Name:_____________________________________Coursework Deadlines

21st of October – Preliminary Task due

16th of December – Research & Planning due

10th of February – Completed first draft of the main task due

30th of March – Final deadline for all coursework

You will use a blog to present your work for the main task. The recommended site to use is blogger – blogspot.com

Make sure you remember your login details.

Blog address:

Coursework drop-in sessions are available every lunch time, and after school Tuesdays-Thursdays in the new Media room.

The foundation portfolio is worth 50% of your AS in Media Studies. You complete the following coursework brief:

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. All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images per candidate.

The Preliminary TaskYou must complete a preliminary task in order to develop the necessary skills to succeed in the Foundation Portfolio. For the preliminary task you will produce the front page and a draft of a contents page for a new school magazine.

Research into school magazinesYou will need to analyse the front cover and contents page of 2 or 3 school magazines. You should analyse:

Typography – what style and size fonts are used? Why? Layout – is it cluttered or ordered? Where have key things been placed? Language – what type of language is used? Colour – what effect does colour have? What are the connotations of the colours? Camerawork – in the images what shot types and angles have been used? Why? Mise-en-scene – in the images what props, costumes, and settings have been used? Mode of address – how does the magazine speak to the audience? What is the

tone?

Remember to analyse the effect of specific examples, and use relevant terminology.

Summarise the conventions of school magazines in relation to content and design.

Planning your school magazineYou will need to create rough drafts for your school magazine. This should include:

Draft layouts Sample font styles Sample colour schemes

Creating your school magazineYou will produce the front cover of a new school magazine. Your front cover should use typical conventions (masthead, cover lines, one main image, etc.) and include a picture of a

student in MEDIUM CLOSE-UP. You will also need to include a detailed draft for the contents page.

Evaluating your school magazineOnce you have completed your magazine you will need to produce an evaluation. Your evaluation should address the following questions:

How have you used media conventions in your preliminary task? (e.g. conventions of layout, font, images, content)

How have you used media language in your product? (What is the intended effect of your use of shot types/angles, mise-en-scene, layout, font, colour, images?)

How have you addressed your audience? (What is the mode of address? Formal or informal? Give examples.)

What skills have you developed during the preliminary task? (e.g. analytical, research, planning, production)

The deadline for the completion of the preliminary task is Friday the 21 st of October . You should hand in the research, planning, product, and evaluation. This work will be assessed and a mark recorded on GO.

The Main Task – Research & PlanningResearch and Planning is worth 20% of your mark for the Foundation Portfolio. To achieve a Level 4 (A) for Research and Planning you must produce work to meet the following criteria:

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience. There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. There is excellent work on layouts, and drafting. There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning Time management is excellent.

Audience researchYou will need to complete research into your target audience to find out who they are (the demographic), what their interests are (the psychographic), and how to make your product appealing to them. In order to do this you should:

Complete an initial questionnaire to find out about the target audience for your music magazine (age, gender, interests, what they find appealing about music magazines)

Use the internet to research the target audience for a similar music magazine (Publisher’s websites sometimes have media packs which contain useful information about the target audience)

Complete a second questionnaire and/or focus group to get feedback on your ideas and drafts for your magazine

You must complete detailed summaries of each piece of audience research you do and explain how this information will help you.

Research into similar products

You will need to analyse three front covers, contents pages, and double page spreads from music magazines similar to the one you intend to produce. Your analysis should focus on:

Typography – what style fonts are used? Why? Layout – is it cluttered or ordered? Where have key things been placed? Language – what type of language is used? Colour – what effect does colour have? What are the connotations of the colours? Camerawork – in the images what shot types and angles have been used? Why? Mise-en-scene – in the images what props, costumes, and settings have been used? Mode of address – how does the magazine speak to the audience? What is the

tone?

Remember to analyse the effect of specific examples, and use relevant terminology.

Summarise what you find out about the conventions of music magazines in relation to content, design, and mode of address.

Planning You will need to plan your music magazine. Your planning should include:

Draft font styles and colour schemes Drafts of each page Draft text

You will also need to complete a production plan for your photography including dates, locations, equipment, personnel, props, and costumes.

Research into institutionsFind out about companies that produce similar music magazines to the one you intend to produce, and summarise your findings. You should find out about:

What other magazines do they produce? What demographics do they cater for? What other media are owned by the company? What examples or cross-media convergence can be identified? Are the company a subsidiary? If so, of who, and what other types of media are owned?

Pitching your music magazineYour pitch should summarise the key findings of your research into similar magazines and the target audience, and explain why your magazine will be successful in following conventions and appealing to the target audience. Your pitch should include some draft work and sample content.

The deadline for your Research and Planning is Friday, the 16 th of December . Your work needs to be completed and uploaded to you blog by that date. It is your responsibility to ensure your teacher has your blog address. This work will be assessed and a mark recorded in GO. This mark contributes 20% to your overall mark for the Foundation Portfolio.

Main Task – ConstructionYour coursework product is worth 60% of your total mark for the Foundation Portfolio. The criteria to achieve a Level 4 (A) for the magazine are:

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate; using a variety of shot distances as appropriate; shooting material appropriate to the task set; selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting; manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping

and resizing; accurately using language and register; appropriately integrating illustration and text; showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design; showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size; using ICT appropriately for the task set.

In order to produce a successful magazine you will need to: Take a range of photographs. Do not use the same set of pictures on every page of your

magazine. Make sure that the pictures are taken specifically for your magazine, and that you have thought carefully about your use of mise-en-scene and camerawork.

Develop a house style across your magazine pages. Follow conventions in terms of layout, images, content, and language. Use fonts, colours, images, and language that are suited to your genre of music and will

appeal to your target audience.

The deadline for the completion of the first draft of you magazine is Friday the 10th of February. Your work will be assessed and targets set to help you improve. You will then have until Friday the 30th of March to complete these improvements.

Main Task – EvaluationThe evaluation is worth 20% of the total marks for your Foundation Portfolio. You should present your evaluation as a blog entry. The criteria to achieve a Level 4 (A) for the evaluation is:

Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.

Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes. Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task. Excellent ability to communicate. Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation

You should not see the evaluation as a written essay. You are marked on your use of the blog format, so you need to be as creative as you can in your use of the blog. You should ensure you use a range of images from your magazine and other magazines to illustrate the points you make. You could also embed videos, powerpoints, mind-maps, links, etc.

Audience feedback

Before you begin your evaluation you need to get feedback from your target audience on your finished magazine. This could be through a questionnaire and/or a focus group.

Questions

In your evaluation you need to answer the following questions:

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

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

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

Conventions – how does your magazine follow conventions? You may want to consider the conventions of magazine design (layout, use of fonts) and the conventions of music magazine (colours, mode of address, content, images). Use specific examples. Support the points you make with images from your magazine, and images from existing magazines.

Representation – what different social groups have you represented? You may want to focus on areas such as gender or age. How have you constructed the representations? Think about your use of images and mise-en-scene, and the use of language. Refer to specific examples from your own and existing magazines.

Institutions – look back at the research you did into the type of institutions who produce music magazines. Which institution would be most suitable to distribute your magazine? Why?

Target audience – who is your target audience? Refer to the audience research you have done? How have you appealed to the target audience? Consider your use of colour, images, layout, and the content of your magazine.

Technologies – what technology did you use in making your magazine? You should consider your use of digital cameras, photo editing software, and publishing programmes. What did the technology you used allow you to do? What skills have you developed?

Preliminary Task – How have your skills developed from the preliminary task? Compare your preliminary task to your completed magazine. In what ways does your music magazine look more professional?

The final deadline for you to submit all of your Media coursework is Friday the 30th of March. Your coursework will then be assessed and your final mark submitted to the exam board.

Print media terminology

Headline The main title of the article

Standfirst Lines of text after the headline that give more information

Byline Journalist’s name at the beginning of the story

Caption Text printed below a picture to describe it

Coverline Captions on a magazine cover

Cover Story Leading story used on a front cover

Feature Longer, in-depth article

Kicker First few words or letter of a story’s lead, set in font size larger than the body text of the article

Layout How the page is designed and formatted

Masthead Main title of publication on the front page

Pull Quote Selected quote from a story highlighted next to the main text

Serif Font Italic style font

Sans Serif Font Plain font type

All resources for the Foundation Portfolio will be placed on the Media Department A Level blog: mediastudiesnwcc.blogspot.com

Follow the link at the top of the page to the AS Media Foundation Portfolio section. Links to exemplar blogs are also available through the blog.