Evaluation Guidance

All the blog entries on one handy document!

How to Answer the Evaluation Questions

Contents Pages

  

Get Photoshop for free!

Follow this link to download a full version of the Adobe CS2 suite (2005), plus a serial number.  It's legitimate, and FREE!!!

http://fstoppers.com/have-an-older-computer-download-adobe-cs2-premium-plus-free

PLEASE NOTE ADOBE HAVE NOW CLARIFIED THAT THIS LINK IS MEANT FOR PEOPLE WHO ALREADY OWN A COPY OF CS2.

Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

Don't end up with a boring masthead.  Try one of the fantastic tutorials at THIS site.

Using Prezi

Using Prezi

Deadline for Coursework

The deadline for your AS Media Foundation Production is the last day before February half-term which is Thursday 13 February 2014.

Coursework Brief and Marksheet

Open publication - Free publishing - More brief

 

Open publication - Free publishing - More coursework

Tips for taking your photos

Remember that you MUST include at least 4 images (not 4 per page but 4 over the cover, contents and DPS).

Do your research and collect types of photos that you want to emulate/recreate. Take printed copies of these to your photo shoot so that the you can accurately direct your models.

Go for a range of interesting shots and angles. The more variety of images, the better the production, the better the mark!

Use natural daylight if possible but don't shoot with the sun behind your model or they will be too dark.

Take lots more shots than you will need, better to have too many than too few to choose from!

Don't settle for poor quality images, plan them well including props, costumes and make-up and take them as soon as possible in case you need to re-shoot.

How to write an article for a music magazine

Open publication - Free publishing - More journalism

Tips for laying out a DPS

This is a MS Word document that I saved as a .pdf and then transformed into this neat little electronic version at www.issuu.com. You just have to join issuu, upload your .pdf and 'embed' the code onto a blog post. Make sure you are on the 'Edit HTML' tab, not the 'Compose' tab.

Open publication - Free publishing - More education

Make a Powerpoint into a Windows Media Video

Simply make your PowerPoint then 'save as' a Windows Media Video. Create a new post on your blog and click on 'insert a video'.

Audience Research - example response

Magazine name, audience profile & magazine results from laithalgaram

Exam board requirements

PRESENTATION OF THE RESEARCH & PLANNING

• Research into similar media products and a potential target audience
• Organisation of actors, locations, costumes and props
• Work on shortlists, layouts and drafting
• Time management
• Care taken in the preparation of research and planning

CONSTRUCTION

• Framing a shot appropriately for the task
• A variety of appropriate shot distances
• Shooting appropriate material
• Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting
• Appropriate images/image manipulation including cropping and resizing
• Accurate use of language and register
• Integration of illustration and text
• Conventions of layout and page design
• Appropriate variety of fonts and text sizes
• Using ICT appropriately for the set task
• Overall quality of finished pieces

EVALUATION

• Understanding of the issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.
• Ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
• Understanding of their development from preliminary to main task.
• Ability to communicate
• Use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Recommended websites

Producing good, indepth analysis, demonstrating your creativity and showing off your technical skills are important for the AS Media Coursework but you must also embrace new technology if you want to get good marks.

There are a lot of free websites which you can use to make the presentation of your work more interesting.

Here are some which we encourage you to use. No doubt you will also know of others.

http://www.dafont.com/
When creating your mastheads, why restrict yourself to the lousy range of font choices available in Photoshop? Go to dafont.com to access a whole world of fonts. You can use them directly from the site but it is better if you ask your tutor to download your chosen ones for you.


http://www.flickr.com/
You will need to set up a Yahoo account (if you don't already have one) and link it to your blog. Once you have done this you can upload your images, such as magazine covers, and annotate them using the 'post-it note' feature. Once your analysis is complete, link the image to your blog.


http://www.slideshare.net/
This site lets you upload your PowerPoints and it converts them into slides shows which you can then embed into your blog posts.

http://issuu.com/  or  http://www.flipsnack.com/
If you have produced a document in MS Word which is nicely laid out and features text and images, just convert it into a .pdf and then upload it to issuu or flipsnack and these site will convert it into an electronic book which you can then paste onto your blog posts.

Windows Movie Maker
WMM is very easy to use. You just gather stills and/or video footage and sound onto it and edit using the timeline. You can then output your video to your computer or upload it to YouTube and insert it into your blog posts.

Here's how an A2 group presented their findings from their audience research. It's funny as well as informative, it took them just 40 minutes to complete and it did wonders for their grades!

My Finished Magazine Pages

Insert your final images here. Make sure that when you click on them they open up as large images.

How to Answer Evaluation Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Make a Prezi analysis, containing explanation and illustration of at least ten conventions drawn from your three finished products. Write about what the conventions are for, and how you have used them to create your own house style and brand identity, and to attract your target audience.  Add clipped images of similar conventions from real magazines too,  if you can, to show how your use is similar to or different from professional products.  Try to choose similar or contrasting examples from real media texts (but if you have based your designs very closely on a real product DO NOT USE THAT PRODUCT!!).

Conventions to explore

• masthead and title
• mise-en-scene and technical code of your main cover photo and other images
• Cover lines
• Graphic and other layout devices
• Puffs
• Colour scheme and ‘house style’
• Kicker
• Drop Caps
• Pull Quotes
• Cross-heads
• Column structure
• Use of white space
• Use of other layout conventions like rule of thirds, ‘z’ reading patterns
• End signs/jump lines
• The journalist style of the written content
• The division of your contents page into regulars and features
• Techniques to connote the excitement and business of the magazine on your contents page (inset photos with drop caps etc)

Remember, some magazines are more conventional than others, depending on the subject matter and the audience.

Cover page terminology

DPS layout

Explain what genre/hybrid genre of magazine you produced (rock, pop, glossy lifestyle, etc) and discuss some of the magazines that you took your influences from. Add some pictures of these.

 

PRESENTATION SUGGESTION: Use Presi for your analysis of your three pages and link the Presi to this post.

How to Answer Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Media products take the world and RE-PRESENT it to us.  In doing so they make choices about HOW to represent different sorts of people.  Think about how you have represented, say, male youth, or early teenage girls, or heavy metal fans, or indie music fans, or your target audience generally (say who they are demographically and psychographically).

 What qualities have you implied that this group of people possess?  You have represented them through your photos, your choice of language, your use of colours, your writing, and even the things you have LEFT OUT and assumed they are NOT interested in.  For example, let’s say your magazine is aimed at early teenage girls. What sorts of personalities and interests does your magazine suggest teenage girls have?  Have you reinforced stereotypes (eg interested in clothes, makeup, boys, etc)?  Have you challenged stereotypes?  (Eg aggressive poses in photographic  shots, or use cover lines about ‘unusual’ topics such as politics or fast cars?)

 
Illustrate your answer with clips from your products to show what you are talking about, and if you like compare them to clips/images from ‘real’ media texts. Take one photograph and compare it to a photo of a similar person taken from a real media text.  How are they similar, and how different?   When discussing photos of the group you have represented you should  consider posture, gesture, angle, shot type, lighting, costume, expression, hair, etc.  Outline the social group you are representing using demographics (age, gender, class, where they live), psychographics (mainsreamers, aspirers, reformers, individuals), sub-cultures and tribes (goths, steam punks, hipsters, ravers, geeks, townies, metalheads, etc.

PRESENTATION SUGGESTION: Do this as an illustrated blog post or as a Word document, uploaded to ISSUU as a PDF then embedded in your blog. 

How to Answer Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Look back at the work we started with this year, and decide on a company to produce and distribute your magazine.  Think about what sort of magazine it is and which company would be best to sell the idea to.  You need to refer to actual company names and processes.  If you think you could get your magazine produced by a big publishing house, like IPC, Bauer, Dennis, Future etc you’ll need to justify it in terms of the size of your target audience, the advertising pull they would have, and the company’s existing range of magazines. 

Consider whether it would be best placed with a major, medium and small/independent publisher because there are advantages and disadvantages of each route. Clash is the only magazine published by Clash Magazine Ltd but actually it is more successful than NME which is published by IPC. 

What would be the advantages/disadvantages of going with a big company (e.g. IPC) compared to self-publishing (e.g. Clash)?

Similarly if you think you could get it distributed by one of the big UK distributors, like MarketForce, WH Smiths, Menzies or FrontLine, and into the major retail spaces like WH Smiths and ASDA, you’ll have to explain why.

Also remember that digital distribution is possible, or selling through subscription, or even giving it away and relying on advertising revenue.  The key here is to consider all these issues and name some real companies and their products. And be realistic about the potential of your magazine - don’t be naïve!  Can you remember how many titles fail within their first three years? (Bonus marks if you can, and put it on your blog!!!).  

Finally don't forget to reflect on the need for synergy e.g. there will probably be an online version of your magazine, there might even be sister products such as a radio station. Some magazines get involved in sponsoring awards ceremonies. Maybe there are tie-ins with iTunes, Spotify, etc depending on the scale of your venture, the genre of music and your target audience.

Note: Don't forget to use company logos and images of related magazines to illustrate your post.
PRESENTATION SUGGESTION: You could present your response to Qu3 using a Word document which you .pdf and upload to ISSUU or Scribd and share onto your blog. 

How to Answer Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?


Take a photo or find an image online of a representative of your target audience and profile them in terms of demographics, psychographics (and use these terms), lifestyle choices, tastes in music, films, shopping habits, etc.

You could use UK Tribes links and you should find an image or do a drawing of a typical member of your target audience (remember to post it to your blog) and give an explanation of who they are, where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite tv programme would be, etc. You must also refer to your audience research here. 

Tip: look at the type of content featured in the media kit for magazines (sometimes called the audience profile) which you can find on magazine websites or look back through your notes. Be sure to include similar details about your planned target audience. 

Write a few lines on why they would buy/subscribe to your magazine.

Make sure you think about the AUDIENCE AS A PRODUCT too – what sort of advertising could you attract through your audience.  Are they a viable audience for a magazine to target?

PRESENTATION SUGGESTION: You could present your response to Qu4 as a video clip or flipbook using a Word docuement, converted to a .pdf, uploaded to Issuu or Flipsnack and shared with your blog.

How to Answer Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Use Flickr's annotation tools or create a Prezi to highlight the ways in which your magazine is designed to attract and address your audience.  Why would they buy it and what would keep them interested?   

Begin by thinking about the ‘point of sale’ (ie a shelf in Asda, WH Smiths or whatever).  What element of the front cover are designed to ‘grab’ the target audience and attract them to pick up the magazine in the first place?  Does the main cover photo use a direct address (eyes to camera)?  Do the cover lines use second person pronouns (‘hey YOU!’) or command or question sentences which demand action or an answer (‘You MUST see this!’)?  What other elements would attract the TA – masthead, colour scheme, font styles etc?  Explain why. And don’t forget you can think about the CONTENT of the magazine implied by the cover lines.  Are there competitions with prizes that the TA will want, etc? 

Now  move on to thinking about how the CONTENT and LANGUAGE is appropriate to your TA.  Concentrate on your use of language, photos, colours/graphics.  What ‘mode of address’ does your magazine adopt towards the reader and why would this be appropriate for your target audience? Is the magazine trying to be like a best friend?  A knowledgeable older brother/sister?  An expert in its field?  Analyse in particular the language of your DPS article – does it use slang? Is it relaxed or more formal?  How is its attitude appropriate for the audience?   

 What is the Unique Selling Point of your magazine, which you expect to attract your audience?

Refer to the fact that you constantly asked for feedback from your audience throughout the production process.

PRESENTATION SUGGESTION - ALTERNATIVE: Interview a member of your target audience on your finished work in the form of a short video, uploaded to YouTube and share to your blog.

How to Answer Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Make some images that show your use of the various technologies you have used. You could take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, the lights and a PC but there may be other things you want in the shot.  Do some screengrabs of techniques you used in Photoshop.  You could use the logos of Blogger, Flickr, and the online graph maker you used.

Post these images onto your blog and annotate them, adding details of what you learnt about them/from using them. Your written text need not be too long, but should be specific. Eg describe some of the tools you have used in Photoshop.

List the advantages and disadvantages. Consider some of the disadvantages to relying on free internet applications like Blogger and Flickr, especially over the College network.

PRESENTATION SUGGESTION: Place directly onto a blog post or use Issuu.

How to Answer Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

(Covers) Before                   After

(Contents) Before                       After

Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you have learnt about photography, layout, fonts, modes of address, audience etc.  

What Photoshop devices did you use and how did they improve your work? Mention 4 Photoshop techniques that you used and the effect they had.

Tools and techniques you could mention include: text alignment and space reduction, blending options such as stroke and drop shadow, text wrapping, image manipulations, text box sizing, using Photoshop rulers, colour picking, quick selection tool, feathering edges, varying the opacity, layers.

For example, one of your 4 points could be:

I learnt that using the clone stamp tool to remove unwanted pictures on my model's T shirt improved the cover image because the viewers eye was not distracted by this unnecessary detail.  




You should also discuss
• Audience appeal (choosing a layout design concept, fonts, mode of address and type of feature article)
• Your need to research existing texts/magazines
• Your need to seek feedback and share creative ideas
• Your need to be attentive to detail
• Focus on written skills/journalism, proof reading, etc.


PRESENTATION SUGGESTION: DO this on a Prezi, or via ISSUU, or using some other interesting Web 2.0 technique. 

i14. Drafts of my pages

As you develop your pages be sure to screen print versions so that others can see how your ideas took shape. If you made drafts on paper then you can scan these into the computer.

You should have at least 3 draft versions of the cover, contents page and double page spread.

Make a powerpoint of your drafts and convert them into a slideshow at www.SlideShare.net. Embed the slideshow into this post.

Here's an example:

Double page spread progression

View more presentations from Pnewton1.

i13. My original images

Feature a slideshow of your original photographs and/or drawings. You should have at least four images, not altered in any way except for orientating correctly.

REMINDER 1: 'original' means you created the image yourself. You MUST NOT use images found on the internet.

REMINDER 2: You must use at least FOUR images on your pages e.g. one on your cover, two on your contents page and one on your DPS. If you have less than four you will lose marks.

EXTRA: Ideally you should have taken a lot more than four images because you would have wanted a good range to choose from. Aim to feature at least ten in your slideshow.

i12. Construction schedule

Using Microsoft Publisher, choose a calendar template and fill it in with your construction schedule, from first ideas, through the photoshoot and drafts to the finished work. You'll end up with five pages for the five months you have to do this coursework.

NOTE: You will have to save each page as a separate .jpeg (click 'save as' and change the file extension to JPEG).

Upload these to this post, for example:

i11. Locations, props and models

Make a PowerPoint of images of your locations, props and costumes/models. Convert it into s slideshow at www.SlideShare.net and upload it to this post.

EXTRA: Explain your reasons for your choice of locations, props and models.

i10. Mood board - Advertisers

Upload a montage of the types of products/brands you think would want to advertise in your magazine because they want to reach your target audience.

EXTRA: Justify the brands you have chosen.

Here's a good example

i9. Mood board - Fonts

Upload a montage of your shortlisted fonts to this post.

TIP: Use Dafont.com and other font websites for your ideas.

Here are some fonts and graphic ideas
I experimented with when trying to connote 'Britishness'.

i8. Mood board - Colours

Upload a montage of your ideas for colour schemes to this post.

i7. Mood board - Target audience

Upload a montage of your target audience to this post.

You could present your audience profile like the ones in the IPC Media Packs - take a look here: http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/479g0glri86b0dwxnzafpayr.pdf
and here: http://www.ipcadvertising.com/ipc-brands/2009/feb/15/uncut

You will see that they describe the demographic characteristics of their audience and show lots of brands that their audience buy. You could also do a montage of what your audience look like - using Google images just lile Diana did last year.



EXTRA: Briefly discuss their characteristics as a sub-culture.

i6. My target audience research

Produce a questionnaire using www.surveymonkey.com which you then publish to this post or by writing up a few questions to be used with a focus group.

You will want demographic details about them (age, gender, race, class) as well as psychographic details. For example, are they mainstreamers, aspirers, reformers or individuals? Do they belong to a subcultural group?

You will also want to know who your target audience would like to read about, whether they want lots of text or more images, whether they want a glossy collectible or a 'worthy' publication. Also, try to discover what would make them buy your magazine rather than just get information online.

Find out what other magazines and media forms they use, how often they see live music, what types of music they listen to.

Represent the results using graphs and publish these to this post.
Finally, write a brief summary of your findings and explain how they will be useful in your planning.

EXTRA: You could create a PowerPoint slideshow and convert it to a Windows Media Maker and then uploaded to this post, to show other magazines and demonstrate how there is a gap in the market for your particular concept.

Here is an example: http://enorfasmarsdenhille.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/target-audience-research.html

i5. My original idea for a new music magazine

This should be a brief statement of your ideas.

i4. Analysis of magazine pages

Analyse two front covers, two contents pages and two double page spreads.

Make sure you address forms and conventions and how the magazines you're analysing target their audiences.

Probably the best way to do your analysis is by using the “add note” function in Flickr, linked to/from your blog, with a caption saying “click on the image to see my analysis of it”.

i3. Music magazine case study

Case study a music magazine. Include its history, how it has developed, how it uses technology, relates to its audience, who advertises in it and how it is funded.

Produce your work as a Word document featuring images and convert it into a flick book at www.flipsnack.com or http://issuu.com/ (you'll need to .pdf it first) and link it to this post.

We sugget the following sub-headings:
Introduction
The magazine's content
The publisher of the magazine
The typical reader profile
Layout trademarks of the magazine
Does the magazine reflect the values of its audience?

EXTRA: The more in-depth your case study, the better.

i2. Magazine publishers

Case study two magazine publishers. Choose a large company and a small one. The largest magazine publishers in the UK include Bauer, IPC, BBC, Conde Nast and NatMags. There are too many small publishers to list here but we suggest you start by finding out who publishers one of your favourite titles. You could also visit:  http://www.magforum.com/magazinepublishers.htm

Produce your work as a Word document featuring images and convert it into a flick book at www.flipsnack.com and link it to this post.

EXTRA: The more in-depth your case studies, the better.