Reflection of Work in AS Media Course So Far and Final Front Cover and Contents Page

So far, I believe that the work I have done within the AS Media course has been of good quality and successfully meeting the aims of the task I have been assigned. However, I also believe that there are areas in which if I were to begin this project again that I would change.

From the beginning of my project, I decided that the audience of my magazine would be older female students within school education and that my magazine would be designed around this audience.

When it comes to the forms and conventions used within real magazines, I believe that my magazine uses these forms and conventions appropriately. However, I believe that I could develop these forms and conventions within my magazine to make it look less simple, more unique and to overall stand out and attract the attention of my target audience.

As well as this, the representation of social groups in my magazine is also of concern when it comes to how successfully I did this. In my opinion, I believe that my magazine successfully represents students in a positive way. This being through two images of students showing proof of great achievements in not just education but also within sport. This representing students as hard working, determined, motivated and positive (through their smiles at their achievement). 

In relation to the distribution of my magazine, seems it is a school magazine, the most likely institution to do so would be the school of which the magazine is focused upon because the students of that school is who the magazine is for. However, other institutions that could distribute my magazine to my target audience would be local community centres, information centres and other local institutions that my target audience may frequent so as to be informed of the news and events of the school on a much more widespread scale.

With my magazine, I was successful in attracting my target audience through the contents choices for my magazine. This being because the contents was primarily concerned with A-Levels which would be on the minds of all older students going into their first or second year of sixth form (as the magazine is set as the last magazine before the end of the academic year). I also believe my colour scheme and images are successful in attracting my target audience because the colour scheme has many school related connotations which would relate to and attract my target audience (such as the gold connotes the high quality of the school, its students and their success). However gold is also bold and eye catching against the green and would attract attention because of this too. The images I used were also successful in attracting my target audience because most of them concerned both students and A-Levels, this attracting the interest of my target audience as the images would relate to them and therefore spark their interest in the magazine. 

 However, I believe one main area I could improve on in relation to attracting my target audience to my magazine would be the use of the forms and conventions of my magazine. I believe I use these in a simple and plain way which makes the overall magazine look as if it is aimed at an older generation than that of my target audience. Therefore, I believe I need to develop my forms and conventions to make them look more creative, unique and attractive for my target audience to make my magazine more successful in this area. 

Finally, when it comes to what I have learnt about technology whilst creating my magazine, I have learnt that it is challenging to create a professional and unique magazine that is attractive to my target audience on a simple program. Instead, more advanced programs are far more appropriate to creating magazines at a professional standard.

Final Front Cover

Final Contents Page

School Magazine Draft 2 Annotations of Changes Made and Why

School Magazine Draft 2

Comments on Draft Magazine 1

From the various comments of people from my target audience, I can summarise from this that the colour scheme was mostly a feature of the magazine that people liked. However, the layout of the magazine cover and contents was disliked as it should look more professional and more target audience oriented through having a better structure. When it comes to the background of the contents page in relation to the layout, this was also disliked as it did not look attractive. With the images of my magazine cover and contents page, they were thought to be good images to use but the width of them should be considered as it made some of them, especially the front cover image, look squashed. Finally, when it came to the other features of the magazine, these were liked also. Examples being a good masthead and the inclusion of a competition being liked. 

School Magazine Draft 1 Forms and Conventions Annotations

School Magazine Draft 1

Camera Angles

Layout Plan for Front Page and Contents Page

Mise - en - scene Annotations Image 4

Mise - en - scene Annotations Image 3

Mise - en - scene Annotations Image 2

Mise - en - scene Annotations Image 1

4 Images For School Magazine

Target Audience Profile For School Magazine

Age: 16 - 18

Gender: Female.

Ethnicity: British, white.

Political: None.

Occupation: Student but also in part time work. 

Hobbies: Sport, community involvement such as charity work, writing, reading and enjoys socialising. 

Media Use: Computer, teenage magazines and television.

Background: Lives with family, younger siblings, grew up and still lives locally and dedicated and hard working student at local school.

Social Class: Working class. 

School Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page Annotations (3)

School Magazine Cover and Contents Page Annotations (2)

School Magazine Cover and Contents Page Annotations (1)

5 Week Action Plan

Week 1
Focus: Planning and Research.
Tasks: Preliminary task brief, initial thoughts and ideas, 5 week action plan and research and annotations.
Needs: Computer to work on, blog and being able to post on blog working and being able to find 3 official school magazines to research and annotate.

Week 2
Focus: Production and audience needs.
Tasks: Create a target audience profile for your school/college magazine, prepare your original images (4 in total), annotate your chosen 4 images and create the layout plans for your front cover and contents page. 
Needs: Computer to work on and a camera.

Week 3
Focus: Editing and drafting.
Tasks: Create front cover and contents page of school/college magazine, annotate forms and conventions used, collect feedback on it and summarise these comments on blog. 
Needs: Computer to work on and people to ask for feedback within my target audience. 

Week 4
Focus: Feedback and redrafting. 
Tasks: Using feedback, change front cover and contents page of school/college magazine, annotate it with what changes I made and why and create a post reflecting on my work. 
Needs: Computer to work on

Week 5
Focus: Editing and completion. 
Tasks: Make sure the front cover and contents page of my school/college magazine is complete and also complete the reflection on my work post.
Needs: Computer to work on

Initial Thoughts and Ideas

• Majority of images are of students.
• Use of eye catching colours and fonts to appeal to student audience. 
• Current opportunities for students outside of school to get involved in that would interest them so they could develop their skills. (E.g. skills in sport)
• Upcoming events (trips, exams etc) that would interest students.
• Student contribution (images, articles, school work etc).
• Includes up to date school news and events that would interest students. 
• Use of school colours and logo.
• Has a competition aimed at students.

Preliminary Task Brief

The preliminary task brief is to design and create the front cover and contents page for a school magazine.  To do this, I will need to research current school magazines and gather ideas for my own product. To create my product, I will need to use all of the conventions of a magazine and other techniques (such as colour and image) to appeal to my target audience.