Skills Development Essay

Before I started my media course at college, I studied media at secondary school, achieving an A. The coursework practical this year is rather similar to what I did back at my secondary school, the aim was to create a front page, contents page and a double page spread for a magazine. I believe that the resources that are available to college compare to those at school have helped me to develop my skills in media.

The digital technology that I have used over the past two years has significantly improved with every task that I have completed. Back in secondary school I was limited to a 10 mp camera that didn't really give the best quality photo, which then had to be edited onto a very outdated version of Photoshop or publisher, that compared to the technology and the knowledge of the technologies that I have gained this last year, wasn't the best situation to be in. When I moved to college the digital technology had improved, especially the camera. The college magazine main image was shot from a 12 mp camera rather than a 10 mp one; this allowed me to get a better quality picture; which I then edited on n iMac. Prior to coming to college I had never used an iMac in my life. My understanding was that they worked exactly like a normal PC. But it was to be a lot trickier than that. It did take me a while to get used to the equipment but I feel as though I adapted pretty quickly in order to finish my college magazine. Another technology that was introduced to me was blogger, I had heard f blogs but had never used them, but I believe that it is a rather easy way of storing work and sharing it to the public. This was another technology that I had to adapt to; it was a struggle at first to get used to all the different buttons like the difference between new post and new blog and how to re-design the page. After making the college magazine it was time to get on with the real coursework and create a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. Again the camera quality had improved again and this time I had bought my own camera that had a quality of 16mp, this allowed me to capture a high quality photograph and focus on the mise-en-scene such as the makeup and the costume. Along with the improved quality of the camera, my Photoshop skills also improved from the college magazine. I now could use tool efficiently like the cut tool and the blur tool. Cutting the image and blending the model’s hair better than the college magazine was a target of mine when I started the music magazine and I believe that I improved and I’m satisfied on how the image looked.

Another area of practice that I feel I have improved is my creativity. Back in secondary school the magazine that I created was not only limited by the technology but was also bland in terms of creativity. But I believe that moving to college and studying other subjects such as drama and film when you have to create high quality products has helped me to improve my creativity. Looking back from my college magazine I feel as though even though the conventions are the same, I have used them in a more creative way and fitted them to the genre of the magazine, which was rock. This leads to the research and planning, back in GCSE media there wasn’t much planning and research to be done and the product was constructed based on what looked well and what didn’t. Stepping up to A level proved a big stepping stone on the planning front. Every single detail had to be uploaded to the blog and I admit that in the college magazine I didn’t do enough research and planning and the magazine was constructed over the period of two days, which was not enough time to produce a good quality product. However during the process of the construction of the music magazine I believe that I improved quite a lot for the research. Researching existing magazines and the genre of the magazine allowed me to develop a better understanding of the medium and what is expected from me. Overall my blog is dominated with the planning and research which includes existing magazines, different font styles, the history of the magazine, the history of the chosen genre, the iconography of the genre  and the codes and conventions that make up a front cover. I am now hoping that I can continue the appropriate research and planning that is needed to develop my A2 product.

The next area of practice that I believe my skills have developed in is using conventions from real media texts. This relates to the planning and research tasks that I completed throughout the music magazine. Again at GCSE there wasn’t much thought put into the conventions of the front cover, the research put into them was very minimal compared to the thought process and explanation that is needed for AS media. The conventions from real media texts started again during the college magazine task, completing the L.I.I.A.R analysis of existing front covers enabled me to understand what makes a successful front cover and what is needed for creating the college magazine. Moving up to the music magazine task I looked at existing music magazines that fitted the genre of rock which included ‘Kerrang’, ‘Q’ and ‘Mojo’; because I had a L.I.I.A.R analysis from the college magazine I could then develop a much more detailed document of what should be included on my front cover, double page spread and contents page. These conventions included such things as the Masthead, which should be at the top of the page and should stand out to the audience.

In conclusion I feel as though from GCSE to completing the music magazine at AS level my skills have developed rather sufficiently and they will continue to develop during the A2 music video task.