Project Monitoring Week 2

In my schedule for week 1 I wrote that my first session would be consumed by writing a second draft of my second article, however because I did that last week I instead decided to instead keep working on my first DPS. I also said in my schedule that I would plan all of my photoshoots the lesson before I actually had the photoshoot, here is a printscreen of one of the plans, you can see it in more detail on my blog:

The final task I set out to complete this week was my actual photoshoot. I was successful in meeting my photoshoot planning aim because I did them, however perhaps I didn't give as much detail as I could of done. The photoshoot aim itself was a disaster, because when I went to book my shoot the studio was fully booked for the whole week. I did not write about this in my contingency plan meaning I didn't have a backup plan, this will make me a little behind my scedule. I was able to book a photoshoot but it isn't till next Wednesday, I should have planned for this.

I did however complete my first DPS, I don't think that it is 100% perfect but because time is moving on and I still have a lot to do, I am going to begin working on my second DPS, then, if I have time, I can go back and improve this one at the end. This is my DPS so far:

I really like the colour scheme on this page as not only does it look good, it is also suitable for my audience and genre. I also think the font choices work very well but I dislike how crowded the page looks in it's current state, perhaps I made the font size a little too big, and if I re-sized it it would allow a lot more space. I particularly dislike how point 5 is in both the white and blue half, and how the final point overlays the main image. These effects were achieved by using the text wrap function in InDesign.

When my assessor looked at my magazine he said he didn't understand why the numbers descend rather than ascend and on reflection I don't really understand  why I did this either, this is another thing I will go back and change if I get a chance.

My first DPS was finished during the second lesson this week. Because I was unable to do my photoshoots like I intended to, I decided that I would start my first draft of my second article, this took the entire lesson, plus working on it alot outside of the lesson. This is what I came up with:

Article 2 First Draft

How To Get Big On YouTube

One hour of video is uploaded to Youtube every second, that makes getting noticed very difficult, especially when there are so many people out there with already established channels. Today we’re gonna be discussing some top tips from top youtubers on how to succeed on this amazing website.

There are several different types of youtubers out there, the most popular ones are probably film makers, vloggers and gamers. What you want to be is your decision,  but the basic rules and guides are all the same.  Any youtuber will tell you that the guide to success is consistency, if you want to be a vlogger or film maker you should really upload at least once a week, two weeks max. Gamers on the other hand are expected to upload at least 4 times a week if you want to keep up with competition. If you don’t upload regularly then your existing subscribers will forget about you and become inactive and less people are going to watch you if there are less videos to watch.

However it is important not to choose quantity over quality, it is pointless uploading everyday if there is no real substance behind any of your videos.  There is a whole process behind producing content; coming up with an idea, planning it, recording, editing and marketing. If you put effort into editing your videos (doing things like cutting out boring bits, adding background music), it will make your videos appear a lot more professional, and people are more likely to subscribe.

You might have noticed the work marketing, and thought to yourself “I can’t afford to advertise my videos?!”, well doing little things like adding customized thumbnails (the image that appears before you click the video), adding appropriate capitalization  to your titles and making sure there are no spelling mistakes can make a big difference to the amount of views your videos get.

Once you have managed to gather yourself 100 or so regular viewers it is important to interact with them as much as possible so you can build a relationship with the people who allow to do this. Ask them for advice on what to do next and how to improve, so you you’re actually making videos that your viewers want to watch.

Speaking from experience the best way to succeed on youtube is to practice. Just keep on making content. The saying practise makes perfect is definitely true because the more videos you make the better you will get at all the things I have already mentioned, you will learn more about how youtube works, what kind of videos do well and which videos don’t. Eventually, if you’re prepared to put the effort in and work hard, you will succeed and you will get big on youtube.

In the final lesson of the week that I am writing this blog entry in, I began to design my second DPS, I have not done much yet. But as you can see I used the same font for my mast head, as I did on my other page, to create a magazine house style. This time I decided to use a red and black color scheme, which are two very strong powerful colors that compliment and contrast each other well. However I think that I will perhaps change the red slightly to a more bold version. I went for a slighter red to match the Youtube logo, but on reflection I think this was a mistake. This is my DPS so far:

I haven't really learnt any new editing techniques this week, but I have learnt how important it is to have back-up plans and contingency's in place for when things go wrong. I have also learnt how important it is to be organised well in advance, if I had booked my photoshoot last week rather than at the beginning of this week, I'd probably be doing it right now. I think that my client would be disappointed with my progress this week because it is the end of week 2 and I am yet to produce a fully completed DPS yet, I also think they would be worried about how unorganized I was in terms of my photoshoot. Both DPS' that I am working on do match what I set out to do in my treatment, however obviously not all objectives have been met yet. I am slightly worried about my overall progress, however if I try to do as much work outside of lessons as I can, and prioritize this over my other subjects, I should be able to meet the deadline.