Here is an Mp3 recording of a letter to a future A level student
Letter to future A level student about what you will learn in media
Dear future A Level Media Student
My name is Mali Chatterton, and I am a current media student at sixth form. By picking Media as an A level you have the opportunity to develop technical, creative and transferable production skills by creating a magazine in year 12. I am going to be talking about the different skills you will acquire in this letter to give you some insight into what there is to learn and prepare for.
Technical production skills
To enhance your technical skills there are many software’s such as Photoshop and InDesign, which will be the main tools in creating your magazine. You will find out how to use Photoshop to edit your photos through airbrushing, filters/adjustments and by using the select tool you can remove certain features such as the background of your model or you can select certain features you want to be edited. For example you may only want a prop to have color and the rest of the image to be black and white or maybe you want to remove the background entirely, these are things I did for my front cover image which had a huge impact on my front cover and saved it, as before my page was over done and crowded with color, but by only choosing to keep some color with in my image it allowed more attention on components such as my masthead. InDesign is the software that allows you to create your music magazine with tools such as the select tool, type tool and by selecting objects, words or images you can change the appearance with outline, filling and also have special fx tools which gives affects such as transparency, outer and inner shadows, outer and inner glows and so on. InDesign really allows you to change every detail and you can really play around with the text by having the ability to be able to increase the space between letters, or increasing the vertical and horizontal scales of the text however you like. You can also create columns with your paragraphs and change your paragraph spacing, and in your article you will be most likely adding in a drop capital which you can also adjust and paly around with. Lastly you will also get to learn how to use a DSLR camera and learn what aperture, ISO and shutter speed is and how to use them and play around with them. This was a very helpful thing that I had learnt as getting the right photo is vital to draw your audience towards your magazine.
Creative production skills
A key skill you will learn about in Media is MES, you will understand how to use costume, lighting, action/acting, makeup/hair, props and setting in order to manipulate your images to tick every box and make it an eye-catching piece of photography that fits in with your chosen genre. This had been a very beneficial thing that I had learnt as it allowed me to consider each individual aspect. For example I had to be able to consider what actions (position) I want my model to be in, however I needed to be able to link it in with my genre and be able to talk about how a position can relate to music. I asked my model for my cover page to make their body language nice and relaxed and I had them sit down. I also got them to relax their eyes and face but keep a big grin on their face to make them look in the moment just as you would associate a reggae artist who typically goes with the flow and is chilled out most of the time. You will also learn about framing, (so this the proxemics from the model with to camera) and what different shots imply, for example a close up shot may convey that, that person is very in your face or shocked etc… whereas if the shot was a longshot it may insinuate them to appear small and insignificant. Camera angling also plays a huge part in how you want to present your model. If it was a high up angle it may make a subject look vulnerable and powerless whereas a low angle would imply that person is confident and dominant.
Transferable production skills
From everything you will learn there are a lot of skills that you can bring into the real world and will be very helpful for you. For me I found my ability to become more organized as you are given the responsibility to organize your very own shoot, meaning firstly, you need to find a model and figure out when the both of you are free, as-well-as booking out the studio, sorting out costumes and props and many other components. I had never planned so much for a shoot before. Usually I would just sort of wing it and ideas would just start to come as I go along but this time I had to brainstorm everything before such as using the MES we learnt and camera angles and framing. This made my whole shoot flow really smoothly and we made really good use of the time, so I also learned how to time save which honestly takes away so much stress and makes you and the model feel more confident because they are prepared also from you making sure to have good communication skills with them beforehand. I didn’t have the right shade of foundation or concealer for my model so I asked her to bring her own and that communication between us prevented a silly mistake from happening.
Overall media allows you to develop numerous skills that would benefit you wherever you go weather is to do with technical, creative or in order to just develop good habits such as organization and communication which is so valuable and helpful for any job which in turn will make you feel much more confident prepared.