In my previous pre-production and practical work which I completed in As Media last year I created a music magazine to reflect the genre 'Hip-hop/RnB'. From creating this practical it benifited me as I have now have a lot of strengths I can use to produce another practical for my A2 media coursework, although from making a music magaizne I also learnt that I have many weaknesses that I need to work on to improve.
Researching existing media from either magazines or by using the Internet/ Web 2.0 and then applying all of this research into a detailed analysis on my blog. I found out that this was a strength of mine, I felt relatively confident in doing this. By researching different types of media products and analysising their work, i.e picking out what type of camera shot they used, font to reflect the genre has helped me to gain ideas to build upon and in the process I also learnt many researching skills that I could use in my practical. By researching existing media products it allowed me to learn alot about how a company can think of an idea/ a genre and then bring the genre across to the audience by using particular colors and fonts. I researched many media products when creating my practical. This skill was a strength of mine because I could find a product and then evaluate it in detail onto my blog without any problems and I felt confident with doing this.
The weaknesses in my pre-production that I seemed to struggle doing were the Instiutions research and applying this towards my practical. When researching companies that would distribute my music magazine I researched on the internet to find suitable companies. I should have researched these companies in more depth by using more resources such as magazines and books to have more knowledge on the company and possibly found more existing companies I could have chosen to use. Also a weakness of mine was not applying enough detail to my blog abou the company that could have distributed my music magazine due to not researching in depth about the companies. This would have made the evaluation alot easier and it would have also given me a lot more time to work with as I spent a while researching through the internet to find a suitable company. Although researching a company in depth was my weakness it has helped me to learn researching skills and how I can get this information from the internet and use this in my work, I can use these skills for my A2 practical work.
Another weakness of mine was Time Management. Time is a very important section that needs to be planned of effectively in order to finish the pracitcal on time. I spent a lot of time on my pre- production researching and applying information onto a blog so I could go back and refer to the information when working on my practical. I spent a lot of time doing this because I needed to make sure I understood what to include on a music magazine and to make sure I researched enough about how a music magazine is reflected to a particular audience.
When producting my practical my stronger areas were planning my layouts and making sure I used all of the space well and did not make everything on my front cover, contents page and double page spread look to compacked and making sure all of the information was readable.
I made sure I knew what types of images I wanted to include in my magazine and I had to make sure this reflected my genre to a wide audience.
Whereas a main weaker area of mine was using photoshop as it was only my second time with using the software and having to remember how to edit and use certain tools was difficult, such as the 'magic wand tool' this was were you had to be as careful as possible when cutting an image to make sure the edges were smooth and not rugged. I have definitly learnt alot through using the software and producing my practical on this, but this is an area that I could improve on.
Through doing a pre production practical where I had to produce a college magazine using the Photoshop software this allowed me to see what challenge my Practical would be for me. It helped me alot because after producing my pre-production practical I knew what to expect and I had began to grasp some skills such as how to change the color font, background and how to move certain text boxs around using the software. By doing research I learnt alot about different types of genres and how they reflect them to the audience through different colors, pictures and layouts.
Working on your own can be quite difficult at times because you have to do the whole practical to your best standards all by yourself and the research has to be done by yourself. Both of these areas take alot of time and alot of work has to be done in a specific amount of time which will make it harder when you only have yourself to rely on. Although working in a group comes along with alot of responsibilites and group members are relying on you constantly to do your bit for the practical thats why when working on your own you only have yourself to rely on and do not have to work about others not doing something wrong, but also you are more independent and can get the job done quicker.
Overall, I think that I have learnt alot of skills since producing my A-level practical that I can carry through to my A2 practical and build upon these skills. With my strengths I can carry on working on them and improving them when working on the practical, whereas with my weaknesses I can work hard to improve on them and produce a practical that reflects my skills and knowledge at a high standard.
