Skills

Terminology

Theories

Photoshop

Blogger

PowerPoint

Adobe Design

Microsoft Word

Scanning

Evaluation

File Organisation

Photography Skills

Use of Sound

Planning and Note Taking

Research

What is the most important thing to do

next year?

I haven't learnt this yet so it will be something we look at next year.

The terminology of Media Studies at A Level is very similar to GCSE especially for the magazine construction. However, with the textual analysis unit, we went into more detail in how to analyse the clip and get the higher marks. For example in GCSE, for the sound, we only knew diegetic and non-diegetic sound whereas this year, we learnt terms such as ‘incidental music’ and ‘ambient sound’.

For the Film Industry unit, the terminology was new to us. We learnt terms such as ‘exhibition’, ‘distribution’ and ‘above/below the line costs’.

For A2, the advanced terminology of analysing a clip will help in creating the music video as I can create a more professional video with improved camera angles to suit the genre of the song.

As I studied Media Studies at GCSE, I had a thorough understanding of how to use Photoshop using tools such as ‘magic eraser’ to remove the background of images and the ‘red eye tool’. However, at A Level, I learnt how to use new tools that made the appearance of my work look more professional which also, were time saving. For example, the ‘magnetic lasso tool’ allows you to draw a line around a specific piece of the image and remove the rest of the background that is not needed. This was a lot more effective than using an eraser as it gave a smooth edge to the image.Overall, I think I have improved my Photoshop skills as I have a better understanding of the editing tools that can be used.

I had never used Blogger before and so it was entirely new to me. At first I struggled as I found it hard to navigate around the site and was not sure how to change the layout of my blog or change the settings such as ‘language and formatting’ to change the time zone. After using the site more often to post my work, I became more familiar with how to use it and eventually did not have any problems.

Using Blogger was inconvenient at some times. For example, after posting an image, we could not see it and therefore, found it hard to know what work we had and hadn't done and could not relate back to it.

I have known how to use PowerPoint since I first started I.T lessons in Junior School, therefore I did not have any difficulty using this programme.

I mainly used PowerPoint for my research and analysis of existing magazines as it was easy to use arrows and text boxes. Also, it was simple and fast to upload them to blogger through SlideShare.com.

I haven't learnt this yet so it will be something we look at next year.

I had a very thorough understanding of how to use Word. Throughout creating my magazine, I rarely used Word apart from my audience research questionnaire and planning photo shoots. It was simple to use this programme as it was mainly used for text. Again, it was easy to upload the documents to Blogger using SlideShare.com.

I haven't learnt this yet so it will be something we look at next year.

For our evaluation, we had to use a range of different programmes to show that we had knowledge of how to use different technology.

For my evaluation, I did questions 1-4 on PowerPoint and questions 5-7 on Prezi. I had never used Prezi before so found it quite difficult at first, however after spending some time on it, I found it a lot easier and was able to add images and edit it if needed.

I knew how to use PowerPoint, however I do feel that I could have used more of the techniques on the programme to get a higher mark such as transitions and animations.

As all work was done on the computer and online, organisation of work and files was essential in order to make it easier to keep up to date with what work was done and what wasn't. It also saved time. On my blog, I added labels to my work to make it simpler to find and organise my work into different categories. This was also helpful for the teacher, as it made it easier to mark work.

As I used a range of different programmes , I made a file for each programme so I knew where everything was.

For my images, I used a range a of angles to create a different feel to the images. I used a low angle to make my model look superior as it was a rock magazine which is associated with being rebellious.

I used a long shot as I wanted the speaker and guitar to be included in the image to highlight that the magazine was all about ‘real’ music.

I haven't learnt this yet so it will be something we look at next year.

Throughout the construction, I didn’t make many notes as it was all done on the computer. The only time I made notes was to plan for the evaluation. For this, I noted down what should be included in each question.

An example of planning that I did was for my photo shoots. For this I wrote about: costume, make-up, hair, where, when, props, photographer and model.

I mostly did my research into existing classic rock magazines, especially Mojo Magazine. This helped me in creating my magazine as I could follow conventions and what should be included in my magazine.

The most important thing to do next year is keep up to date with work and not fall behind. To do this, good file organisation is needed so time isn't wasted looking for work that may or may not be completed. Also, all work should be kept so you can show the stages of development resulting in a higher mark.