OCR Summer 2022 Moderator's Report

Magazines

The magazine work provided some very lively, informed and creative responses to the brief of ‘real life’ stories magazine, with thoughtful representations and careful consideration of target audience. A significant minority of the magazines were only tangentially related to the “real life stories” requirement of the brief. It would seem that many candidates focused on ‘real life’ rather than real life stories and as a result productions tended to be lifestyle magazines, with offerings focused on sport or music, for example. A number of candidates also ignored the specified target audience, actively addressing another audience of their own choosing, often quite a niche audience.

In the best examples candidates had achieved everything required by the brief, with some well- considered and appropriate photography being used and an overall design aesthetic being carried across both editions of the magazine, including the contents pages, and to the websites. Such magazines had clearly been inspired by existing examples from Bauer and captured a sense of verisimilitude. Most magazines understood the requirement to appeal to the target audience and there were some inventive approaches to this.

It was very common for moderators to see front covers which included images with no direct address and with a lack of coverlines, or with only one or two included. Font sizes were often either inappropriately small (for coverlines), or over large (for issue dates). In some cases, it was not clear which was the main coverline, usually signified by being the largest font on the cover after the masthead, and this didn’t always anchor the meaning of the main image, which is conventional. In a small number of cases candidates included vertical coverlines and/or masthead, which is extremely unconventional.

In general, less successful magazines either missed key elements from the brief, did not adhere to the codes and conventions of the form or did not show understanding of genre. For example, some magazines were not aimed at the target audience (including stories or characters which would be of no interest to 16–25-year-olds). Others demonstrated a lack of consideration of the need for representation from two different social groups (several magazines were seen where models were of the same age, gender, and ethnicity). Some candidates did not place models in different settings on the cover, even when the backgrounds had been Photoshopped. A number lacked reference to the website, failing to draw attention to this either on the cover or the contents page (a call to action was specified in the brief); some magazines used QR codes with no context.

The most successful magazines linked the coverlines to the contents page; the less successful ones included little or no copy other than titles in the contents page, did not consider the leading and typeface for the coverlines or created small mastheads, which lacked impact. Some did not include the dateline on the cover and others did not refer to the fact that they were the first two editions, both of which were requirements of the brief. Some magazines had excellent front covers but had less effective contents pages. Indeed, contents pages tended to be the least successful aspect of candidates’ work for this brief. Some contents pages duplicated text, stories or imagery/ models across both issues; it was very common to see pages which only contained four or five articles, which then led to the use of inappropriately large font sizes, combined with overlong text, sequential page numbers for articles, no sub-headings, little or no copy and poorly considered fonts.

Many contents pages would have benefitted from a greater number of images as well and page numbers on the photographs, anchoring them to the written contents. It was concerning to see work which was allocated a Level 4 or 5 mark which showed no understanding of how a column structure is used on magazine contents pages.

                                                                                                                                

https://ocr.org.uk/Images/687923-moderators-report-making-media.pdf

NEA Pitch Feedback

Based off of the feedback that I have received after presenting a pitch for my non-examination assessment, for which I chose Brief 3: Magazines and Online, There are several aspects of the coursework that I need to develop.

One such aspect is my talent; the brief does not feature the models that I plan to use for my NEA. I have since then secured two individuals who will be available throughout next year.

Based on the feedback I received, my ideas for the aesthetic of the magazine are well-developed. I will however consider creating a new mood board for the second issue of the magazine, which covers a different genre of guitar music, with a different aesthetic.

 

NEA Pitch

 

BIG ISSUE PROJECT

 OVERVIEW

Tasked with making a cover for the Big Issue magazine, my main focus was creating something which would stand out on the street, where the Big Issue is exclusively sold by vendors.

I used the 2022 film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story as the focus of this issue as it lends itself to a host of intertextual references, as well as the fact it received a recent surge of relevance due to winning an Emmy award.

THE BOY WHO LIVED - reference to Daniel Radcliffe's famous role in the Harry Potter film series, based off J K Rowling's book series of the same name.

ANOTHER ONE RIDES THE BUS - reference to Weird Al's 1983 hit, Another One Rides the Bus, a parody of the Queen song Another One Bites the Dust. It also serves as a segue into the other story advertise on the cover of the issue, that being the new, fully electric bus routes in York.

REFLECTION

I learned a lot from this task, as it was my first proper project involving Photoshop, which can be very difficult/frustrating to use at times. My frustration at the project stems mainly from Photoshop's UI - without somebody there to tell you where everything is, it can quickly become overwhelming (especially compared to easier-to-use, if somewhat limited alternatives such as Canva).

Improvements I would make to this project include:

• Changing the lighting on Weird Al - the bright lights reflecting off of him to not match with the background I selected for the cover of this issue.
• Finding a way to make the text POP more - The red on red at the top doesn't particularly stand out. Nor does the red text overlaying Weird Al. Brighter/contrasting colours are needed to make the features of the issue stand out. This is paramount for The Big Issue, as it is sold on the street by vendors; it needs to be eye-catching.
• Selecting a different image of Weird Al altogether might have been wise - in this one, his body is obscured by a massive accordion, and the colours are somewhat muted/dull; also the fault of the accordion, which blocks Al's bright shirt.
• Figuring out how to properly crop a character out of a scene. I made several errors when experimenting with this, resulting in the thin transparent portion which cuts across Weird Al's hair.