Task 3: Visual Images

'The images on Tatler's cover represents the personality of the magazine. Every aspect is analysed, from the girl's expression to the colour of her hair - everything that might make readers identify with the magazine'

Men's Health:
This front cover shows a three-quarter body shot of a muscular male model. Predumably the reader is meant to aspire towards achieving this body type. This is quite an unusual image for a men's magazine since scantily clad female is the usual format.

hough both front covers present images of women, the way they are contructed is totally different. On the cover of Bella that woman featured looks directly into the camera with a happy expression on her face which is very different from that of Alicia Silverstone's quite provocative gesture and stance.

Task 3: Collect some front covers. Describe in detail the ideal-reader images. Are these head and shoulders or full/upper body shots? Are the models looking away or directly into the camera? What do the facial gestures signal? Are they smiling, pouting, aloof? Does the anchorage text interact with the image? If so, how?

Task 2 - Front Covers

The front cover is the magazine's most important advertisement but it also serves to label its possessor.

'A magazine's front-cover image and coverlines are pursuasive selling tools. They motivate readers - confronted with shelves of front covers competing for their attention - to buy our magazine rather than another'. This quote from the editors of Tatlet acknowledges that vast competition which text producers face. It is little wonder then that they go to greate lengths in order to make their particular magazine jump out from the shelves. Visual images, layout and language all play their part. The cover of a magazine helps us to distinguish one magazine from another and although they are constantly changing in order to create variety and keep up to date, they retain sufficient features to mark out their own identity.

The title of the magazine plays a large part in shaping the reader's expectations. It is always written in large letters and is a shorthand way of conjuring up particualr associations in the reader's mind.

Look at this collection of magazine titles. What information about the magazine is suggested by the titles?

You can use a dictionary to help you out. Consider these points:

• Titles can signify a particular character type, e.g. Minx. If you look in the dictionary you will see that this term could be used as an insult: 'bold flirtatious woman'. It seems that Minx has actually taken on positive connotations - this is called amelioration (when a word with megative connotations is invested with positive meaning)
• Pejoration is when words take on negative associations
• Some titles may be compound nouns i.e. it combines two or more words into a single unit. An example is Cosmopolitan - Kosmos and polities.

Task 1 - Survey

Go to your local supermarket and record the following:

1) The different categories of magazines that are presented e.g. Men's interest, Home, Gardening etc
2) How many different types of magazines can you note for each section?
3) How many different brands of magazine can you see aimed at teenage girls? What are they?
4) How many different brands of magazine can you see aimed at teenage boys? What are they?

Convert your results in graphs in Excel. Comment on your findings. How many girls mags are there in comparison to boys mags? Are teenage boys catered for in the same way as teenage girls? Was it easier to find girls mag or boys mags?

Planning Tasks

Before you can create your magazine pages you need to carry out a range of planning tasks:

1) Magazine rack survey
2) Analysis of magazine covers including visual images, titles and text.
3) Analysis of the contents pages from these magazines
4) Analysis of 2 double page spreads
5) Audience research including questionnaires

I will be posting the worksheets/questions for each of these so that you can work on it over the Christmas holiday.

Here is a list of girls magazines that you can choose from:
CosmoGirl
Bliss
Glamour
Mizz
Sugar

It will be much harder to find examples of magazines aimed at teenage boys!

Skills you must demonstrate

• use IT appropriately for the task set;

• show understanding of the conventions of layout, graphics, colour and page design;

• show awareness of the need for variety in fonts;

• show integration of illustration and text;

• use appropriate vocabulary in written text;

• construct still images using technical and symbolic codes effectively.

Planning, Construction and Evaluation guide

Planning (30 marks)

Candidates are expected to show some evidence of planning the production in the Production
Report. Planning should include the organisation of time and equipment and, where
appropriate, the efficient use of actors, settings and props. Where time-based media are
used, prior scripting and/or storyboarding is expected. For print and ICT-based work, drafting
is expected.

Candidates need to decide on a target audience for the product and carry out some initial
research into that audience in the planning stage. They also need to research existing media
practice and examples of comparable products in planning the production.

Storyboards/scripts/design plans and drafts are required in the appendix of the Production
Report, as evidence of planning, but are not acceptable as a production in their own right, as
the production must be a complete artefact.

Construction (60 marks)

Candidates are expected to use established forms and conventions to make meaning in the
production of their own media texts. Understanding of formal aspects of textual production
needs to be demonstrated, with attention to detail and finish. There needs to be a clear sense
in the product itself that it has targeted a particular audience. A clear demonstration of the
skills required in the particular technologies used to produce the text is expected.

Production Report (30 marks)

The report records all stages of the production, including a technical account of decisions and
revisions made and an evaluation of the success of the finished work. It should be up to 2000
words in length and should cover the following equally weighted areas:

• Part 1 – The brief and research into similar media texts/target audiences
• Part 2 – Planning the production
• Part 3 – Constructing the production – technical decisions and revisions
• Part 4 - Evaluation of finished production.

Coursework Brief

 Welcome Year 13!

Throughout the Spring term we will be working on the AS coursework resubmission.

The topic will be teenage magazines. This is the brief:

Produce the front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new teenage magazine aimed at a female or male audience. You must use a minimum of 3 original images.

Foundation Production is marked out of a total of 120 marks, from the following

assessment categories:

• Planning (30 marks)
• Construction (60 marks)
• Production Report (30 marks)