Looking At Past Student Work

When looking at past students work we started off by looking at the front cover and the other 3 pages the students chose to recreate. We were given a sheet with several boxes, which is where we were then told to write down reasons for why we gave the grades we did. I found this useful because it gave me the opportunity to see what other students created and how I graded them. The magazine we looked at gave us ideas about what to focus my magazine about and how I could set it out. By doing this I feel it will help me come up with ideas for my magazine and how I should and shouldn't design my magazine, as I now know what looks good and what doesn't come across as a well put together magazine.

Initial Plan

As part of my research I had to make an initial plan which would include my first ever ideas and what I wanted to achieve from my product. We had 6 questions to answer in terms of what I initially wanted. I included the description of which brief I chose, which was the first 4 magazine pages and my ancillary tasks. I chose to do the two hyperlinked website pages and the billboard advert. I then had to include the genre of what my magazine would be about,  I initially chose 'Alternative Fashion' However I later changed this to just Fashion, which means it was open to a wide range of different fashion genres. I then chose my target audience, which I initially thought would be §6-21 year olds however after thinking about who would buy this magazine, I have decided to change this to 18-24 year olds. We then had to include posts that I needed complete at the time, and my blog address.

Moodboard

As part of my research I had to create a mood board which included some initial ideas about my product I plan on making later on in the year.

I included various pictures and vocabulary which I thought represented the genre of magazine I hope to make. The genre I have based my magazine around is Soft Alternative Fashion, therefore the pictures I have included are some ideas of the look I want my model to achieve, Also I included images on some existing magazines which have the same layout I want my magazine to look like and also ideas for the models poses and costume.

I also included colour scheme ideas, which again is the monochrome look which I want to be present throughout my whole magazine.

However I am yet to decide on a name for my magazine and the other important detail. Therefore various progress post will be uploaded to this blog when I have decided on these conventions of this magazine.

Reviewing My AS Coursework.

During my AS media course I made a music magazine which was made up of a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. When constructing the magazine I had to take the pictures myself and create the whole thing independently, which meant the whole aesthetics of the magazine was made by my and me alone. Looking back at my magazine now I can already see errors I made therefore this will allow me to create a new magazine and a better quality one at that. I plan on making the new magazine a better genre which I feel comfortable with.

Also after looking back at my coursework I feel like I need to come up with more ways to present my work, for example using various media genres such as sound cloud, prezi and video feedback. I think that I have to make the content more in depth and up to date with the design and how I feel about my product.

My Final Product-

Introduction To My A2 Media Work

During my 'Stepping Up' weeks in college I have the opportunity to start my A2 Media Work. In these weeks I have the chance to choose a brief and come up with several plans and ideas which in the long run will play a huge part in the making of my final product. First of all I had to choose a brief. We had the choice of 3, the 3 choices being;

• A Short Film- with two of the following; a poster for the film, a radio trailer and a film magazine review.
• Promotion package for a film (Trailer) - with two of the following; a website homepage, magazine front cover featuring the film and a poster.
• First 4 pages of a Regional Magazine- with two of the following; a radio advertisement, 2 hyperlinked pages from a website and a billboard advertisement

Based on my skill set I decided to choose the magazine brief as I feel like this will be more suited to me. As in my AS Media coursework we made a music magazine, I feel confident that I can take what I learnt from that and use it to make a better magazine and one where I'm allowed to choose the topic of. When choosing my topic I thought it was best too choose a subject that I'm interested in, that being fashion. However as it has to be a regional magazine I'm planning on looking at ways the fashion varies in the North East.

An example of the kind of magazine I want mine to be similar to;

Obviously this magazine isn't regional, its more international, however I liked the model and the way the front cover is simplistic and very similar to how i want mine to look.