Print brief

A2 Media Studies

Print Research Deadline: 11/11/11
Print Production Deadline: 02/12/11

Print production work must be created individually.

You should now be in a position to start your print production work. This is worth 20% of the coursework mark (10% of the A2, 5% of your A-Level)

Prior to production you should have should have:
• Researched some existing print work (deadline – 11/11/11)
• Created a mock up of a digipack to practice your skills (last summer)
• Explored digipack templates
• Pitched your video idea and so have an idea of the visual style you’ll use.

There are two print tasks:
1. Cover for a digipack release of the music video you’ve made and CD track of the song you used. You will need to create a minimum of four ‘panes’: front of digipack, rear of digipack, inside cover front and inside cover rear. (A digipack is a CD release with special features such as a video clip – it usually has folded cardboard rather than plastic packaging).





2. A magazine advert for the digipack.

• You need to decide how big the advert is – full page,half page, or quarter. (You may need to consider the position of the artist in the marketplace and the target audience here – would an indie/folk artist be able to afford a full page advert?)
• Ideally you would not simply re-use the photo from the digipak, but rework the imagery and photography in some way. I

Along with your video, this will make up a promotions ‘package’, so all your work will need to be similar in visual theme and recognisable as promoting the same artist.



Good marks come from:
• Using a recognisable ‘house style’ which is appropriate for genre/audience
• Paying attention to detail – e.g. including credits and record label logos
• Taking a range of good quality photos and not repeatedly using the same one.


Some A and B grade examples from last year:

http://leahdennisona2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2010/12/finished-moodboard.html

http://jessmediaa2.blogspot.com/2010/12/print-production-final-digipak-full.html

http://staceya2media.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-digipak-for-tiffany-queen.html



C grade:

http://stefansmediaa2.blogspot.com/2010/01/cd-digipack.html

http://chloea2media.blogspot.com/2010/01/final-digipack-cover.html

http://chloea2media.blogspot.com/2010/01/final-magazine-advert.html



D and E grades:

http://3rffffhfhgg.blogspot.com/2010/01/digipak-cover-cd.html

http://3rffffhfhgg.blogspot.com/2010/01/cd-advert.html

http://emilyjane-a2.blogspot.com/2010/01/advert.html



Research

You will need a blog post analysing some existing products. Look at 2 or 3 CD covers and 2 or 3 magazine adverts, preferably from a similar genre to your own. How are these covers constructing/maintaining a brand image? How are they likely to appeal to their target audiences?
Look at your own CDs or go to these links.
http://www.stpaulsgallery.com/
http://rockpopgallery.com/items/cd-album-cover-art/list.htm?1=1
You can also go here: http://www.allcdcovers.com/ to look up specific artists – this site also has backs and insides.
Look at music magazines to find adverts, or try a google image search.


- Make use of the 'theories' of media language and genre in your analysis.