Skill Development Evaluation Essay

Within this evaluation I will be detailing my development through different aspects of my media experience in my first year of AS. 

The first step into my AS course work was to research into pre-existing media texts. Researching into magazines developed my knowledge of the usual conventions of this particular type of media text; Also, this helped me develop my use of media language through my analysis work of  front cover pages, content pages and double page spreads. Through this stage of the course my class and I spent a lot of time researching for about 2-3 weeks. I found this beneficial as when I came to plan my music magazine front cover, contents page  and double page spread, I found it simple enough to include conventions of a professional magazine and to notice when and how to apply them within my coursework. The prezi files below show my analysis and some research. In this research I began to look at different magazine texts of the same genre to understand the obvious elements of a magazine were.

I can apply this similar way into researching for my A2 coursework; that being a music video.  I can analyse different music videos of the same genre and pick out if they are more of a performance – artistic- or have a narrative within the video which may or may not match the lyrics (just like analysing different magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads of the same genre). I could also pick out the conventions such as cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing instead of mast head and etc. of a magazine.

In the planning process I believe I developed my creativity greatly then from that start of the course as the examples of professional magazines inspired me and gave me ideas to combine into one magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page. I chose a similar font to vogue magazine, but made it italic to look different. And I also chose some conventions and placed them in the same place on my magazine as professional magazines did to create realism.

For example, this was my first box plan of my music magazine to the left and my final to the right Along with my first and last products, but this was only possible through many experiments on photoshop and much research into media texts.  

For the two images of my final outcome of my magazine and college magazine I answered this question for my AS coursework below and I feel it explains how I have developed my creativity and skills of research/planning and how I have viewed my work.

‘Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

With my college magazine I challenged the conventions of a magazine as you can clearly see from my layout. My text isn't on the left hand side of the magazine and my mast head isn't bigger than the main cover line. I placed a black rectangle box to the right of the page to cover a distraction in the photograph but looking back, it simply looks as a small image. From this preliminary task, I have learnt that it is best to research thoroughly before drafting out a product. By looking at existing products I was able to relate and plan from inspiration of them by looking at magazines of the same music genre. The research for these products, I believe, is the most important aspect to this task as it gives a guide line of what you must include and collect inspiration from them.  The elements you must include are the conventions such as mast head, bar code, main cover line, image, date, price and issue number. From here it’s the other context that makes a magazine, like a website, slogan, plug splash and logos to attract the targeted audience. My preliminary task does not include a price, issue number, it only contains the date. This is a very bad mistake I made and clearly did not plan out as this is one of the main conventions of a magazine!

I didn't experiment much with my college magazine with different use of texts and Photoshop tools as you can obviously see as it isn't very creative. ‘

I believe with the time I had to do many experiments with layouts, text font, colour choosing and the skills I developed from digital technology have helped my creativity to develop. My development in digital technology has improved greatly from the start of my AS course. When I first began I hadn't used Photoshop before and now through much practice I have learnt how to use most tools in the program to create a particular effect to make my work look much more professional and to be verisimilitude to today's adverts/magazines.
Now I know that to produce the best work I can, I must experiment and take some risks. Applying this to my A2 coursework will be to video lots of shots in different frames and movements along with editing using different effects until I produce a product I will be pleased with.

As I person I feel that I have matured in the type of language I use, how I present my work and how I look at professional work when I research; For example, I now look at examples of videos and become inspired to use some shots or ideas which are the same – intertextual/ intertextual conventions. Although, sometimes after I have thought about how I will produce a shot of a similar outcome I realise this may be too difficult as I will be limited for certain props or locations. I certainly feel that I can research and plan well enough to produce a music video of a high standard. Furthermore, I also feel that when I go to university I will be able to apply these skills to my work and when I go on to get a job as I believe these skills are adaptable to different environments and different work.