Skills Development Essay

Media – Skills Development Essay.

Before I started Media Studies, my skills of the terms weren’t detailed and weren’t very good.  I had little understanding of what the key terms meant, but feel now I have completed the first year, my skills and knowledge have developed.
Over the first year, the main task (foundation portfolio) was to create a music magazine, and create the artist, with a front page, contents page and double page spread.  When my skills weren’t fully developed I thought I wouldn’t be able to achieve this before the deadline and thought I would struggle with it, however, after revising all the key terms and having lessons on Photoshop, my skills developed and I became a lot more confident using it. 
My skills using digital technology such as cameras was always good, as I am quite alert and confident when dealing with technology; however I had to learn all of the different types of camera angles and shots so I could apply them to my magazine.  When I revised these terms, I could then put them into practice when shooting photographs.  I learnt that there must be enough room above the artists head and around their body in order for me to apply text around the image for the front cover.  I also learnt how to edit photos on Photoshop.  For example, if the artist needed their skin re-touching, I used the tools offered on Photoshop to solve this problem and my magazine cover began to look more professional. 
At first when I started to use Photoshop, because I wasn’t as familiar with it, I didn’t really look forward to using it much.  However, when my skills developed more, I had lessons on it and I became more familiar with it, then I enjoyed using it as it made my work look more professional to resemble a real magazine.  I also liked the way you could re-position text and images across the page and have the different layers above certain others, which allowed the magazine to become really defined to my own taste and represent my genre well.
My creativity skills before starting the course were not great, as I am not that good at art and some other creative subjects.  However, after learning and becoming familiar with media as a subject, it has allowed me to gain more of a creative side, and now I know that the skills I used in the first year can be applied to the second year (my advanced portfolio) and will help me be creative in making my music video.  I am also quite creative when it comes to English as a subject, and this allowed me to be able to write good articles for my magazine on the double page spread which is a good aspect.
The research and planning side of the foundation portfolio was interesting because I got to research lots of other magazines and photos etc.  This allowed me again to gain more creativity and I also gained inspiration so I could base my magazines on some I had already seen.  I had to research magazines with the same genre as mine, which was mainly indie and alternative music, so magazines such as Q and NME came in very useful when looking at the layout, images, text and more features.
When researching these magazines, I made lots of notes and PowerPoint slides of the features that the publisher included in their magazine such as what text was included on the front of the cover of the magazine, and what text was included on the contents page and the double page spread, and I applied this information to when I was creating my magazine to ensure it looked as professional as possible and resembled a real magazine. 
After I had created the first drafts of my front cover, contents page and double page spread of my magazine, I gained the feedback on them.  After looking carefully at aspects of my magazine that I had to change, I decided to change the artist and the name of my magazine.  My artist became more suited to the genre, by the colour clothing that she wore on the photographs and by the expression on her face etc.
I also changed the name of the magazine to again something more suited to my genre.  This then made the magazine more appealing to the genre, which could then hopefully attract a wider audience.
Also, during the post-production, I created a questionnaire to try and gain feedback to see if there were any other features I could change.  I included questions such as ‘what genre do you think the magazine represents?’ and ‘what age group do you think it aims at?’  And when I gained my feedback, I realised that the changes I made after receiving the first feedback were suited more to the genre, and I felt as if I didn’t have to change much on my magazine.  I did however change around some of the colours and text, and moved some images around to make it more suited, just as some last little changes.
I used conventions of real media texts in my articles included in my magazine, to try and make the magazine seem as professional as possible.  The research where I looked into real media magazine such as Q and NME came in useful, as I looked at articles which were included in those and then interpreted them into my magazine.  The research therefore influenced me into what I could include on my front cover as stories, as well as the contents page and the double page spread text.

I feel that during the first year of Media Studies, my skills have developed dramatically, as I feel more confident in using programmes now and I feel I can be more creative when creating tasks.
I feel that I will be able to apply my skills to create a very professional looking music video for my advanced portfolio task.