Magazine key terms

House Style: A magazine's distinctive design that distinguishes it from its competitors.

Banner: Text which stands out on a coloured background - normally situated at the top of the page.

Masthead: The actual name of the magazine.

Headline: Catchy Title for the main article.

Motto: A memorable phrase that is recognisable to a particular brand.

Strap Line: Also known as a slogan.

Pugs: These are placed at the top right and left corners of the page and are known as the 'ears'. Examples of content that is placed here is the price of the product, the logo or a promotion.

Copy: The Main Story in the Magazine.

Puffs: Boxes that promote features found inside.

Sell Lines: Persuasive text on the front cover that helps to sell the magazine to the audience.

Anchorage Text: Text that helps pin down the meaning of a picture (and vice versa).

Caption: A clear description of an image.

Buzz Words: "Free", "Exclusive" and "Wow" are all examples. They attract the readers attention.

Drop Capitals: Really big letter that starts off an article.

Lead: The introductory paragraph of an article. This is Usually written in bold or CAPITALS.

Print design and key terms

http://www.jandos.com/Resources/Anatomy%20Pages4.pdf

Advanced Portfolio - Analysing a Magazine Front Cover

• Images - Who or what is represented?  How is this representation achieved?  What meanings are created?  What is the body language of the subject?  What mode of address is used?  How is the subject framed?  What lighting is used?  What is the location?  Are props used?  What type of focus is used?  Are any effects used?  What title accompanies the image?  (If there are secondary images you can ask the above questions of them too.)
• Design / layout - How is colour used?  How many colours are used?  Is there any pattern to the use of colour?  What sizes of text have been used?  What styles of text have been used?  How is text and image(s) combined?  How much space is there?  How is the left hand (most important) side different from the right hand side?  How is the potential reader attracted?  Is there a lure (a story or interview that continues inside)?  How would your eye move across the page?  Where are the most important elements positioned? What do you think are the values (e.g. fearless, trusted, fun, sexy) of this magazine?  What is the 'house style' (consistent elements that you might find from cover to back) of the magazine?
• Text - What is the title?  What does this represent? (What meanings are created?)  How is the titlepiece styled and positioned?  From how far away could you read the title?  What words are used in the coverlines?  What meanings do they create?  How does the magazine address the reader?  What benefits for the potential reader are offered?  Is there anything for beginners or new readers?  Are there any incentives (e.g. special price, competition, free gift etc.)?  What writing style is used? (e.g. colloquial, authoritative, hyperbolic)  Is the text serif (pointed embellishments finish off the strokes of the letters) or sans serif (without the embellishments)?  How are the beginnings and endings    of text aligned?  Is the text upper or lower case?  How much space (leading) is there between lines?
• Audience - who do you think is the target audience for the magazine and why?

Analysing a Poster - Advanced Portfolio

ü What is the genre of the poster? (What signifies the genre to you?)

ü What does the title of the film mean to you? (Does it connote anything? Is an enigma – a question – created by the title? Where is the title positioned?

ü What other text appears and where is it positioned?

ü What type of lettering is used? (font style, sizes, colours, effects, borders/shadows etc.)

ü What does the lettering style signify or represent?

ü What is the key image in the poster? What representation does this image give? What can you see in the foreground and background (give reasons for this).

ü Are there any secondary images? If so, what do they represent?

ü If there are characters in the poster, describe them (in detail) and what they represent.

ü If there are significant objects in the poster, describe them and what they represent.

ü Does the poster have a theme, idea, message or value that it is trying to communicate to you?

ü Is there a tagline? What is it and what does it represent?

ü Are the stars of the film identified? If so, how?

ü Is the director of the film identified? If so, how?

ü Can you identify the producers (studio) and/or distributors of the film?

ü Is the poster a teaser (advance) or the general release poster? How do you know?

ü What release information are we given?

ü Does the poster offer ways to find out more about the film?

ü Who do you think the poster is trying to appeal to?

Foundation Portfolio - Progress Checklist

So far you should have:

ü  Created a blog (regularly updated) that has a structure, titles and labels

ü  Researched camerawork and put photos and video on your blog

ü  Created ideas and planned for a preliminary film, including allocating roles

ü  Filmed the preliminary task and uploaded it to the blog.

ü  Received feedback on your preliminary task and put that feedback on the blog

ü  Evaluated the preliminary task using the questions on the media studies blog

ü  Created initial ideas for the main task

ü  Pitched your favourite idea for the main task

ü  Received feedback on your pitch and put the feedback onto the blog

ü  Made adjustments to your idea based on the feedback

ü  Analysed the opening to a film in class

ü  Added your analysis to the blog

ü  Analysed three similar films (to your idea) in terms of camerawork, editing (including titles), mise-en-scene and sound with screenshots

ü  Add your analysis to the blog

ü  Show your three film openings to the rest of the class and ask them targeted questions about them (see my blog for examples of questions)

ü  Allocated roles e.g. director, cameraman, actor, editor, props man etc.

ü  Created a profile of the typical person who would go to see your film (e.g. age, gender, interests, social class/background, ethnicity, education, job etc.) – you could present this to the rest of the class with one of the group acting the part of this ‘character’