Skills Development Evaluation essay

For my AS Media foundation portfolio, the brief specified that I must 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 deciding firstly which 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 16-35 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.                                                                              

     I began my research into my chosen brief by initially identifying the codes and conventions of existing music magazines such as NME, Kerrang, Q and Mojo, 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 Mojo magazine because of the genre of music it promotes which is classic rock/alternative music.                

     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. I called my music magazine “Amped” which means fired up but could also me interpreted as a pun on a musical amplifier.

Previous to completing my AS foundation course, I studied media at GCSE level for two years. I was therefore already familiar with certain media aspects, such as analysing existing media texts and identifying it’s codes and conventions, and also using a camera and how to frame shots correctly. Many of these skills I found to be transferrable to the AS work, such as framing shots correctly which I took into account when photographing the subjects and also my written evaluative skills which I would demonstrate when evaluating the progress of my work along the way and ultimately in the final written evaluation.

There were many new creative skills which I acquired during AS, for example learning to use Adobe Photoshop. 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 and also organising different layers of a piece of work to resemble a professional standard and 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 my friend’s digital SLR camera and the reason for this is because 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 enlarge the photos without losing quality. Many different photos were taken of students posing as musicians which were eventually transferred onto the computer and I then picked the photos which I felt were the best. A creative choice that I made when photographing the subjects for my magazine was to have them standing against a plain background; this choice meant that the editing process was slightly easier.

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 to enable me to complete this task. I used the online font generator “dafont.com” to choose the typeface for my masthead and coverlines.  I printed the finished copies of my magazine and transferred them to my blog using printer and scanner hardware. 
     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, red and white colour scheme which I noticed was quite popular amongst existing magazines. The subject of my front cover wore a black trench coat which allowed me to place the red and white cover lines on top of the image.                    

     After completion of my piece, I posted the scanned pictures of my magazine onto my blog and added a questionnaire which allowed me to gather audience research by asking questions on particular aspects of the piece and whether or not it was effective. 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.

In conclusion, AS foundation media allowed me not just to put my existing media skills into practical use but also 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.