At the very start of the year, as a preliminary task, I had
to create a college magazine to be published among the students. This task was
to be done before starting the main AS coursework and to help introduce us to
what was expected during our year. From there we then went on to the main brief
of my Media Studies Foundation Portfolio. The brief was to create a front page,
contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine. The music
magazine I designed had to be consistent in its house style as well as focussing
on a specific genre of music. This meant researching into other music magazine,
mostly existing ones based around my genre, analysing and adapting the codes
and conventions of professional products and applying it to my foundation
portfolio work. For my music magazine I
had decided on my demographics being of a similar age to me, 15-24 therefore
the S.E.G would be E – C2 and for my Psychographics I aimed my magazine at achievers.
The reason being for my target audience choice was because I was creating a
magazine that would influence and inspire a younger audience when they’re at
the age of wondering what to do with their life, hence why I featured a 16/17
year old as my front cover model. All of this had to be recorded on Blogger.
Before AS Media Studies I had already gained skills at a
GCSE level for two years, meaning I had a good understanding of basic
terminology and knowledge about the media industry the reason being is because
for my GCSE portfolio I had to create a film trailer. The film trailer had to
promote the youth of today in a positive way, therefore I gained a good
understanding of connotations and denotations of codes and conventions, for
example when portraying a ‘bad youth’ the costume used was a hoody, this
usually symbolises a suspicious character. Other than that I also had to create
an advertisement for a product, the product I had chosen was the ‘Adidas Ball
Scrub.’ Within this piece of work I had
to learn how to promote a product using media language and techniques, one in
particular was my slogan “Don’t just rub your balls, scrub’em!” Obviously this in a double-entendre but has a
great affect at appealing to the target audience, which is what a media
products is meant to do. As well as these skills I was also familiar with Adobe
Photoshop after using it in not only Media Studies but also Graphic Design as
well. This was fortunate because I was already able to create my work and use
the software more fluently rather than having to learn the very basics first.
For my foundation portfolio I was required to use Adobe
Photoshop in order to create my college magazine and my music magazine. The
reason being was because this software would enable me to create pieces of work
that would have a professional and effective outcome. Not only that, Photoshop
was able to manipulate images such as my front cover model. Like any other professional
magazine the front cover model always looks the part, therefore I had to take
an amateur Photo and airbrush it to make them look just as good as an everyday
music magazine. From the skills I learnt at GCSE I was able to grasp the
techniques on how to do so. From the advertisement task at GCSE, I adapted what
I learnt in order to make a product appealing to put that knowledge into my
college/music magazine, expect more maturely. For example, on the cover lines
and features list on the front cover and contents page I needed to create a
short appealing line that would entice the audience into reading into the story
further.
Over the year my skills have developed massively. Although I
was familiar with software such as Photoshop my skills were not of a high
standard compared to after the year. Examples of this would be my fluency with
the program. Beforehand tasks, such as my preliminary task, would take longer
due to having to find the correct tools and then having to slowly use them to
complete the task at a decent quality due to not being very familiar with the
software whereas after using Photoshop for the year I am able to use shortcuts
to get the tool I need as well as knowing how to use each one to create an
effective outcome. Photoshop was not the only software I had used in my
foundation course. When displaying my planning and research to be posted on my
blog, I used a program called Prezi. Prezi is great or creating simple
slideshows built with both images and texts and is free to use. I had never
heard of Prezi before starting my course, to I had to get used to using it to
be able to show my skills within media in a variety of ways. Other developments
in my skills would be the use of media language. For the music magazine I had
to learn a range of new terminology such as masthead, cover lines, strap line
etc. And this knowledge helped to develop areas of my portfolio such as the
final evaluation because it gave me a better understand of my product as well
as other existing products. Both of these developments shows a move forward
because I am, or am beginning to, become literate with the media and technology
that surrounds me in my courses. This will become useful in my upcoming
Advanced Portfolio.
Altogether throughout my Foundation Portfolio my skills have
improved greatly. Compared to my previous GCSE Media Studies course, there is a
lot of work involved and more time is required in order to complete a lot of
the tasks set throughout the course. It was a necessity that I was organised
and able to balance all of my work in order to have a good outcome. As well as
this my skills needed to be of a good standard for my final outcome to reflect
a professional product. So overall my
skills in generally practical work have improved but also I have developed in
my own organisation skills.
