Weekly Progress & Plan

Here is my weekly progress for the magazine project, and also a rough plan. 

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

Week 1 

- Today, our teacher introduced us to our magazine project and brief. We explored new terminologies and read our magazines. The terminologies are slightly confusing but I'm confident I can do well in this project. We've started doing research of our magazines, labelling them with terminologies and applying our knowledge.

Week 2

- This week, we learned the media's theory more in-depth, such as Stuart Hall's theories. I think that it'd be useful in boosting my grade if I somehow incorporate it to my final project. Today we started completing the rest of our magazine research. We finished labelling our magazines on-time. I started researching independently, looking at the different covers and contents of magazines from all around the world. I find it to be beneficial to my personal research as it gives me a broader sense of style that may appeal to the audience of my magazine. I think that I could be more punctual in doing my work so that I don't have to rush when it is nearing my deadline. 

Week 3

- This week, we continued our magazine project. We analyzed two front covers of magazines of our choices, and I decided to pick magazines targeted towards women, like celebrity magazines and fashion magazines. After we've finished our front cover analyses, we took pictures of other magazines to analyze. I took pictures of my friends magazines who also have similar magazine genres. I've collected pictures of cover pages, double-page spreads, and table of contents. I personally think that it is very interesting to see all of the different magazines my classmates brought to class. Some of them were even in a different language, such as Japanese and Indonesian. So far, I think I'm doing a lot of progress on my research, but I also am struggling with my statement of intent. I think that it's difficult because my goals change a lot, and I might even decide to change the genre because I am indecisive, and photos for a fashion magazine are time-consuming and tough to shoot. Next week, I must finish both my statement of intent and my research on magazines. 

Week 4

- This week, our class finished up our magazine researches and our statement of intents. I think that doing all of that is very time-consuming, so I think that I could've done better if my schedule after school is more free. I researched a lot in my own free time, looking at the covers and contents of magazines on Google and Pinterest. I think that fashion magazines has its own style to it, but I would like to make my magazine in my own style that is separate from typical fashion magazines. I found this week a bit strenuous and stressful, but I'm hoping that next week would be better when we start making our magazines. In normal classes, we also learned about Steve Neale's genre theory and how psychographics and demographics can target specific audiences and also change over time. 

Week 5

- This week, we learnt and recapped a lot of the theories, such as Steve Neale's Genre Theory and Stuart Hall's Representation Theory. This is because tomorrow is our unit test. We discussed one theory in groups, and shared our findings with other groups. I found it really fun and interactive and I'd like to do it again in the future. I don't feel really confident in getting good scores because I have difficulty in memorizing, but I think that I've got a pretty good grasp on the understanding of the theories. We also continued with our double page spread analyses. I think that it is quite dull compared to the other lessons we've done so far. I still have to finish up all of my research and finalize them completely. I will attempt to finish them by tonight, so I could try applying all of my studies into my research in preparation for the unit test. 

Week 6

- This week, we learnt about traditional and new media. We learned about how technology has changed media overtime, and I personally thought it was interesting because we had lots of invigorating group discussions about it. I was absent for 2 days after, so I have to catch up on a media lesson I have missed. I plan on asking my friends and my teacher for the materials and notes. I have also gotten back my unit test score and if I'm being honest I am unhappy with it. I had gotten a way better score in my section B writing practice than in my unit test. I think that it was because I focused too much on analyzing one magazine and forgot about the other. In the last 5 minutes, I was rushing to get it done, and had not filled in as much details as I would have liked for the 2nd magazine. However, my first analysis of my first magazine was amazing and I am extremely proud of writing it. In the future, I'd like to work more on my time management skills, because I could've gotten a better score had I written faster. 

Week 7

- This meeting is our last meeting before the 2 month long term break. It is also our only meeting this week. We made a checklist to make sure everything is properly placed and easy to navigate in our blogs. I still have much to do and I will attempt to finish them all during the holiday. I plan on taking different pictures on numerous locations to get a final idea of what my magazine cover could look like. Personally, I think that even though we have so much time, the workload is still very stressing. This is the reason I want to try finish everything so I could start on a semi-clean slate next term. I hope to do better with my time management.