Sunday 30 October 2016

TV AD RATES Bake Off example

To give you an idea of just how expensive those 30 second ads can be, it is estimated that once The Great British Bake Off starts airing on C4 (an ad-funded broadcaster unlike the license fee funded BBC), its likely to charge at least £100k per ad (£200k+ for the final).

Then there's the sponsorship deal, which would rival the biggest, Talk Talk's £10m annual deal with ITV which gets it an ident at the start and end of each episode segment, and much more through online and print campaigns. £8m is what C4 are expected to get.

Bake Off's triumphant finale leaves Channel 4 with tricky task http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/27/great-british-bake-off-triumphant-finale-channel-4-tricky-task?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Monday 24 October 2016

ASSGMT 3: Music video PITCHING

Pitching is a common practice across the business world, not just the media industries - you may have seen pitching in any episode of The Apprentice for example.

When pitching you are trying to persuade a select audience, generally potential funders or financiers (though it can also be the band/artist in the case of music video, with directors mostly taking the creative lead in videos, not artists), that your idea is realistic and thought through, and that it has a clear target audience in mind and can successfully appeal to them (plus a secondary audience you would address too).

Pitches should be well illustrated, which in itself helps to show how well prepared you are, and that you have thought through the challenges your idea represents.

Your pitch therefore should have a PowerPoint or other means of having relevant illustrations on screen as you speak - at A-Level a video will be expected (you can do this if you choose), but Ppt is fine for GCSE. That needs to be emailed to me (not a Googledocs edit invite, an attachment) before the lesson.

POINTS YOU MUST COVER:

Wednesday 19 October 2016

FONTS in fashion



InStyle UK magazine to shut print edition
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/19/instyle-uk-magazine-digital-only-time-inc?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Tuesday 18 October 2016

MAGAZINE research: publishers and audience profiles

To research your market, you need to look at rival PUBLISHERS, not just specific magazine titles.

Magazine websites are consumer-focused, but publisher sites are advertiser-centred. Therefore, they will usually provide clear information on the audience of their brands, vital information for any company considering advertising with the title.

Here are some links to get you started, but look out especially for Bauer, TimeIncUK (formerly IPC Media), Future, NatMags and Emap as major names.

MagForum.com

Wiki.

TASK OUTLINE (type up in Word):
1: List at least 5 of the major magazine publishers operating in the UK, then identify at least 3 currently published UK magazines in your sector (eg gaming, music, fashion). This quote from an analysis of the magazine industry (see post) should help...
Overall print circulation at seven of the major publishers - Future, Dennis, Condé Nast, Bauer, Immediate, Hearst UK, and Time Inc UK - fell 2.47 percent. 

2: Find and save as a picture AND copy into your document at least 1 recent example of their covers.

3: Crop these pictures in Word/Pages to show only the masthead.

4: Identify the publisher and make their name a hyperlink in your document to the publisher website page on the magazine, separately noting the magazine website if there is one.

5: See what you can find about the target audience from their site, and write this up.
Some publishers put very clear briefings on their sites to help inform potential advertisers, who need to be very clear on who reads the title so they can make an informed choice on whether that fits with their own target market. You can always email them to ask for an audience breakdown (usually called an advertiser pack) to help you with school research - check if anyone else is looking at this title, so only one email is sent to each company.

6: Analyse the mastheads - do you see any pattern or design techniques common to your magazine sector?
Also identify any individual design aspects from these examples you think might help you design a convincing masthead for a new magazine within your sector.

HOMEWORK: Complete the above as necessary for Friday. On Friday you should have 3+ masthead designs, 3+ possible slogans [previous homework], and 3+ possible cover images for your proposed new magazine.
...

Thursday 13 October 2016

Y10 2016 Sept-Dec work

TBC
I'll add details on all work and deadlines here.

SEPTEMBER

the magforum genre list

OCTOBER
FRI 14TH
LESSON:
MASTHEAD RESEARCH + DRAFTING:
1: RESEARCH:
Find and list 5+ magazines in your broad genre (sports, music, teen etc). Save an image of a sample cover for each. Put the mastheads into a document [crop or screenshot], and in a short paragraph describe any masthead design features that you think to magazines of this type. These links will help you find examples:
UK mags (short list);
Wiki: British magazines;
Wiki: entertainment magazines;
Magforum: you can click by genre for a longer list;
2: MASTHEAD MOCK-UP
Mock-up 3+ versions of a possible masthead for YOUR proposed NEW magazine.
Create in Photoshop, then save as PNG (which you can paste into a Word/Pages doc [save any Pages doc: SAVE AS...WORD DOC]).
Provide a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) with each, denoting [describing] the font and design decisions then explaining how this reflects YOUR target audience (connotations; symbolic purposes). Address both primary and secondary audiences if you can.
List 3+ possible slogans (DON'T just stick with one at this stage), and explain as for the masthead your design choices (including language/phrases used) and how this would successfully target your specified audience.
OPTIONAL: Add draft skylines.
Complete masthead/slogan work before next lesson, Tuesday 18th.
HOMEWORK FOR FRIDAY 21ST:
3+ draft cover images on memory stick/emailed to yourself, with 3+ distinctly different anchorage text drafts.

NOVEMBER

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Final Cut Pro X starter guide

There are further links to online guides etc in this post, on a blog where I gather tech tips/guides.
...
There are two versions of this - I initially did this without sound, and the video was longer as I rushed to get it online in time for a lesson.

The first video is shorter but actually has more tips and points, as well as a voiceover. Most, not all of my voiceover points are covered by the onscreen titles, so you can always mute the audio when re-viewing this to check on a particular tool or technique.

Keep a log of tools, shortcuts, techniques and general pointers that YOU can refer back to quickly.



VODCAST WITH VOICEOVER
By the time you come to do A-Levels, if you pick Media you'll be creating vodcasts - this isn't the most polished example you'll ever see, but follows the basic framework you'd want: a title sequence, relevant imagery/clips at all times, voiceover doubled up with clear titles (which I've resized to be much bigger than the default in FCPX).

I tweaked this twice, shortening the video but adding a VO, then making a few final additions but also adding my channel watermark.

CLICK ON THE READ MORE LINK below TO ACCESS THE VIDEO

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Photoshop: a guide to key tools and techniques

Media Studies involves both print and video work. While Final Cut Pro X is the main software you will use for video editing, for image editing it is Photoshop.

Use the guides below to help you develop your skills with Photoshop, a skill that should come in handy for many other subjects and opportunities outside of school too! There is also a Photoshop iPad app.

After you watch a quick runthrough you will be aiming to create a slightly silly image like this by following the steps in the PowerPoint and summarised below:

10 STEPS TO COMPLETE TODAY'S PRACTICE TASK
  1. Create a new folder in My Documents called Media
  2. Save the 4 images (below the PowerPoint) into this (just right-click and save link as, and check its saving into the Media folder)
  3. Open Photoshop! (Start-All programs-Adobe Cs6-Photoshop or type Photoshop into the Mac finder: the little magnifying glass top right)
  4. Set up a new document (File, New), changing (1) the name to Elephant practice; (2) Preset to international (A4 should appear, then the preset will switch to show 'custom'); (3) swapping the width and height settings (W to 297mm, H 210mm); (4) Background contents transparent.
  5. SAVE THE DOCUMENT RIGHT AWAY!!! (File, Save As, select your Media folder) IF YOU GET A POP-UP ASKING IF YOU WANT TO KEEP COMPATIBILITY, CLICK OK.
  6. Open the 4 images into Photoshop using either the 'MiniBridge' tool or the simpler File-Open. Read 'THINGS THAT TEND TO GO WRONG' (bottom of the post) if you can't see the MiniBridge option...
  7. Add these to your Elephant practice document by right-clicking on the layer for each of these in turn; duplicate layer; and select which document to add it to.
  8. Resize and reposition the images. Put the Coke ad layer underneath the elephant layers, resized to fill the frame.
  9. Have a go with the magic wand and eraser tool to get rid of the background from the simplest image (on the desk). Use the eyeball (click it off) on the Layers toolbox (on the right) to get other layers to disappear! If you feel confident enough, have a go at one or both of the other 2.
  10. Save it as a jpg or png file (File-Save As). .
At this point you can either help others, and develop useful transferrable skills, or have a go at the additional tools illustrated in the PowerPoint: opacity, text, filters... 

THE POWERPOINT WITH SCREENSHOTS
You can have this open in your iPad or on the computer.
Please try to check this (or ask a neighbouring student!) before you put your hand up to ask a question that is probably answered in the guide! Check out the 'Things That Tend To Go Wrong' list further down this post; most issues can be solved by looking at this!



SAMPLE IMAGES
Save the following 4 images to your Media folder. You will find that the elephant images range from very simple and quick to edit (removing the background) to very complex and time-consuming!