Magazines: Front cover practical task

The best way to learn the conventions of a media product is to create one. Your first task for the Magazines unit is to create an original front cover for an existing magazine.

This will also help to prepare you for the cross-media coursework starting in June.

Task: Choose an existing magazine and create a front cover for a new, original edition of your chosen publication.

Example: student version of Vogue magazine...

Magazine practical task: blog work

Research
Create a blogpost called 'Magazine practical task research' and complete the following tasks:

1) Use your lesson notes on magazine genres and conventions to view a range of potential magazine covers. Create a shortlist of three potential magazines and embed an example front cover from each one.

2) Select your chosen magazine to create a new edition for and explain the thinking behind your choice.

3) Find three different front covers for your chosen magazine and embed them in your blogpost. Analyse the fonts, colours and typical design. What is the language or writing style? How are the cover lines presented? You need to become an expert in the design and construction of this magazine and its branding.

Planning
Create a SEPARATE blogpost called 'Magazine practical task planning' and complete the following tasks:

1) Plan your main flash - this is the main cover story that links to your central image.

2) Plan the image you will need for the cover - model, costume, make-up, lighting etc. At this point, simply describe the image you need to capture.

3) Write the cover lines and any additional text you need for your magazine cover.

4) Sketch out your cover on plain A4 paper using your written planning. Take a photo of your sketch and embed it in your blogpost.

Photoshoot
The photoshoot will take place on Monday 13 May. Make sure you have everything you need for the lesson - model, costume, make-up etc.

Photoshop design
You will have the photoshoot lesson and one additional single lesson to design the front cover on Photoshop. Use YouTube tutorials to help introduce Photoshop if you haven't used it before - this one is a complete guide to creating a magazine cover.

Publication to blog and analysis
Create a blogpost called 'Magazine practical task evaluation' and complete the following tasks:

1) Save your finished Photoshop magazine cover as a JPEG image and upload it to your evaluation blogpost.

2) Write an evaluation of your work: have you succeeded in your brief to create a new, original edition of an existing magazine?

3) Put your cover alongside a couple of genuine covers of your chosen magazine. How professional is your work alongside genuine examples?

4) What is the strongest aspect of your work?

5) What is the weakest aspect of your Photoshop magazine cover? 

6) What would you do differently if you completed this assignment again?


Dates and deadlines

Research deadline: Friday 3 May

Planning deadline: Friday 10 May

Photoshoot: Monday 13 May

Photoshop editing lesson: Friday 17 May

Final deadline: Monday 20 May

We will have three weeks' of lessons for this but you will still need to complete much of this work for homework. Deadlines specified above!

Advertising: End of unit index

We have completed some excellent work on our Advertising and Marketing CSPs. We now need to create an index to ensure we haven't missed any vital notes or tasks.  

As you know, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything through absence or trips. 

You will need to revise these concepts, theories and CSPs for your Media exam at the end of Year 12. Therefore, it's vital you have a complete index to make sure you haven't missed anything from the last half-term. 

Advertising and Marketing index

Your Advertising and Marketing index should include the following:

1) Advertising: Introduction - narrative in advertising
2) Advertising: persuasive techniques
3) Advertising: the representation of women in advertising
4) Advertising: Score case study and wider reading
5) Advertising: Maybelline case study and wider reading
6) Advertising: Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity reading and questions

For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in future assessments/exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

TV: End of unit index

We have completed excellent in-depth studies of Capital and Deutschland 83. We now need to create an index to ensure we haven't missed any vital notes or tasks.  

As you know, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything through absence or trips. 

TV index: Capital & Deutschland 83

Your TV index should include the following:

1) Introduction to TV Drama
2) Capital: Case study
3) Capital: Marxism and Hegemony
4) Capital: Applying Marxism
5) Deutschland 83: Case study
6) Deutschland 83: Close-textual analysis notes
7) Deutschland 83: Postmodernism
8) Industries: The rise of foreign-language TV dramas
9) Industries: The impact of new/digital media on television
10) TV: 750-word exam question

For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in future assessments/exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Assessment revision

You will have an assessment on both TV and the Film Industry (Chicken) in the first week back after Easter. Make sure you revise all of your work from those two units and also look over the key terminology in the Film and TV Language unit from the Autumn term. 

Important: your index, the final work on TV AND all your revision needs to be completed by the first lesson back after Easter.

TV: Exam question

Now we have finished the content for the TV unit, we need to practice answering an exam question on this topic.

We have done some brilliant work exploring representations, the technical construction of the episodes, political contexts, Marxism and Hegemony and postmodern ideas such as bricolage, hyperreality and historical deafness. Now we need to make sure we can apply these ideas to a 25-mark exam question.

In class, we worked on an exam question collectively before exploring one of the following additional questions in a small pair or group:

Question 1
“Realism is a vital component of television drama”. To what extent does an analysis of your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

Question 2
To what extent do your television close-study products reflect the responsibilities and remit of public-service broadcasting? [25 marks]

Question 3
Steve Neale suggests media products need to show “repetition and difference” in their use of genre. To what extent do your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

For your final piece of work for TV, choose one of the above questions and write a full essay answering it. For the actual exam, you will have 35 minutes to write a 5-paragraph answer plus introduction and conclusion. Here, you can try testing yourself against the clock or instead use all of your notes and blogposts to write an exceptional response to work from in future assessments and exams. Write this answer on your blog - or if you prefer to work on paper, scan/photograph your work and upload this to your blog.

TV unit: final homework

1) Write a 750 word answer to one of the exam questions above

2) Revise for your TV and Film assessment

Due: first lesson after Easter

TV: The impact of new/digital media on television

New and digital media - the internet - has had a huge impact on the television industry in the last 10 years.

Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have fundamentally changed the way we watch television. In just 15 years, Netflix has gone from a mail-order DVD company to a giant in the television industry. Next year, Netflix plans to spend $8 billion making original TV programmes.

Watch Newsweek magazine's short video on how Netflix changed TV:



TV Drama

One of the key genres for Netflix and Amazon Prime is TV drama. Many of these dramas now have the budgets and production values of Hollywood movies and many top actors are choosing to work in television rather than film.

In addition, the increase in streaming services has created a worldwide distribution network for acclaimed foreign-language TV dramas such as Deutschland 83.

Streaming services and audience

For audiences, streaming has changed the way we watch television. 

'Event TV', when millions of people around the country would tune in to watch the latest episode of a drama at a set time, is far less common now. Many people now 'binge-watch' TV dramas by watching multiple episodes back-to-back.

The impact of new/digital media on TV: blog task

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on Netflix and the Cultural Industries (MM63 - page 45). Create a blogpost called 'The impact of new/digital media on TV' and answer the following questions:

1) What does the 'industry' concept in A Level Media Studies refer to?

2) What does David Hesmondhalgh argue with regards to how the creative industries have changed since the 1980s?

3) Choose the three most significant points Hesmondhalgh makes regarding the changing cultural industries. Why are these the most significant in your view?

4) What is technological convergence? 

5) How are technology companies challenging traditional broadcasters in the TV industry?

6) What budgets will Netflix, Amazon and Apple spend on original programming next year according to the article?

7) How many countries are Netflix and Amazon available in?

8) The global nature of modern television means producers are having to consider international audiences when creating content. What example from Netflix does the article use to explain this?

9) Do you think technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon will increase their interest in the television industry?

10) How do changes in technology influence the creation of TV dramas such as Capital or Deutschland 83? How?

You'll need to complete this for homework - due first lesson after Easter.