Other Student Websites

Here are some examples of student websites to look at. I don't know what grade they achieved, but we can use them to look at the sort of work expected at A Level:

https://nicolaevans15.wixsite.com/twofaced


https://lucymagor1.wixsite.com/lucymagornea

Student 1
Word Count:
523
I aim to create a women’s lifestyle magazine aimed at a target audience of 18-30 year old women. The magazine and associated website will be focussed on the lifestyle genre - fitness, beauty/makeup looks advice and fashion. I will be using media language within the construction of my marketing materials for my magazine ‘Two Faced’ in order to communicate clear messages about genre and my models significance; appealing to my target demographic.
I will be creating a summer edition and a winter edition, the summer edition being the focus for my article. As my target audience is female, I aim to include relevant conventions such as the colour pink which connotes femininity, elegance and refinement; representing gender. On both of the covers the masthead will be written in Sans Serif in the colour white. This appeals to a higher social class as Sans Serif is a sophisticated font and the colour white connotes purity and cleanliness. The magazine covers will feature close up shots of my models representing the individuals, conforming to Gauntletts identity theory, potentially influencing my audiences identities. The close up shots will enable direct address, engaging my audience. I will be using colour psychology in order to make my edition recognisable to my target audience. For example the colour yellow which connotes sunshine and positivity, persuading them to confide in my magazine. My title and masthead will appeal to my target audience. These two aspects are vital in magazine publishing as the title says a lot about the content of the magazine, and naturally the audiences eye is drawn towards it. This, along with the colour scheme and iconography will appeal to a female audience.
Within my double spread article I will add a range of smaller images with different shot types to interest the reader and give them extended information. I will use high key lighting, saturation and contrast to edit my 6 article images and close up shots for my two cover images, giving them a professional tone. My colour palette will vary from the summer edition to the winter edition where I will use lighter palettes such as yellow and pink to connote sunshine and the holidays, differentiating to my winter edition which will include autumnal colours such as orange and grey. Additionally, I will construct representations of issues and events in the content of my website, where I will draw attention to a social issue experienced by women in my article, associated with health and body image.
Researching the popular lifestyle magazine ‘The cosmopolitan’ as inspiration due to its celebrity makeup and fashion articles they charge £2 per magazine. Therefore taking my survey results into consideration I’m going to charge £1.85 per magazine, in order to find a middle ground for my audience but still be able to categorise it as a high-end. Finally, to demonstrate digital convergence I will promote my brand name on my website. Allowing my audience to access my content through hard copy, digitally and additionally listen through podcast if they don’t like interactive media. This will appeal to an older demographic as well encouraging global audiences to engage in digital convergence

Student 2
Word count - 497
The magazine I am creating is a high end, lifestyle women's fashion and culture magazine. I am inspired by Vouge and the new British editor - Edward Enninful. ‘Virtue’ connotes quality and strength. Medium CU’s on my summer and winter edition will be invitational (Marjorie Ferguson) to millennials, mainly aspirers and explorers. I will use props such as a summer hat to emphasise the summer mood for my magazine and a warm colour pallet, yellow for summer and red for winter. The model will follow conventions and use direct address to engage the reader and feel as if they are looking at them, inviting them to read the magazine. Furthermore I will use costume to style my model by using a lemon material wrapped around my models body to create a dress, and a fur hat and jacket for my winter edition. I will subvert Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory to empower women and make them feel as if the magazine is a place to ‘open up to’. I want my magazine to be open to a wide range of cultures. My magazine ‘Virtue’ is in a serif sophisticated font to appeal to my audience of A,B,C1.
I will construct representations of individuals, groups and issues/events by discussing prejudice in the music industry. Within my article images will present the singer as realistic, a star and victimised. Pull quotes and teasers on the cover will entice my readers ‘Exclusive interview’. My article is about the VMA’s and how they have been biased against black artists. This will interest my audience as it is often a controversial topic. A ‘Childhood Memory’ feature sidebar will allow the audience to self identify and presents the star as ‘ordinary’ – Richard Dyer.
Within my article I will target my intended audience 18-35 by using Twitter to appeal to the younger demographic and an intertextual link to an old band or TV show to appeal to the older demographic. I want my audience to self identify with the article by using colloquial but a serious tone within the language and relate to a time where they have felt discriminated against or bullied. I am not using provocative clothing on my models as the women in my magazines are portraying a much stronger and serious message.
For my magazine the publication house I will be using is Condé Nast international, which also brands many other high end magazines such as Vogue, Allure and Tatler. I am using Condé Nast because it is regarded as the dominant upmarket publisher in the industry, working with the significant creative talents in all the sectors. I will also be creating a ‘Virtue’ website promoting the magazine, topics will include teasers, latest travel updates and celebrity fashion. Imagery and house style will create a sophisticated feel and synergy. An audio visual will allow for audience interaction and an exclusive about Paris starting with a medium long shot of ‘Lucy Brooke’ on a balcony followed by a ‘Q&A’ of recommendations.

BRIEF 2: Magazines

A cross-media production for a new monthly lifestyle magazine in a genre (or sub-genre) of your choice.

Create print pages for a new magazine and associated audio/audio-visual or online material to promote the same magazine.

You should create a cross-media production for a mainstream publisher (e.g. Condé Nast or Time Inc.) targeting an audience of 18-35 year old ‘millennials’.

Task 1: Print

Create two original front covers and a double page feature article for your new magazine. The front covers should be for different editions of the same magazine, for example a summer and winter edition.

Length: 4 pages including at least 8 original images in total.

Minimum requirements

Each front cover:

 Original title and masthead for the magazine

 Strapline

 Cover price and barcode

 Main cover image plus additional images if appropriate to the chosen genre (all original)

 At least four cover lines

Double page feature article:

 Headline and standfirst, sub-headings

 One main image and additional smaller/minor images (all original and different from the images on the two covers)

 Representations of at least one specific social group

 Feature article (approximately 400 words) relating to one of the cover lines on the front cover

 Pull quotes and/or sidebar

AND:

Task 2: Online

Create a new functioning website, to include a working homepage and one linked page, to promote your magazine to its target audience.

Length: 2 pages, including 30-45 seconds of embedded audio or audio-visual material related to the topic.

Minimum requirements

Homepage:

 Original title and masthead for the magazine

 Menu bar

 Main image plus at least two other images (all original and different from those used in the magazine) that relate to the chosen genre of magazine

Working links to one further page from the website:

 One feature article relevant to the genre (or sub-genre) of magazine (this must be different from the main feature article in the print product)

These pages must include:

 Written text appropriate to the content of the magazine (approximately 200 words in total)

 30-45 seconds of original audio or audio-visual material related to the topic embedded into one of the pages (e.g. interview with someone featured in the magazine or footage relating to the topic of an article)

Teacher Coments:

Student 1 – this was all thrown together at the last minute. Completely agree with all your comments.

SOA – 6

8/20 – not sure if this was too harsh

14/30 – imagery especially the website is good

Band 2/3

Student 2 – Pleased with students efforts, might bump it up a little based on your feedback

SOA – 8

17/20

24/30

Band 5

Adobe Indesign Tutorial

Blogger of the Week

HUGE congrats to Eliza, who has overcome technical issues to upload all the excellent magazine and website research she did over the summer - excellent work!

Netflix News

Netflix co-creator, Mark Randolph, has just published this book. Looks interesting!






















https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/14/netflix-marc-randolph-founder-blockbuster

Netflix co-founder: 'Blockbuster laughed at us … Now there's one left'

Marc Randolph launched the streaming service that would revolutionize TV and film, upend Hollywood and draw more than 150 million subscribers

Sam Levin

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Sat 14 Sep 2019 09.00 BSTLast modified on Mon 16 Sep 2019 17.53 BST

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 Marc B Randolph in Los Angeles. Photograph: Dan Tuffs/The Guardian

It was a fluke that the Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph changed the history of television. It almost didn’t happen.

In 1997, the Santa Cruz businessman was spending his carpool rides to work brainstorming internet startup ideas with a colleague. They discussed personalised surfboards, customised dog food, shampoo by mail. One commute, the chat turned to “videotapes”.

Randolph’s three-year-old daughter had struggled to sleep the night before, leading them to watch a used copy of Aladdin. His car companion was intrigued, having recently received a $40 Blockbuster late fee for Apollo 13. Could they make it easier to rent movies?

Randolph soon after launched Netflix, an initially unsuccessful movie-rentals-by-mail service that went on to upend Hollywood and draw more than 150 million subscribers. In his new book, That Will Never Work, the 61-year-old offers a glimpse into the tumultuous early days of Netflix, which began as an obscure Silicon Valley startup, resisted pressure to sell to its online retail competitor Amazon, defeated Blockbuster and eventually evolved into cultural force that fundamentally changed the way we consume and create media.

Seated at a noisy coffee shop in Los Angeles, Randolph says he never dreamed of disrupting the entertainment industry. He now thinks his various 1997 carpool ideas were “all equally good and equally bad”. At the time, Amazon was demonstrating that seemingly absurd ideas were possible: “You could take a bookstore – a bookstore! – and make that work online.”

Randolph had been involved in software companies and developed the wealth and connections he needed to pursue new ideas. A merger led him to Reed Hastings, the entrepreneur who became his co-founder and is now Netflix’s CEO.

The two landed on movies after their carpool talks, but nearly abandoned the idea when they calculated VHS shipping costs. They soon, however, discovered DVDs, then a nascent technology. They secured investors, including $25,000 from Randolph’s mother (“My mom was delighted that I was finally doing a company that she actually understood”), and Netflix launched in April 1998, with about 800 titles in its inventory and Randolph as CEO.

The name Netflix, which Randolph thought was somewhat “porn-y”, beat E-Flix.com, CinemaCenter, NowShowing and others, which now sound like particular relics of the 90s.

Randolph recently found notes from a speech he gave when the company started, saying, “‘In three years, we want to be one of the top 10 video chains.’ How lame is that? I wanted to be as big as a single Blockbuster store.”

In 1998, Jeff Bezos attempted to acquire Netflix as a way to jumpstart Amazon’s entry into video. Even though Netflix was making a majority of its revenue from DVD sales, not rentals, Randolph and Hastings decided not to sell to Amazon or try to compete with it, and instead focus solely on rentals. It was a strategy that paid off. Eventually.

Netflix grew its subscriber base by offering free trials and other deals that made the convenient rental service extremely popular, but meant it was also haemorrhaging money.

Blockbuster finally agreed to talk to Netflix, calling an unexpected meeting the morning after an alcohol-fuelled Netflix retreat. Randolph says he was wearing shorts, a tie-dyed T-shirt and flip-flops when he and his colleagues sat down with Blockbuster in Dallas and proposed the video chain accelerate its entry into DVDs, by purchasing Netflix – for $50m.

“In one fell swoop, we might get out of this,” he recalls.

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After they stated the dollar amount, Randolph noticed something strange happening with the Blockbuster CEO John Antioco’s face. He was struggling not to burst into laughter.

The meeting went further downhill from there.

Randolph says it was one of the lowest moments for the company: “You fly to Blockbuster, try and sell the business, and they laugh at you.”

The only option left was to defeat Blockbuster, and Netflix stayed afloat by doing painful layoffs, figuring out overnight delivery of DVDs, and preparing early to move into streaming.

Hollywood executives were “very, very scared” of losing control of the content after the music industry had suffered at the hands of Napster, he says. “You have a studio who is doing $8bn in box office. Are they going to compromise [that] for half a million dollars in potential streaming? They had this whole nice system … that was working great. Why mess this up?”

He continues: “Because we can.”

Randolph left Netflix in 2002, which is also where his book ends, meaning tech elites and startup workers will have more interest in reading it than Orange is the New Black fans. Randolph also lacks some self-awareness in his discussion of Netflix’s early culture, fondly remembering a drunken raucous retreat, a new-employee tradition akin to “hazing”, and his insistence on maintaining a poster in his office that “wasn’t the most HR-friendly”.

Asked about the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley and whether he thought Netflix in the early days did a good job, he says he takes pride in the “gender”, “age” and “geographic” diversity of his employees, adding: “Diversity is not a skin thing, necessarily. Diversity is you have people around the table who have different backgrounds and different experiences and think differently.”

Does he think Netflix disruption will continue in other arenas? “Who knows what form storytelling will take in the future? … They begin doing virtual reality, holographic avatar games?” Some form of new disruption is certain, he says, though emphasizes that he is only speaking as a fan of Netflix (he like Ozark and Narcos).

Randolph argues that in the startup world, “no one knows what’s a good idea or a bad idea until you try it”. It’s a principle that is arguably relevant to Netflix today, which some critics say has a quality control problem and is creating an industry with an oversaturation of original streaming content.

As a viewer, he’s not bothered: “Why would I mind that there’s too much?”

And how does he reflect now on the demise of Blockbuster?

“I absolutely feel for people whose businesses have been disrupted, people who lost their jobs. That hurts.”

But, he says, “I’m not sure I want to preserve the old ways just for the sake of saying, ‘I don’t believe in change.’”

He tries not to gloat, but adds: “Blockbuster had 9,000 stores. Now there is one.”

That Will Never Work – The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea, by Marc Randolph is published by Endeavour (£20)

Magazine Brief 2020 Reminder

Brief 3 Magazines and online

Requirements of the brief

You work for an independent media production company. You have been given the task of producing one front cover and the contents page(s) of the first two editions of a new entertainment magazine that is being launched by Hearst Magazines UK and the working website for magazine.

Contents pages can be either single or double page spread. The web pages must promote the new magazine to its target audience and enable fans to interact with the content.

Summary of brief requirements:
• Statement of Intent (approx. 500 words)1
• Entertainment magazine covers and contents pages: two or three pages for each of the first two editions (based on choice of single or double page spread).
• Magazine distribution method:
Content must be suitable for retail distribution.
• Number of web pages: One homepage and one linked page.
• Cross-media production target audience: a funloving 16–25 year old mass market demographic.

There must be a clear sense of branding across the two elements of the cross-media production.

Production detail
The production of the magazine covers and contents pages must include (as a minimum):

At least four different main images using original photography across the covers and contents pages. Editing of magazine covers and contents pages (including photos, text, graphics, typography and layout).

Written text including masthead, main coverline, selling lines, headlines, captions, subtitles and copy. A different setting for each cover (this may be the same location with a significantly different use of staging, mise-en-scene and / or lighting).

Different material for each magazine’s contents page(s). At least two models representing at least two different social groups across the magazine covers and contents pages. A call to action pointing readers to the online website.

The production of the web pages must include (as a minimum):

Original audio or audio-visual content appropriate to the online website. A minimum of two original images, (with at least one different original image on each of the two pages) that promotes and reinforces the brand identity of the magazine.

Appropriate conventions of website design, including an original title and logo for the magazine and a menu bar. Text introducing the main features of the magazine. Working links from the home page to the other page. A range of appropriate media language techniques (typography, images, fonts, backgrounds, logos etc.) as appropriate to the purpose of the website.

 

Blogger of the Week

Welcome to the first of the academic year 2019-20 Blogger of the Week competitions! This week's winner in Y13 is Krupa, who has made some fantastic videos to analyse the front covers of her chosen magazine genre for her coursework. Blog on!