Media A-Level Review - 2 (edited version)

Overview of my AS Media Course

Intro

This year was the first time I had ever done media as a course and also my first time on A-level and so when going from GCSE work to A-level was difficult because it was so much more focused than I expected and specifically oriented, so in the beginning it was hard to adapt to that type of work ethic in my chosen subjects.

However when it came to media , even though I hadn’t studied anything in relation to media before, when getting more involved in the course it felt like I had been doing the course my entire life and so this helped me figure out what I want to do in my life as a career aspect , previously I had wanted to do game design , then Korean studies but because of media and how fun the subject and the way my teachers taught me this is what got me hooked the subject and so for me this was a big step in terms of learning wise since it helped me want to try harder in my other subjects and also in terms of career aspects for the future, doing media as a job was the one I was most passionate about.

Overall in the course I got a D however this is due to me failing to do well on the media exam however, this is also fine for me because again this is also a learning curve for me and it also makes me want to strive to do my best so I can surpass that D grade.

Software

For the AS year I used multiple different types of software and these they were adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas pro 13 and Microsoft word/power point. For me I had already used all these types of software’s previous when I was in years 7-11. However Sony Vegas was the exception and so it was easy for me to do my work without the trouble of asking for help and so that made it easier for me and less stressful with the work load and so when it came to finally using Sony Vegas for the first time I had looked at the design and layout and realised that it wasn’t as complex as I thought because it looked and had the same feel to windows movie maker.

The time I started using Sony Vegas Pro 13 was around Christmas and this was to edit the video I had to make where I had to present to the group a PowerPoint I made on PowToon, it contained seven questions which I had to answer relating to my course work, this was the same time one of our teachers which I was supposed to have at the start of the year returned, this was Mrs McDonald-Holmes and so this was also good for the class because she was more experienced with Sony Vegas then my other teacher, however I only had her lessons on Tuesday and Fridays so when it came to learning Sony Vegas I had to learn ourselves and so I just used google to pick up the more complex stuff and the things which I didn’t know like green screen , transitions , cuts and etc.

How I developed as an individual

This year was a roller-coaster for me because I had just come out of GCSE and so when coming in to A Level I thought it would be similar to GCSE and I also thought I had it figured out in terms of planning my future, I was wrong and going through the year I learned so much in terms of manging time more efficiently, the work load and exception is much higher,  if you miss maybe two deadlines or ire off for two tasks it makes your life so much harder and that time management structure you might have had planned goes out the window,  my grades for this year in Media and I.C.T AS ire both D’s overall and so for me it opened up my eyes that if I had given it my all near the start of the year I would have better grades and I wouldn’t feel so awful when I look at that grade or I hear others in the class got C’s or B’s and etc. So with all these experience and so much more I haven’t named or have yet to learn it has helped me and will help me develop because for me I was and still am someone who will laze around doing nothing or procrastinate and so just thinking back through the year I made a lot of mistakes and didn’t really care but now it’s different I am trying to beat these bad habits and become someone better so for me it has helped me a lot and had developed me from this ignorant , oblivious , whatever attitude to someone who wants to do good on his A levels and cares about his course work so you could say that the first year of A-Level reformed me and my stand point on things.

How I developed Technical Skills

I developed technical skills by using google to research what I needed to know then once I knew the information I just applied and tested it myself and so because of that I got better at that specific thing I had researched, an example of me doing this is with Sony Vegas 11 and researching about green screen work because when it came to green screen work I was linked to some tutorials in our shared drive but those tutorials didn’t really help because the way the person explained it didn’t help so when trying to follow his instructions it wasn’t working because it was just a messy explanation not to mention I are using Sony Vegas 11 and he was using Sony Vegas 13 and so the best next thing was to use google and YouTube to find it and so when looking for about 5 minutes I decided to go with the first post because with the way google works is that it gives you the most viewed video and normally that’s the best because a lot of people have watched it to find out about green screen work like me and it was like that because the video I was watching explained it clearly and made it easy to follow and from then on I can use green screen work to a good standard because I understand how to use green screen and what do with green screen. I also developed a lot of other skills like making a double page spread in Photoshop to doing my own research and asking people in the school what they like in magazines and what would be a good magazine.

How I developed theories

I developed theories in the lesson and what I mean by this is I was given theories to learn for our A-level exam and there was a bunch and to name a few one was props theory and this is the theory that everything no matter what has a Tv show , music video , film and etc, they all will have a hero , villain and donor and its exactly what it says a hero to save the day , a villain to try and ruin the day and a donor who helps the hero try and save the day. I learnt this theory around the same time or after the Sony Vegas work which was around Christmas and this was influential because it made me question a lot of things I watched because in the back of my mind I was always thinking and questioning if prop’s theory fit in this scenario and if so, how did it fit and more questions like that.  Another theory is the gratifications theory and this theory is the study of people and how they uses media and what motivates this use and is that motivation the same with all people or does it differ which each person and so the people who try and communicate via face to face and talk instead of on that type of media will also change and then start to also uses the media as an outlet because they are limited to what the can do and say because their isn’t a two way conversation it’s just one person talking and another on their phone and so I theory also influenced my life because it made me take a step back and think about what how I act and how I use the media and I at that time I really tried to cut back from using media as much and so instead of using it as an escape or an outlet I used it as another form of communication with Facebook messenger , snapchat , WhatsApp and etc .