Skills Development Evaluation Essay

Last year for my AS Media foundation portfolio I had started with a given Preliminary exercise to learn and practise skills when using Adobe Photoshop, an image manipulation programme. The Preliminary task's brief specified that I must use DTP (digital technology programmes) and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and a masthead. Additionally I produced a mock up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate my grasp of DTP. Additional to this I had to research and analyse codes and conventions of existing college magazines.
The main task after the Preliminary task was to produce my own front page, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine with original photographs. I identified in detail the codes and conventions of existing magazines. I then used the research that I gathered in my portfolio to produce the music magazine. I began to learn how to use Photoshop and the preliminary task which was to create a college magazine front cover was the first opportunity for me to demonstrate some of these newly acquired skills and techniques.
I began the planning for my music magazine by choosing a particular genre of music my magazine was going to promote and then the target audience to which it was going to appeal to which I believe was 13-30 year olds. I looked at some existing double page spreads and noticed how the articles are organised into columns with a large main headline across the top of the two pages and quotes pulled from the article that have been emboldened and used as sub-headings for emphasis. I took into account these existing conventions and used them in my own production.                                                                            
     Further research included identifying the codes and conventions of existing music magazines such as NME, Kerrang, Q and Classic Rock Magazine, for example: the masthead and it’s use of typeface, the choice of a main image and its positioning across the page, the use of cover lines and also the choice of a suitable colour scheme. The biggest influence on my magazine was probably Classic Rock magazine because of the genre of music it promotes.              
     I used the Internet as my primary source of research for visual material, where I was able to gather examples of different music magazine covers and double page spreads which I annotated and then posted onto my blog as examples of music magazine conventions. But had also seen examples of real magazines through my own music magazine collection and magazine's provided by college. I called my music magazine “JSM” which was partly based on NME's title and also my initials.
Regretfully and due to informality, I hadn't taken GCSE Media Studies before I started sixth form college, this would've helped me a little by giving me some previous knowledge but I coped okay with the given support at college. All I really knew before I had started studying media was how to frame a photograph successfully which I took into account when photographing the subjects.
There were many new creative skills which I acquired during AS, for example learning to use Adobe Photoshop which I had no previous experience with at all. The specific skills I learnt on Photoshop which proved the most useful during my music magazine production were cutting out photographs using the magic wand tool and magnetic lasso tool, changing the resolution of the photographs and organising different layers of a piece of work to resemble a professional standard to be more visually pleasing to the audience.          
     I also became more fluent in digital Photography as that particular element of the magazine required me to take original pictures for the front cover, contents and double page spread of my magazine. For this task I borrowed a SLR camera from my college to take the variety of images. Many I had taken at live gig's performed by local bands and others were taken within college during lunch/break times. I would of used my own digital camera but I wanted to produce my magazine to a professional standard and I knew that the quality of the photos would be much better in high definition; this also meant that I could edit the photos without losing quality. Many different photos were taken which were eventually transferred onto the computer and I then picked the photos which I felt were the best.
The final product itself was created using Adobe Photoshop technology on the computer where I applied the skills which I had learnt previously during the production of my college magazine and skills which I learnt on the way through advice from teachers and fellow students, to enable me to complete this task. For one of my first ever drafts I used the online font generator “dafont.com” to choose the typeface for my masthead. But eventually decided to take a more original approach via creating my own masthead from scratch on Adobe Photoshop.
     During the production of my final piece, I re sized my chosen photos appropriately, for example, my front cover featured a large medium close up shot of the subject which took up the majority of the page, I then placed the masthead at the top of the page and cover lines around the photo, utilising the negative space. My magazine featured a black, orange and white colour scheme because I was advised it is wise to keep this colour scheme all the way throughout the magazine sample pages so it isn't overwhelming and to show the pages are from the same magazine, which I was also very obviously quite popular amongst existing magazines.                  
     After completion of my piece, I uploaded the finished copies of my magazine and transferred them to my blog as jpeg images so it could be viewed and assessed by others. I also printed a copy of each page so I could personally gain audience research by asking questions on particular aspects of the piece and whether or not it was effective and video the answers for evidence. The most challenging aspect of the task for me was the creation of the contents page which has the function of directing the readers to particular articles inside the magazine; therefore it needs to include many small cover lines with images wrapped around the text without looking too packed. My contents page went through many changes and improvements during the creation change and I still wasn't happy and wanted to tweak it further after the deadline time.
In conclusion, AS foundation media taught me many new skills that would become useful and can also be carried through onto the A2 work such as photo editing, analysing a media text in terms of its codes and conventions and how to use correct framing techniques when using a camera.