Skills Development Essay - Updated

AS Media - Skills Development:

When I first started Media at Wyke College I didn’t really have an understanding of what the course was about. I had no previous experience taking fantastic photos which I would use in my work and also I had never used Photoshop.

When I first started the induction task (perfume advertisement) I didn’t realise how high the expectations was and I didn’t think I would be able to reach the high expectations. When we were told to take images I didn’t understand what type of images I was supposed to take. When I had taken my images I knew there wasn’t going to be the high expectations but I used them anyway. The first time I tried to edit a photo in Photoshop I used the basic tools such as crop and drag and I just had a plain, dull black background. I got a grade E for my perfume advert.

The college magazine was a little bit better than my perfume advertisement. I took better images which I took on a camera I borrowed from college instead of my own camera. I got various different images and then decided which one would go with my college magazine better. I used more various tools because I had to crop images and also manipulate them to where I wanted them on the page. I didn’t have a background colour I just had the image which took up the whole page. I had different various texts which was in different colours which stand out against the background, I did this by using the text tool, highlighting the text and selecting the colour I wanted. I also had to copy a barcode into the document but I had to crop it in a separate Photoshop document.

When it came to doing the music magazine I had more understanding about the course and also had more of an understanding on how to use Photoshop effectively. I created my blog and I was posting on the blog every time I did something new. The music magazine was more successful than the college magazine and also the perfume advertisement. I took the images for my magazine front cover by using a photography camera which meant that the images came out clearer and also was better quality. I also started to experiment more with Photoshop which enabled my magazine to come out better than the first two attempts of creating something using Photoshop did. I started to use the burn tool and also the spot-healing tool to make my model look more like she belongs on the front cover of a magazine. I used the burn tool to make my model look more like she belonged in that genre of music. I used it to brighten her hair so it was a really bright colour. I used the text tool the most because there was quite a lot of text on my front cover I also moved it to position it well.

Digital Technology: The digital technology I used ranged from the laptop to the camera I used to capture my images. The camera I used was a photography camera and it made me produce more professional looking images. I had to manipulate the photographs in Photoshop so they looked how I wanted them too. I used a laptop and Photoshop on a daily basis and my Photoshop skills went from poor to quite good. I now know how to manipulate an image successfully and also edit them so they look outstanding for my front cover or whatever task I am working on.

Creativity: I thought I was quite creative throughout the making of my music magazine. This is because I wanted to create a magazine that was completely unique. When I was taking my photographs I went to a factory where there was graffiti all over the walls and shot my shoot in front of that wall. I did this because I wanted the background to be graffiti because it represents the genre of music because rock/hardcore can be seen as rebellious music which may encourage the audience to be rebellious. All of my images were taken at the factory, even the photos for my contents page and also for my double-page spread. This is because I wanted to keep the same theme throughout my magazine so it showed consistency.

Research and Planning: For the research I closely looked at Kerrang magazine. This is because Kerrang specialises in the music genre that my magazine was covering. It showed me all the different codes and conventions that I needed to include in my magazine and also how to set it out. Kerrang gave me a substantial amount of ideas which I could also include in my magazine which was helpful because I wasn’t sure what I should include in my magazine. I also looked at different bands which would fit into my music genre for my music magazine and how the portrayed the genre which their band belonged to. I found out that a lot of female singers within the rock genre have bright coloured hair and wear clothing which stands out. For the planning I looked at my friends closely and decided which one would best fit in my magazine well. I also researched different music genres which I could include in my magazine. I had several different images and I had to decide where the best place would be to take the images for my magazine. I had to plan how to set my magazine out and also how to show that my magazine belonged to that genre of music. I chose a background which stood out from the rest of the magazine because I used a graffiti background because it represents rebellious behaviour which can be associated with that genre of music.

Post-Production: During the post-production process I learnt a lot of skills that helped me through the process. The most important one was how to use Photoshop. When I started I had no previous experience using Photoshop and I was at a disadvantage. We had a lesson on Photoshop and that taught me how to use the basics on Photoshop such as; inserting text, cropping images and also moving images. For our induction task we only needed to use the basic concepts of Photoshop so it wasn’t that difficult to pick up. When I started progressing in my media course (college magazine and music magazine) I started to select different tools and learn how to use them on my own accord. When I started my music magazine I used the spot healing brush to correct blemishes on the models face. I also used the burn tool which gave me the opportunity to make the models hair brighter because singers within that genre, especially the female singers have bright coloured hair.

Using Conventions from real media texts: When I started planning my music magazine I look through the Kerrang magazine to see what conventions they had used throughout that specific magazine. I realised that all of the titles were bold and bright so that they caught the reader’s attention so that is something that I aimed to put in my magazine. I also looked at how many images was on the double-page spread and also the contents page so I knew how many I had to aim for. The contents page had conventions on which I knew I had to put in my magazine. I had to make sure that I put an editor’s letter and also include a photo of the editor. I also put a competition on the contents page.

A2 Media - Skills Development:

When I started my second year doing Media Studies I had more understanding of what was offered throughout the course and also what was expected of me and all of the equipment that we had to use throughout the year. There was several different aspects of the course which started at planning and also making the music video.

Digital Technology: This year we had to use more technical technology. When we first started the course we did a preliminary task which enabled us to learn how to use the camera before we started to shoot our own music video. The preliminary task also gave us a head start on using the editing suite within the college to put our reconstruction together. When I started to film my own music video I borrowed a digital recording camera from college which was also given with a memory card. You could take pictures and also film your video on this camera but I mainly used it for filming and only a few images. When we had filmed our shots we had to use the editing suite to put it all together. At first I struggled with it, but in the end I knew how to do it and I managed to complete my music video. We also had to import the song onto the editing suite. We had to get the song from our own source, but luckily I had my song on CD. I also used my digital slr camera to take images for my ancillary text and then I also used photoshop to manipulate the images and also put them onto the template for m digipak. These wasn’t really new skills because I knew how to use my camera and also how to use photoshop but I experimented with different tools that I hadn’t used before.

 

Creativity: I wasn’t that creative throughout my music video because I didn’t really know what was creative about the genre of music that I specifically chose and I didn’t know what would work well alongside the genre of music in the sense of creativity. However, I was quite creative throughout the process of making my ancillary texts. This is because I wanted something different that wasn’t associated with the music video, yet it still give the sense of the genre within the poster and also the digipak. The image on my poster was taken at a different location completely and I think it still worked well because you can see the water which goes with the band name which was ‘Abandon Ship’. The way the image was framed was so that the model I photographed looked like he had been abandoned in the water and I achieved my aim in this. The images for my digipak was took at the same location that my music video was shot at; I did this so that there was a sense of continuity throughout the products.

One of the main skills I learnt was how to put the music together on the editing suite. This took time for me to get my head around because I had never used any software like this in the past. When we first started A2 Media we did a preliminary task in groups to reconstruct a music video (30 seconds) and put it back together. When we were editing it, I had lessons when the other girls in my group had free periods so I didn’t have a head start on the suite as they did. I eventually got my head around it from help from my peers and also my teachers and once I knew how to do it, I didn’t struggle and it seemed easier than you thought it was.

Overall, the skills I have learnt have helped my throughout my Media course and what I have learnt has also helped my throughout other subjects. The skills I learnt in my first year of media helped my again in my second year especially when I was constructing my ancillary text. Everything I learnt in my first year  for the production side of my media course, helped me in my second year in different ways. If I hadn’t have learnt the skills last year I would have struggled more this year.