Steering the OCR Magazine Brief

Targets• 60 posts on individual blog, each illustrated e.g.

with a picture or a video embedded

• a structured process with constant (formative) feedback

• students knowing how to work the equipment

• A music magazine cover, contents page and DPS which look like they belong together and are fit for purpose

• a critically reflective evaluation on the blog with seven different creative tasks

• every student achieving their full potential

Step 1: assess

• what’s the task?

• what’s the assessment?

• what’s the timeframe?

• what’s the equipment?

Task and assessment

• Front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine

• All original images and text

• 20 marks Research and Planning

• 60 marks Construction

• 20 marks Evaluation

timeframe and equipment

• Time to build skills

• Time to research existing texts and target audience

• Time to plan production

• Time to research and write articles

• Time to do photoshoots

• Access to cameras, appropriate DTP and image manipulation programs, online resources

Step 2: structure

• set up blog hub

• set up individual student blogs

• set out timeframe

• structure series of tasks- mini-deadlines

Step 3: activity

• teaching students to use the equipment

• camera exercises: shot types and mise-en-scene

• Caption and headline writing

• Standfirsts and opening paragraphs

• (b)logging evidence and reflecting critically and creatively

Photography taskGive students a brief with a number of images to take

e.g. long shot conveying isolation; close up conveying anger; an extreme close up of time

Image manipulation taskGive students two images and ask them to crop one and erase the background

and combine it with the second image to create a different mise-en-scene and meaninge.g. A close up photograph of someone pushing against imaginary walls (like the best mime

artists!) combine with an image of a television set (Photoshop makes the impossible possible!)

Writing captionsGive students images and ask them to write captions for specific contexts

Headline writingWriting standfirsts

Opening paragraphsFor all writing tasks give the students the text of an interview and ask them to write

the headline, standfirst and opening paragraph. They don’t have to be original: you couldlift the text from an interview in a music magazine and then show the students the

completed article as laid out in the magazine on completion of the task.

Prelim Task

• Limit time

• Evaluate images

• Evaluate design, layout, fonts

• Consider appropriateness for audience

• Proof read

Roles a student must adopt

• Journalist

• Photographer

• Sub-editor

• Graphic designer

• Proof reader

Keeping it real?

• What’s on in the area?

• Gigs

• Local artists

• Use twitter and facebook to make contact?

Step 4: investigate

• structuring research activities- classwork and homework

• magazines: sub-genre, audience, institution, media language

• looking at examples of other student work- critiques and criteria

• re-make activities

Step 4: investigate

• Who is the target audience for a magazine?- look at the adverts in real ones!

• Look at different magazines and steal ideas- NOT JUST music magazines for FORM

• How do different fonts work together?

• Tracking, leading, kerning…

Research ConventionsMagazine codes and conventions

Front coverImages

CoverlinesFonts and sizes

Design and Layout

Contents PageColumn structure

ImagesCategories

How many articles?Design and Layout

Fonts and sizes

Double Page SpreadImages

Column structureFonts and sizes

Design and layout

IDENTIFY HOUSE STYLE

BUY ACTUAL MAGAZINES AND TAKE PHOTOS OF THEMDON’T JUST GOOGLE THEM!

Step 5: helping the idea

• give some possible options for market niches

• moodboard pitch

• peer and teacher feedback

• realistic expectations about audience and genre, not personal preference!

Audience

• Focus groups over questionnaires

• Existing data

• Audience profiling

GENRE RESEARCHMake sure research is detailed and thorough

Specific codes and conventions of the genre

Step 6: Planning

• experimenting with camera and lighting

• models and mise-en-scene

• examples of shots, costumes, props, etc onto blog

• logistics planning- including risk assessment

More Planning

• House style

• Draft designs of production

• Peer and teacher feedback on drafts

• Images, contents, layout, fonts

Step 7: production

• Have a photoshoot day with lots of models?

• ensuring process is recorded

• Upload all photos to blog

• keep comparing to professional production

• Constant feedback on work in progress

• Deadlines for each component

Step 7: production

• More than one shoot with main artist for variety of costume

• Enno found images or family/facebook photos!

• Some ‘motion’ in photos- don’t be too static

• Flatplan the WHOLE magazine

Step 8: on the page

• Layout, design, font

• Image, text, genre, audience

• Draft deadlines and peer feedback

Step 9: evaluation

• make time to do it properly

• opportunity to demonstrate creativity with digital tools

• beware style over substance- needs depth and detail

• Seven tasks, not seven written answers

Step 10: marking

• mark the blogs as you go along

• rank order the magazines

• benchmark against online support material

• best fit may = bottom of the level

• evaluation - covering all questions, critically reflecting, making good use of creative opportunity

Step 11: moderation

• prepare the blogs: final product at top, evaluation next

• label everything clearly, make sure links work, add candidate numbers on hub

• justify your marks with reference to criteria and candidate

Step 12: feel the benefit

• skills developed for A2

• material stacked up for G325 1a/1b

• better marks for this unit

Steering the OCR Magazine Brief