Induction Task - Evaluation

Skills Learnt/Developed

One of the skills I have developed through this project is photoshop. I used photoshop briefly for my GCSE Media Studies coursework, however, I did not use as much of the program as I did in this task. For example, during this task I learnt how to create a colour overlay using 'Layer Style' feature. This allowed me to change the colour of different aspects of my print advert which made it look more professional. Another feature I used on photoshop for the first time during this task was the 'Dodge Tool'. This allowed me to change the brightness to the main image for my print advert.

Another skill that I developed a lot during this unit was my photography skills and how to correctly use a DSLR camera. I have a DSLR camera of my own although, it is a Canon which I have only used for video. My experience with the Nikon Cameras in the Photography Studio was completely different to the one I had with my Canon camera. This furthered my understanding of how cameras work and how to use them closer to their full potential. Along with the cameras, I learnt a huge amount about lighting and exposure while in the photography studio. Through trying various different intensities of lighting I have learnt which setting go best with what type of image you want. This also goes for the three-point lighting where by turning different lights on and off you can get different effects such as contrast and a more 2-D looking image.

I have furthered my knowledge of editing with Premiere Pro. In the past I have used different editing softwares such as Camtasia and Sony Vegas which are similar to but also completely different to Premiere Pro. For example, in Camtasia you don't have to manually render ever video and image that you put into the software. I have also learned how effective a simple cut can be in a video project. At the beginning my group and I thought it would be effective to have fancy transitions after every shot, however, this just made the video look very unprofessional. By just having a cut our moving image advert flowed better and made a lot more sense.

Teamwork

The team I was in have never worked together before and this has its advantages and disadvantages. First of all, the biggest disadvantage is that we don't know how each other work and what the other people's strength and weaknesses are. After the initial stage of getting to know the team I was placed in we slowly got to know the roles that everyone felt comfortable playing. For example, I was more more compatible with the direction and camera work aspect of the moving image advert, whereas someone else was more comfortable editing the advert itself. However, even though everyone had their own preferences, we all tried all of the different parts of the task, such as photography, moving image camera work, video editing and still image editing.

An advantage of working in a team is that you don't have to do all the work yourself meaning that there is less stress on each individual. This allowed the work to be completed faster than if working on our own. Although another disadvantage of group work is that certain individuals will take advantage of the hard working people in the group and will take a backseat in the production line whilst taking credit for the final product, and this was quite evident in my group.

Planning

During the planning stages of the product the recce and helped write the script which was a task completed with the input from everyone in the group. I also came up with the basis of the moving image advert, however, the entire idea wasn't just mine. As this was a group project, everyone contributed to the task to create the idea and storyboard that we did.

Planning was effective and useful for my group as it allowed everyone's ideas to be contributed and heard. It also gave us the opportunity to change things slightly if it didn't flow with the storyline correctly. Although a lot of good ideas do come to you whilst filming so we didn't stick completely to the storyboard and script, but this doesn't mean that they are completely useless.

If I was to do this task again, I would change the persuasive method(s) that we tried to put across in our advert as it could have been better if we tried it in a different way, yet there is the possibility that the advert could've also gone worse that it did if it was to be changed.#

How the project met my expectations

Everything about this project was a success in the fact that no matter whether or not what my group came up with was a failure or a professional level advert we have now learnt the skills to be able to make something better than what we just did in this unit of work. The skills that we have learnt and developed through this project will allow us to better our work in the future too as some of the skills that we have learnt are not mutually exclusive for just one style of work within the media.

In the future I hope to improve on everything as there is always room for improvement and I don't know everything so I will always be learning new things. No matter how good an advert I make in the future may be, it won't be perfect so I will have the opportunity to make it better.