Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the

full product?

From here: to here:

Researching Planning Technology

TIME-

MANAGEMENT

When I was given the task to create the front cover and contents page for a college magazine I was completely oblivious to all the work you need to do to reach your aim.

ResearchingIt is very important to know the market and the audience you are addressing otherwise you have no idea how to attract readers and compete with other magazines. One step is to get an overview of the full range of different types offered in the market of your media product. After this I took a closer look at the structure and appearance of certain magazines to analyse their techniques to attract readers and to fulfil their desires. The audience research is the most important part of the preproduction work because without knowing what the people expect from your magazine you cannot attract readers and cannot make a decision about the magazine’s content.

PlanningAfter all the research you have to start to order everything you have found out and draw your conclusions from it. This means you need to decide on

• the genre you are going to focus• how often you are going to publish the

magazine• who your target audience is going to be• the cover price and• a working title

You get all these information from your research so if the former task was done wrong or just shallow the planning will be dubious. Having made up one’s mind about the basics the more detailed work starts. This includes considering various fonts and colour schemes as well as thinking about different photographs. By designing sample sheets you create a rough outline which works as a guide for the final product.

When I was given the task to create the front cover and contents page for a college magazine I was completely oblivious to all the work you need to do to reach your aim.

The most important thing I have learnt since the preliminary task is

that the ground work is essential. If this is done wrong or casually

your work is doomed to fail. I always had the image of a house in my

mind. If the foundation is weak and fragile the house will not stand

long.

It does not matter how much you know about the different

technologies and software which help you to create the final product

as you can always ask someone how to use it or read an instruction.

(As already described in Evaluation Question 6, I learnt a lot about

these programmes and I really appreciate how useful it is to know

how to handle them.) But all your knowledge does not help you if you

have no idea what you are really doing and what you are aiming at.

Creating this media product did not only give me the chance to see

behind the curtains of producing a music magazine and to get an

impression of al the work related with it but also showed me how

important a proper research and planning phase is for every project or

task you get and want to fulfil. It is important to pay enough attention

and time to this step as it makes the other ones so much easier and

faster.