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?