This document is a personal skills audit for Alexander Hester. It summarizes the digital skills he acquired in Media Studies, including using cameras, editing software like FinalCut and GarageBand, and design software like Photoshop. He explains how these skills helped create his past productions and how he will apply them to his upcoming A2 project, which will be a music video requiring skills in filming, editing, sound design, and visual presentation. Specifically, he will use FinalCut for editing, Photoshop for packaging design, and apply knowledge of filming techniques and conventions from analyzing other media texts.

1. Personal Skills Audit Name: Alexander Hester
Skills acquired How did these skills
contribute to the creation of
your product?
How will you develop these
skills during the A2 project?
Digital technology
- What
equipment/software
packages did you use to
produce your
production?
Throughout Media I have
gathered a lot of new
knowledge on how to create
pieces of media using a range
of things such as cameras, and
various different pieces of
editing software such as
GarageBand, FinalCut, Adobe
Photoshop and other websites
to share my work in a creative
way such as Prezi and
Slideshare.
The new uses of cameras I
found helped greatly in creating
a more realistic final production
also GarageBand will allow me
to add sounds and effects that
made my final piece a lot more
interesting and professional.
Also the skills I learnt using
FinalCut were essential to
creating my piece as filming my
piece in one continuous shot
would’ve been near impossible
to do and also it would have
gotten me near no marks. And
finally the skills I achieved on
Photoshop allowed me to
create an advert for my final
product that seemed realistic
and believable.
The skills with Photoshop will
allow my group and me to
create a realistic and believable
digipack for our music video.
The skills on FinalCut are again
essential to creating our music
video as there will be many
shots from different angles and
we simply won’t be able to
create a believable music video
with the right angles and shots
from just one simultaneous
take, also again I doubt it will
achieve my group anything of
worth mark-wise. GarageBand I
feel will not play such a big part
in this production due to a lot if
not all of the sound being done
with a single track that isn’t
found on GarageBand. Finally
the new skills with using
cameras will allow my group
and me to create a fully

2. believable video that will
incorporate all of the angles and
shots that you would expect to
see in a real and professional
video.
Post production
- What software did you
use to create your
production?
- Discuss specific features
of the software.
FinalCut editing software
played a big part in the creation
of my final AS production along
with GarageBand that allowed
me to add sound effects to my
piece.
FinalCut allowed me to put my
piece together quite well and
edit out snippets and bits of film
that were irrelevant to the
production and GarageBand
allowed me to add sound
effects that gave the production
a more authentic feel.
I plan on continuing to use
FinalCut in my A2 production to
piece together a successful
Final music production however
I feel that the GarageBand
software will play a lesser role
as all the sound in the
production belongs to a single
track however it maybe will
feature in the opening to the
video.
Research and Planning
- What tasks did you
complete when
preparing to film your
sequence?
- How did your planning
help the smooth
progression of your film?
We were first given a
preliminary task, which was to
go and film a short 1 – 2 minute
sequence that used our range
of media knowledge so far such
as camera angles, shots and
editing.
This was a taster for what we
would have to do in our final
product and I feel that it was
worth going out and getting a
feel for the camera and editing
software so that it was a lot
easier later on when we were
tasked with creating out final
assessed product.
We will continue using different
camera angles and lighting
effects to carry through certain
feels and messages in our later
productions as I feel they play a
certain part that helps get
across a message that we
would want to get across in our
music video.
Using conventions of real
media texts
- Which texts did you
I analysed texts such as
opening credits for movies such
as spider man and lord of the
Learning about how the
opening credits are set out in
the recent movies helped my
I shall analyse music videos in
the same way to get an idea of
how artists map out openings to

3. analyse?
- Did you take any
inspiration from the
conventions found from
your research?
rings to get ideas of how some
of the biggest movies to date
set their openings and how they
set out cast, director and
producers etc.
group and me to map out how
we wanted to set up the
opening credits for our final
production and how to do it
effectively.
their singles and albums then
apply this to my group’s work to
make it more real and
believable.
Creativity
- were our ideas for your
portfolio imaginative and unique
or did you adhere to
conventions?
Throughout the course I learnt
new ways to present my work
that made it pleasant to look at
and not just sticking to plain
word documents.
Learning of these new ways to
present my productions and
analyses, I shared a lot of my
work through websites such as
prezi which is interactive and
pleasant to look at whilst others
I displayed on slideshare which
keeps looking at the info simple
and easy.
I plan to continue some ideas
gained from AS such as
presenting posts in prezi and
slideshare however I shall also
look for more interactive and
visually attractive ways to
present work that I have
produced.