Grammar School and Sixth form Centre

Les Varendes 

St. Andrew’s

Guernsey

GY6 8TD

Dear future A levels Media Studies student 

Hi I’m Evie and am an A Level Media Studies student and Grammar Sixth Form. I would like to talk to you about the opportunity to take the course and tell you all about a level media and all the many things that you will learn from partaking in the course.  Throughout the course you will learn a number of skills within the three categories: technical, creative and transferable. Within these you will also learn to use software programs like photoshop, Indesign and how to properly use a camera.     

From the start of the course the first project is constructing your own music magazine. You will research different magazines and learn the conventions in order to make your work successful. You will also research who your audience will be based on your chosen genre of music and will take into account the demographics and psychographics of your target audience. Throughout the making of this project you will gather a large range of technical skills. For example, Edublogs for posting, embedding and linking documents. Adobe Indesign for effects, backgrounds, fonts, layouts, sizing etc. Adobe photoshop for masking, airbrushing, fonts, filters etc. Lastly, Flash photography & DSLR for shutter speed and aperture. 

In particular I found being able to edit your text and change the sizing, fonts and different effects, such as drop shadows, highlights ect to make them eye catching to the audience and unique. I also used the dodge tool from photoshop which enabled me to brighten my models lips and eyes to make them stand out and look more effective. This tool was very helpful to me as it enhanced the photo and represented my model as young, individual and fresh faced and created the star image that I wanted to convey and fit with my music genre and appeal to my target audience. 

In media you also develop a lot of creative production skills, including design, costume, photography, make up, hair , mes en scene, photo location and body language. As well as the importance of props, pose and colours. These are all important parts of making media as they will represent your genre and portray your star image to your audience. 

When doing my photoshoot for my magazine I made sure to do my models’ make up, hair and costume in a way that would make her appeal to the demographics and psychographics of my audience. For example, I did her make up minimalist yet glamorous for a clean and put together look as my target audience are female and interested in beauty. They are millennials and Gen X so that the look would be something that could relate to or try themselves and would attract them.

In addition, you will also develop understanding in transferable skills that will be useful elsewhere in life. These skills consist of critical thinking, software skills, organisation, research skills, time management, collaboration skills and more. You will also use a number of different online platforms for research, such as pinterest for branding ideas and using apps to communicate. These will help impact your products and ensure that you are able to create your product to the best ability possible. 

For example, when planning for our main photoshoot I was able to plan times with my models according to our timetables and finding times that could work for both of us. I made sure my models were organised by creating a production meeting agenda. This allowed me to plan their outfits, make up, props, timings and locations of the photoshoots. This organisation enabled me to let my models know where to be at what time, and anything that they may need to bring. For example, my model brought a certain pair of coloured trousers to wear and specific jewellery, and I brought the rest of her clothing and did her make up that was needed in order to convey the pop star image I needed.

Overall, I think media studies is a very good subject if you are a creative person as you can show this off in your work. If you want to develop your transferable and technical skills further the course will allow you to learn these skills which may be helpful later on in life. If you have any interest in the many topics that I have discussed then I would recommend media studies for you. 

Evie Bougourd

In the 21st century media is a huge part of people’s lives. For entertainment, social, information, or personal identity reasons. Being a part of this myself, I am both a consumer and producer of media. I made this collage to show what media I use and for the reasons I use it in my day to day life.  Creating my media diet has taught me the uses and gratifications in creating a popular and successful media post. For example I use netflix as a form of entertainment, social interaction, personal identity and information. this shows how Netflix is a successful media text because it ticks all of these gratifications. This piece of work has helped me to understand what makes a good and successful media text. For example, for my music magazine I know now that if it offers entertainment, information, social interaction and reinforces personal identity to my audience. I will have a wider range of audience as it is created to have opportunities for everyone and therefore its popularity will increase.

For this post we made a poster which defines one element of the media ecology and considered how it is an interdependent part of the whole ecology.

Our main element was audience and we linked other elements to audience and how it is needed in the media industry. For example, how technology is linked to audience in media because the audience uses technology to access media texts to find what they are looking for.

This piece of worked taught me that if I was to make a music magazine in the real world that its impossible to create this media in isolation. That each element links to each other and is needed to create a text that consists of the gratifications needed to be successful.