Preliminary Task: Brief

Preliminary task

Initial ideas and proposal

    
I am going to making my own college magazine. I am going to be doing research and analysis of other similar magazines. By doing this i will therefore be able to make a more realistic and successful final product. 
     My magazine is going to be called S.D.C.M. (South Downs College Magazine). For my magazine I am going to take a photo of a student and use that on the front cover of my magazine. The target audience for the magazine is going to be 16-19 year olds at college. The magazine will be about college life.
    I have thought about a few coverlines. Things about new students, how to look good, interviews with members of staff and also competitions. Hopefully having coverlines that will help to attract people to want to read the magazine.

     One of the main magazines i looked at when i was researching was an Magazine called "college" it was an american magazine but it had all the concepts that i liked about a magazine. I am going to be using a similar cover plan and image for my magazine. I am doing this because i believe that you should have a young person preferably from the college as it is more attractive to the other students/audience. 

The main conventions of a college magazine are 

• Single main image on the cover
• Masthead at head of page
• Use a theme that reflects the main image
• Bright bold contrasting colours
• Images of young people

Flat Plan

I have created two sample flat plans. I have looked at some other magazines to see different ways that a cover can be displayed and used these to create my samples. In the end i didn't like either of these and i decided to crate a different one with the main image to the left hand side with the cover 
lines to the right.

Contents Flat Plan

This is my sample for the flat plan of my Contents page. In the end i decided to go with the one on the left as it is simpler and more effective i believe and also it is the most common one you see.

Task 5: Skill Audit

AS Media Coursework: Skills Audit

Using a computer

	YES	NO
Are you confident on a PC?	x
Can you insert text and image into a Word document?	x
Can you find relevant documents and articles on the internet?	x
Can you find images of different sizes on the internet?	x
Have you ever used a Mac?	x
On a Mac, do you know how to open an application?	x
On a Mac, do you know how to cut & paste text?	x
On a Mac, do you know how to copy images from the internet?	x
Do you know how to scan images into a Mac?		x
Do you know how to upload photographs to a Mac?	x
Do you know how to Bluetooth files?	x
Are you confident using Powerpoint?	x
Do you currently have a Blog?	x
Do you know how to burn data to a disc?		x
Do you know how to upload files to email or a Blog?	x

Taking Photographs

	YES	NO
Do you have your own digital camera?	x
Does your mobile phone have a camera?		x
Do you know how to take photographs in B&W?		x

Using Applications

	YES	NO
Have you ever used Photoshop?	x
Have you ever used InDesign?		x
Are you able to crop an image?	x
Are you able to apply any special effects to an image?		x