Evaluation

Grace Moxon
Last year for my AS Media foundation portfolio I had started with a given Preliminary exercise to learn and practace skills when using Adope Photoshop, an image manipulation programme. The Preliminary task's breif 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 study's 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 learned 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 evetually decided to take a more original approach via creating my own masthead from scratch on Adope Photoshop.  
During the production of my final piece, I resized 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 coverlines 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.
For A2 my Media Studies production I have decided to create a music video. I have chosen the song 'Fuck Authority' by a punk rock band named Pennywise. I chose a punk rock song because I want to show rebellious action in the video, and because punk music is my favourite type of music, mainly because of the messages conveyed about political issues in our society today and the history of the revolution in the past. I love the way the band is not mainstream, mainstream band's music is often plane and just made to make money, yet Pennywise preech many punk rocker's message of not being the same as everybody else and have an independent attitude to create songs which are fast paced too, as they tackle political issues via somewhat preeching through the lyrics they use. The most inspiring music video which made me choose a song which has real meaning is the music video to the song BYOB by System of a Down and the stylistic features of Smack My Bitch Up by Ther Prodigy inspired me to include substances which many people's attitude is changed by drastically. The fact that there is not an existing official music video for the song I have chosen has helped me picture my music video with a much clearer vision, and also very importantly I did not wish to risk plaigarism if the existing video was to include the best possible things to their song.
To match the independence of the song, I chose not to include something such as a dance routine, as they seem to be in almost all of the chart music videos, although I strongly wish to skip to a band actually playing the music throughout the video on occassion because through my audience feedback I have learnt that fans of bands almost always wish to see the performers perform in the video, because the music is not all about the story conveyed to associate to the lyrics, it is to also show those artists who were the creators of the music and a lot of people judge an entire band on what types of people the artists are (style, attitude and opinion wise). I believe that by constructing my music video  occassionally using the form of performance as well as having a main character's journey of clips of the character being rebellious edited precisely to the beat, my music video may not fit the codes and conventions of the genre, but add to it. As I have found that many punk rock music videos are focused on live performances, shots of the band playing and their fans. An entirely performance-based music video to accompany songs are more typical of mainstream artists in my view and commonly the R&B genre, as many of the viewers seem to want to be dazzled by thier physical appearance rather than the message which is conveyed through the lyrics. My music video needs continuity to support the narrative which can be seen to associte with the message of the lyrics, mainly 'fucking' authority, therefore being a rebellious teenager who has seen a darker side to our society (bourgeoisie being a threat to working class people). Although I have faced some issues with showing this point of view through the main character so I am working on the creation of a paper made puppet show. Depending on the viewer's beliefs, it is their interpretation of what is shown to them in the video, therefore I believe my music video can be abstract
I see one of the codes and conventions of both abstract and performance videos in the independent genre usually portrays ‘real life’ situations. For example, a lot of riot scenes are shown in punk rock music videos (rioters being unfairly abused by the authority system). System of a Down's music is not punk rock but I believe they largely share the point of view of many punk rock band's, they just convey their message in the lyrics through differently styled music. I have brought System of a Down up because their music video to BYOB has a riot squad which have 'obey' digitally written on their protection masks/helmets - this conveyed to me that members of the force are controlled by consumerism and have accepted money to be payment to set a hierarchal norm of today's community. Yes, the bands which have inspired me and the band of the song I am going to use are all American, therefore the issues they tackle are more drastic than the British situation, but I believe the British society is extremely similar to Northern America's via the current right wing rulers. In association to the right wing, the news of today is that Margaret Thatcher is deceased, I may incliude some last minute touches of her in my music video to further challenge the effects of a right wing run nation - parallel to the current status.
Punk rock to me is a very artistic genre, especially when it comes to extreme physical appearance through things such as tattoos hair and fashion style, an iconic style of punk is commonly DIY clothing (studs, band patches, painted jackets) and mohawks or hair which is shaved and dyed in an individual manor. Therefore, I have chosen one of the band members of the performers to wear my leather jacket which I have painted the back of and added a variety of studs to myself. The other band members wear dark clothing and band t-shirts to show what type of person they are through the non-mainstream bands they listen to.
I have had a variety of ideas for my msuic video, including sexual differences, Jeff (one of my closest friends who went to the woods with Emily and Paige Windley) to be expressing the non-stereotypical of expressing anger for a man
another a girl being abused both physically and mentally by her 'boyfriend'. The title 'It's comlicated' fits with this symotanteously, yet in a much more extreme sense