AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio: 2014

What have you learnt from completing this task?
In recent weeks I learned a lot in Media Studies. I previously thought it would be easy for me because I’ve got in Germany a subject which is very similar to Media Studies but it wasn’t. In the last hour I have learned so much. I learned to use the basic of Photoshop in the lesson. Also in Germany I could do that but it was not same. Here I am allowed to learn Photoshop in more depth. The Photoshop at Wyke College is in English. I don’t know most of the words therefore I had to try out a lot by myself in Photoshop. Actually I am very happy about it because I can improve myself and also YouTube videos were a big help for me. I think I understand Photoshop much more than ever before because of self-study. I also found my self-study lesson useful and learned to be more independent. In Photoshop I learned to explore the tools and learned to edit a photo in different ways. I have found that you can edit a photo in Photoshop in many different ways but in the end it can still look the same. I have never worked with a MacBook before or ever tested it. So it was for me at first really difficult to understand the system. But after a few hours on the MacBook it was not so hard for me. I learned in Media Studies to use a MacBook and the various functions of it. In addition, I never learned to use PowerPoint in English before only in German. Of course, I knew most of the functions but it is still strange to use it in English because sometimes I was not sure whether that is what I wanted. Therefore it has sometimes confused me. I have a Blog at Google Chrome for Media Studies. There I learned to blog.

How have you used technology?
During the work “Preliminary task” I used a lot of technology. I started at first with PowerPoint because in my opinion I think this is the simplest method to edit a page for the blog. Unfortunately, I couldn’t open PowerPoint at home on my laptop and this is the reason why I changed to PhotoScape. I have used PhotoScape for more than 5 years and it is for me quite easy to understand photo edit programme. I prefer PhotoScape rather than PowerPoint because with PhotoScape you have more options than with PowerPoint. It also enables me to be more creative. While I worked at home on my windows7 laptop on the design of the pages for my blog, I used a school Mac computer. There I worked with Photoshop on my magazine in the Media Studies lesson. In my free-study lesson I used the normal computer in the library to continue to edit my magazine. But since I realised that I would not get it ready at school, I took it home on my USB stick and edited the magazine on Photoshop CS6 on the MacBook of my host sister. Unfortunately her Photoshop was in Swedish so I could not understand. But I didn’t mind. For this, YouTube helped me a lot. I have used YouTube to watch simple tutorial of Photoshop. This I imitate on the school computer to improve my skills. So I did not need to understand. I knew from the videos roughly where everything is. After the edit I did screenshots of the screen with the Sniping Tool. I saved all files like photos on my USB stick, which I posted on my blog.

What Conventions have I used?

Masthead:

For my magazine I have chosen the name „Imagine“. I've been thinking for a long time about the name for my magazine and had 6 to choose from but I liked the name „Imagine “ the most. From the beginning I wanted a college magazine that shows not only the life in the college and the normal everyday student life but also topics like their dreams and wishes. Dreams and wishes like to go abroad or have good grades. The title „Imagine “makes the students think about the future and demand them to imagine having a good degree and a good life. This should support them in college and help them remember to do more for college. What I want to reach with the title “Imagine” is that the students imagine what they want to achieve in their life. The masthead is behind the main image. In addition, the price hides part of the masthead. This shows that the magazine is known by the audience.

Main Image:
In the main image you can see a girl. For me it was the most important thing that the main character is wearing clothes which match her school equipment and bag. I have also tried to take the colour match together and in the same colour scheme. I really wanted that the direction of the colour scheme was blue to green because these colours are neutral. I also wanted that boys should not feel embarrassed to buy this magazine. The name of my main character is „Alexandra Larsson“. You can see it in the main cover line. She wears a typical college shirt. So I want to clearly indicate that this is a real college magazine with the shirt because the name of the magazine does not show that it is for a college in the title.The main cover line is about Alexandra. Under the main cover line you can see a bag with the print „EF“. This should be a hint on what she means by „best year of my life“. In the background you can see red bricks. This highlights that this picture is taken in England. I wanted this to be another hint to show more clearly that the main person is an exchange student. Alexandra looks straight into the camera. So I want the magazine to appeal to the audience when they see Alexandra who is smiling and seems to be pleased with her college.

Main Cover line:

The main cover line is about the person on the front cover. It is, after the masthead, the biggest written sentence. I wanted that the first view falls on Alexandra and then slowly down to the main cover line and then at last more clearly on the bag with the print „EF“.

Cover line:

The cover line are distributed on the left and right side of my magazine, so we can see Alexandra first. It was important for me that they are a good fit and are connected to each other. Normally, people read a magazine from top to bottom. So I thought I could invent cover lines which match together and also depend on each other. An example would be, if someone is interested in going to the Halloween party, he will also be interested in seeing the „Halloween Glams“. The left side is mostly about the upcoming Halloween and on the right side there are the cover lines about topics which interest college students in general. And also the cover lines are in the same colour scheme as the main character, in dark blue, light blue and white.

Dateline & Issue Number & Price & Barcode & Plug:

A dateline is a piece of text which describes when the magazine was written. The issue number shows from which issuing the magazine is. My barcode is on the left side at the bottom. I have not entered the price next to the barcode because I think it is much more creative to have it separately. So I can also let the price stand out more. It also attracts because the price is quite large and it is on a round outstanding circular on the masthead. The plug is placed on the right side below. I have edited it out because I wanted it to balance the Cover of my magazine, so that the magazine cover is not affected too much with free spaces or too less.

What I would change?
I wish I had chosen Media Studies directly at the beginning of this year, so i could follow the lessons better and could be at the same level as the other students now. I started Media Studies very late and in a short time I needed to do a lot of works; it was a bit hard because I have not managed my time. If I could do it again, I would improve my time management and manage my work time better. This is the main thing that I could improve on. I also think if I could I would change the quality of my front cover image to a better one. For example I would like to take a picture with more pixels and a better light because I took it against the sun light. I would also support my Photoshop skills more, so I could edit the front cover of my magazine more professional.