Describe and Evaluate Your Skills Development Over The Course Of The
Foundation Portfolio Using Production Practices Such As Digital Technology,
Creativity, Research and Planning, Post-Production, and The Use of Conventions
From Real Media Texts.
For my
foundation portfolio I decided to design a music magazine. This involved a
front cover, contents page and double page spread. In order to create these
images using the appropriate technology I had to first establish the genre and
theme which would continue throughout the magazine. Also in my AS level of
college I had to produce a college magazine as an induction task. I decided to
base my music magazine around the idea of an indie/alternative genre as I could
do a lot of background research and find out key information about other
magazines already on the market within this genre. Through the magazine I
established a house style which continues within the magazine, this was a
simple colour theme of red, black and grey. I decided on these colours as they
are bold and stand out against the white background of the magazine. Also other
magazine companies with similar genre’s to mine such as NME and Q use colour
themes like this one- therefore my magazine automatically had a place in the
market where it would fit in with these already existing companies.
Before I
started the AS media course I had basic knowledge on a few key terminology
words and a minimal knowledge of some of the programmes such as Photoshop. This
was because I studied media for a year and sat a GCSE on it in 2011. Having a
basic knowledge and understanding of programmes before I started the course
helped me out a lot when I came to Wyke as there was a lot of work to do in a
short amount of time- such as perfume adverts, college magazines and also the
planning of our music magazines. This meant I could focus all of my time on
completing this work and extending my knowledge rather than having to learn
from scratch how programmes function.
The main
programme used in AS year was Photoshop, and because I had already created an
A4 perfume advertisement at GCSE level I knew how to manipulate and edit images
already. I applied this knowledge when it came to editing and touching-up
images for my magazine to make them ready for use on my front cover, contents
or double page spread. Useful things I already knew were how to cut images out
and put them onto a new background, how to re-size and rotate them and also how
to alter the effect of colour on them using brightness, contrast and also other
effects already on Photoshop. Other media knowledge I already had was how to
target a key audience. This was useful as it meant that I was aware of
techniques such as who the person used in the images is and who that would attract
into buying the product and would therefore have a specific audience. Other
ways I knew how to target a particular audience was through colour theme and
text used. Eye catching text can interest certain groups of people- therefore
making the text on the front cover of your magazine relevant to your chosen
genre is very important. Instead of having a quote on the front of my magazine
I decided to have a list of previews of what to expect within the issue. This
worked well for the genre of my magazine (indie alternative) as there are many
new up and coming bands that would grab people’s attention who want to learn
more about them.
There were
many new things that I faced when staring my AS foundation portfolio. I learnt
new skills however such as how to use the camera’s successfully in order to
take images appropriate and of a high enough quality to go into my magazine.
This skill is useful as I can now use this knowledge in my second year when
having to handle the cameras again. Even though on the A2 course we will mainly
be videoing I can still use my general knowledge of camera shots and angles to
create a certain mood within the music video. Another skill I learnt in my AS
year was how to get the most from Photoshop. We had a lesson as a class where we
learnt how to edit and perfect images by softening the skin or whitening the
teeth. I enjoyed learning this as I can now get the most from using Photoshop
and now how to work the programme properly, rather than just having a basic
overall knowledge of it like I did when I started the course.
In
conclusion to this I believe that the AS foundation portfolio helped improve my
skills a lot, and also made me more confident of how to get the most from media
programmes. Knowing that I can now use Photoshop
with confidence and a clear understanding of it makes me feel optimistic about
the A2 course as I know that I will be able to gain new knowledge of the
programmes that we will be using in the same way, and although they may seem
difficult and challenging to use at first I now know that over time it will get
easier if you persist and continue to do solo research to find out simple ways
to overcome tasks and succeed with the programme. In order to do well this year
I will make sure to also be aware of the correct media terminology of which I learnt
last year and will also be learning more of this year. Using the terminology is
helpful as it is more specific to media and therefore suggests directly what
you mean.
