Stereotype theory

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

Skills development evaluation essay

In my first year I used Photoshop to produce my music magazine. Prior to starting the course I had never used Photoshop before in depth, so throughout the year I learnt how to use the different tools to greatly improve on my preliminary task of the college magazine. I learnt how to improve skin tone and remove blemishes by using the spot healing brush tool. In addition, I used liquefy to create a slimmer profile for my model in line with my magazine conventions as well as using the quick selection tool to remove any background that I needed to be clear so I could add in a background for my magazine. Another medium of digital technology I used was the camera, I had no prior knowledge of framing a shot and lighting a shot before I started the course so throughout the year I built up this knowledge until I could confidently frame, position and light a shot. I did have to retake my pictures several times until they matched the conventions of music magazines and this demonstrates the fact I have built up my skills over the year.

I feel that over the course of the first year I developed my creativity, which helped me to produce a much better magazine at the end of the course than my first attempt. My first preliminary effort, my perfume advert, was an abstract idea with no model which proved to be an ineffective choice creatively so I improved this for my final magazine where I used a model in full creative costume which reflected the indie genre of my music magazine. Furthermore, I used much more interesting and creative text and image choice on my final product, which made it more effective and overall a higher standard piece of work than my original advert and college magazine. My creativity has been influenced by other magazines such as NME, Q and Kerrang which inspired me to produce work at a higher standard than before, as well as using software such as Photoshop which allows you to perform more tasks such as blemish removal and interesting text which the software I used for my preliminary task, Publisher, doesn’t allow you to do to the same level.

Throughout the course of the year I improved the depth of my planning and research that allowed me to produce a higher standard of finished product compared to my original college magazine. At first, my research was fairly basic. I used mainly essay form and didn’t analyse to a proficient level however throughout the year I managed to improve the quality of my planning and research. I achieved this by using different software to present my research such as Prezi, an online presentation software, Slideshare, which allows you to upload presentations from your computer and Go Animate, which allows you to produce mini-movies to present your work. These are a much more creative, fun and lively way to present your work as opposed to a fairly uninspiring essay.  Furthermore, I analysed work in much more depth than at the start of the year, which allowed me to access higher grade boundaries as well as showing how my analytical skills have developed over the course of the year.

The postproduction of my final product was much more advanced, complicated and developed than my original college magazine. For my college magazine, the only postproduction I really engaged with was adding text and a barcode to my magazine, as I did not manipulate the image. This produced a fairly basic product that did not compare with my final product in terms of quality and creativity.

However, for my final product I completed the postproduction on Photoshop that instantly improves the quality of my magazine. The first stage of postproduction was actually retaking my images several times to get the prefect shot. This entailed new lighting techniques and reframing of the shots. After this was completed, I manipulated my image on Photoshop which included improving the skin tone and removing blemishes, reshaping hair, slimming the profile of my model as well as improving the brightness of eyes and small yet important features like that. The next stage was adding texts and backgrounds to my products. I used a background adapted from the Internet for my double page spread, which really tied in with the genre and made it look professional. I added text to my cover and contents pages from dafont.com that allows you to pick any type of font you desire and this increased the verisimilitude of my final product.

I followed media conventions strictly in my final product, which I didn’t do in my preliminary texts. In my college magazine, my image was poorly framed with little genre specific mise-en-scene and used a poor choice of text, which went against conventions thus producing a product that looked more like a poster than a real music magazine. Throughout the year I developed my skills and knowledge of media conventions that allowed me to create a much more realistic and professional music magazine. In my final product, I used a colour scheme, which reflected my genre of indie that is conventional. Furthermore I added a skyline, a footer, pull quotes, a barcode and a price which I either didn’t do or added unconventionally in my earlier attempts which adds to the verisimilitude of the magazine. The costume my model used was much more conventional than the costume used in my preliminary task. It was more conventional as she wore dark colours and make up and posed in a ‘rockstar’ fashion that is conventional of indie music magazines. In terms of my image, the shot was framed more conventionally in my final product so you could see her face and her pose much more clearly than in my first task. Overall, I feel my skills have developed rapidly and to a great extent over the course of the first year that allowed me to produce a proficient product.

Conventions of short film

Conventions of short film from s0016845

History of short film

Brief synopsis of my short film.

The genre of my short film is a crime film. The film begins in a kitchen when a teenage boy walks in to find his sister with his bag of drugs that he explains he has been delivering for a drug baron for money. Annoyed, the sister flushes the drugs down the sink however she has put him in grave danger, as he has to meet the man later on to hand over the money. The boy decides to meet him but first takes a secret package out from under the hedge. He meets the baron at a quarry who at first threatens and intimidates the boy as he says he can’t pay him back. The tables are turned when he pulls out the contents of the package- a gun- and says he will kill the man. The man says he will pay him off if the boy lets him live and he promises to leave him alone too, however when he gets the money out the car he charges it towards the boy and knocks him down before going into his boot to get a club he would use to finish him off however the boy has somehow reached for the gun and shoots the baron dead. Thinking he is safe, he rings his sister to come and rescue him however the camera pans from the ringing phone to his sisters’ dead body in the kitchen. The man sent someone round to kill his sister while he was away.

Brief

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both. together with:

• A poster for the film
• a film magazine review page featuring the film