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.