Magazine design today...

A controversial post about magazine design today:

Quoted from:

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2009/12/10/george-lois-rips-todays-magazines-a-new-one/

DISCLAIMER: This post contains strong language.


“Magazine design is almost an oxymoron with most magazines today. It goes for even a great magazine like Vanity Fair. If you get even one inch of white space to breath you’re lucky. Everybody’s just packing in the information. Most magazines you pick up — you choke to death.”

“They say, ‘People buy magazines to read, for information.’ Well, you buy a magazine not only for that but so you can have exciting visual experiences. They try to jam words and pictures on every square-inch of the page like they’re working on a Web site.”

Continue reading by clicking here

A2 Homework Checklist

Production log:

• My role
• What went well.
• What could have been improved.
• What am I doing next week.

Ensure you also have:
Produced animatic (Movie maker, iMove, Vegas, whatever program) with some backing music
Annotated storyboards
2x Teaser Analysis-comment on how these may influence your own teaser

Tape Log: What is on your tape include time codes, how many takes you have, what kind of shots they were. Which take is best/will you use.

AS-Level Blog update and progress grades

If you're reading this without me having to direct you here, well done. You're one step closer to getting that A-grade that you are capable of.

I have started writing your reports and can say that the following blogs demonstrate good practice in the following fields.

Moodboards: Frankie Rose

Photoshoot plans: Ama and Hana

Front cover analysis: Tamana

The top grade awarded was a B. At this stage in the course, it is not possible to award an A-grade for planning, simply because nobody has yet planned and completed a Front cover yet.

It was difficult to award more than 3 B's as a lot of students did not have all the work on their blog. When you get your feedback sheet, you should aim to update your blog with all your work, be it at home, on your memory stick or in the closet.

No excuses please.

A2 Copyright free music for film teasers

http://freeplaymusic.com

http://audio.lgfl.org.uk/ (this link can only be accessed in school)

A2 Homework DUE FRI 27 November

1) Produce project plan/timeline: Use template in
U:Year13/Media Studies/Resources/Research and Planning/Project Plan

2) Produce animoto moodboard

3) Produce shotlist

4) Produce storyboard

5) Produce contact list (e-mails, phone numbers and free dates [AM/PM] for all actors)

6) Produce props/costume list (have a seperate list for what you do not have, email this to all actors, family and friends)



Plan for Friday 27 November's lesson:
Finalise key questions,
Finalise exact shoot locations and dates, first reconnaisance's
Produce animatic
Annotate storyboards
Watch existing teasers/trailers

HWK:
Write up research of existing teasers/trailers of same genre.
Finalise synopsis

AS MEDIA-Ms Furlong's Films

They can be found at:

U:\Pupil Share\Ms Furlong\Youth Drama

AS Level Class / Homework DUE 16th NOVEMBER

Click the hyperlink if the show doesn't load.

Music Magazine Initial Research

View more presentations from guest5c2203f.

AS Level Blog of the week

Blog of the week: Tamanna

Also worth watching:
Frankie-Rose
Ava

AS Media Half term blog checklist-Due Monday 2nd Nov

• Photoshop skills documented
• Magazine analysis-labelling masthead, kickers, coverlines and analysing fonts and layout
• Magazine comparison-2 college magazines
• Mockup of own college magazine-fully annotated
• First draft school magazine
• Feedback
• Evaluation-Answering the five questions
• Mockup Table of Contents-Fully annotated

Use slideshare for all powerpoint presentations

AS Homework Response to student questions

Question 1, what do you mean by 'coventions' and 'develop and challenge the forms'

Conventions of standard magazine design-Masthead at the top, left third, Main cover image, use of cover lines-kickers and explanatory text, barcode, price date line etc. Do you stick to all these standards or develop/challenge them. Is a barcode necessary for a school magazine for example?


Question3, when you asked 'the kind of media institution' wuold it just be available in schools and colleges- is this what you mean

Yes a 6th form college or school. Is it:

All boys/girls/mixed. Performing arts/state/private/non-specialised

Would it be published by students or teachers or both.

question 5, when you say Attract do you mean by the layout and the masthead name, coloures etc.... or something else.

Yes "attract" by design, offering competitions, cover lines/editorial content/editorial pillars. I.e. what is it on your magazine that would make your user pick it up?

Finally Question 6, What do you mean by technologies employed?

So learning how to use: Slideshare.net, blogger, photoshop tools-layers, filtering, cloning, magic wand etc.

AS Level Blog of the Week

Blog of the week: Frankie-Rose's

Excellent detail and use of Slideshare. The only A-grade work to date...

Also worth a peek:

TJ-Good all round
Mia-Nice banner
Jade-Excellent detail on photoshop editting

Who's next. You Decide.

Remember to use slideshare.net to upload your powerpoints and word documents. Avoid just loading up pictures.

AS Level Media Homework Due: 19th October

• Save your magazine as a JPEG. Give it to at least 3 people to feedback. Write down their feedback.

• Make any changes. Save a new copy of your magazine after feedback.

Complete an evaluation on powerpoint to showacase your work and answer the following questions:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms & 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 is the audience for your media product? (the target market)?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. In the process of constructing this product, what have you learnt about the technologies employed?

Ensure that:
Your work evaluates & reflects upon the creative process & your experience of it?
Your evaluation contains an element of AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT ON MON 19th OCTOBER

A2 Homework

Complete 3 storyboard scenes, preferably hand drawn. Can be photo's. Fully annotated.

See http://delicious.com/lauwailap for further storyboard resources.

Other resources on U:/Year 13/Media Studies/Resources/Mr Lau

ANIMOTO REPOST

Use this link to sign up and get unlimited access (extended length videos) on Animoto:

(If you have already signed up before, you will have to use a different e-mail address)

http://animoto.com/sign_up?promo=a4elab219If that doesn't work, try this:

http://animoto.com/sign_up?promo=401lab09

AS Level TOP BLOGS

Blog of the week:
Maria's

Worth a peek:
Sophie's
Ama's
Ellen's
Tamanna's
Mia's

AS Media Homework

1. Photoshop editing - any images you have edited, showing and explaining the before and after.
2. Magazine labelling and analysis-Powerpoint
3. College magazine analysis-Powerpoint.

Word documents and powerpoints can be uploaded using www.slideshare.net You do not need to create an account, just press upload.

Complete mockups of college magazines

A2 Homework due Fri 2nd Sept

Blog:

1) Firm Teaser analysis
2) Angels and Demons Teaser analysis
3) Website comparison. Use www.slideshare.net or www.scribd.com to upload your presentation.


Trailers and posters not necessary right now (they'll be completed over half term). If you could also include a youtube embed of the teasers, that would help your presentation skills. This will have to be done from home as youtube is still currently blocked.

TEASER RECORD SHEET CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM:

U:/Year 13/Media Studies/Resources

My Delicious Account

For media studies: http://delicious.com/lauwailap/media

For all sorts of interesting stuff: http://delicious.com/lauwailap

A2 REMINDER of Types of shot

http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/


FURTHER READING:

HOW TO TURN YOUR BORING MOVIE INTO A HITCHCOCK THRILLER

AS-Level Media Spec

Download here: http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/kd/ocr_9646_kd_gce_spec.pdf

AS-LEVEL: Holiday Homework

Welcome to the Media Blog:

For those of you who have not seen this on the school website, please complete this homework by Mon 21st Sept. It will be collected in Ms. Furlong's lesson:

- Complete an audit of your own media consumption. List the TV programmes you watch regularly, the magazines or newspapers you read, the radio stations you listen to, the films you have seen in the past 6 months.

- Choose a magazine advertisement and answer the following question: What persuasive techniques are being used in the advertisement? (minimum 250 words) (please bring a copy of the ad in for your first lesson)

- Visit the National Magazine Company website - www.natmags.co.uk Find out the following for REVEAL magazine: Brand Statement / Brand Promise / Brand Values / Circulation figures.

Find your presentations here

http://www.vimeo.com/user1621486/videos

Find your video, blog the URL (and try embedding it)

Along with a slideshare or scribd of your presentation slides.

Mr Lau

Example VIMEO attachment

Lucy Cornelius Media Studies Evaluation from St Marylebone Media Studies on Vimeo.

FOR THOSE COMING IN OVER EASTER

Please read the following. It details school's opening times (courtesy of Mr Hunter):

ICT is BLOCK A so should not be affected by any building works. All other subjects should read the long blurb after these dates:

Block A = red brick block
Block B = Dot/Bus Studs/RE/MFL
Block C = Science/Hums/Staff Room/DT
Block D = Arts block

Monday 6th - USUAL HOURS* (*but with slightly later opening than the crack of dawn)
Tuesday 7th - USUAL HOURS*
Wednesday 8th - Closing at 4pm!!
Thursday 9th - Closing at 4pm
Friday 10th - BANK HOLIDAY

Monday 13th - BANK HOLIDAY
Tuesday 14th - Closing at 6pm
Wednesday 15th - Closing at 6pm
Thursday 16th - USUAL HOURS*
Friday 17th - USUAL HOURS*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Block B, C and D boilers (ie heating) will be OFF during Easter as work will be taking place in the boiler room - Block A will have heating though.

ALL HOLIDAY - electrical and construction work will be taking place at the end of the Block C corridor (DT/HUMS/SCIENCE) and therefore, other than for emergency exit, that end will be out of action. Tape will be put along the area to demarcate the building area.

Monday 6th April - THERE WILL BE BUILDING WORK IN THE STAFF ROOM !!! THIS WILL MAKE IT A BUILDING SITE AND NOT AVAILABLE FOR WORK - THE BUILDING WORK IS OVER THE BENCHING SO ALL ICT WILL BE UNAVAILABLE IN THERE. ALSO - PLEASE DO NOT KEEP ANY VALUABLES IN THE STAFF ROOM - OR IN YOUR PIGEON HOLES OVER EASTER. THAT INCLUDES LAP TOP COMPUTERS!!!!!!!!

Tuesday 7th April - POWER OFF IN THE COTTAGE FOR 4 HOURS (WORK MAY CONTINUE IN THE STAFF ROOM)

Tuesday 14th April to Wednesday 15th April: No power in Block C or Block D at all (due to come back on during Wednesday at some point).
No power means no electric which means no ICT.

Block A will be unaffected by BSF works during Easter in terms of power, heat, construction work etc.

Please ensure that NO lap tops are left out on office desks over Easter!!! Please lock them away out of sight.

Thanks for your patience with these early works.

Jon H

ALL AREA CODE FOR ANIMOTO

Use this link to sign up and get unlimited access (extended length videos) on Animoto:
(If you have already signed up before, you will have to use a different e-mail address)


http://animoto.com/sign_up?promo=a4elab219

If that doesn't work, try this:
http://animoto.com/sign_up?promo=401lab09

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

Having reviewed some of the best work.

Please make sure on your DPS the max size of the article text is 11 point.

12 is far too big as is anything larger.

This will become apparent when you print your work out.

Thanks

Evaluation-Further guidance

The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are as follows (do this ALL on powerpoint and through speaking, no need to blog although you may if it helps you in your thought process):

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

What are forms and conventions of real media products i.e. real music magazines similar to yours? Show printscreens for examples of layout and design conventions. Think also about language and things which cannot be explained through printscreens and visuals.

To help you think about these more complex issues:

Q1 Evaluation

View more presentations from mrlautest.

2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This will be evident through your images,(connotation, denotation, mise en scene) and text (language and register). It may also be represented through colours, fonts and editorial content. State age, gender and also specific music genre or lifestyle. Also use NRS social grading definition:

Click here for full table

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

Remember to comapre two media institutions and select one based on the Evaluation section of the notes that I gave you (click here if missing)

4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

This should correlate to Q2. Should definitely give an age range (that generally spans 5-15 years max). May be gender specific, should specifiy type of genre of music and also social grade.

5 How did you attract/address your audience?

What is the editorial content (i.e. what type of articles). Do you have competitions, is the address direct or inderect. Is it formal or informal. Colloquial, casual, uncensored?

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

Technology we have used:

1. Photoshop (Explain all skills/tools that you have learnt and used-cloning, filtering, selecting, removing elements using magic wand, colour picker, using the grid, moving, resizing, cropping, lines, layers, blends/opacity, blurs, make-up etc...)
2. DaFont or 1001freefonts.com (Installing and selecting fonts)
3. Blogger (Write, Upload images, edit, poll/vote, embed code (slideshare and animoto), follow peers, comment on peers)
4. Publisher (Mockups and annotation)
5. Excel (for questionnaire graphs)
6. Slideshare.net
7. Animoto.com

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

Give an honest account.

(Remember to address What has improved, what did you change based on feedback. How have you developed?)

You have 8 minutes + 2 mins Q+A. Try to spend 1 minute per slide. Some slides may need more time, others less. Rehearse and time. Get feedback from peers/family/friends. Come prepared. Do not rush, stay calm.

~That's all folks~

An example of Animoto showcase

http://animoto.com/play/fPQmgstKJ4XMuS6NHPcDvg

Use this to showcase your work before the presentation.

Animoto.com. Instructions to follow:

AMENDMENT: DO NOT UPLOAD MORE THAN 1 SLIDE OF TEXT, OTHERWISE YOU WILL ONLY FIT 3 IMAGES ON THERE. STICK TO 5 IMAGES MAX

Animoto Tutorial

View more presentations from mrlautest.

IGNORE SLIDES 6 AND 8. DO NOT ADD TEXT.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SLIDE SHARE

It's good to see some people using Slideshare, it will up your mark for using "appropriate technology"

Unfortunately, it seems to be too wide for the blog. The solution is simple:

In the code that you paste in, the number 477 will appear 3 times, you need to change this 477 width to 400.

Examiner's Report

This is an example of how slideshare can be used:

Ocr Media AS Level Examiners Report

View more documents from mrlautest.

TOC Ideas and exemplars

Student work:

DPS Ideas

Stuck for ideas, why not do:

• Top 10 tracks

• Radar-i.e. New Artist Feature

• News

• Artist feature e.g. Lily Allen

Student work:

Food for though-Music magazine cover conventions

Generally speaking

• 1 main coverline which is larger than all others-generally the artist name. May be in a different font.


• No text touching the edges


• Text on the right hand and left hand sides generally line up (use the grid to check this)


• Strapline/Selling line e.g. The UK's Best Selling Pop Mag.


• 1 main picture-usually a Midshot or headshot


• Bold masthead, readable from 3 metres
  

If you're going against these basic conventions-ask yourself why? Is it justified? Does it work better than convention?



Avoid clutter/OTT. Keep the messages clear.





Look how the coverlines are a good 5mm from the edge and all line up-either left or right aligned.




Similar 5mm rule and also same MAIN COVERLINE and alignment of all other smaller coverlines.

Bold masthead on all magazines
Strapline
1 main image.

Stick to the convention, unless you have good reason not to.

Friday 20th March-EVALUATION

You should start to complete your Evaluation

The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:

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?
   
   
   If you have not finished all 3 puclications: Front cover, TOC and DPS, please stay behind after school to complete and post to blog.
   
   I will give feedback and a preliminary mark for all production and planning work submitted on Friday 20th.

Marking Criteria

For the top mark bands...

Research and planning

Level 4 16–20 marks
• 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 shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
• Time management is excellent.
• There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.


Production

Level 4 48–60 marks
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.

Evaluation

Level 4 16–20 marks
• There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
• There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the
production.
• There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
• There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
• There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
• There is excellent ability to communicate.
• There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.

The 2 week plan

Finish DPS by Friday 20th March (before lesson).
Start Evaluation on Friday.

All finished first draft productions should be on blog by Friday evening. If it's not there by 3.30pm. Please stay behind after school to complete:
Front cover, TOC, DPS.



Feedback will be available by Mon 23rd March, provided that work is uploaded. Any work not uploaded will not receive crucial feedback in time for final entry.

Mon 23rd-Finish evaluation.

Complete re-drafts during the week. Print all final publications as soon as re-drafted on library colour printer.

Mockup plans can be printed on black and white.

On Mon 30th March:

You should have a complete blog with all publications as shown on the checklist on the right of this blog.

You should have printed out:

All mockup plans fully annotated in black and white
Final DPS, TOC and front cover in colour.

Anyone with incomplete work by the deadline of Mon 30th March will be required to come in to school on Thurs 2nd and Fri 3rd April to finish their work.

No work will be accepted for marking after the end of term.

Coursework deadline update

Due Friday 1.30pm-Before Friday's lesson:



Front Cover

Table of Contents

DPS-Mock-up





Note from last Friday's lesson: consider usign 5mm type security. i.e. protecting the magazine with a 5mm border, where text does not touch the edges.



Int he case that it does touch the edge, it will usually touch two edges i.e. top and left or bottom and right:

Fri 13th Lesson

First of all apologies for not being there today. I'm alive and well, but not very mobile.

I am sure you will all be able to work productively without my assistance, having completed preliminary tasks of a high standard.

Here's my checklist for you today (VERY IMPORTANT: Please also read the previous post below regarding working on photoshop in school)

Please finish your front cover and upload it to your blog by 5.30pm.

I will look over them all at this time, and give you critical feedback.

Your blog at present should have:

·     Copy of Questionnaire (Planning and research)

·     Graphs with accompanying analysis

·     Masthead research

·     Front Cover Anlaysis x2

·     DPS Analysis x2

·     DPS Presentation

·     Front Cover photoshoot plan

·     Front Cover mockup

·     Front Cover with commentary

As promised, I will not set you half term homework as I am aware that you have plenty of revision for Ms. Furlong’s module. However, I would expect to find your blogs up to date.

If you do get a chance to do so during half term, please do take some (appropriate) photo’s for your Table of contents or Double Page Spread as it will save you some valuable time.

Thanks for your hard work this term. I think you've all made some good progress and some beautiful publications. Have a good rest, work hard and play hard and I will see you all in the new term.

Mr Lau

Working on photoshop in school

To avoid crashes in photoshop, please follow this advice:

Before working on photo's or any other graphics. I would advise you to save a copy of the original image in the DELL folder on the C: Drive. 

Working off large photoshop images hosted on H: drive or Media (M: drive) can cause problems when the network is busy, hence the crashes last week. I would therefore advise you to copy your work to C: Drive in to the DELL folder and save your work regularly.

Before going home, you can then copy and paste the work that you have done, back on to a memory stick, your H or Media drive.

I hope that helps and prevents further crashes.

Task for Friday 6th Jan

Plan your front cover image before the lesson. PHOTSHOOT.

Remember shoot two, one on a plain background. What did you learn from your prelim task? What was difficult? How can you overcome this?

Remember most magazines will be protrait so frame accordingly.

Awards for DPS Presentation will be announced at the end of the lesson.

DPS Presentation Awards

After hours of deliberation, the winners of the DPS Presentation awards were as follows:


All Star Award

For excellence in all areas: Design, Delivery Style and Analysis.



Christina opened strong by defining the audience of her magazine, using social group profiling and naming her audience as mainly C1/C2. Her presentation started with a high standard and continued with a thorough analysis and really informed her audience about her DPS.



Her presentations style was calm, confident, yet casual. She made her audience comfortable by not overwhelming them with too much information and spoke clearly and passionately about her DPS.



An "All Star" performance. Well done.



Overall score: 24/30











Design Award

For creativity and excellence in Design.


Lydia took a daring approach by opting not to use the standard MS Powerpoint template and to re-invent the style of a typical presentation. She sourced vibrant images from photobucket and other sites on the internet, but then laid these out with a fine artistic quality.

Her slides informed the reader about the type of artist and re-packaged the somewhat "standard" DPS in to a multi-scensory experience.


The audience was wowed by her design and each slide was a refreshing variation on a theme.




Graphic Designer, Carl Stratton described it as "brave" and complimented her for not being afraid to manipulate the images in an extreme way.



A stunning design which showed a great application of all the design principles learnt throughout the course.

Certainly a designer to watch in the future.



Design score: 8.5/10








Style Award

For excellence in the delivery and style of the presentation.


Many people lacked enthusiasm about their DPS, so this was a very difficult award to give out. In the end, I felt that Lucy's use of timed animations. Her relaxed demeanor, professional dress and confidence in her presentation gave her a slight advantage.



She came well-rehearsed and did not simply dump her script on to slides. Her use of ICT was professional and overall, this was a pleasing presentation.



Style score: 7.5/10

Analysis Award

For excellence in analysis and overall content .

It is difficult to strike a balance between depth and breadth of content and analysis in a 6-minute window. However, Tyrone's confidence in media language ensured that he could (quite casually) deconstruct a DPS and show the readers why he thought the DPS worked and how it conformed to and challenged media conventions.



He also managed to present this calmly and casually, addressing the audience like peers/friends. This somewhat unconventional and unprofessional approach worked well in this case as it ensured the audience could understand quite complex terminology being used.

Analysis score: 8.5/10




Work in progress


All art work was mastered by Graphic Designer Carl Stratton and supported by Ariane Gras. The pieces were completed primarily using Uni Posca Paint markers.





Carl working on the Style award:




A final word



My main advice would be to present with passion and enthusiasm. Often, presentations will decide whether you get a job, the highest grade at university or A-Level or a multi-million pound contract in industry. It is a chance to showcase your work.

Think about how you can be different, creative, professional, confident and an all star presenter.



Do your work justice by coming prepared, involve your audience, incorporate all the vocabulary, skills and knowledge since September. Do not be afraid to bring other subject-knowledge in to the mix. Finally, have a clear beginning, middle and end.

If you scored over 20, you did well for a first presentation. Please do take on my feedback and do not be disheartened, there will be more awards in the future.

Those interested in custom canvases, please e-mail Carl directly at: mail@carlstratton.co.uk

Well done for your efforts on your first media presentation. Hopefully you can apply what you have learnt to all your other subjects and presentations later on in life. Please keep up the hard work throughout your coursework.




Next awards will be for:

• Planning and Research (Blog)


• Photography


• Production Skills-Photoshop editting, Front Cover, TOC and DPS


• Evaluation (Blog)

Extension Activities

Mockup: TOC/DPS/Front Cover

Plan photoshoots for each of the above
(Photoshoot plans in: M:\media_share\Media Studies Mr Lau\Music Magazines\Research and Planning)

Shortlist 3-5 fonts for your front cover masthead and ask students for feedback

Start front cover-think about articles and EDITORIAL PILLARS that will be in your table of contents (features, competitions, news, gigs, reviews)

Presentation tips

Minimum 36 Point text. High contrast colours e.g. black+white. black+yellow, neon colours, red+black. Think about football shirts. Be aware of political correctness for international presentations (Red is rude in most western contexts).

Step 3 feet away from your monitor, if you cannot read it. Neither can we.

Be Enthusiastic. Nothing is more boring than listening to someone who sounds bored. Captivate your audience and...

Use eye contact. Maintain eye contact with everyone. If you feel asthough someone is switched off, move into their personal space maybe and try to gain eye contact or attention. Roam around, your aaudience is not just left or right. They're in the whole room.

Use images to illustrarte not to decorate. Crop out the insignificant bits, use shapes to highlight important areas. Don't over-animate either. It's a presentation, not a cartoon/magic show.

5 bullet points max per slide. Or even better none at all. Break convention and do away with boring bulletpoints.

Don't use paragraphs or significant amount of text either.

Do not read "word for word" from your slides, have your own notes on a card and rehearse so that you will rarely need them.

To engage, keep it short and to the point. Ask appropriate questions to involve your audience. It shouldn't just be one way.

5 mins max. 3 mins minimum.

Surprise me. There will be a prize for the best presentation(s). I'll be looking for good content, analysis, use of keywords, presentation slide design and presentation style.


YOU WILL BE PRESENTING ON: FRIDAY 30th Jan P5


You can also use powerpoint to do most of your work for your blog. You can then save as images/jpeg and it will make it much easier to upload than doing printscreens.

For an example. look at Michelle's or Shenaz's Blogs below:

http://mtcmblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/results-from-questionnaires-put-into.html

http://shenazali.blogspot.com/

Eye Flow

Key reading-pg 11 and 12:

http://www.sae.si/cmd07/design/GraphicDesign.pdf



Original Source:

Click image to enlarge


http://books.google.com/books?id=WVlWFpXP6pAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+design+manual#PPA123,M1


Also:

To create effective eye flow, line up photos across an invisible horizontal or vertical line. This helps the album-reader's eye move easily across your photos and stories. Some clean and simple designs include using a clustering technique or layout in a "C" or "Z" pattern.

Why does clustering or placing photos and journaling in a "C" or "Z" pattern work? If you think about what pages you like the best when looking at scrapbook albums or even magazines they likely feature layouts that are designed to keep your eye moving from one space to the next, our natural tendency is to travel in a "C" or "Z" pattern across the page. There are four major points to think about when considering how to create layouts that you are going to love looking at over and over.

• The first is that photos in many shapes and clusters scattered randomly make it tough for the eye to focus. This can be distracting rather than pleasing to the eye.
  
  
• The eye prefers to follow a "C" or "Z" pattern rather than aimlessly wandering across a page with photos that appear to float. Group your photos together, leaving a small space between them to create flow.
  
  
• Clustering allows for spaces to tell a story to your family and friends in concentrated areas on the page, rather than making a few comments here and there.
  
  
• Grouping your photos in a planned way puts a priority on your photos and stories. Paper colors and enhancements become secondary. If you pick out your page enhancements without considering your photos and space for journaling, the page may end up looking too busy for the eye.

http://www.mommyclub.ca/family-living/hobbies/scrapbooking:-seven-steps-to-success/

Interesting research contradicting the Z-line theory:
http://sdcc17.ucsd.edu/~mcirone/introduction.html

Other eye-flow theories:
http://nn.spirastudios.com/book/export/html/170

DTP Further reading:
http://www.kougarmedia.com/resources/DTP_Basics_indd.pdf

DPS Articles

Interviews
Music Reviews (Existing articles)
Music Reviews (Upcoming artists)
History Article (on specific genre)
Band profile (new band)
Gig Reviews

DPS Analysis

Use these questions to help you to analyse at least 2 magazine articles:

1) How does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?

2) What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine

3) How is colour used?

4) What style of text is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience?

5) How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value?

6) What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence

7) How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis.

8) How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover?

9) Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples.

Mon 12th Jan Analysing Front Covers

Use these questions to analyse at least 2 music magazine front covers:

What type of magazine is it?

From the front cover what kinds of issues/articles are going to be inside?

Who is the target audience for the magazine? What particular age group? What are their interests? How do you know all of this?

What mode of address is the mag using? What does this tell you about the type of relationship it wants with its reader?

Who is on the front cover and why?

What does the main cover line say? What does this imply about the artist/band?? What overall message is the artist/band giving?

Are any (social/ethnic/political) groups being represented? How does the magazine represent them?

Are there any ‘buzz’ words? What effect does it have on the reader?

What does the design of the mast head tell you about the magazine? What does the title of the magazine tell you about:
1. the readership
2. its image
3. its style

What do the ‘kickers’ in the coverlines suggest will be inside the magazine? What does this tell you about the type of audience the magazine expects to get?

Is there a strapline/selling line/slogan? What does it tell you about the magazine? How does it help to attract readers?

What colours are used? Do you find them attractive?

What fonts are used and why?

What strategies does the magazine use to attract the audience?

Mon 5th Jan Questionnaire Design

Design a questionnaire to collect opinions about: Preferred genre of music OR Preferred bands within a chosen genre, Preferred magazine features, colour scheme, example fonts, price, frequency-monthly/weekly etc...

Hint: Use the quick links on the right to view sample questionnaires and analysis.

EXTENSION: Set up online polls for magazine name and font.

Homework: Collect data in class, study room, registration, lunch time.
Bring a music magazine to Friday's lesson.

Friday: Type up findings (Analysis).


QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS STRUCTURE
What question did you ask?
Why did you ask it?
What impact do your results have on your magazine?