Production diary template

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
PROGRESS UPDATE PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK(Including Possible
Contingency Plans If Problems Anticipated)
September 2013
(Detailed Monthly Summary)
When we was first given the choices, I was undecided about which
project I was going to do, after looking at all the options I had
narrowed it down to newspapers and music video. However, I
thought that it would be more beneficial to do the newspaper. As
looking back to previous projects, last year I did a music magazine,
and so I can use the skills that I learnt then, to help me this year.
The first project to do was ancillary 1, In this project I
will be making a billboard poster. The billboard poster
will consist of trying to promote a local newspaper.
October 2013
In this ancillary project I used Photoshop. I chose to call the local
magazine The Salford Star, as it is a local newspaper, and it uses the
sibilance, so it makes the magazine more memorable, and catchier.I
left the background of the billboard poster white, so that the writing
stands out. The colour scheme I have gone for is white, black and
red, as this is a traditional house style for newspapers, so I think that
it looks consistent and also, people will recognise that it is an
advertisement for a newspaper. The font I used was times new
roman, as this similarly to the house style is tradition of a
newspaper. The billboard, has the tag line Get it now, to make the
audience and readers think that they need the product, also, I have
the most important information of the magazine, such as price,
name, website, and also a slogan ‘Miss a day you miss a lot’ so that it
makes the reader think that they need to get the magazine to get
the most latest news and gossip.
I will be doing research on conventions of radio
advertising, looking at online resources, books,
magazines, and videos.
November 2013
In the research of radio conventions I found it very difficult trying to
find information specifically on radio advertising. I found three
online websites, and I found some information in one book. In the
essay, I quoted from the sources and expanded on them. All four of
the sources which I viewed all gave similar information regarding
radio advertising. Alongside this, I made a bibliography, stating what
the source was called, what type of resource it was, and other
details such as book numbers, page numbers, dates posted, web
Throughout the next month I am going to be looking at
different newspapers, both local and national and
trying to get ideas for my own newspaper. Looking at
the house style, font style, content, photography etc.

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
addresses, etc. I presented this on my blog as a word document, as I
think the content was more vital to be read through this way, I also
think that it is easier read in this way.
December 2013
The first newspaper I looked at was the newspaper which was most
local to me – The Salford Advertiser. I took into consideration the
characters in the first two pages of the newspaper, the narrative
events, iconography and the technical and audio codes. I looked at
both the first and second pages, as I am going to be doing these two
papers in my own newspaper. I presented the Salford advertiser on
my blog on a Prezi account, as I wanted to show the various ways it
can be presented. The second one I did was the Tameside
advertiser. Similarly to the Salford advertiser I looked at the same
aspects, and I also looked at the first two pages. I presented this on
Mind Genius, yet again to show how differently It can be expressed.
Both advertisements followed newspaper conventions however they
were presented in different ways for example one has the house
style of red white and black, whereas the other has black white and
blue. They both show advertisements, and they both use
photographs of local people.
I am going to look at the Sun, as it is a national
newspaper, and I was to see the difference to local
newspapers, whilst also seeing if they follow the same
conventions of newspaper.
Mon W/B 06/01/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
I looked at the Sun newspaper, and looked at the characters, the
narrative events, iconography and the technical and audio codes in
the first two pages. The Sun is slightly different to the local
newspaper as it has larger advertisements and the narrative events
are more generalised, rather than having local news. I presented this
on my blog using a word document. Secondly, this week I made a
survey monkey account and produced a survey and sent it out to ten
recipients to answer. The survey included questions which will help
me further the development of my newspaper, for example, price,
colour, and content. The survey was sent out to a variety of people,
to get a range of responses.
I left it a week to gather the responses as I didn’t want
to rush anyone answering the survey. The survey was
sent out over email, and after around 5 days, I resent
the ones who had not replied a survey reminder, just
so that they didn’t forget to answer.
Mon W/B 13/01/14 The responses I gathered were quite similar, due to the fact that the During the next week I am going to start thinking of

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
(Detailed Weekly Summary) age of the people who answered my survey was all very close
together. The results showed that the majority of those who
answered my survey were under the age of 23, whilst there were
more males who answered than females. I concluded that my
newspaper will include human interest stories and pictures. And
also, that the newspaper will come in newspaper form, and also on
the newspaper I have put a web address, as a lot of people on the
survey said this is where they would read it. I displayed these results
on a word document, by print screening the graphs on the survey
monkey website, and then writing my analysis next to it.
ideas in my newspaper.
Mon W/B 20/01/14
I started my ideas generation map on mind genius, as this is a large
spider diagram which can express all of the ideas I have, especially
after researching newspapersand doing my survey. Looking at my
newspaper I considered what type of stories that I am going to use
in my newspaper, the genres and conventions that my newspaper
will use, the tone in the newspaper, the design principle that I
intended on using, the editing and image manipulation, the
photography, and iconography.
I will continue onto next week with my ideas
generation map, as I didn’t finish it this week, due to
the lesson being cut short because of a fire drill.
Mon W/B 27/01/14
I finished answering all of the bullet points on the mind genius map.
Making it thorough. I then started my masthead designs when I
completed this on Photo Shop; I decided that my newspaper was
going to be called The Salford Star. I experimented with different
colours, following the house styles red white and black which I
decided was going to be the house style of the newspaper. I tried
different backgrounds, in black red and white, with different writing.
I also tried experimenting with symbols, so as the masthead is the
Salford star, I tried to produce a star on Photoshop however these
did not look professional, nor did they go with the masthead. So I
then went onto Google images, and searched for a star, which I then
incorporated on to the Photoshop layout plan. My favourite mast
head design was the masthead which had a star of Google, and was
I am going to continue with layout plans and look at
the first and second page of my newspaper.

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
in the font Vijaya. I converted the masthead plans into jpegs, so that
then I could display them on my blog.
Mon W/B 03/02/14
I experimented with two different layout plans for the front page.
Whilst looking at the Salford and Tameside advertiser, I
experimented with my own using these as my base. I first used lock
guides to make the layout plan accurate and also so that I didn’t go
out of the lines with the newspaper, to make it look formal and tidy.
I used squares, to identify where different aspects of my newspaper
will be. For example, I drew a box, and wrote masthead inside to
display where the masthead was going to go. I did this for the
photographs, narrative, page numbers, date, website, and also for
the advertisements, identifying clearly how the newspaper was
eventually going to look. I did this for both different designs
Next week I am going to continue with my layout
plans, but I will be doing it for the second page. I will
still be experimenting on two different designs based
on the Salford and Tameside advertiser.
Mon W/B 10/02/14
Still, on Photoshop, I experimented with the layout plans for the
second page, using boxes to determine where everything on the
page was going to go. I labelled where the narrative, photography
and the advertisements are going to go.
Next week I will be planning my ideas stories and
pictorials, planning what I am going to write about are
priority next week.
Mon W/B 17/02/14
This week I have been planning my ideas stories. I planned on a
piece of paper, after looking through the previous newspapers that I
have studied, and after my ideas generation map, I have planned all
the different stories which I could possibly write. Because I only had
a short time on the computers in college, I went home and
continued to write up the stories in which would feature in my
newspaper. I experimented with different stories, however my
favourite stories was the Nek nomination story which is about a girl
from Salford who had taken part in the Nek nomination craze, and
ended up in hospital after too much alcohol consumption. The
second story which I have written was where an 8 year old girl saved
a Chihuahua from falling in a river and drowning.
Because I wrote these on my laptop, I planned on
taking them into college on the week beginning
the24/02/14. But because I have broken my laptop, it
meant that everything saved on it was lost and so I
had to rewrite it all on the college computers.
Mon W/B 24/02/14
I came back in college, and rewrote the stories up on the computer
due to the loss of them on my laptop. If anything I think that the
Next week I am going to start making my newspaper.

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
stories turned out better as I knew what I was writing about, yet I
knew how much space I was going to use, and decided that my font
size on the newspaper will be 11, so I could add more into the
newspaper story.
Mon W/B 03/03/14
I went onto Photoshop, and I chose which layout plan was the best
fitted for the front page. I decided on a layout plan which only uses
one large photograph in the middle, as the main story. I made the
boxes on the page opacity 0% so that they were invisible, and then I
put in the masthead. The masthead I preferred I know changed, as I
think that it worked better with the font Baskerville Old Face. I think
the newspaper looked more professional, and I think the white and
black masthead stands out more than having the red incorporated
into it. I then made the advertisement for the first page on
Photoshop. I made one of Nandos, advertising 10% off inside the
newspaper, I then made one advertising jobs inside the newspaper.
Then I looked at the second page and make an advertisement for
open days for Salford city college. I also added the two stories into
the second page, making sure that the columns were aligned, and
that the mastheads stood out, leaving space for the photographs.
Next week I have hired out a college camera and I am
going to take different photographs. I have hired it out
for a couple days so that dependent on the weather
each day; I can take the pictures on a different day if it
is bad. I have also set up a couple days where I can
take pictures of certain people which are best suited
for them.
Mon W/B 10/03/14
I hired out a camera, which was a Fuji camera, and I took several
pictures in different locations which matched up to my story. The
first set of photographs I took related to the second story in my
newspaper on the second page, and I used a Chihuahua and two
young girls, as that is what the story was about. I also then went on
to taking photographs of alcohol as this is what the first story on the
second page was about. I was going to use a photograph of the girl
who is in hospital however I think this works better as it is a
generalised warning to everyone about the effects of alcohol, based
upon this one real life situation. The first page story which I have
now decided is going to be about Salford’s freak weather, now
turning foggy. As over the days prior it was really sunny, however it
Continue piecing together my front and second page.
Also put on the blog the ideas for stories and
pictorials.

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
has gone really dull and foggy. I started to piece my front page
together, placing the chosen image on the front page, writing the
headline and adding the details such as red boxes to emphasise the
house style of the newspaper. The photograph I taken, I put onto
Photoshop, and I auto contrasted, and auto highlighted it, and auto
coloured it to make sure that the colours where enhanced.
Mon W/B 17/03/14
Throughout this week I am piecing my front page and second page
together, making sure the photographs are in the pages, and that
they are clear and that they fit into the correct slots on the pages, I
am making sure that all the writing is aligned and that the fonts are
all the fonts which I predominantly made them. Making sure that
everything inside the lock guides. I have also changed my
advertisements, as I think that they looked quite basic, I have added
3 extra photo shopped advertisements. I made one on Salford city
college, one on looking for houses, and another for buying a car.
This week I also caught up on pieces of work that I have missed from
being off lessons in the start of the year. I started off by catching up
on the billboard ancillary project which is where I researched three
different billboards on Google, which relate to newspapers, and
commented upon their house style, font style and imagery. I also
researched three different radio advertisements on YouTube, and I
commented upon the conventions of the radio advertisement,
continuously looking at the previous ancillary work which I did, and I
also looked at the language, degree of formality and form. I put all
three of these up on my blog using slide share, as I did them in word
documents.
Next week I will be starting my focus group, adding 15
people into a group on Facebook, so that I can receive
at least 10 replies, and can gather feedback on my
newspaper, if people don’t reply, I can write a further
message in the inbox to ask people to answer.
Mon W/B 24/03/14
I created the focus group, adding a mixture of boys and girls,
between the age brackets of 16 to 23, as this is the target audience
for my newspaper. I asked a series of questions so that I could get a
detailed response so that they will tell me positives and constructive
feedback for my newspaper “Hi, can everyone please check out my
I gave the focus group participants a week to answer,
so that I can get full details of the positives and
negatives of the newspaper.

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
local newspaper The Salford Star, and please give me any feedback
relating to house style, content, font style, and whether or not you
think that this newspaper would be successful and if you think that it
is effective. X “I then added two images of the front page and the
second page of the newspaper so that they can make their
judgement by reading it, and looking at the layout.
Mon W/B 31/03/14
10 people replied to my focus group, answering all of the questions
that I asked, so I received improvement feedback and also I received
feedback on what I did well on the newspaper. I then gathered all
the data I received and displayed it on blogger on a word document,
showing all the replies.
In my evaluation which I will be completing over the
next two weeks, I will comment on the focus group in
detail. Next week I will be answering the questions ‘In
what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?’ and ‘How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary texts?’
Mon W/B 7/04/14
The first evaluation question, I looked at all aspects of the
construction of the newspaper. Firstly the title, the context, the
design and layout, the print design and layout, the photography,
narrative and how the stories are set up, the genre of the
newspaper, the characters in the newspaper, and the images.
Looking at all these aspects, I have also considered the following
- Evaluate how successful you have been in developing and
encoding conventions
- How have you challenged the conventions?
- Explain and describe influences on your text and how you
have used conventions
- Use examples from real products and images of them, as
well as examples from you MAIN PRODUCT/ANCILLARY 1
and ANCILLARY 2
The second evaluation question, I described my ancillary texts in
terms of genre and the conventions that i explored. I discussed
technical codes i.e. camera shots/mise en scene or design and layout
conventions and I also demonstrated how these
Next week I will be answering the second two
questions for my evaluation ‘What have you learned
from your audience feedback?’ and ‘How did you use
media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?’

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
conventions/technical codes translated in my main product
I also looked at if there was
- A consistent house style?
- Do the colours, imagery and iconography used all relate to
the same product?
- How does your finished product compare to a real product?
- What difficulties have you experienced in gaining synergy
between the products?
Mon W/B 14/04/14
For the third question I gave an in-depth summary of the focus
group focusing on the positives, negatives, conclusion and a general
list of improvements, and for the final question, I looked at all my
successes and limitations using the technology that I used. Looking
at, Prezi, Adobe Photoshop, blogger, IPhone, Microsoft, Slide share,
Mind Genius and YouTube.
After doing all the evaluation notes on a word
document, I am going to present them in different
ways which reflect the work that I have done over the
past 2 years.
Mon W/B 21/04/14
Evaluation on Prezi and PowerPoint ( 1 and 3) Next week, I am going to go back to my ancillary work,
looking at the research that I did for it on the radio
advertisements.
Mon W/B 28/04/14
I used adobe audition, and recorded the speech for the radio
advertisement on a recorder, and loaded it up to adobe audition. I
then researched different jingles and music instrumental tracks to go
on the background and chose one which best fitted the theme and
style of the music. I then downloaded this used YouTube converter
and uploaded it to adobe audition, I then mixed the two tracks
together, so that the music started straight after the first sentence
of the speech which said “extra extra read all about it” I did this
because I think that it sounded better to then go into the music,
when the information was then being said.
In my final week, I am going to make sure that all the
evaluation questions are completed, and then also
make sure that everything is ticked off my checklist
and that everything is uploaded for blogger.
Mon W/B 5/05/14
Final Week.
Evaluation on audio and mind genius (2 and 4)

A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Gemma Sinclair
PROGRESS UPDATE PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible
Contingency Plans)

Production diary template

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Production diary template

Similar to Production diary template (20)

More from gemmasinclair123

More from gemmasinclair123 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Production diary template