Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

When I first started AS I had literally no skills when it came to digital technology in media production and I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what that even meant. In my AS course as part of coursework I had to create a music magazine which included a front cover, double page spread and contents page. The magazine had to be original and we had to use all the conventions of a real music magazine. We also had to include four or more original images which where appropriate for our chosen genre. As I had to use my own images they obviously wouldn’t be up to magazine standard coming straight from the camera, so I had to use Adobe Photoshop in order to the images to look professional. At first the programme looks very intimidating however once I knew the basics I found it easier to use and I gained more confidence when trying new ideas. Usually I would have used something more basic such as Google Picasa but it is very basic and you are limited to what you can do to an image whereas with Photoshop you can do basically anything from adding any font to changing colour and how the image looks altogether. The thing I found the most interesting was the fact you can airbrush a person in the image to make them look flawless which really gives the image a professional look as it’s what they do in an actual magazine. What I found the most useful was how you can layer an image so you can focus and edit one thing instead of having to recreate the whole thing, because I used trial and error when thinking about which font I was going to use so it was easy to delete if I wanted to change it. I also learnt how to put on image on top of another which is needed when possibly creating a scene which you maybe wasn’t able to create, for example you artist on a beach, it was made very clear how to do and I thought it would be very complicated when really its quite basic.  Now in my A2 class when needed to use Photoshop I will be able to know pretty much what is expected of me to an average, possibly more, degree.
To present our work we used online blog site ‘Blogger’. Blogger is something I already knew how to use when I came onto the course which helped me in many ways as I didn’t have to waste time getting my bearings about the site. I think it is a good way to present your work as it is accessible from anywhere, anyone can view your work and you can do almost anything with it, from uploading videos, images and texts. For my AS work I found it hard to keep updating at first as you are asked to keep updating posts regularly on what you are doing at etc. but in the end I found myself always doing it because it helps your blog flow more and you can remember what you was doing last time you was on, it’s almost like a dairy. What comes in very handy also is the fact you can write your work onto Word and then copy and paste it onto your blog which means then you have your work saved in two places, which I didn’t think of doing at first. In my A2 work this will come in very useful as I will have to use sites such as ‘YouTube’ to upload my music video and as I will be able to post it on my blog it will be easily accessed.
Overall throughout my AS course I have learnt a lot more than I expected and never realised how appropriate and good it will be to have for future reference.