Skills development essay

Skill development

Evaluation essay

Before I started the AS media course I had little to no experience with the media subject. I had not studied media at high school or at any other stage of my education. At the start of the AS media course I found the work to be challenging. Furthermore, there were occasions where I had no idea what to do. However, during the duration of the first month of the course, my skills began to improve which in turn increased my confidence. This is evident as the initial drafts of my aftershave advertisements were crude and unconventional to relating objects. However, through the duration of the preliminary task the drafts began to improve becoming more refined and conventional. The final product turned out completely different to the initial draft due to the development of my skills and also through the process of trial and error. Trial and error has been essential to my development because it has allowed me refine my ideas into something that is effective and beneficial for my product. My recent work is in great contrast to my early work and this is partly due to development listed above.

The teaching methods used by the teachers have helped a lot in the development of my skills. The would explain the task clearly and thoroughly, furthermore if the students were still ensure she would repeat what she had said and break it down making it more understandable. The 1 to 1 sessions also helped as they allowed us to understand what is required of us and how we should go about to achieve it.

Another method that I used to gain knowledge and skills is online research. I often used YouTube to find photo shop tutorials on features and editing techniques. I found this to be extremely beneficial as it allowed me to create a more effective product. Furthermore, it improved my skills in independent research. This method of development has been used extensively through my AS Media course and also the start of my A2 media course.

Creativity was an issue at the start of the course because I had no idea of what genre I was going to base my advert on. However the methods that were taught in class to gain inspiration helped me with the problem.  By looking at other existing products I began to gain a greater understanding of the target audience that I was trying to appeal to. Furthermore, it showed the conventions of where specific information was located and positioned. This allowed me to create a finished product that was conventional and relatable for the target audience. Another method that I used to help with creativity was drafting ideas and removing the ones that are not effective until there are only a select few left. This helped me add convention and information which, resulted in the finished product being creative and realistic.

The extensive use of research and planning was difficult for me at first as I had little previous experience with it.  Furthermore, the detail required was initially more than I could find. A method I used to develop on this was reading texts more thoroughly which, allowed me to gain a greater understanding and also extract more information from it. Over the duration of the course I learnt to be as detailed and thorough as possible in my work. As it increased my grade and reduced the risk of having to return to it at a later date.

The methods I used for research were primarily the internet and other existing products. However, I also gained knowledge from friends and teachers by asking them there expectation of the products. Online research is the method that was most extensively used. It allowed me to find all the necessary information required for my research. The information was easily accessible and could be easily interpreted into my own words. Furthermore, I ensured the information was from a credible site to ensure the information was reliable. Looking at existing products for example magazines was beneficial as it allowed me to gain an understanding of the target audience and there expectations of the product. Furthermore, it allowed me to determine the conventions and the positioning and location of the conventions. Asking friends of their expectation of this product was beneficial as it allowed me to gain greater insight into the product. This allowed me to determine which conventions would be the most effective for the specific target audience. Asking friends also allowed for a wider range of views as something that I find effective may not in the eyes of someone else. I used questionaries’ to gather this information from my friends. The comments and observations that were made by the teachers and classmates on my drafts were also beneficial. It gave me ideas on how to modify the product to make it more effective for example changing the colour of a feature, changing the positioning and adding features. As some of my classmates were creating a similar product to mine they offered advice on improvements. This was beneficial as they knew what was and wasn’t effective furthermore they had a greater understanding of the conventions.

Organisation was a skill that developed over the course of AS media. At the start of the course I was unorganised which lead to me losing crucial information and therefore marks. Furthermore, the lack of organisation lead to me missing deadlines due to poor time management. However, my skills in organisation began to develop through the course.  The use of blogger was extremely beneficial as it allowed me to organise my work and keep track of it in chronological order.  

The planning I used for my music magazine were audience research, questionnaires, drafts and research relating to mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography. To find the conventions for my particular genre I used online research. I searched the names of artists within my genre and analysed the products and ideology that is associated with them. This gave me a greater understanding of the target audience and how I can make my magazine appeal to them. The research relating to cinematography and mise-en-scene was more visual and therefore it was more effective to use images in my planning rather than a lot of writing. In my planning work I had images of conventional artists, clothing and locations. Furthermore, for cinematography I used images from existing magazines to show which shots and angles were conventional. I created most of my work on publisher and word. However, I found publisher to be better as it allowed me to convert the work into a jpeg image. This allowed me to directly post it on to my blog. The use of drafts was extremely beneficial in my planning as it allowed me to gain feedback from my teacher and classmates. Furthermore, it allowed me to experiment with different editing techniques and features. Through the process of trial and error I refined my magazine into a conventional product. I created my drafts on Photoshop and converted them into a jpeg file to upload to blogger. To gain audience feedback I used questionnaires to gather friends and families opinions. I did this through the use of hand out questionnaires and also by emailing digital questionnaires. This gave me a wider range of opinions allowing me improve my product. To find my specific target audience I used demographics. This gave me information on their social class and preferences.

My use of digital technology and creativity increased during the course. The work that I posted on blogger was in a variety of formats. I used slideshows for my presentations and evaluations. I embedded videos into my post to create a direct link to YouTube allowing for more accessibility. My knowledge of editing software such as Photoshop and final cut pro also improved greatly as when I started I had no knowledge of how to use them. The features that are available on these editing software’s are vast and varied. But over the course of using them my knowledge and techniques have improved.

The post- production for AS Media work consisted of editing the photos on Photoshop and adding text and other conventional features. The preliminary work for the a2 course involved editing the video clips on final cut pro. The AS media work post-production involved: adding text, cropping images, adding conventional shapes and features, adding backgrounds, changing colours/opacity and positioning features. The A2 preliminary work involved: adding and positioning text, syncing the video clips to the song, trimming the video clips and adding the song.

The production for as media involved taking images of the college and pupils in addition, to taking images of my music magazine artists. The production for the a2 preliminary work involved recording the actors.      

In my music magazine I ensured that I was following the codes and conventions of existing magazine to ensure my product would be relatable. I looked at existing magazines and placed the features of my magazine in positions that is concordant. For example I the barcode was placed in the bottom right corner, the magazine logo was on the top of the page and the main headline was in the centre. These conventions allowed me to create a finished product that was relatable and appealing to the target audience. 

To conclude the work that I have done during the AS media course has increased me skills and knowledge. I am now looking forward to using these skills in the A2 media course.