A2 Media Studies
Skill Development
Evaluation Essay
For my Foundation Portfolio for AS Media Studies, I had to use DTP
and an image manipulation program to produce the front page, contents and a
double page spread of a new music magazine. The magazine had to feature a
photograph for the cover artist, as well as four other photographs. All images
and texts used had to be original and produced by myself entirely. In addition
to this, we had to create our very own Blogger account and blog, for which we
used to post updates on our progress. This included all draft work, as well as
the final work.
During my AS course for Foundation
Media Studies, I learnt about the many forms of digital technology. I learnt to
use Adobe Photoshop efficiently enough to be able to express my ideas
thoroughly. Luckily for me, I was already familiar with the ways in which
Photoshop works, therefore, this gave me a huge advantage when it come to the
digital editing. For example, I was able to create the exact look for the front
cover without encountering any problems whatsoever. I had to make sure that my
title piece was not too over powering that it takes away from the photo,
additionally, to prevent this I edited the colours of the photo to be a bit
more vibrant, especially the eyes of the model as they are the most important part
to engage with the audience and my skills thoroughly helped with this. Other
uses of photoshop was that I edited the colour levels of my photographs to make
them appear more vibrant and vivid and therefore more aesthetically pleasing.
It also draws in more focus to the cover star's eyes, this helps the reader
feel more connected with the star and therefore feel as though it's more
personal.
I was also familiar with a lot of
the key concepts of a magazine cover, for I have studied this in previous years
as well as being a magazine consumer myself; this greatly helped with actually
thinking of the concept of the magazine. For example, a pulled quote is a very
common convention in magazine interviews, these quotes are normally catchy or
mysterious to make the reader want to read the article. I also used this pull
quote technique and placed it on the left side of the DPS, this is because a
reader would naturally read from left to right, therefore they would read this
quote first and hopefully become intrigued and want to read the full interview.
I also inserted a drop cap at the start of the article, which again is a very
commonly used feature in magazines. This shows that it;s the start of the
article and also helps give it a professional and formal feel to it.
Also, learning a deeper
understanding of connotation and denotation helped when coming to a creation. I
used my previous knowledge of the program to create banners and add shadows to
objects and text. Additionally, with the use of gaussian and motion blur I
managed to make items on my cover seem fast paced and current. Adding an outer
glow to my title to give it a neon style effect. This helped it fit the genre
of synth as people generally relate synth to night clubs and disco lights.
Throughout the course, my IT
skills were improved greatly as I continued to learn how to create online projects
such as Blogger and Prezi. With the use of Prezi, it helped me realise how an
artistic point can be put across to an audience though the use of digital
images and animations, rather than just a plain text on the screen. I also
realised that user interaction helps someone actually pay attention to your
work.
Since starting the Foundation Portfolio of creating a
music magazine, I have greatly improved on my knowledge of the use of major
conventions within a magazine. Additionally, with this knowledge and from what
I previously know of photoshop, I feel, I have managed to create a realistic
feeling magazine to a high standard. Even small things such as the sizing and
spacing between texts can make the cover look more professional, we can see
this when comparing the size and spacing of the articles on my college magazine
and my music magazine. Overall, I feel the skills I already possessed really
helped as a foundation for the future skills that I began to learn throughout
the course.
