Skills Development

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.