Ten magazine challenge: quantity over quality

How much content can you produce if all forms of quality control are removed? Is it possible to crank out ten magazine covers in a single hour, after receiving only the most basic training imaginable? And what can you learn from making the same basic and straightforward actions over and over? Let's find out!

Exemplar student magazine projects

Key assessment one: Media language and representation in the advertising industry

A-level media studies mock exam

• This exam has been published at least a full day before you have to do it. You can spend time preparing for the exam in advance, and you can even write notes and plans to help you.
• This exam is open book. You can look up anything before or during the exam. 
• Looking up stuff is not cheating, and I will assume you have done this when marking it
• Please write in paragraphs: point (main point of paragraph), evidence (media language), explain (why this stuff is important. It's much easier to mark lots of short paragraphs that just one huge one, so keep this in mind!
• Time allowed: 75 minutes (including watching time). 25% extra time = 100 minutes
• Please spend the full amount of time on each question
• Please publish your response directly on to your blog. The time of your post being published can and will be checked
• If you are not able to type your response, then please handwrite your answers, making sure to sign and date the exact time you finished at the bottom of the last page. You can give it in when you return.

Tips

• These questions look scary, but they're exactly what we've been discussing and doing in class, every lesson, even if they may be phrased differently
• If you don't use media language, you don't get marks, so make sure you have the toolkit for textual analysis open in front of you
• Remember: you can use anything we've studied in class as an example to back up your response. The Gap advert down there looks pretty conventional, doesn't it? What's an unconventional advert we've studied that might help us to understand it better?
• This is your first rodeo. It's OK to fail. You'll bounce back better next time. But give it your best shot!

Media language

Explore how meaning is created through the combination of media language in this advert for Gap. You may wish to make reference to:

• Polysemy
• Semiotics (Barthes) 
• Structuralist approaches (Levi-Strauss)
• The conventions of print adverts (eg lexis, layout, Z-line rule etc) [15 marks, 30 minutes]

Representation

2017: Persil Ultimate Powergems [Extraordinary Powers] (click to view video. Please watch twice in a row before attempting response)

Compare and contrast the representation of gender in the Persil Ultimate Powergems [Extraordinary Powers] TV spot advert with the representation of gender in the Tide advert you have studied. Make reference to:

• How gender roles are constructed through media language
• The construction of ideological perspectives, including hegemonic norms
• How intertextuality can construct meaning
• Historical factors and their relation to representation [30 marks, 45 minutes]

Magazine coursework: creating a conventional initial flat plan

A flat plan is a basic draft of a magazine, traditionally sketched out, though more recently often created digitally. Think of it as a sort of 'storyboard for a magazine', a shopping list to help you tick off every box. 

In this lesson, you will create a flat plan for the front cover of your magazine and your double page spread. Think of it as a rough rough rough draft. That's right, you're making a draft today, by the end of the lesson!

For this project, you will be marked on conventions. While you will be given considerable creative freedom in your magazine project, it is absolutely essential that your magazine looks, reads and feels like a magazine! 

This lesson will help you to deal with the basics, and then you can spend time working on constructing a compelling and subversive celebrity seeking to target a niche audience.

The minimum expected elements for the magazine project

Length: 3 pages.

Front cover:

• Original title and masthead for the magazine; strapline
• Cover price and barcode
• Main cover image to establish the identity of the new artist or band
• Main cover line relating to the new artist or band plus at least 2 further cover lines

Double page article:

• Feature article (approximately 300 words) to promote the new artist or band. The article should include an interview with the artist or band.
• Headline and stand-first, sub-headings, columns
• One main image and at least 2 smaller/minor images (all original and different from the images on the cover)
• Pull quotes and/ or sidebar

Analyzing existing magazines

Choose two front covers and two double page spreads of any magazine. If in doubt, please choose from the examples below. Make a list of all the conventions of these magazines, how they are used, and where they are found. You will be emulating these conventions to make your magazine as conventional as possible.

Remember that you will not find every convention listed on these magazine covers.

A rough rough rough draft: creating a flat plan

Using pens and A3 paper, create a rough flat plan/draft of the front cover and double page spread.

For more info on how to produce a flat plan, including an example of what we're looking for, click here.

Before you do these, open up at least three examples of each in the tabs of your browser. Pick magazine covers you really like. These will be your guides.

I don't know what I'm doing. What should my magazine look like?
What shot types should I use?
Where does this or that go?
What colours do I use?
How big should the masthead be?
How many cover lines should I use?
How much should my magazine be?
[literally any other question]?

The answer to all of these is look at the examples of magazines you have picked

 For example, if you're thinking of putting the masthead at the bottom of the front cover, check out your guides first. Do any other magazines do this? Why not? When you're working out how much space your model should take up in relation to the other elements, look at your guide, and try to do something as similar as possible.

Magazines tend to follow an extremely conventional approach to construction. You should follow this approach as closely as possible, and let your use of hair, costume, makeup and colour show your creativity and the ideological perspective of your artist.