Focus on Photography

The exam board states that your magazine must contain at least FOUR images. I strongly suggest that you include more:

This is the mark scheme for the magazine:

• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;

• showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;

• showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;

• accurately using language and register;

• using ICT appropriately for the task set;

• appropriately integrating illustration and text;

• shooting a variety of material appropriate to the task set;

• manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing

Elements to consider when taking photos

Technical Codes	Symbolic Codes / Mise-en-Scene:
Shot type Camera angle Composition & Framing	Costume / clothing Body language / facial expressions Location Colour Lighting

  

How all of these elements:

• reflect a sense of the music genre
• create brand identity - house style
• speak to your target audience - mode of address
• appeal to the target audience.

Grade Booster: Consider how people / places are being represented? E.g. stereotypical / non stereotypical. Does the representation conform or challenge dominant ideologies.

• You will need to plan your photo shoot to ensure your photographs will look right and that you make the most of your time

• Your photographs must fit the style / genre of your magazine

• You can take photos of friends and family but think carefully if they have the right ‘look’ for your project. You might need to find models or find appropriate costumes.

Who

• You will need people to be in your photographs

• Think about who would be willing to let you take their photograph

• The person you take pictures of might need to wear something different to usual or have make-up or props.  Think about where you will get these from

• You could try to find models from the performing arts department

• To gain the higher marks and give your work a more professional look you need to make sure that the models look ‘right’.

• Most magazines will feature more than one artist so take pictures of more than one person. This is especially important for contents pages.

Where

• The location for your photo shoot is important

• Think about the photography in the type of magazine you are making and where it is taken

• You might be able to find suitable locations around college or you might need to go further away to get the pictures you need

• If you need or want to use a room in college then it will have to be booked so you need to plan ahead

• Think about the composition of your shot. What you leave out is just as important as what you leave in.

How

• Look closely at the photography in your chosen magazines and think about the composition and the mise en scene

• Make sure you have plans for the shots you want based on the style of the magazine you are making

• Draw up the shots first and make sure you stick to them. Take reference material if you need it

• Get all the shots you planned for first and then any extra time can be used to experiment.

Key Terms

Some terms you could use to describe the photography in your magazine to help you explain what you are trying to achieve:

• Candid/Naturalistic: Photographs that are not obviously posed

• Posed: Photographs that have been posed for

• Live: Photographs that involve the band/artist performing

• Studio: Photographs taken in a photography studio

• High key: Photographs which are very bright overall

• Low key: Photographs which are dark overall

• Colourful: Photographs which contain a lot of colour

• Monochromatic: Photographs which contain only one colour or are black and white

• Busy: Photographs that are busy contain lots of visual information

• Passive: Photographs which contain limited visual information.

Mise-en-scene

• Look closely at the mise en scene to help you plan your own photographs

• Make notes on the location, costume, model and composition

• Think about how you plan to use the photograph in your final piece.  Does it need to be portrait or landscape format?

 

What to blog?

To help us with this let's have a look at the mark scheme:

• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;
• Time management is excellent. 

Blog posts

One post on potential models - commenting on their suitability in relation to your music genre and target audience.

One post on possible locations. Again discuss why you are thinking of using these locations in terms of their suitability to genre and audience.

One post on props and costumes, ensuring that you link back to audience and genre.

Here are a few good blogs from last year:

Alice: Preparing for photoshoot 

Alice: Costumes for photoshoot 

Amy: Potential Models 

The key to picking up marks is to show that you have planned and prepared for your photoshoot and that you have used your research to inform your ideas. 

Grade Boosters:
One blog post exploring photography in your chosen music magazine genre. Post a range of photos that have been used on front covers, contents pages and double pages. Analysing them using as much technical media terminology as possible.

Struggling for inspiration:
Have a look at this:
NME Iconic Music Photography