Progress So Far...

First of all I started work on a SWOT analysis talking about my strong points, my weaknesses and how I would begin to improve on them and what I should do to meet my full potential. The SWOT analysis has helped me in many ways but mainly it has helped me understand how important it is to have a production diary and a schedule.

When I started planning for my magazine I wrote up a proposal about what I was going to make. It was about what was going to feature in the magazine and how the magazine will be advertised. It also briefly comments on my target audience and how the magazine will look. This helped me with deciding what sort of product I wanted to make and what key areas I wanted to focus on.

I then wrote my treatment; how I will go about making it. It commented on what research I will do, looking through recent magazines and different genres of them is going to help me when designing my distinctive theme for my magazine. I will also help when deciding what articles to include. It talks about how I will construct it and what with. I touched on how the end product will look and what it will include. I also talked about how I will get through the making on the magazine whilst keeping everything in order and up to date. I also went onto talking about how I will promote the magazine in a lot of detail from posters to TV adverts and promotional stands to an exhibition. I talked about how these promotional ideas would help when releasing the magazine to the public. Writing up a treatment has helped me a lot with my planning and I am now focussed of what sort of magazine I actually want to construct.

Contingency planning was my next step when planning my magazine. Going through all the possibilities of what could go wrong will help out a lot when or if anything does happen. I’ve worked out what I could do to resolve my problems and still achieve the aim of my task. Working out five different problems should cover most things.

I have also made up a schedule of my work over a ten week basis in term 2. I have split my schedule into ‘college time’ and ‘home time’ to make sure I make the most of my time. When make the treatment I realised I have got a lot to do to make sure I finish my work in time so I need to make sure I balance my work out well with the limited time I have. I think the schedule will definitely help me when coming to making my magazine up as it will keep me well organised with what I have to do and when I’ve got to do it.

I have recently started analysing existing magazines. Looking into double page spreads, front covers and adverts helps me see the conventions that are used in magazine now and what sort of articles people like to read.