Monday, 29 September 2014

Skills Development essay:

Georgina Bishop – Skills Development essay:

            During the process of my first year in Media Studies, I developed many transferrable skills such as using digital technology like Photoshop and Prezi. This was completely new to me, as I had not previously used anything but PowerPoint and Word. I believe I adapted to the software relatively well almost instantly. Whilst I struggled with Photoshop slightly to begin with, I think that after some practice and time using it I managed to begin to use it effectively. Also the use of Blogger was different for me, as I had never used it before. I feel now, however, that I can use Blogger in an efficient way in order to show the process of the development of my final product.
            Using the camera to show the use of different angles, and to show my ideas was difficult for me. I feel that I am more confident with expressing my ideas on paper than through a physical product. Nonetheless I feel that these skills have improved vastly and I now have more confidence when given such tasks. I feel that my use of digital technology has progressed hugely as a result of completing tasks using such software. This has improved my confidence within the course and I can use these skills in application to my music video product in the second year of my course.

The creativity that I have applied to my work, with regards to ideas and ‘thinking outside of the box’, has improved hugely. This has become apparent in the range of software I have used to show my thinking processes and also the way in which I have presented my work.  I have linked my creativity to the use of digital technology by presenting my work in many different ways on Blogger, and also the way in which I follow conventions in Photoshop.
I feel that my creativity has been positively affected by the use of many of the skills I have learnt and developed. My creativity also, can be linked with many practices, such as post-production, as this process directed me to be creative in the way that I presented what I had done throughout the process of developing my product. Also using conventions from real media texts can be influenced by creativity because whilst using conventions I feel that it is difficult to look at real media texts and not copy anything directly such as sell lines.

My research and planning has also improved greatly, for example before I started my course I relied mainly on the internet, however, now I rely on focus groups, audience feedback, existing products, peer analyzing of each others work and also previous work from students. I believe that my skills have developed further in many aspects of my work. Before I began my media course I did not know how to use Photoshop, now I feel relatively confident when asked to complete a task on here. This has also become apparent with other software such as Prezi and GoAnimate. 
The research that I conducted consisted of looking at real media texts in order to analyse conventions to produce on my own work. I feel that these conventions allowed me to create a product that I was happy with. 
           
            Post-production was an area that I struggled with because I was not sure how to show my processes, and I also failed to record my process of creating a music magazine effectively. This therefore meant that I was not able to review much of what I did in order to complete my product on my blog. Using my process to show on my blog what I did proved to be relatively difficult, however, after I recorded my progress I began to find it easier. Within the post-production development I noticed that my work began to get stronger throughout.
            Post-production is something that I feel comparatively more confident about within my second year of my media course. I will focus more on the recording of my process and therefore will find it easier to analyse my strengths throughout the course and also identify my weaknesses and make them stronger in terms of technicality.

            Researching existing products allowed me to identify conventions and apply them to my own product. This also assisted in the choice of genre of my magazine. I decided to create a magazine with the rock genre, because I feel that I had a good idea of the sell lines that I should use due to my knowledge on the genre. However, I also used work from previous students to help me to create an idea of what to include in my product and also what to include within my blog. I feel that my blog developed a lot throughout the course as I began to use more media texts to help me.

            When conducting audience feedback on my final product I received a lot of positive feedback in relation to genre and the suitability of house style and conventions. My target audience could clearly tell that my magazine was targeted at people who enjoy rock music and also those who are generally aged between 15-30. This made me understand the importance of conventions in order to attract the correct target audience, also for people to be able to establish the content of the magazine. I feel that I used the correct house style in order to create a rock magazine. I also feel that within my research and planning I learnt the relevant information in order to create a product that re-enforced the genre of my magazine.

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