The subject I chose to focus my article on was extra terrestrial life. A subject, which I seem to keep mentioning in my other work. I decided to take a neutral stance on the subject as articles I had previously read tended to be focused on peoples first hand experiences. Either bias toward proving  that the stories were true or to proving that they weren't. I decided my feature article would take a completely scientific approach showing only scientific evidence of Alien life. And mathematical percentages of the likelihood of life in other world.  

The first thing I had to do was to decide which sort of magazine my article would go in. I researched some traditional paranormal magazines such as the ones below but decided that they were the wrong sorts of magazine. They are less concerned with facts are more with writing for people who already or want to believe in the paranormal. As I wanted to take more of a scientific approach I thought I would write my article for a science magazine. I have been reading and have had on subscription a science and technology magazine since the age of ten. This seemed the best place for my article and uses a form of layout, which I had in mind for my article. The magazine i chose was Focus

 This is an example of a focus article. They are very image based and so spread an article that in another magazine may be a double page spread. They spread them over four pages and sometimes even more.
This is something i will do in my article.

I had already decided to take a scientific side to the article but i thought the idea didn't have a clear angle plus there wasn't much concrete scientific evidence to write about. After trying to think of a title i decided to go with Do aliens exist? a sceptics view.

This changed the angle of my essay as my focus would know be more on my and other peoples personal experiences. For this i will need to interview people who have had experiences.

I have since interviewed a family friend who has had an experience and am waiting a response from a UFO expert.

I have decided on a new title  This is because it fits with the theme of my article" a skeptics view but also has a UFO reference from the x files  "I Want to believe" any one who is a fan of the x files will remember the poster from Moulders office.(x files) This is an image which I'm am going to use in the final layout of my article. For the other images i decided to create the images my self. I thought this would give a amateur mystery feel as well as showing my skeptical view of how easy it is to create convincing UFO photo.

I have written down the story from  my eye witness. And i think it will take a prominent place in my article as i need at least two different quotes.
 I have Changed my mind with making my own UFO photos. This is for two reasons. One when i first Decided to make the photos my article was going to take a different approach. I was going to write more about hoaxes and unexplained pictures. Since then writing my story I have gone for more of a mystery feel. And so will be writing about places like area 51. I will keep my title but IL use old pictures of UFOs from the cold war period as well as pictures of military bases. And two the photos i made were rubbish

This is a picture from a obscure entrance to area 51

This picture is from a movie but has the feel i was going for

 I need to get a second quote so I am going to look up experts on the internet i thought i could find a local one but there just isn't any. 

I searched UFO Sightings in the UK and i found the Bufora web-sight. Bufora stands for British Unidentified Flying Object Research association. They basically catalog and investigate UFO sightings. They have a press officer so who better to get in contact with.

I waited a while fora reply and when i got one it was a bit useless i sent him another two emails and him me all of his reply's again were a bit of. This could be a good thing however as i thought that i would be able to work it into the story showing how guarded people who have information about UFOs are.

I have since finished writing my article and have started making sketches of its layout. as the magazine i have been focusing on is very picture based my article will be to. As a result i will have to put it over four pages. 

These are very crude sketches. I have included details like keeping the date and page number in the same place as focus magazine.

The picture scanned in a little out of shape but you can still the style i am trying to copy. The way they put photos in is not uniformed and is diffident per article. This picture goes above the margin and over two pages.

This  article shows how focus use different ways of placing photos in the same double page spread. It is something which i will copy i think it will help with the investigatory feel i want my article to have.

 I have selected the images for my article i used three cataegouries.  Ancient,Cold war period and modern

I chose these photos because they seem to depict Ancient UFOs or Extra terrestrials.

These pictures are from the height of UFO phenomena. This was the time of Roswell.

The final photo is of the lonely road into are 51 I think it will be a good photo for my first page. It was not my original idea but as my article has evolved as i have written it. it seemed to fit.

As you can see I have put the page number and date  in the same place as FOCUS

Like Focus i incorporated the use of an arrow to indicate that the text continued on the next page.

I did the same for continuing the text.

I was going to hyperhendate my text and make it all square but as you can see Focus does not. It gives it a less formal feel.

There is sometimes a small photo below the title of the author i included this in mine.

Just like focus i put the expert from my article at the top of the page in a separate box with a little information

I decided on my second page that i would have pictures across the center of the page

I tried to use a similar font to focus it uses a plain San serif style font. I found one that also had a UFO feel.

My Final Article In stages

My final article in my double page spread includes things Such as who to contact about UFO sighting which i put in for the purpose of visually making it look professional. This is not including in the word count for my final Hand in.

                          

Evaluating the projects

Billy Barnes

   When I began the project I found it difficult to know where to begin. I began by setting out the new story, which I chose to do first as it was the simplest.

  When I heard I had to write a news story I immediately had the idea of some kind of investigative story where I uncovered that David Cameron was moonlighting as a drug dealer. Realising that this idea was unfeasible I decided to write about something closer to home. The first thing I had to do was to decide which paper my article would be likely to be in. Originally I had decided I was going to use the Harborne post. This is a free paper which is delivered through my letterbox. I had toyed with a few ideas for articles, which would fit into this paper. My first idea was an article about shops closing on my high street. I thought it would fit into the paper as many local businesses advertise in it.     

  

     However in the end I thought the idea had been over done, and would be boring to read. I then decided to write a story about the Harborne tower it is a prominent local landmark, which has been covered in scaffolding for two years for what seemed like no reason. I thought I could get to the bottom of why I had picked up leaflets and was about to contact the Harborne society about it. When I searched the subject on the computer I found a video on YouTube, which did exactly what I was going to do. It was a report on why, how much it cost, and when they were going to take it down. I realised my story was old news. I had been pondering what to do for a couple weeks. When one morning at work a man was telling me about his condition and how he the council had refused to pay for his care. It suddenly dawned on me that this was my local news story I asked him if I could write about him he agreed and the next day I was at work I brought my journalism notebook and wrote down the details. I couldn’t put the story in the Harborne post as it wasn’t local; the man was from Sutton Coldfield. I then remembered I had recently read a story in the Birmingham mail about elderly people being abandoned by the council. I often read the Birmingham mail and decided that it would be the best paper to write my article for. I wrote the article relatively quickly because it wasn’t too long. However it did need the odd change here and there for example I had to add more quotes which I did. In the end I would say I was happy with the end result.

    After this I began to work on the double page magazine spread. I found this daunting but started early in order to get the relevant information to include in the article, making it more professional. I then researched magazines and the layouts I wanted to use; in particular I looked at focus magazine which I have subscribed too for years. I also created a blog to present my progress in a clear and decisive way. I chose to write the article based on U.F.O’s which is a recurring theme in my work. This meant that I already had some knowledge to build upon and could contact relevant people, such as the press office for BUFORA. I felt it was important for the story, to give a well-rounded report of the issue. I wrote my article in an opinion-based style.

 I also thought this would be appropriate content for a magazine like Focus, as it had a scientific angle.

I found using In Design a challenge at first as it is software that I am not that familiar with, although I realised that this was the correct tool for the job to create industry standard work. This meant applying the conventions of journalism. I used columns to make the article clear and used appropriate font for the ‘mysterious’ feel of the piece. I selected my images carefully, making sure that they were appropriate for the article and communicated something to the reader. While doing this I stuck to a style that was consistent to Focus. I am pleased with my final outcome as I feel the article would not look out of place in the magazine I have considered.

   Finally I produced the review. I chose to do a film that was relevant to today. Originally I planned to review an older film but felt that this was not current enough. In the end I reviewed the recent release of The Hobbit. This was because I am interested in The Lord of the Rings and the 48FPS quality of the film. It was short word count which I had to stick to so I found it difficult to narrow down which information I wanted to include. I split the review down into sub sections to help me to decide what information to use where. I included the new special technology, not getting too wrapped up in the story as it was based on a novel. I evaluated the characters and how appropriate they were for the roles. I decided that the review would be appropriate for a film review website that features 500 word reviews, and used this to help refine my own writing style. At first I had the trouble that the review did not sound professional enough, with too much of an informal style and adjusted this as it needed to get a better finish.

To conclude, I found my overall results went well but I had some issues with the workload, as I could not focus on one thing, and had to consider all of the projects at once. However I hope that in the future I will be better at this as a result and will organise a timetable rather than being haphazard about it. I enjoyed writing the film review as I am very passionate about films. I learnt a lot about how to finish work professionally and that finishing touches make a big difference to the final outcome.