Merry Christmas!

Have a fabulous holiday.

Eat lots.

Sleep lots.

Laugh lots.

Do a bit of work on your blog.

and 

revise for your mock exam.

E N J O Y.

Blog posts.

Some people have not posted to their blogs in over a week. 

This is not good.  

Some people have got work that is falling behind, this is not good either.

If your blog is not up to date then I will be calling home on Thursday to speak to parents.

You have been warned folks. 

Sort it out please. 

Editing photos online

If you want to edit your photos to apply filters, alter colour values, add lighting effects and experiment with other techniques then try one of these five online editing tools.  Remember to grab screen shots to track the development of your work and to help you to build evidence of how you have manipulated and edited your photos for your evaluations.

http://pixlr.com

http://fotoflexer.com

http://ipiccy.com

http://www.picmonkey.com

http://www.befunky.com

Link your photos to your flickr account

 flickr 

Using flickr is use of another technology which is really useful for your for developing your skills and it will also help you to put lots of evidence into your evaluations.

Blog of the week!

BLOG OF THE WEEK

This is fabulous work.  Really love the quality of the photography and the editing of those photos that is taking place.  If you want to know what you need to do get into the high grade boundaries take a look at this.  2 green cards and a chocolate bar for you!

Photo planning checklist

Have you mades sure that you have considered all of these elements for your photo planning?  A good quality plan will; 

• Consider the people that are required for your photo shoot, what is their role? How are you going to communicate with them?  How will you let them know what you need them to do? How are you going to organise them?
• Consider the locations, have you checked them beforehand with a location recce?  Have you considered the lighting issues?  Are there any issues which will cause potential risks to the people involved?  Have you shown evidence of how you will minimise these risks through a risk assessment? Have you used more than one location?
• Have you planned for the range of shots you need? Have you identified the different variety of shots and angles that you will develop?
• Have you planned for the costumes, hair, make-up and accessories?  Have you included a few alternatives two show variety?
• Have you planned the facial expressions and body language of your models?  How will this reinforce the representations that you wish to construct? What are these representations?  
• Have you planned your use of time, equipment and resources in detail? 

Blog of the week!

Commencing this week I am going to be rewarding one Year 12 Media student every week for the best blog, with 2 green cards and a chocolate bar of their choosing.  This will be awarded to the person(s) who show the most creative, independent and thorough examples of excellent quality work.  Work will need to be up to date and have exceeded minimum expectations.  Click on the link below to see who I think is doing a great job with their coursework.

BLOG OF THE WEEK

Best colour combinations in print

  Best colour combinations in print  

Black on white is still the easiest way to present type and to read it and you change that colour at your peril. Using coloured paper, coloured type or a heavy type patch often reduces legibility. In tests carried out by Karl Borgrgrafe (cited in Favre and November 1979) to see which colours worked best together, the following taxonomy of colour mixes was discovered, starting with the most legible, and working through to the least legible.

MOST LEGIBLE

 Black on yellow 

 Yellow on black 

 Green on white 

 Red on white 

 Black on white 

 White on blue 

 Blue on yellow 

 Blue on white 

 White on black 

 Green on yellow 

 Black on orange 

 Red on yellow 

 Orange on black 

 Yellow on blue 

 White on green 

 Black on red 

 Blue on orange 

 Yellow on green 

 Blue on red 

 Yellow on red 

 White on red 

 Red on black 

 White on orange 

 Black on green 

 Orange on white 

 Orange on blue 

 Yellow on orange 

 Red on orange 

 Red on green 

 Green on orange 

LEAST LEGIBLE

As you can see, black and white comes pretty near the top although the list suggests that a yellow panel behind the black type would improve legibility (which is why important warning signs of danger are usually printed black on yellow.)

From: Designing for Newspapers and Magazines, by Chris Frost, Routledge, 2003

Note: though black on yellow may be more striking than black on white, it is unlikely to be more pleasing in large quantities. Magazine designers have to strike a balance between legibility, impact, and reader satisfaction.

Between getting attention, and not being annoying.

Sourced from; hsmedia12cg321.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2013-11-10T19:25:00Z&max-results=10                                                                               

Rule of thirds link. Read this before you take your photos!

Rule of thirds for taking professional looking photos

Basic Photography Hints and Tips from OCR

It is worth taking a look at this to get some basic tips to help you with your photo shoots.

You will need to take a lot of photos, from a variety of angles, with a variety of shots.

Don't forget to book a tripod out with me when you are ready.

Variety of costume, hair, make-up and props will also be very important.  As will backdrop, setting/ location and lighting.  DO NOT JUST TAKE SNAPSHOTS.

You will need to direct your subjects and ensure that they are posing for you the away you want.  Direct their body language, facial expressions as this will be key to constructing representations.

Remember the quality of your final products is dependent upon these photos so you must get it right.  Planning is the key to success.

Well planned photo shoots create excellent photos and excellent media products……...

Moodboard

A moodboard is a visual tool for signposting what you want your media product to stand for and to represent.  It might include values of your target audience or it might include potential content.  It should give a feeling of the mood you are trying to construct in your media texts.

Double page spread copy

The copy for your double page spread is very important.  It must make accurate use of language and it must use an appropriate 'mode of address' that is fitting for the intended audience.  The article needs to be proof-read, correctly spelled with clear use of punctuation and grammar.

It would be a good idea to do some further research and post some different examples on to your blog to help you identify the range of alternatives that are possible.

It could be that it is written as;

• an interview
• a series of key facts about the artist/ band
• a question and answer article
• a review of a tour and album release 
• a combination of any of the above

The copy needs to be between 600-900 words and uploaded to your blog.

   

Planning your photos

Examples of good quality photos by a previous student.

Check this link out and see what standard you need to be aiming for…..

To get a grade A you really need to getting 50 marks out of 60.


Examples of marked construction work- out of 60 marks.

Layout plans

These are simple drawings that are planning documents for working out the structure and layout of print products.  You will need to construct these for each of your front covers, contents pages and double page spreads before you work on the drafting and mock-up stages.  As you can see they have very little detail in them and are composed of lines and text only.

You need to compose 8 ideas for layout plans for your own front covers for your music magazine.

A grade work to learn from…...

A grade work to learn from….

Questionnaire Results

Now that you have all collated your questionnaires you need to present them in a format for analysis that will help you to make decisions about your magazine design and construction.

You will have two types of question.

Quantitative- which will allow you to provide clear data in the form of numbers and percentages etc.

Qualitative- which will give you thoughts, opinions and judgements that will offer you a chance to identify trends or patterns.

Once you have completed your tally chart you will need to transform your quantitative answers into data using excel to help you.  For each question you will need to explain what the information tells you and analyse the value of you it in moving your ideas forward.  How will it help you to make decisions.

With the quantitative information you compile the answers and use the responses to help inform and support the design of your magazine.

Homework
12A- you need to complete the presentation of these results and analysis and post it to your blog by 27th November.
12D- you need to complete the presentation of these results and analysis and post it to your blog by 29th November.

Creating a suitable Masthead

Magazines and consumer goods and like any consumer goods they are brands which like any other brand need a logo. A magazine masthead. The masthead’s role is to be recognizable. In the sea of magazines on the newsstands you want your logo to standout. To be instantly recognizable. This is not an easy thing to do. That is why a logo is the most important element on the cover page. When designing a logo several things should be your concern. The logo should capture the publications character, attitude, it should fit the intended readership and the genre, it should be versatile too, so that it can be used in other occasions, like marketing materials. When working on a logo you should try tenths or even a hundred variations. When you find several that you like, you should work on its variations. The first, and obvious thing is to choose the proper typography. 

Is your publication a modern one, is it more traditional, is it urban or more conservative?   

When working on a masthead you should try numerous variations- it will take time! Is the name of the publication a long one or a short one? If it is a short one maybe you can make the masthead stand in the top left corner. If it’s a longer one and it has two words maybe they can be positioned one on top of each other and placed in the top left corner. If you ask yourself why the top left corner it is because when magazines are stacked on the shelves on the newsstand top left position is always visible, no matter how densely stacked the magazines are on the shelves and because of social conditioning around visual syntax.  If the name of the magazine is longer maybe you can make it in bolder type for more impact. It is always better to use different fonts for the logo than the ones you use for the cover headlines. Although the logo is not read it should be recognizable, and that’s why it should be different in type from the rest of the cover. As you can see, the options are endless. When you finally decide on several versions try it out on the page to see how it interacts with the images and general design of the cover. Sometimes you will see that a top left position does not work well, maybe the top centered position would be better. 

Have you completed these on your blog yet?

You should have completed these documents and posted them to your blog by Monday 18th November.

- Final Questionnaire
- Embedded PREZI
- Brand identity and  brand values of 2 music magazines
- Brand identity and brand values of your own music magazine
- A list of potential names for your music magazine
- Some initial ideas for masthead  designs using fireworks

If you haven't got these posted by Tuesday then it will affect your WAG & ATL.

You should also have collected 25 questionnaire responses as part of your research into your target audience.  These will need to be tallied ready to be turned into charts for analysis and summary.

PREZI Research

Embedding Your PREZI

To embed your PREZI research.
1. Login to PREZI
2. Open your PREZI
3. Click on EMBED
4. Copy code to clipboard
5. Paste into a new blog post but make sure it is on HTML NOT Compose.
6. Done

Masthead ideas

Now that you have generated some ideas for brand names for your magazine you can start to generate design ideas for mastheads using fireworks.

Remember a good masthead is usually;

• short, catchy and on one line
• capitals
• clear, bold and large
• the first thing people read on the front cover
• simple 
• appropriate to the genre and to the target audience

Create a range of ideas using appropriate fonts and upload them to your blog.  It would also be good to get some feedback from your target audience on them.

Brand Names for your own Music Magazine

Now that you have considered the brand identify and values of your intended magazine and of other existing products you should now be in a position to generate ideas for brand names for your own magazine.  These ideas should be tested with your target audience to obtain some useful feedback.

Generate a list of ideas and post them onto your blog with some discussion of how each relates to your chosen genre or audience. 

DJ magazine