Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work from Foundation Portfolio in Advanced production.
At AS I made a music magazine with a front cover, contents page and double spread article. At A2 I made a music video with promotional digipack and magazine advert.
Preliminary
The brief for my preliminary task was to create the cover for a school magazine using original artwork Create magazine cover.
I was new to media studies and had not used much digital technology before so this was quite a steep learning curve for me. I used a point-and-shoot digital camera to take the image. It had auto-focus and auto-flash so that I did not need to worry about light or focus in my preliminary exercise, however, I took the photo as landscape when for the proportions for the magazine cover, it needed to be portrait. I liked the image so I cropped it and was very pleased with how it turned out.
Adobe Photoshop was another new digital technology to me and initially I really struggled having not understood about layering. I spent quite some time trying to teach myself how to position the layers so that the text and photograph blended together.
If I had known how to use Photoshop better, I could have digitally enhanced the lighting levels on my image.
Foundation Production
The brief for the foundation coursework was to produce the cover, contents page and double page spread article for a music magazine.
Having gained confidence in the prelim, I moved onto using a digital SLR camera to capture images for this task. I learnt to use the zoom and flash, but stuck with auto focus. The images were much more professional and easier to work with, especially one that I scaled up for my double page spread – this maintained its quality.
I used a number of Photoshop tools to digitally enhance my image and learnt how to resize, crop, and remove unwanted elements. This allowed me to produce a much more professional background image. The main way I used Photoshop on my Prelim cover was to basically type the text in different colours over the image. I had only two layers on my cover, one being the image and the other the text. On my new cover, I discovered that I had at least 20 layers and quickly learnt to name my layers so that I knew which one was which, this was after a disaster where I couldn’t work out how to overlay other images.
I used the ‘crop’ and ‘lassoo’ tool to isolate images from their background. I used effects to add vibrancy to my pictures and changed saturation levels to give a deeper colour. I enjoyed experimenting with the effects and learning how to make a picture look like it was drawn in charcoal, ‘posterise’ it etc. I also learnt how to replace parts of an image using the clone tool and used the eraser on my cropped images to tidy them up. I also learnt how to use text effects such as neon, glass, chrome, fire etc around letters.
I also started to appreciate other forms of technology: I used Facebook and Twitter to encourage feedback on my work in progress and to communicate with members of my media group. I realised the usefulness of working to a blog and being able to give and receive feedback within my media group via this technology; however, I found blogger quite frustrating as it involved alot of unnecessary technical difficulties. The worst point was when I lost a whole section of work as it had simply not auto saved.
Although it was not relevant to my magazine brief, I was able to use Logic Pro on Apple computers to compose the soundtrack to someone else's film brief. As a music technology student, I was taught how to vary sound levels to create suspense (as the film was based on a thriller), write music suit the chosen genre and then transfer the files onto movie maker to be layered.
I used Microsoft publisher to store my planning, this was the best program to use as the pages were easy to arrange and it kept everything in order. I did the analysis for my cover page, double page spread and contents page in publisher and then carried them to the blog using screenshots.
Advanced Production
The foundation production established basic skills and made me aware of the technologies available, but the advanced portfolio has really increased my skills and awareness of how to use these technologies. My brief was to create a promotional video, album artwork and a music magazine advert for a band. Most of my group had worked on video for their foundation but this was the first time I had done it.
I used a digital SLR camera to film as well as for stills this time, I realised that camera shake is a major issue at A2 so got to grips with using a tripod for the majority of the shots. Initially, I used a Nikon D3100 Digital SLR for my filming but then the media department invested in a Canon EOS 550d, which allowed us to add time lapse. I also experimented with a fish-eye lens and was very pleased with the results as it added an effect that we had never used before.
For the advanced portfolio, I had access to the full Adobe suite which offered Premiere and After Effects as well as Photoshop. I had never edited video before so learnt from scratch how to compile and edit video sequences on Premiere. Premiere made it easy for me to combine my animation and moving image sequences together – I created my animation sequences in Photoshop then imported them as saved images for the desktop.
I used Adobe after Effects to add flashes of colour across the screen, create grids for multiple footage and enhance lighting. After Effects made the whole project look more professional.
My use of Photoshop improved since foundation and I was able to add effects, create saturation, work more efficiently with layering, etc.
Sound – at AS, learning to use it was easy, learnt how to use Logic Pro for other people’s work using layers. I chose music for friends that fitted the genre.
I used Garage Band to record voiceovers for my evaluation, one of several new technologies I was able to use to record and present my work. I used Slideshare to upload my PowerPoint presentations and found YUDU more efficient for presentation. Initially I disliked Prezi and found it very hard to work with because I couldn’t get the mapping right but with practice realised the potential of this tool and was very pleased with the prezis I created.
I learnt how to create my own channel on YouTube and upload videos, initially, I needed to experiment with files to achieve the right upload settings but then it was very easy from then on.
G325 Section A Q1a - Skills development on creativity
For my Preliminary exercise, the brief was to produce the cover of a school magazine. As I was new to media, I had never done anything as creative as this. I took a photograph of a fellow student for my cover image and my choice of student was determined by the colour tie he was wearing, I already had in mind what I had wanted to produce. I wanted to call it ‘Sixth Form Blues’ so had decided to use blue text so I chose someone who was wearing a blue tie to bring it together and increase the play on words.
My choice of font was a creative decision, I chose something simple and bold that looked official and formal to match the presentation of the suited sixth former on the cover. I realised that I would need a blank background surrounding the model to ensure the text was tidy and readable so chose a white wall to shoot the images of my model. I decided that two additional colours would be ideal for the text as it would distinguish the different articles, I tried three colours but it looked too untidy.
I decided that it the text looked best justified to whichever side of the page was nearest. I was pleased with the final cover as it was my first attempt.
On my Foundation Portfolio, I initially had an idea about the cover image – with a more psychedelic context and I took and used the image. But after overlaying it with text and sub images, it was not bold/striking enough and quite untidy. Feedback told me that the audience did not perceive it as I intended.
This is why I started again with a completely different image but still maintaining some of the themes and setup from the original. I looked at lots of rock images and poses, taking the ‘We Will Rock You’ pose as my main influence for the cover, I decided to give the magazine a festivals theme and called it ‘Sound Fields’ as a creative play on words – derived from The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever and the two things a festival actually provides.
I used an original image from a crowd scene that I had taken and super-imposed it behind the performing figure to make it look as if it was a live performance from the viewpoint of someone on the stage looking out at the audience, I got very positive feedback on this.
As I knew more about how to use Photoshop, I was able to find a preset background to use on the cover, making it look like the sun setting behind the crowd. I was better at layering so I had more control which was crucial as the cover incorporated number of different elements: I used different fonts, a completely different masthead to echo Q magazine’s masthead, glow effects on sub text and plugs to create a psychedelic effect.
On my contents page, I began to understand the importance of layout and colour as I experimented with different layouts and text, I discovered that fewer colours and a simpler layout created a more stylish effect.
By the time I did my double page spread, I felt more confident about my creativity and spent alot of time experimenting and tried to match an image to the article I wanted to create: The article was an interview of a shy new rock star and I decided the title would be ‘The Two Faces Of Will Jones’ and wanted to match an image of this idea, I wanted to present the star looking round the side of a wall with half his face hidden, suggesting that he is withholding some of his personality. I was really pleased with this and thought it was very successful.
For my advanced portfolio, I was able to further develop some of the creative skills that I had learnt in previous projects but also learned to look at things from different points of view. I had never done video before so I had to learn to think how things would look when filmed; this led to me looking at things with a more creative eye, this was particularly useful in finding locations to match the narrative: for example, using a local alleyway our bikes to film the band cycling to the studio.
I was very pleased with the beginning of the video, a vinyl spinning on a record player which took us into the lead part of the video, a match cut with a bicycle wheel spinning. The success of this gave me the confidence to add more creative sections to the video, like a complex stop frame animation sequence: where I took stills of a synthesiser/keyboard and edited the photos to make it look like there was a transitional colour change in time to the music.
I wanted to enhance the relationship between lyrics and visuals, so decided to use scrabble and boggle letters to spell out the lyrics. These creative elements were edited in Photoshop then placed in the video timeline with the moving footage. I was really pleased with how this turned out, as it gave a professional but also psychedelic look to the video.
I wanted to add some colours onto the video to give it a psychedelic feel and used Adobe After Effects to add swirling colours to the spinning vinyl at the beginning to create the illusion of being drawn into the vinyl. I also used After Effects to colour-saturate elements to give a rich, deep look.
I created a grid of four, splitting the screen into four different sections of film to play simultaneously; I used this technique because it was a more creative way to show live performance. I wanted to demonstrate that the band were all individuals.
Experimenting with Adobe Premiere Pro resulted in sequences I was really proud of; it showed me how to use time lapse on sections of my footage, to speed up and slow down the film.
The magazine advert echoed images from the promotional video, as did the digipak design. The Digipak involved alot of creative thought and thinking, I had an image in mind that I wanted to use for the cover – the vinyl from my opening sequence – I was very keen to see my idea through that I forgot to check the dimensions and had to improvise by adding borders to make the correct dimensions for a digipak. In the end, I think this looked better so was lucky.
I used stills from the band performance and echoed the grid idea for the inner double spread, choosing the images and deciding on the layout introduced new skills that I had not used before. For example, I initially had images of two people playing guitar and bass next to each other and when I switched one of the guitarists with an image of the drummer, the whole balance was better.
I had used saturation in the foundation module on images and liked the visual impact this had so decided to use it again on the images and it lifted them considerably.
Skills in Research & Planning
Before I started my preliminary task, I knew very little about magazines apart from reading a lot of music magazines. The preliminary task was to produce the front cover of a school magazine displaying knowledge of the codes and conventions, for example: the basic layout of a magazine cover, typical house styles of font and setting, text size and general layout. It was obvious that a strong image was always used and that a barcode is vital for marketing it as a product.
My planning was visual; I knew what I wanted as my front image and managed to achieve it quickly with minimal advanced planning apart from for the photo shoot. This is reflected in the very simple cover I produced.
It was only when I started my Foundation Portfolio that I realised how much research was needed. In this brief, I had to produce the front cover, contents page and double page feature spread for a music magazine. I quickly realised that all three had to be linked: the double page feature had to be promoted on the cover and listed on the contents page etc.
Again, I turned to magazines for research, reading numerous music magazines and understanding the codes and conventions of magazines. I also used the web for reading online versions of the magazines and researched some facts and figures to base my magazine’s facts on.
Researching demographics was vital in planning and establishing my target audience so I gathered online information about the already established magazines and used their facts and figures to structure my target audience, therefore planning my product.
I researched the layout of contents pages, the impact of different colours of text on background and realised I was developing a more analytical eye the more closely I researched. This helped me considerably, I realised I would have to be very methodical and blogged everything as I went along as I realised that I would always be able to access my research and creative thoughts. I carefully planned photo shoots to produce images that would compliment my work.
For my Advanced Portfolio, I built on the research and planning skills I had acquired at Foundation Level. Only this time, I had to present my research and planning in a more creative form. I researched digipaks by looking at already existing media, when I had looked at magazines in foundation level, it was with a creative eye but I found that my research skills developed so that by the time I was researching digipaks and magazine advertising, I was looking with a much more analytical and enquiring eye.
Researching three different areas meant that I had a better overall idea of what my product should be like. I started to recognise trends in music marketing and the way promoters link marketing material. In this portfolio, I had a significant difference to my previous project in that I used YouTube for my research on music video.
I feel that I have developed a more critical eye when researching music video as I can now appreciate camera angles and creative elements and understand why they are there.
I wanted to present my work more creatively so used new forms of technology, for example: Prezi, and interactive PowerPoint that can use images, audio and moving image to replace lengthy essays and is very easy to use.
The other main platform I mastered was YUDU, I made my video treatment in PowerPoint to upload to YUDU, and this made my treatment very easy to understand by the reader as I could choose the format that YUDU showed my presentation. For example, it could display the slides as a book with turning pages, a magazine, brochure, catalogue etc, also giving viewer the ability to go back to any pages if they wanted to.
DAGADOP was a very efficient playlist service to use as it was able to store my ‘favourited’ videos from YouTube, meaning I could later reference them in my research – It was more like a diary with reminders than anything else.
Planning a music video shoot was much more complex than planning a photo shot due to more props/costumes, longer shoots, requiring permission from owners of the venues we wanted to use, more cast members so more people to control. I had to experiment with lighting, camera angles and plan how to shoot each separate section of the film so this took at least double the time it took to prepare the shoots on the Foundation Portfolio.
I had to be much more organised in my planning and research with these factors to consider, so I created a template for call sheets in Microsoft word which stated which shoot was taking place, the people required for the shoot with contact details, costume and props needed, the venue, the date and time and the predicted length of the shoot. So that I could guarantee all my cast members could make the shoot date, I posted all of my call sheets onto Facebook two weeks in advance of each respective shoot as well as onto my blog.
