Media Studies AS

1. EVALUATION 6

2. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
• Before constructing my product I had never used Photoshop in my life but now I have fully learnt how to use and use it
properly, my A2 blog helped me a lot as I gained more experience from Photoshop by developing my horror poster and I have
transferred these skills to enhance my products as part of my AS retake. Before making my product I wasn’t aware of specific
camera shots but now I am so I knew which photos would work best with my product and the difference between shots
became apparent to me which helped me greatly., my A2 blog also helps me again as experimenting with the camera was key
in that and I can again transfer the skills to help develop my AS retake blog. When making my product the pictures I took
were on my phone and some were on a camera, I used these as I needed more megapixels for my picture to produce a
picture with better resolution so my magazine would look better. To get the pictures on my laptop I blue toothed the ones on
my phone to the laptop and I plugged the SD card from the camera into the laptop to get them pictures; this really helped
me as I understood how to transfer over pictures. Furthermore I never had a blog before either so it was a new thing to me
but now I am fully capable of using it as it appears to be quite basic. Photoshop was difficult to use as there were many
advanced tools and these tools were hard to use as well. Photoshop to me was an advanced paint but that was good as
everything I made was made to high quality and perfection whereas on paint there is always room for error. I have learnt
how to make media conventions such as a strong masthead and cover lines which I think will be of great aid in the future and
that really benefited my magazine as well. Constructing this product also helped me how to use a mac as I had never used
one before and now I know how to and it was very difficult. Learning the new technologies was hard work but self-
explanatory. My A2 blog gave me more experience in using these technologies and software which was a massive boost
when remaking products as part of my AS retake.

3. EVALUATION 7

4. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU
FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT?
• I have learnt how to use colour effectively as in the preliminary task I was randomly experimenting with
colours but now I have chosen a colour scheme that works and stuck with it, this shows maturity and
professionalism. The camera shots I have taken now are easier to cut and also shot better with high
quality. I have also made the magazine itself look more professional and better as the masthead looks
nicer and stands out more and the picture’s I have used are higher quality and more attractive. I have
also improved the contents page vastly as on the preliminary task it was pretty poor but now its clever
and attractive and I got that inspiration from a music magazine I analysed. This time I have taken my
survey into a lot of consideration whereas in the preliminary task I didn’t really use it for my product. I
have learnt how to make conventions looks a lot better and use the Photoshop software better which
greatly aided me. The progression I have made is great because I had never done a double page spread
before but because I had learnt the conventions properly and the software I was able to make it to
good standard which I thought was great.

5. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU
FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT? AS RETAKE RESPONSE
• I have progressed massively from my original AS blog and a lot of that progression has been down to my
A2 blog. Creating the front cover for my music magazine was similar to making my horror poster cover
and although I used different conventions the development in Photoshop was very similar which aided
progression as I gained further experience with the software and how to use it more affectively to
produce a better product. In addition to that my double page spread is similar to my double page
review in my A2 blog, this is good as it allows me to create two double page spreads in different genres.
This is effective as I am able to make a double page spread in two genres which is good as I gain a solid
understanding of the most popular conventions used in double page reviews. For example it helped me
understand an article is more effective than a questionnaire but also to add additional information like
an album list of the artist for example as the makes the product more compelling to the audience.