Monday, 23 September 2013

A2 Radio research

Below is a link to the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) who have lots of great stats and info about the success of radio advertising along with examples of radio ads you can listen to.
http://www.rab.co.uk/

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Links to theories about music video

Use these URLs to read around music videos: what they're for, what they do, how they link with other texts etc. Contains theories from some people it's worth namedropping in posts and Qu 1 of your exam (Dyer, Goodwin, Archer, Carlsson) http://www.slideshare.net/krober4/music-video-style http://filmsound.org/what_is_music_video/ http://prezi.com/gtc2amao-ctk/music-video-theory/ http://www.slideshare.net/guestc6d43a4a/andrew-goodwins-theory http://www.musicvideotheory.com/ http://prezi.com/rcqbf3yobvh2/steve-archers-five-things-to-look-for-in-music-videos/

Thursday, 20 June 2013

Simplified glossary

Below are some of the key terms you need for your newspaper analysis. Please make sure you look them up in the more detailed glossaries which give more detailed explanations.


above the fold - The top half of the first page.

ads - Paid notices promoting items available for sale or lease or candidates for office.

article - A written piece about a topic.

beat - The specialization of a reporter, for example, government, business, or sports.

byline - The name of a reporter as credited near the top of a newspaper article.

caption - An explanation of a picture or illustration, usually placed under the picture.

classified ads - Advertisements placed by people and businesses to let people know about items for sale and available jobs.

cropped - shortened. Articles are oftened cropped by an editor so that they will fit onto the newspaper page.

deadline - The time at which an article is due.

editor - The person in charge of the content of the paper.

editorials - Opinion articles, written by the publisher, editors, and columnists of the paper.

feature article - Non-news general interest pieces, for example, an article on stamp collecting.

five W's - Who, what, when, where, and why.

headline - The title of an article; it is set in large, bold type.

hook - Something written early in an article that grabs the reader's attention and makes the reader want to read the rest of the article..

interview - A conversation with a person in order to obtain information. Reporters interview people to find out about the topic they are writing about.

interviewee - The person who is being interviewed.

interviewer - The person who is conducting the interview.

inverted triangle - A diagram shaped like an upside-down triangle that notes the content of a newspaper article, listing the most important items first.


lead (or lede) - The first paragraph of each newspaper article (the first paragraph); the lead should summarize the main facts of the article, telling the 5 W's (who, what, when, where, and why) and how..

letters to the editor - Letters from readers - they appear in the letters to the editor portion of the op-ed section of the newspaper.

news article - A piece that describes and explains a current news event.

newspaper - A newspaper is a daily or weekly publication that contains news articles, editorials, and other items. Newspapers are printed on large sheets of inexpensive paper that are folded. Ads (and to a much lesser extent, subscriptions) pay the costs of operating a newspaper. Synonyms for newspaper are paper and rag (this is a disparaging term).

nut graf - The paragraph that contains the core information about the story and tells the reader why the story is important.

op-ed - The section of a newspaper opposite the editorial section, where more opinions are stated (these are written by writers other than the editors). Op/ed is short for "opposite the editorial page."

publisher - The owner of a newspaper.

quote - The exact words of your subject (the interviewee).

rag - a disparaging slang term for a newspaper.

reporter - A person who researches and writes an article for a newpaper.

scoop - A news story that no other reporter has discovered yet!

sidebar - A story that accompanies a main story, perhaps detailing a background event or a related topic.

supporting paragraphs - Paragraphs following the lead; these paragraphs go into more detail about the topic, often including quotes and interesting facts. The less important information should appear later in the article, since the article may be cropped (shortened) by the editor.

Monday, 17 June 2013

Research and planning checklist - Music videos

Below is all the things you need to include in your R&P BEFORE you start filming.

Research and Planning Checklist

Music Videos

Research

·         Watch and download 6 music videos

Ideally these need to be different genres of music and definitely need to be different artists.

Screenshot and comment on the features below:

You then need to put this into a blog post which explains why the artists/record companies have chosen to represent themselves in this way.

·         Audience research – find out who watches music videos, this can be done through surveys in school, home, town or by looking at different record company’s websites.

 

·         Narrative – what different types of story commonly appear in music videos? Do they always relate to the song?

 

·         Mise-en-scene

 

·         Performance – do you always see the artist perform? Where are they when they do etc.

 

·         Costume/props

 

·         Location

 

·         Representation of artist and other groups (women/young people/rappers etc)

 

·         Camera angles/movement/transitions/lighting – how are they shaping the representation of the artist/performer?

 

Planning

·         You should have a storyboard of ideas before you begin filming

 

·         Narrative – there needs to be evidence of those from mindmaps/bulletpointed initial ideas through to a fully considered narrative/idea of what is going in your video.


·         Mise-en-scene – what are you going to include in your videos and where are you going to get them?

 

·         Performance – Who’s going to be your artist/group? When and where are you going to film them? You need to start approaching people now and get them tied down for a date to film.

 

·         Costume/props – try and avoid them just looking like students. Please give some thought to costumes and realistic props

 

·         Location – a bedroom rarely looks like anything other than a bedroom – think about where you are going to find some interesting locations.

 

·         Representation of artist and other groups – how are you going to convey your idea message?

 

·         Camera angles/movement/transitions/lighting – YOU MUST INCLUDE A VARIETY!

 

·         Throughout your planning you need to link each idea back to your research – you should be able to show where all of your ideas originate from even if you are developing/challenging a convention.

Research and Planning checklist - Newspapers

Below is a checklist of what is expected in your blog for your research and planning.
There will shortly be attached links to example blogs which will show you the kind of detail expected.


Research and Planning Checklist

Local Newspapers

Research

·         Find and annotate 5 local newspaper front pages and an inside page from 5 newspapers.

Ideally these need to different newspapers and they also ideally need to be the matching inside pages to the front covers.

Annotate means you need to identify the key features of the pages using appropriate terminology (this can be done in powerpoint).

You then need to put this into a blog post which explains why the pages look this way.

·         Audience research – find out who reads newspapers, this can be done through surveys in school, home, town or by looking at different publisher’s websites.

 

·         Story research – what different types of story commonly appear on the pages you are looking at? It would be good to look at several newspapers to get a spread of story types.

 

·         Language research – how are stories structured? How are headlines written?

 

·         Format – how are they laid out? Do they follow a pattern?

 

·         Adverts – what type of adverts appear? How does this relate to the type of audience?

 

·         Logos/idents

 

·         Representation of local town and area – positive/negative?

 

Planning

·         You should have at least one draft of your front page done in pen/pencil and paper/MS paint before moving on to making it in InDesign

 
·         Stories – there needs to be evidence of those from mindmaps/bulletpointed initial    ideas through to the written story and ideally some drafts in between.

 
·         Photos – you need to show consideration of location, props, actors, costumes, a shooting schedule (when are you going to take the photos?)

 
·         Fonts

·         Headlines 
·         Title

·         Audience

·         Logo/ident?
 
  • These all need to have at least one blog post each that discusses various options and your final decision and reason for it
  • Throughout your planning you need to link each idea back to your research – you should be able to show where all of your ideas originate from even if you are developing/challenging a convention.
Newspaper students: found this link about the evolving designs of newspaper name plates (part of what is often referred to as the masthead)

http://www.newsdesigns.com/newspaper-design/trends-newspaper-design/whats-in-a-nameplate-a-look-at-newspaper-logo-trends-and-styles/

Although it's based on US national titles, the same stylistic changes have taken place in the UK market, with the local newspaper industry being particularly prone to variation. A case study of the Bristol Post (formerly the Bristol Evening Post) will help to illustrate this pattern of updating the name plate.
Note that the US national titles are technically local papers anyway: The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc.