Dear Future A Level student, My name is Destiny Blackwood and I am currently at the Guernsey Grammar School and Sixth form Center where I am studying A Level Media. Media Studies is not easy at all. However, it is worth all of the work. Over the course of six months, I have already acquired multiple production skills which cover technical, creative and transferable skills. Some of the amazing skills you will come across include photoshop, camera and photography techniques,design skills, magazine design conventions and plenty more. The course is an amazing opportunity to expand the options you will have when it comes to finding a job. These skills can be used in areas of the job community that you probably haven’t thought of. For example, if you’re interested in the business and media industry, you can go down the marketing route and design logos for businesses. Throughout the course, you will develop these skills and become an advanced A Level student with many production skills which will look amazing on your CV! As you read on, I will go into detail on how I progressed with these skills.
From the start of the course, I have developed my skills majorly when it comes to technical production skills, which includes InDesign, using a DSLR camera, photoshop and the flash equipment. These softwares have had a massive impact on my work when it came to creating my magazine as they helped me portray my chosen music genre, telling a story through my magazine. A specific production skill that really helped with the development of my magazine was InDesign, more specifically the airbrush tool.
This tool allowed me to smoothen out my models faces and get rid of any blemishes they had, giving them more of a glam look. This tool helped enhance my models’ youth, giving them a fresh look, helping reflect my chosen genre and convey the vibe I was aiming for. However, when using the airbrush tool you don’t want to overdo it as it can cause the image to become blurry and ruin the quality of it.
Whilst learning creative production skills, you will learn skills such as; mise-en-scene,body language, makeup,hair, photo location, costumes and many more. For my chosen genre, I had to ensure that my costumes were clear as to what genre it is as I didn’t include many props. As my genre is RnB/Pop, my model’s facial expressions were quite neutral, meaning that I needed to emphasize other aspects of MES to help portray the star image my target audience are interested in. With that in mind, I made sure I used completely different outfits in every photoshoot for each model, widening the range of costumes in my magazine to not only ensure my genre is conveyed well enough, but to also add more excitement in my magazine for my target audience, giving them a range of things to look at.
During the course, you will learn transferable production skills that can be used outside of the media industry. This includes software skills,critical thinking,listening,organization ,time management and so on. Furthermore, you will use a different platform such as ‘YouGov’ to do research for your branding ideas. We used YouGov to collect information on our target audience, more specifically their preferred demographics and psychographics.
Going into detail on one of these skills, I made sure I was organized before my photoshoots, reducing stress on me and my model’s and moreover, making it easier and quicker when it came to the day of the shoots. Using a PMA (production meeting agenda), ensured that I didn’t forget any aspects of MES in my shoot. It acted as a checklist for my shoot,allowing me to check off everything I intended to include the shoot. A PMA is an easily transferable skill throughout your life, you can use it no matter how small the task is, ensuring that you don’t forget anything. By using a PMA, it helped maximize my time during the photoshoot and guaranteeing I included everything that I needed.
Overall, I think media studies is a great A-level to take as you learn so many skills that will come in handy not just in the media industry, but in your everyday life.
I wish you the best of luck!
- Destiny Blackwood