terms of genre (see also Kerrang magazine). Guitar bands are Q’s main focus and as a result have a close relationship with the Glastonbury Festival producing a free daily newspaper during the festival although as with the above front cover are comfortable with running covers devoted to popular female artists who are invariable framed for the male gaze with this audience in mind. In April 2010 Q caused controversy when they ran a front cover featuring Lady Gaga, centrally framed in medium shot covering her breasts, only to be banned by some US retail outlets. Unashamedly ‘boysey’ Q’s sister papers include Empire, a wholly mainstream, male dominated film magazine and football magazine FourFourTwo.

Q are also well known for compiling ‘lists’ – on the above front cover a typical example of this would be cover line ‘The 25 Greatest Rock Movies’ and have an extensive ‘Review’ section (new releases, reissues, live concert reviews and film). Q TV closed in July 2012 but again focussed on Rock videos and Rock films with the occasional indie and ‘alternative’ reference. The saturation of music TV channels and low viewing figures made it untenable that it continue broadcasting. Q Radio however continues and is available on the internet, on digital radio or on digital television networks with the added advantage of limited production costs while the cost of maintaining Q TV was considerable and without enough advertising revenue to cover costs. As with the print music magazine, the brand Q remains recognisable, but for how long?

Cover lines on the right hand side of the above edition anchor the masculine representations with not only bands like U2, The Stone Roses and Oasis having hyper real, stereotypical connotations but the lettering also appears in bold, upper case, sans serif block with its own signification of masculinity. All bands are British and entirely male with all Oasis and The Stone Roses conforming to a hell raising, bad boy image which would be read as aspirational by much of the target audience who are fans of the groups. U2 are foregrounded as a dominant, successful global band with their lead singer Bono often revered and enigmatic. The sub headings ‘Good lord, it’s their masterpiece’ and ‘The 55 pint interview’ again serve to anchor these hyper real masculine associations that the readers expect. The mode of address is used to facilitate this with the magazine talking directly to the reader in an informal way with common use of exclamation marks creating the myth of a personal communication. This is s similar technique uses by Men’s Lifestyle magazines to create a form of inclusivity like the readers are all part of the same homogenous group.

This simplistic, almost minimalistic front cover suggests the sophistication that Q magazine are looking to achieve – many lower production value magazines have cluttered from covers that have limited design considerations. The central image, Lilly Allen is a carefully constructed photo shoot ensuring the singer appear frames centrally in long shot, topless looking back at the male audience. Her body language, including a hand on hip, her seductive gaze, and dress code including black tights, heels and hot pants are straight out of a Men’s Lifestyle magazine and are common conventions. Across her body the main cover line, ‘SEXY BEAST LILY ALLEN’ has its own connotations and could be understood as a pun with the presence of two black Panthers flanked to either side. Wild cats stereotypically are associated with a sexual connotation (sleek, dangerous, uncontrollable, deadly but beautiful) and are used in this way on the front cover. Again written in sans serif font her name is foregrounded large as a banner and the colour palette is also stereotypically masculine using silvers, blacks, whites and reds which also serve to create more of an aesthetically pleasing cover. Written underneath Lily Allen’s name in smaller, italicised this time red for passion and danger upper case text is use of alliteration ‘WICKED, WICKED WAYS’ which allows audiences to decode the impact of the sexual representation through use of language.

The cover lines that run along the bottom of the front cover signify their importance in terms of genre in that are mainly indie compared to the main cover lines about Rock bands at the top right of the page. Pete Doherty’s on and off drug dependency is referred to by the cover line ‘PETE DOHERTY AND THE HARDEST WORKING CORPSES IN MUSIC’ but a hyper real masculine representation is still apparent as like the other Rock artists he has a bad boy image. The only female frame of reference on the front cover is an overtly sexualised Lily Allen whose presence is for male audiences and potentially for a secondary female target audience who could see her as an aspirational role model. Her agreement to appear on the front cover of Q is an interesting one from a marketing perspective as lyrically many of her songs reflect a fierce independence but arguably the cover image references the significant other (men) that her songs do not – this would be a mutually beneficial marketing agreement both for Q and Lily Allen as with the Lady Gaga front cover, both would benefit from notoriety and publicity while Q remain associated with quality artists.

Mojo Media Pack - Art & Photos

Mojo Media Pack - Art & Photos

How to research music magazines

You will find lots of information on the advertising sites of institutions who refer to their magazines as 'brands. Bauer for example will actually provide potential advertisers with a plethora of information which is exactly what you need for your research.

Click here for Kerrang

You will find it helpful to create a 'brand identity' similar to this for your own product.

Remember this information is designed for potential advertisers so you may have to search a little for it.

You can also see how magazines and brands refer to their target audiences.
For example here

You can even download their media packs for magazines. See here for Q magazine
You will be able to access this kind of information which is invaluable to you.


You can also see examples of audience profiles that you will be expected to create

Mixmag media pack

The journey of a song

To see how the industry works we can look at the typical journey of a song – My Song. A lot of people make a small amount of money from just one song. Overall that one song contributes to the music industry.
This is the business journey of My Song and shows why the music we listen to is part of an industry.

Is the Music Industry in Crisis?

Why is the Music Industry in Crisis?
The issue for the music industry is how it can pay bands, composers, song writers, record producers and record companies if consumers do not pay for their music. It is always easier to sell a physical product like a CD but a virtual product such as a download does not raise the same feeling of ownership. It is also much easier to pirate. People will tend not to want to spend money if something can be obtained free. This ignores the fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch –someone somewhere has to pay for the product.

The music industry invests £200 million each year just in new bands. That is a lot of money to lose in pirated downloads, and is of course unsustainable in the long run.
Some people argue that record companies have grown ‘fat’ on the boom in the music industry in the latter half of the 20th century and need to redistribute their profits – although they did through royalties –see above.
That was then and this is the 21st century. Record companies are generally making very little money from recorded music.
The music industry is still in crisis but is starting to find a way of selling its product in the digital universe. Legal downloads in 2011 account for about 6% of music sales – not great but up from zero, 2 years ago.
In 2014 as much as 95% of the music downloaded online was done illegally.
Matt Philips of the BPI, which represents the music industry in the UK, says: ‘Sales through licensed legitimate¬ platforms are growing, but unlawful downloading still accounts for 95% of online purchases.’ (The Guardian)

Good examples of students work analysing music magazines

EDM Magazine Analysis from aimeelmundy

A link to a blog

This is a particularly good example
http://snack.to/b7n0df03

Its a good idea to try out different presentational skills as the exam board wants to see you using a variety of sharing tools.

How to analyse Music Magazines

You must analyse the front page, contents and double page spread of three diverse music magazines. This will probably involve buying some of them. They should not be any older than 2014.

You must go into more depth in terms of the analysis than you did for the 6th form magazine. Use the checklist after this powerpoint to ensure you are covering the key areas. You may find it useful to analyse according to 'GLARN'. Some of the elements will be interchangeable.







GENRE- which genre/s of music? Niche/mainstream, established, retrospective or new artist/band. Brand identity

LANGUAGE- discourse of layout/copy. House style,

AUDIENCE- demongraphic, psychographic, values and lifestyles? Who is the target audience- how can you assess this?
Stuart Hall's theory- what would the preferred, oppositional, negotiated meaning be?

REPRESENTATION- how are bands/artists represented?

NARRATIVE - what 'stories' are being told? In what manner? Confidential, authoritive, as an insight into artists/bands lives, inspiration or as a guide to the best tracks, gigs, festivals?

Homework for Tuesday 13th October

The Representation of Women in the Music Industry (useful for Music and TV drama).
The John Peel lecture by Charlotte Church on women in music

Please answer the following questions

Charlotte Church’s lecture starts at 6.29 but by all means listen to the first 6 minutes about John Peel and his influence on music.

Please include a link to this on your blog and answer the following questions.

1. What are the three main roles women play in music?


2. Who doesn’t use her image to sell?

3. What is the irony of these roles?


4. What culture is ingrained?

5. Who was a template changer who changed her image frequently and was in charge of her sexuality?

7. What percentage of music labels are owned by women?

8. Who gave a Pickled juice rant?


9. 'When I am assertive im a bitch, when a man is assertive he is a boss’ who said this?

10. ‘Dark and pornographic videos’ who calls for the age restrictions on music videos.

11. Should schedulers take into account the image of an artist when promoting their music?

12. What does Church think about Blurred Lines?

13. Who stated.. ‘I don’t want to be infantalised because I won’t be sexualised'.

If you found this interesting listen to the whole programme here

you could base your double page spread in your project on an issue similar to this.

Your Tasks for Foundation Portfolio (coursework)

The music press intro to a level from Vicky Casson

Don't forget the final questions
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Homework reading 12th October

Please read this article

about the demise of Smash Hits magazine. List 5 key points of interest and add to your blog.
Find a similar article about the demise of the NME

The Music Industry

How has music consumption changed?
How has it effected the music press?

History of music consumption from Vicky Casson

Questions to answer on Youth Subculture

You need to read and take notes on the links on the previous post.
You should follow those links and research further yourself.
You will need to find approx 3 more academic or serious journalistic articles. This is open as I would like you to investigate along the lines of the youth subculture or music genre you want to base your music magazine on.
You need to have the links embedded into your blog.
You need to have this research completed and these questions answered by 19th October.
There will be a lesson this beforehand on 16th October.
This will give you some planning time and you will then shoot your images over half term.

Questions
1. To what extent does music effect subcultures in terms of the following;
identity, resistance, class, race, gender, sexuality, politics, creativity and commodification.
2. What is the relationship between culture and commerce in the music industry?
3. Consider the ways in which the the music industry can facilitate, proliferate, stifle or defuse youthful creativity.
4. Should youth subcultures be regarded as an authentic form of cultural resistance, or merely a marketing ploy of the fashion and music industries and what role does the music press have in exacerbating this?

Work for week beginning 5th October

1. Begin layout of 6th form magazine front cover and contents magazine.
Remember to consider that you will have to annotate your production and identify what you have included and the process by which you cam to your final piece. In terms of:

1. codes and conventions of content and layout you identified from your research.
2. the representation of the institution and the students you intended (your preferred meaning)
3. Any possible oppositional or negotiated meanings (Stuart Hall) that might be 'read' by an audience.

2. You must edit first in iPhoto then move your images into either Photoshop CS5 or In Design.
3. You need to move on quickly with this whilst reading about and considering ideas for a music magazine.
4. Remember to take screen shots at key decision moments to upload to your blog to track your progress.
5. The practical side of this must be completed by Monday 12th October.

Give yourself two frees in the Media Studio as well as your lessons to get this done.

Two more hours must be taken reading the following and making brief notes (citing the url and author)to upload onto your blog. Use these to answer the academic questions on the above post.

Reading list for youth subculture and music industry research.

Article on youth subcultures here

David Fowler is a well respected social historian who has written about the development of youth sub cultures. Read his introductory chapter here

The death of the Music Press in the UK
link here

1. Take your images, remember the main shot has to be a mid shot of one person.
Remember you will need to shoot in portrait mode for the front cover.
Remind yourself of the reading you undertook about composing and taking effective shots- always check your shots before you leave your shoot and ensure you have got what you need.

The contents pages can be a combination of school and external shots ( you may use a couple of 'found' images but you must have a good reason for doing so and keep them to a minimum)

You will need to annotate your final version so keep in mind the codes and conventions that you have included. The mise-en-scene, framing, camera shots and angles.

2. Upload your images into iphoto. Use the quick edit tools and anotate which you have decided to use and give your reasons why. You could upload a very quick collage of rejected images.

3. Move your edited versions into Photoshop or In design.

Take screen shots of your progress to upload to your blog.

4. Completed version to be annotated in a slideshow, use zooming in on elements such as mastheads or straplines.

5. Start thinking about the music press/youth sub cultures and ideas for the genre you wish to pursue.

Friday's work

1. Use more accurate media terminology when annotating magazine examples.
2. Use the powerpoint 'image analysis' that has been emailed to you to remind yourself of what to look for.
By Monday you need to merge all 3 analyses into one powerpoint. This include:
3 analyse of a 6th form or college front page and at least 1 of a contents page (I understand these are difficult to find).

You must then refer to the evaluation questions and have a concluding summary as a separate post that answers the following points:
1. What forms and conventions have you identified in 6th form/college magazines?
2. How are students and young people represented in these publications?
3. Who would the audience be for these publications? How can you tell, what techniques have been used?

Finally research 'youth sub cultures'.

Questions to answer at the end of the portfolio

In the evaluation of your Foundation Portfolio the following seven questions must be addressed:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

As you progress through each planning and research task have these questions in mind.

Cover lessons Monday and Tuesday and homework.

Checklist of work:
1. 'All About Me' collage on blog.
2. Comparison of raw and edited photo from photo shoot annotated and uploaded to blog.
3. Read and make notes on the 'taking good photos' powerpoint on the blog.
4. Read and make notes on the 'magazine conventions and terminology' powerpoint that I emailed to you.
5. Take the quiz on image analysis that is on the blog.
6. Find an example of a 6th form or college magazine front cover and contents and annotate it (using the terminology that you have gleaned from the powerpoint and quiz).
7. Present your annotation on a powerpoint on your blog. The easiest way to do this is to open a free account with slideshare and upload it that then share to your blog.
8. I would also like you to print out a paper copy (printing 4-6 slides per page so it is legible) so I can mark it before you move on.
9. Please hand this paper copy in on Thursday.
Here is an example of a good one although bear in mind its impossible to mark as it is so dark!

Sixth Form Magazine Analysis from Jennifer Welsford

This may seem like a lot of work but it represents 5 hours work so should be achievable.

Magazine Terminology to use when annotating examples

Codes and conventions of a magazine front cover from liam-lim-horgan

What you need to do for this unit

Print
Preliminary excercise : using DTP and Photoshop, produce:
1. The front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead.
2. A mock-up of the layout of the contents page.

3. Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original and produced by you. You must include a minimum of four images.

4. Blogging: Presentation of the research, planning and evaluation should be done in the format of a blog. This MUST be kept up to date. It should be as multi- platform as possible, for instance, you can film your focus group & interview them about magazines. You could film your photo shoot. Scan your flatplans & include those. You should include screen shots of links & quotes to research sources. Try nimating your mood board & include background music. You could keep a video diary of your progress through the work. You can create powerpoint presentations & upload them to slideshare to include on your blog. You can record a podcast of you answering the evaluation questions.

The more imaginative and multi-modal, the better!


Assessment:This unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for presentation of the planning and research; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation

Taking effective photos

Photography lesson from Vicky Casson

Image analysis terms

You need to familiarise yourself with Media Specific terminology and use it!
Try this quiz to start off

Foundation Portfolio

We have had a quick overview of TV Drama. Now we need to turn our focus to the Foundation Portfolio.

This must include:
1. The front page and contents page of a 6th form magazine
2. The front page, contents and double page spread of a music magazine.

This must all be evidenced in a blog.
You need to use this blog as an online journal that traces your 'learning journey'.
How you have progressed as a photographer, designer, journalist and media researcher.
You should have at least one entry for every Portfolio lesson that you have.
You need to use as much media terminology/theory as possible.

So,first entry should be your likes and interests photoshop collage along with a brief analysis.
Second entry should be two images of your choice from our group photoshoot outside. Again they should be annotated according to camera shot/angle/composition/representation/codes of gesture/expression.

Timeline

1. Foundation Portfolio (magazine, blog and evaluation)
Completed by Christmas. Thursday and Friday
2. TV Drama and representation- Monday and Tuesday before half term
3. British Film- Monday and Tuesday after half term.
on going throughout year (we may lose some of these lessons at key deadline times)

Course outline from Vicky Casson

Case Study Points

You need to find a UK film that is currently in production and due to be released soon. That way you can track the marketing and distribution campaign as it happens.

Look at the websites of the following companies to help you;

Working Title
Vertigo
Film 4 Productions

Please create a powerpoint to cover the following points


production, distribution, marketing and exchange

(as much as you can find out, not all of this info will be in the public domain)

Production: where did the finance come from?
What production companies have been involved?
What else have they produced?
Cast and crew: what else have they been involved in? Have they been UK based?

Distribution
Who is the distribution company, who are they owned by, what else have they promoted?
How much money have they spent?

Marketing: who is promoting the film, what techniques have they used?
To what extent have they used digital technology in this ? facebook, TV promotions, radio, magazines, what else???

Audience.
What audiences have they targeted, how can you tell?
Is it above the line or below the line marketing?

Exchange.
Where is this film being screened?
What sort of exhibition? Blanket? targeted?
What sort of cinemas is it screened at?
What does this tell us about the audience?

when you have completed it upload it to the edmodo site here

Things to do over the summer

1. Join our Edmodo site using this code j2z9rb.
Vote on which practical you would like to do, film, print or radio.

2. Start a case study on a new British film that will be coming out around Christmas.




3. Watch TV Drama considering how the characters are represented.
Have a look at this You Tube channel for useful examples

4. Follow shsgmedia on twitter for up to date examples from media theorists

Course outline

The course

There is a mix of theoretical and practical work
•Based on a consultation with industry media experts


G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media- coursework kept on a blog. See here for examples.
This is a coursework unit where candidates produce a media artefact from a series of briefs. This process involves progression from a pre-production, preliminary exercise to a more fully realised piece. The briefs offered are: print, video, audio and website.
Candidates present their research and planning in either paper-based or digital format and do an evaluation in digital format, based on seven required prompt questions.

You can choose from;
Print
Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.
Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). Maximum four members to a group.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of FOUR images per candidate.
Video
Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.
Audio
Preliminary exercise: the introductory music/jingle for a show on the radio with a presenter introducing and greeting their guest (who must respond) and playing an archive sound clip relating to the guest (approximately 30-40 seconds duration in total). This exercise is to demonstrate understanding of sound editing and mixing and conventions of radio.
Main task: A five minute news bulletin (local radio) to include title music, presenter, specialist reporters, OBs, recorded interview, a vox pop and appropriate sound fx and structure.
All audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

G322: Key Media Concepts (TV Drama) One two hour exam, two sections.
Click here for links
Textual Analysis and Representation.
In Section A, candidates answer questions on an unseen moving image extract that is then linked to some aspect of the representation within the sequence.

Institutions and Audiences
In Section B, candidates study the British Film Industry
Click here for link

The aims of this course is to;
• enhance candidates enjoyment and appreciation of the media and its role in their daily lives;
• develop critical understanding of the media through engagement with media products and concepts and through the creative application of practical skills;
• explore production processes, technologies and contexts;
• become independent in research skills and their application.