𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 & 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧

Here is my weekly progress for the magazine project. I also did a rough plan for my project which will give me an idea of what tasks that I need to finish by a certain timeframe, and the progress report will give me a chance to reflect on my actions and what to improve from those weeks.

 

Week	Term 2	Week	Term 3
1 (2 Oct)	Brief, Research	8 ( 8 Jan)	Development
2	Research	9	Shoot
3	Research	10	Shoot, Self Reflection
4	Proposal	11	Post Production
5	Development	12	Post Production
6	Development	13 (12 Feb)	Deadline (Monday 12th February)
7	Development	14

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━•❃°•° Self reflection°•°❃ •━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

Making a weekly progress is extremely beneficial for me as it ensures that my progress is on track and as a reminder on what tasks I should complete according to the plan. Also, starting from week 4 I decide to change the structure of my weekly progress and plan to become more reflective and easier for me to differentiate between the tasks I've done, problems I've encountered and how I solve them, as well as the to-do list I have to finish. Throughout the semester, I discovered that creating a progress & plan and consistently filling them up every week has increased my accountability to complete tasks and evaluate how well I performed in completing the project. I gradually came to understand how important this blog page is because it keeps track of everything I've done and what I should accomplish, particularly when a deadline is approaching.

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━•   ❃°•°❀°•°❃   •━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

SEMESTER 1

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 1 :☆ﾟ. ───

During week 1 the teacher introduces to brief of the component 1 magazine project, as well as magazine terminologies. This will help me a lot for my final magazine project because it will give me a sense of direction on what to do and expect when creating the project. Then we did a practice on identifying the features of the front cover of our chosen magazine. I should've choose another magazine as the language is all in Japanese, hence not easy to understand and identify.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 2 :☆ﾟ. ───

Throughout week 2, we are introduced to representation theory by Stuart Hall, this can be useful for my magazine as I should be careful in representing my subject on the magazine cover. We start collecting magazines and begin analysing them in detail, this would help me to further understand what is included in a magazine and help me to gain inspiration for my final magazine project later on. For next week my goal is to finish all the big and small analysis, as well as preparing the rough idea of my magazine project. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 3 :☆ﾟ. ───

In week 3, we continue learning about representation as well as stereotypes theory. I then tried to finish my magazine research (2 big covers and 4 full magazines) and start creating my statement of intent. I need to work on my time management more because I haven't finished the magazine research, this is because it took me such a long time to find the magazines I wanted to use and analyse as the magazines that I currently have are quite difficult to analyse due to the lack of elements that are included as well as the magazines genre are not related to the final magazine project that I want to create. To encounter this problem, I decide to search for more magazines online so that it is easier for me to get inspiration for my final magazine project and understand better on what a typical fashion magazine looks like. Additionally, I decide to change the format of my weekly progress to be more reflective starting on next week by using the structure of tasks, problem, solution and to-do lists.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 4 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: During theory lesson, I learned about genre theory by Steve Neale and how demographics and psychographics affect the audience. These theories are important in order to choose an appropriate target audience through my chosen genre and demographics/psychographics. On the other hand, during project lesson and my spare time I tried finishing my magazine research and statement of intent, then starting on my magazine development. Creating a magazine development is an important step for me so that I have a clear and specific plan on what my magazine will look like as a whole. 

Problem: A problem I encountered is finding a suitable title for my magazine name, because I have many ideas and it is a challenge for me to choose the right one for my magazine project.

Solution: I tried to find synonyms of basic words that is related to my magazine, then choose which suits best. 

To-do lists: I need to organise and arrange my blog posts in general as the layout still looks messy. I also need to finalise my magazine research, development and statement of intent in case I need to add more relevant information. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 5 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: During this week we did a review of the key concepts of media studies by making a mind map/poster in a group, then we shared the information to our groups through gallery walk in turn. By doing this, it refreshes our memory on the key concepts discussed in media studies that can be used in our magazine project (e.g. effect theories, representation theory, etc). Furthermore, during project lesson we started on analysing the magazine double page spread that is related to our magazine genre later on.

Problem: I attempt to copy paste the table analysis to my blog, but some of the texts are unorganized and out from the table. 

Solution: In order to solve this problem, I tried to make another copy of the file, then edit the table myself so that the borders are neat. This allows me to copy the table neatly to my blog. 

To-do lists: I need to finish my magazine double page spread research (2 magazines and images of the double page spread). 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 6 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: In week 6, we learned about new media which is the means of mass communication using digital technologies. I also received my test score on section B (how different audiences are targeted in magazines). In addition, I finished my double page spread analysis and starting on creating the magazine article draft for my double page spread.

Problems: While making my magazine article draft, I had troubles on what to write as well as finding a suitable and catchy headline and sub-heading to attract and engage readers. 

Solutions: To cope with this problem I tried to find inspiration and references online, this would help to get the picture or an idea regarding the content to write. 

To-do lists: I need finish my magazine article draft as soon as possible. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 7 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: During week 7, I tried to re-check and complete all my blog posts and make sure that each post is in the blog (this includes: brief, weekly progress & plan, research, statement of intent, magazine development, targeting audiences, double page spread, technical skills, terminology, location scout and article 1st draft), has label, self-reflection and all complete. I have given a checklist so that it is easier for me to finish all without double checking whether I have done that certain task or not. 

Problems: I had no idea on how to arrange the posts to their desired position.

Solutions: To resolve this issue I tried to search on the internet on how to arrange those posts by changing the date published.

To-do lists: Search possible locations (minimum 3) for my magazine cover during the holidays.

SEMESTER 2 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 1 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: I received suggestions and comments from my teacher regarding the magazine blog and contents I submitted, this really helped me to understand what I should add, edit or improve to achieve a good result. After collecting photos for my location scout during the holidays, I start doing the blog post of location scout and risk assessment. Other than that, I changed the blog layout in order to meet Cambridge's guidelines so that it is easier for them to read and assess.

Problems: Because I took many pictures for one location, I wanted to put them side by side, which became a challenge for me because blogger.com may have limited ability to do so.

Solutions: I go on to other application to combine the images, save then add to my blog.

To-do lists: Finalising my blog design as the layout is now changed.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 2 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: During week 2 we did a layout tutorial, where the teacher provided as default magazine layout and asked us to arrange the layout. We were also taught regarding the important elements in designing. Furthermore, we did a practice on shots and poses for our magazine.

Problems: While revising my magazine layout practice after the lesson about the importance of layout, I find difficulties in finding the grid guide in google draw (as I've never used this application before) so that all the positions of my magazine elements are aligned and pleasing to look at.  

Solutions: In order to resolve this issue, I tried to explore the features of google draw and finally found the button where it says 'show ruler', in which I have to drag the line from the ruler horizontally or vertically as I wanted. 

To-do lists: Finish blog post of magazine layout tutorial as well as magazine development, start shooting the pictures for my magazine at January 26-27, 2024. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 3 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: In week 3 I started on with the magazine development, I used my previous knowledge in class about magazine layouts and incorporate them to my development and experiment using different layouts, fonts and colours used so that my front cover magazine looks appealing. 

Problems: It took me so much time to find a suitable font for my front cover magazine because it plays a huge role for the whole magazine look.

Solutions: I sketched my ideas on paper and find similar fonts on the internet so that I already know what font to use so that I can manage my time more.
To-do lists: I need finish my magazine development (front cover, content and double page), and get my front cover shoot done as soon as possible. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 4 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: During week 4 we were introduced to the critical self reflection (what to include inside) and starting to brainstorm as well as creating the creative presentation. 

Problems: It took me some time to brainstorm my self reflection as I need to fully comprehend what each compulsory questions mean for me to answer in detail and effectively.

Solutions: Whenever an idea comes up I tried to write them down in bullet points so that it is easier for me to identify the main points and further develop them into paragraphs.  

To-do lists: Since I finished doing my magazine shoot, I need to sort out the pictures I think is applicable to be used in the magazine and edit them if necessary. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 5 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: In week 5, we started on editing the final pictures from the photoshoot, creating the front cover magazine and organising the layout I want it to be. 

Problems: Some of the lightings from the pictures I took are quite dark and low quality, which doesn't look professional to be looked at.

Solutions: I tried several editing apps so that I can improve the lighting of the photo better.

To-do lists: Finish final front cover, contents and double page by next week, ask teacher for feedback.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 6 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: During week 6, I start developing my front cover page, researching & find initial idea for my contents page as well as double page spread. I researched inspirations in the internet that I might use for my magazine later and developed my own design layout to them. 

Problems: A problem I've encountered is that there was a ceremony held near our school, hence the time for this lesson got cut due to it, meaning that I have less time to develop my magazine design.

Solutions: In order to overcome this problem, I tried to do this task as a homework at home so that when I come to school I already have ideas in my head and get straight into designing or planning the layout for my magazine.

To-do lists: I have so many things to do next week, which are to finalise my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. Those are the things that I need to prioritise first. The other ones that I need to do is just fixing the layout for my blog and revising the posts.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: Week 6 :☆ﾟ. ───

Tasks: Week 6 is one of the most crucial week of all, this is because I have to finish all three of my magazine pages (front cover, contents and double page spread), including both research and development. I also realised that some of the blog posts are still not fully completed along with the self-reflection in which I need to get that done as well. I tried to use my time efficiently so that I can finish everything on time and achieve a satisfying result. 

Problems & solutions: 

- Considering that I have multiples of pages for my magazine research, it was a burden for me to save all the pictures then pasting them onto my blog individually because of how time consuming it was. Therefore, I decide to embed the file link to my blog which makes it more easily readable and more neat as you only need to click the right arrow to view.

- After conducting my research, it took me some time to figure out which layout design I'm going to choose so I asked my peers for suggestions and evaluate both pros and cons of each layout design.

- It can difficult to achieve the right proportion for the spacing of my magazine, hence it is important for me to use grids and borders. 

- Whenever I think my designs feels off and stuck (not knowing what to do or edit), I asked my teacher and friends for comments on what can I improve. This would enable me to feedbacks and advice on how I'm doing so that the outcome won't be biased by their honest opinions (not just mine, as sometimes it might appear okay to me but not to others since we might perceive things differently).