Monitoring Blog -

2nd Jan

1.      Photoshoot plan 2.      Continue with Photoshoot planning 3.      Call sheet 4.      Layout of articles Homework: Finish any incomplete work

The week commencing the 2nd of January, I had planned to complete my planning documents and decide upon and design the layout of my articles. I managed to get three of my call sheets done plus my Photoshoot planning document, although I haven’t yet decided on a time and date for my shoot, so that information has been left blank in both my call sheets and Photoshoot plan for the time being. I only ended up completing one of my article layouts as it took me longer than expected to finish my planning documents and decide upon the layout for this particular spread. This design is based upon one used in a Cosmopolitan magazine, although slightly altered to make it more my own.

During the process of working on inDesign to produce my layout, I was able to refresh my skills and develop them a little bit more, whilst getting used to the programme once again. Because I hadn’t used it in a few months I had forgotten how to make use of certain tools, but after some practise I reminded myself of them and think I have included some effective and attractive features which can be seen in professional magazines, such as insert quotes and drop caps. The page opposite the text will be used for a full-page picture, the box entitled ‘intro’ is where I will place my small summarising introduction to the article, and then the ‘help suggestions’ box is where I will include a few tips, help-lines and websites for readers.

This week I have also completed three call sheets (lighting assistant, models and make-up artist) and finished my Photoshoot plan.

 

I have also started and nearly finished a Schedule which will document what my plan for each day is, helping me stay on track. One of my tasks was to get my Photoshoot booked, I did this but then later found out that the time I had chosen was no longer appropriate for my model so I will have to cancel and re-book that early next week, enabling me to fill in the information on my call sheets.

Article planning documents

article genre (purpose, type)	This article will be aimed to inform my readers about body issues by using a first-hand experience to describe what it is like. The purpose is to bring this topic to light as you don’t usually read about it and I feel it is something a lot of young women suffer from. It doesn’t have to be as extreme as actually having an eating disorder, just having body hang-ups and a really distorted/negative view of themselves. This is something which isn’t usually discussed and I think it should be as it will help people know that they are not alone, it is completely normal and help is always available.
Narrative voice (1st, 2nd or 3rd person)	I will use a 1st person narrative for this article as it will be the subject telling her story. I think this was the best way to present this article as it makes it a lot more personal and helps bring emotion to the pages, it is more effective to write ‘I’ rather than writing ‘She’.
Register (informal/formal, colloquial, dialect, taboo words?)	The article will be a mixture of formal and informal. It will be formal because it is a serious retell of a bad experience, however it will be informal as if my subject were speaking to my readers as a friend; it will be simple to follow and understand. The language won’t be so much colloquial in the sense that I will be using any taboo or slang words, but there will be no confusing terms used and everything my audience reads will be easy and suitable.
Stylistics (repetition, strong verbs, adjectives, alliteration, similes, metaphors, sentencing, rhythm)	I think my article in itself is quite strong simply because of the topic and the issue it is dealing with. I have chosen to use strong, bold and effective wording for my title and my insert-quote as this helps draw attention and highlights the most important parts of the story.
Tone of address (hectoring, sarcastic, ‘matey’, ironic, etc)	The tone of address is serious in a ‘young’ kind of way. The article demands a serious tone, yet it had to be presented in an appealing way in order for my target audience to understand and enjoy it. It
Structure and pace (discourse structure, logical paragraphing, connectives, conclusion)	It will be quite a slow pace because I want the readers to be absorbing the story and the information whilst they are reading, instead of following it at a rushed pace and not remembering the important bits ten minutes later. The paragraphs are a reasonable length, about an average of 30 lines per paragraph, which sounds a lot but when presented on the page it doesn’t look as much as it sounds. In conclusion to this article I have ended with a small ‘help’ box, which offers ways in which readers, who are affected by the article, can seek help.

This is the planning document outlining the idea for my first article. It explains what I propose my article to acheive, which narrative voice I will be writing in and how my article will be presented, for example reading pace and stylistics.

article genre (purpose, type)	The purpose of this article is to give tips and ideas to my readers on how to help them look and feel their best and more beautiful. It is all about making the most of what they have and encouraging a positive feeling and outlook. The tips are more focussed on creating a more positive energy and view of the self by enhancing their best features and doing things which are small and give simple pleasures, like spending some time on themselves and having a long bath or doing a comfortable amount of enjoyable exercise to release endorphins.
Narrative voice (1st, 2nd or 3rd person)	I will be using a 2nd person narrative voice for my article, as it will allow me to speak directly to my audience and identify them through use of ‘you,’ which makes them feel singled out and hopefully has more of an effect.
Register (informal/formal, colloquial, dialect, taboo words?)	This will be a rather informal article as it will be like a girl sharing her beauty tips to her friend, it will be girly yet sophisticated and will consist of language which my audience can relate to; a elegant kind of slang.
Stylistics (repetition, strong verbs, adjectives, alliteration, similes, metaphors, sentencing, rhythm)	I have underlined a few words within my article to create emphasis, for example ‘you’ or ‘beautiful’. I think this draws attention to the certain word whilst they are reading it and makes the text sink in a lot more when the odd word is meant to stand out amongst the rest.
Tone of address (hectoring, sarcastic, ‘matey’, ironic, etc)	The tone will be relatively ‘matey’ because like I said, I want it to come across like the friend (article) is sharing tips to their friend (reader). Therefore it will be laidback and easy to read, giving the article a very relatable feel to the readers.
Structure and pace (discourse structure, logical paragraphing, connectives, conclusion)	The article should be read at relatively fast pace, because although there is information to be absorbed, it isn’t heavy or serious, its more light-hearted and information which the readers are going to want to take in any way as it is for their own benefit. The paragraphs are very short because the structure of the ‘how to’ article means there are 5 fairly short paragraphs spread across a double page, the articles are on average about 15 lines long.

This is my planning sheet for my second article, outlining the same kind of features as article 1.

Production schedule

Week	Date	Activity
-3	28th Nov	1.      Complete costing sheet – find prices of everything I will need for production 2.      Continue with costing sheet 3.      Finish costing sheet 4.      Begin pitch preparation – put gathered information into a power point Homework: Continue on with pitch presentation
-2	5th Dec	1.      Continue on with pitch presentation 2.      Practice pitch on 13th Dec, present pitch 14th Dec 3.      Begin contingency planning sheet 4.      Continue on with contingencies Homework: Finish contingencies and finish any other work
-1	12th Dec Planning Deadline	1.      Start schedule planning sheet 2.      Start planning production 3.      Decide on setting of photo shoot and discuss with models 4.      Discuss availability with models Homework: Carry on with any unfinished work from the week
Xmas hols	19th Dec	Plan article 1 and 2
Xmas hols	26th Dec	Carry on with planning
1	2nd Jan	1.      Photoshoot plan 2.      Continue with Photoshoot planning 3.      Call sheet 4.      Layout of articles Homework: Finish any incomplete work
2	9th Jan	1.      Book Photoshoot 2.      Start A2 Blog 3.      Start layout of contents page 4.      Continue layout Homework: Complete any unfinished work
3	16th Jan	1.      Post in blog 2.      Design second double page spread 3.      Continue design 4.      Design front cover Homework: Make any corrections to front page/DPS
4	23rd Jan	1.      Start article planning 2.      Begin to write articles 3.      Revision for exam 4.      Psychology Exam Homework: Finish articles
5	30th  Jan	1.      Have Photoshoot 2.      Choose pictures and edit 3.      Edit photos 4.      Edit photos Homework: Take pictures for second article
6	6th Feb	1.      Blog 2.      Edit photos 3.      Put pictures into double page spread/contents 4.      Edit Homework: Blog
	13th Feb	Homework: Continue any unfinished work
7	20th Feb Unit 5 Deadline	1.      Update blog 2.      Continue with any unfinished work 3.      Make sure all editing is complete 4.      Make sure everything is finished Homework: If everything isn’t finished, complete it

This is my schedule which will help guide me thorough my production and help me keep on track. It gives me a week by week plan of what work I should be completing and catching up on. I found it hard to plan out all of my work at the beginning of the schedule, so instead I completed it as I went by, for example, at the end of or mid-way through week A I would plan week B's schedule of work.

Unit 5 Monitoring Blog

So far I have been working on my second DPS,

The updated version is the bottom picture, I had to rearrange the whole thing and design a new layout as the picture I chose to use showed my model in a position which would be difficult to place my original design around. So, I got rid of my introduction idea and put a title up instead, also including a kicker beneath to help introduce the story. I edited the photograph on photoshop to extend the black background, making my whole page background black as I thought this was more effective and looked a lot more striking. I decided not to edit out her underwear like I originally planned, because I found it difficult to edit it the right amount without over-doing it. I found that by leaving her underwear visible, it didn't look too bad plus it at least looked real and natural.

I have created the design of my contents page which I have based upon the contents page from 'Glamour' magazine. I thought this was a good magazine to copy as the genre of the magazine is similar to mine, plus the picture I am planning to use for the contents page will fit really well into this design.

 

Unit 5 Monitoring Blog - Contact Sheet

Below is my contact sheet showing all of the pictures I have taken for my magazine. I am planning on using image 0095 for my front cover because I think it suits my feminine/girly theme and will be a good image to choose as the one my target audience sees first. For my contents page I want to use image 0093, again because it looks very girly and I think it would fit well on my contents page because it looks like she is really modelling her outfit, I could then provide a page number as a link to 'where she got the look.' For my double page spread with the article regarding body issues, I want to use image 141 as this really fits the whole feel of the article as the look upon her face and her position helps tell the story of her struggle. As for the rest of the pictures I thought the majority were good, as quite a few are similar to the ones I am using, however the ones I have chosen have little things about them such as a slight change in facial expression or posture, which I think makes them look more professional and worth using.

Unit 5 Monitoring Blog

23rd Jan

1.      Start article planning 2.      Begin to write articles 3.      Revision for exam 4.      Psychology Exam Homework: Finish articles

This week I planned to focus on my articles and get them finished and put into my layouts on inDesign. I did have a Psychology exam at the end of the week so that set me back a little bit, but I was able to get both articles finished and put into the article layouts as homework. On my second article I am going to use a summary introduction and have it also act at the title of my article, I haven't written that yet so I will need to add that to my schedule to be completed next week, so that my articles can be fully complete. Next week I have my photoshoot so I will be able to add my photographs into my double page spreads next week, hopefully giving me an idea of what my final product might be looking like.