AS Media Studies Review
When I first started Media Studies last year I didn't know what kind of work I would be doing because I have never studied this subject before but the teacher quickly drawn my attention after explaining what the course is about and what we will be doing. However, I was still a late comer to the subject which meant that I was behind on work and behind on knowledge compared to the other students. This meant that I had to use my own time to catch up on the work and push myself to get to the same level as the other students and to push further so I could do well in the subject.
When I first started researching for Media Studies I had to learn about different editing software's for pictures and videos such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign both of which I had very little knowledge of. I now believe I have a good level of understanding of these software's due to my research and through using them to expand my skills of these programs. I can now edit the lighting in a picture to change how it might make the audience feel which could be dark and gloomy or happy and joyful, other ways I can edit images is by changing the camera angles and use different types of shots to make an image look more professional and creative. I also learnt about green screening which will enable me to use a boring/simple picture and change the background to make it look more interesting and exciting, I developed my knowledge of this enough to use it effectively.
The image below reflects the development of my skills from the start of my media studies course compared to the end of it in year 12, it shows the dramatic change in my skills and techniques of using these different software's up to this point in my media course. The research I done at the start of my media studies course helped me to create my first magazine designs because I found a lot of different types of magazines which all looked very different so I was able to create my own original design, further research then helped me to develop my ideas to make them look professional so that I could post them on my blogger page and increase my marks. In the first few weeks of my year 12 media course I learnt how to create a more structured magazine front cover which would attract a larger target audience. For example, instead of using a long shot and getting someone's full body I used a close-up shot of someone's face to make the front cover look attractive and make it comply with the codes and conventions.
I have really enjoyed my first year in my media studies course because unlike most other subjects it has been very fun even when we have just been sitting in the classroom. We have been on a school trip to Media City in Salford which was very interesting as we went on a tour through multiple media stations like Sky Sports and BBC News. We were shown around some sets of where past and current TV shows are filmed so that we could understand how complicated it actually is to successfully film a show and show us everything that is required to enable these stations to film their shows.
I took many pictures of our tour around Media City including this one, it shows one of my friends in my class who volunteered to get up and see what it is like for weather reporters to present the weather on live TV, he quickly discovered just how hard it is as the screen he looks at to see the weather is actually the opposite way around to the way he has to face. This helped us to understand that it isn't very easy to stand in front of a green screen and point to different cities and tell the audience what the weather is going to be. Our tour guide was able to do a practise shoot so that we could feel how nerve wrecking it is like to be on live news and a few of my classmates discovered that they would like to go into this for their future career.
The reason we went on this trip was to expand our knowledge of Media Studies and to get an insight of what we should be aiming for in the future. I found this trip very fascinating as I was shown different equipment that is used by the BBC to film their news such as the cameras and microphones. When we were shown around the BBC News studio it had at least 5 cameras at the back which each cost a massive £150,000. The difference between what I learnt on the school trip and what I learn in class was that the trip helped me realise how much effort I need to put in and I need to push myself further than required if I want a future career in Media, whereas in class we don't actually realise this so we only do the work we are asked to do.
When I researched backgrounds I could use for my magazine I couldn't find any places that I could go to and take my own pictures, I went to Liverpool City Centre and looked around there for some good background images but I couldn't find any that would work well with my music genre, so instead I used images off the internet and edited them into the background of my magazine, these are some of the images I found that I could of used.
When I first started researching for Media Studies I had to learn about different editing software's for pictures and videos such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign both of which I had very little knowledge of. I now believe I have a good level of understanding of these software's due to my research and through using them to expand my skills of these programs. I can now edit the lighting in a picture to change how it might make the audience feel which could be dark and gloomy or happy and joyful, other ways I can edit images is by changing the camera angles and use different types of shots to make an image look more professional and creative. I also learnt about green screening which will enable me to use a boring/simple picture and change the background to make it look more interesting and exciting, I developed my knowledge of this enough to use it effectively.
The image below reflects the development of my skills from the start of my media studies course compared to the end of it in year 12, it shows the dramatic change in my skills and techniques of using these different software's up to this point in my media course. The research I done at the start of my media studies course helped me to create my first magazine designs because I found a lot of different types of magazines which all looked very different so I was able to create my own original design, further research then helped me to develop my ideas to make them look professional so that I could post them on my blogger page and increase my marks. In the first few weeks of my year 12 media course I learnt how to create a more structured magazine front cover which would attract a larger target audience. For example, instead of using a long shot and getting someone's full body I used a close-up shot of someone's face to make the front cover look attractive and make it comply with the codes and conventions.
I have really enjoyed my first year in my media studies course because unlike most other subjects it has been very fun even when we have just been sitting in the classroom. We have been on a school trip to Media City in Salford which was very interesting as we went on a tour through multiple media stations like Sky Sports and BBC News. We were shown around some sets of where past and current TV shows are filmed so that we could understand how complicated it actually is to successfully film a show and show us everything that is required to enable these stations to film their shows.
I took many pictures of our tour around Media City including this one, it shows one of my friends in my class who volunteered to get up and see what it is like for weather reporters to present the weather on live TV, he quickly discovered just how hard it is as the screen he looks at to see the weather is actually the opposite way around to the way he has to face. This helped us to understand that it isn't very easy to stand in front of a green screen and point to different cities and tell the audience what the weather is going to be. Our tour guide was able to do a practise shoot so that we could feel how nerve wrecking it is like to be on live news and a few of my classmates discovered that they would like to go into this for their future career.
The reason we went on this trip was to expand our knowledge of Media Studies and to get an insight of what we should be aiming for in the future. I found this trip very fascinating as I was shown different equipment that is used by the BBC to film their news such as the cameras and microphones. When we were shown around the BBC News studio it had at least 5 cameras at the back which each cost a massive £150,000. The difference between what I learnt on the school trip and what I learn in class was that the trip helped me realise how much effort I need to put in and I need to push myself further than required if I want a future career in Media, whereas in class we don't actually realise this so we only do the work we are asked to do.
When I researched backgrounds I could use for my magazine I couldn't find any places that I could go to and take my own pictures, I went to Liverpool City Centre and looked around there for some good background images but I couldn't find any that would work well with my music genre, so instead I used images off the internet and edited them into the background of my magazine, these are some of the images I found that I could of used.
To conclude my year 12 AS Media Studies experience, I have really enjoyed what we have been doing so far and I think that it has helped me to get to know my te4achers and not only has it helped with my creativity in my media work but it has heled me to be more creative when doing work for other subjects and think more outside the box.
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