50. Questions

1) In which area have you seen an improvement - from foundation to advanced portfolio?

When looking back at my foundation in comparison to my advanced portfolio there are many differences and improvements noticeable across the time frame and production. Firstly, creativity. I believe my creativity improved overall with the advanced portfolio. To begin with I always knew what I wanted to create for my advanced portfolio; however, I found some difficulties when creating my overall idea and reached many points where I struggled. However, I overcame these when reflecting back on what I initially wanted to achieve and once I found a way to establish this and show this. For example, reflecting back to the research I completed including that on Laura Mulvey and going against the conventions. The idea I had to begin with differed slightly as I realised I needed to be far more creative to achieve a good final video, therefore I re-thought my idea and added various aspects to it. I felt the advanced portfolio was more challenging when looking at the creativity in comparison to the foundation. For example, there was far more content to create and achieve in comparison to this year. Secondly, I also saw improvement when using digital technology. A prime example of this was the use of HD video recorders. It was the first time I had used video cameras properly to form an actual project, therefore to begin with this created difficulty and was harder to use than a standard camera that I used when producing my foundation. I improved using them over time as I obviously spent quite a lot of time producing video footage for my video; this was shown in the difference between my preliminary task and my final project and the quality of the footage produced. When also looking at digital technology, I believe I have also improved when using the Mac computers. They were hard to use with when producing my foundation and it took time to get used to them, however, when producing my advanced portfolio, I had experience using the technology, therefore the end project was of a higher quality. This was also due to using high quality software that was available and taking advance of the opportunities available. Even though I believe I finished my portfolio with better knowledge than the beginning, I extended this further. Thirdly, I believe my research and planning showed massive improvements from my foundation to my advanced portfolio. For example, I did complete relative research for my foundation and believe I covered a wide range of research and conducted more than sufficient as it helped me to gain a better idea of what I wanted to create. Although, I believe this was mainly on aspects in the industry for me to compare to. On the other hand, when researching and planning for my advanced portfolio I looked into a far wider range of aspects. For example, I looked into different theorists and the impact they had, including Laura Mulvey and her idea of the sexual portrayal of women in the media. This impacted my idea massively; therefore my in-depth research improved my idea and improved over the period. When looking at the aspect of using real media texts, it was difficult for me to compare improvements. In the production of my foundation, I researched many music magazines of the genre I based my magazine on and looked into the music industry to achieve the most professional final product I could. I looked at many different aspects of the genre, including festivals. Looking at real media texts was a big aspect as I was producing my own, and wanted it to follow the conventions. Post production was also very important in the production of both of my projects. It's important that the actions you take after production are just important as it. After I completed my foundation I asked many people to give me verbal feedback on what I did well and what could of been done better so I could improve in the long term if I had to produce something again. It showed me what I did well and what I'd need to improve on in future projects, eg. my advanced portfolio. I believe I did this thoroughly the first time so I will just carry out the same process. However, I am still in the process of post production. Therefore, I will not only carry out verbal feedback but physical feedback such as questionnaires that will enable me to receive anonymous feedback meaning it's likely to be more truthful and achieve more. Overall, I believe I made many improvements and my work is of a much higher quality in my advanced portfolio in comparison to my foundation.
 

2. What challenges did you face in each portfolio?

I came across many challenges while producing both portfolios, and had to over come them to produce the best possible end products. Firstly, one of the challenges when producing my first portfolio was my lack of knowledge on the technology I was using, for example, the Macs. These became a massive aspect when producing my project as we used Pages for producing my front cover, double page spread, and contents page, obviously I had used Windows technology before and this differs slightly from Apple. However,  I managed to over come this quickly by using it for a long period of time and after using it to produce my many drafts, I adapted quickly and was able to use it well by the end of the first portfolio. Secondly, an even bigger challenge I faced was that I hadn't really read or shown much interest in music magazines previously. Obviously I have a massive interest in music and many different genres but I very rarely looked into music magazines meaning I had little knowledge on what I actually needed to create, therefore, following conventions provided hard to begin with and my preliminary task showed this by the lack of conventions and quality of it. To overcome this, I had to complete very in depth research to provide I created a music magazine that would actually look professional. This included looking at different areas of the music industry and looking at music magazines from a variety of genres. I also had to create many plans and drafts to see what worked well and what didn't work well. I believe with sufficient research I was able to over come the challenge that I was faced with and able to create a magazine that fit the genre well. One of the challenges I faced when producing my advanced portfolio was regarding my idea. I had an idea in my head, Eg. basing it on women in sport and the theory of Laura Mulvey but I was unsure on how was the best way to portray this idea and my overall idea changed a few times as is evident by my story board and my final project. I wanted to create something with more depth and more emotion than what I thought my initial idea would show. I overcame this by re-thinking my idea and basing it on something more reasonable with the facilities available, for example, I had access regularly to two basketball courts, indoor and out. This worked in my favour as I was able to film in many different weather types particularly on the outdoor court which allowed me to create a better effect and linked to my whole idea. Finally, another challenge I faced was that I had never used Final Cut Pro before. I had obviously used Mac computers and used IMovie so had a little experience. Therefore I faced challenges when trying to create certain effects and creating different cuts so I had to play around with these different effects to achieve the ones I wanted too. Although with time spent practising I was able to begin to use the technology better and with ease.

3. Which area is your strength?

Personally, I'd say my strength throughout was research and planning. This was obviously a vital part of the process and to create my ideas it was essential, this was due to, in my foundation, my lack of knowledge on the aspect I wanted to create. I had agreed to follow conventions of an indie music magazine; therefore, I needed to conduct sufficient research to create this. I researched many different aspects of the genre, including artists included in it and the influences they have and also areas not in the genre so I could gain a rounded representation of what I wanted to create. I researched many music magazines, focusing on NME as it was most like what I wanted to create, taking inspiration from this. I also conducted research into memes and tropes and how tropes occur drastically in the music industry and originality is quite rare as someone is likely to have introduced the aspect before. In my advanced portfolio I would say I have added to this strength further and increased the depth of my research and planning, including theorists to develop my own ideas. When researching into theorists I could relate them to tropes seen in the music industry and elements that are repeatedly shown. A prime example is the way women are perceived and these lead me to create my idea and go against women being shown in this way, rounding my idea. I also completed researched into different music videos and how the majority of genes has a stereotypical perspective and the way they're produced. I researched the conventions of music videos, particularly the genre my song was from so I could recognise these and go completely against them, using the theory of Laura Mulvey to justify why I went against these. By conducting more in depth and specific research I could create a more in-depth idea and use this research to support it and show the reasoning behind my idea, therefore, I believe this was strength for my advanced portfolio.

 

4. What would you do differently?

I personally would include more characters in my advanced portfolio to add depth to the narrative. For example, I only  included one character in it, although this provided that the focus was on her constantly, it could be seen to become quite tedious and lack different perspectives and it was fully focused on one character. I had planned to incorporate more characters, however when it came to filming, I decided to just keep one character and focus on a few aspects of this character, fulfilling the focus on going against conventions. I felt if I included more characters it would have an impact on what I wanted to achieve. However, I understand that it could be seen as unsuccessful, focusing on one aspect and may have been more successful and worked better if I had included others perspectives as well as my talents. I also could have potentially added more locations into my video. Obviously I was limited with where I could film; however, I believe this would have just added more dimensions and interest to the viewer as they could become bored if it’s just based in the same places.

 

5. Finally, what advice would you impart to a prospective media student?

Personally, I would say to a prospective media student that it's good to keep on top of the workload from the beginning so you don't fall behind. I'd also say that the research and planning is a massive aspect, although it seems small and can impact on your ideas completely. To begin with when you have little knowledge the standard of work differs massively to when you understand the industry and what has already been created. The more research completed, the more ideas you should be able to create and recognise. Creating lots of drafts also ensures that you create a good final idea as you can establish what will and won't work and this is important, making little changes can make a big different.