Lesson 4 - Deciding on the target audience and questionnaire

28th September

I have decided that the target audience for my school magazine would be for the girls in Years 10 - 11 of Beaverwood School For Girls; many of whom already read magazines, therefore I've chosen them as my audience.
As I have just come out of this age group, I believe I have an advantage of knowing what they would want to see in a school magazine. I will carry out a questionnaire for the girls so I can make sure that what they want is up to date with my ideas.

I am going to include information about their upcoming exams, however I must make sure that I do not fixate all of the magazine about exams as they would like to know about other topics such as social events. So that they can start thinking about further education, I will talk about Post 16 opportunities at Beaverwood.

Below is an image of my questionnaire:

Lesson 3 - Finding a location for the front cover

24th September

In this lesson, I walked around the school to find the best location for the front cover image. The places that I went to were: the front of the school, the new technology building, the quad, the sixth form block and the main hall corridor.
I have taken images of each place so that I could see which I think looks better for the cover.

The Quad: I liked the idea of the quad for the theme of either Halloween or autumn. I think that it is a suitable place for the pictures as it shows the picturesque historical side to the school. This can also be seen as a 'scary' look if I were to do a Halloween theme; I could edit in images of pumpkins or include actual pumpkins amongst the leaves.
The leaves in the quad would look good for the autumn theme for a back to school edition. However, there are negative points to 'the Quad' scene. I would have to make sure that I take my pictures before, during, or after lessons as it can be filled with students so I must plan my time effectively.

The front of the school: I think that the front of the school would be a good image to have as the front cover of the school magazine as it is what people relate to when they think of Beaverwood School for Girls. However, I think that this approach would be more suitable for younger years of the school. It would be hard to take the pictures at the right time as you do not want other students or cars in the scene. Therefore it would be harder to organise a suitable time to take the picture. The scene of the front of the school would be better if a mid-shot of a student wasn't included as there would be too much going on in the picture.

The new technology block: Once again, I think this scene would be better for the younger years of the school showing how the school is developing. It doesn't have much relation to the Halloween theme that I am considering. However, it would be good for the autumn theme, showing what changes there have been over the summer holidays. A negative is that there is a lot of litter in front of this building so I would have to clear that up.

The sixth form block: This would be a good scene for the upper school as it is showing the opportunities that they will have in the next year or so. A negative point to this scene is that the common room can be quite messy so would be hard to take decent pictures.

The main corridor: I believe this would be a good idea for the theme of Halloween as the scene can look quite frightening.

After analysing the pictures, I think the best place for the front cover would be the quad or the corridor depending on what the outcome of the questionnaire is. The Quad scene is significant for the year 10 and 11 students because they will spend a lot of time there because of their exams; therefore I believe it would be a good and effective design for the autumn theme. I would also like to use the image of the main corridor for the Halloween theme as it can look quite daunting with the right editing. I would also use the quad scene for Halloween. If I were to do an autumn theme then I would definitely use the quad. I might include whichever scene I do not use into the contents page.

Lesson 2 - Researching school magazines

21st September

In my second lesson, I analysed different school magazines. I did this so I could see what people include for specific target audiences and for some inspiration to my ideas.

Lesson 1 - Introduction

17th September

For our prelimerary coursework task we are assigned to design and create a school magazine cover and contents page. I am going to use this blog to write what I do each lesson for my AS Media coursework. It will contain information about my designs, feedback from others and reasons for editing ideas. In my next lesson, I will research school magazines and analyse them; I will develop ideas for my magazine.