Skills Development Essay

 My foundation portfolio consists of different media pieces which show how my skills progressed over time. The first piece in the portfolio is a magazine I designed for a college. In my case I chose to base the magazine on Wyke College. The other media piece I did was for my own music magazine which I did after the college magazine once my skills had developed. Also, at the start of the course I made an advert for a new fragrance but this was more to test my skills on Photoshop than to be used as a piece of my portfolio.

 I had limited media skills before taking AS media and hadn’t covered it at all in previous education. I only had a vague idea of how Photoshop worked and found it difficult to pick up at first. I also had little experience in photography or image editing so didn’t know how to get the best picture or how to tweak it. I had some skill working and organising a blog which did prove useful but little in the work of other media skills. As for knowledge in the conventions of media texts themselves I knew some of the basic stuff from seeing them day to day. I knew the names of parts of a magazine and how they would only utilize a couple of house colours on them and continue to run with them throughout. I didn’t know some of the more obscure media conventions used so had to learn these. I had a basic understanding of how to plan my work but underestimated how much planning it would need. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of coursework I would receive in media. I did have a degree of creativity in how I worked when I started the course so coming up with slogans and what do write wasn’t a huge problem though this became limited due to not knowing enough about the conventions of media texts and not being able to utilize creativity to its full potential.

 As I had little in the way of previous media skills I had to learn most of what I had to do here. I can pick up how to use computer programs fast so this made it easier for me to acquire the skills I needed to complete my work to a good a standard as I could. I used my understanding of running a blog to make the presentation look better and to use colours that fit well together. I used the conventions that I knew to better help me decide what my media pieces needed and particularly focused on making these look better to compensate for other parts of the magazine that might be lacking. When I learnt of the large amount of coursework I had I tried to work more in advance of deadlines than I would usually do whilst still completing work to as high a standard as I was capable. I used to creativity when I had the opportunity to make slogans by creating puns or other clever word play.  I didn’t appreciate the value of post-production in this stage of using Photoshop so my work tended to look a little scruffy and unfinished.

 From the college portfolio piece I did to completing the music magazine my skills have developed significantly in the areas that I was weak in. I now have a more solid grasp on using Photoshop having learnt how to manipulate images using tools such as ‘distort’ and the ‘quick select’ tool to cut apart images. I also know better ways to lay out a magazine and have a better idea of how much actually needs to go into a media text such as what I made. I have a greater understanding of conventions in media texts now than I did at the start. I know that image is important, especially in the main image so you can grasp the attention of an audience straight away. On the same line as image, I know that the font you chose must represent the genre of your magazine and must be used consistently throughout your magazine. By the end of the course I had started to use existing media texts in order to improve my work by borrowing ideas on layout from them and tweaking them for my own magazine. This greatly helped me as it gave me something to work with rather than just a blank canvas. It also helped me decide what to use to fill the white spaces on my magazine which I was unsure of what to do with. I also improved in the post production phase of creating my piece as I better understood the value of retaking photographs if they weren’t what they needed to be.  I also learnt that, though my genre didn’t suit tons of facial editing, it is a good idea to show that you at least know how to do it.

 Overall, from the start of the course I have developed the very little skills I had into a wider, more advanced set. I am now capable of producing a much better media piece than I was when I first started the course. I can now better use Photoshop and am confident in editing and/or creating my own media piece. I also have a more advanced understanding of media conventions and know what will make my work successful if I put it in and what is a bad idea. I can now couple my creative ideas with the knowledge I now have to make a media text meaning creating slogans and other similar devices is easier for me than it was before. I also now appreciate how research and the post-production phase are. The research, by looking at magazines such as Kerrang! And Rocksound, made my magazine look more like the media text it was meant to represent and improved its overall appearance. Focusing more on the post production phase has made my work look more tidy and professional than it was before.