Introduction to practical skills

Account of my Practical Experiences

In the first week of studying Media Studies, we were introduced to Photoshop. As the weeks progressed, we were taught about still cameras. How they worked, the functions and tripod. A few weeks later we were taught about filming and technical terms. We learnt the basics of photography, as well as changing focus, ISO, exposure etc. We were then introduced to our blogs, how to create, personalise and expand them. Through out this process, analysis of short film clips and TV drama was incorporated in our syllabus.

We started with Photoshop. We were taught how to import photos and how to edit them. I found this quite helpful in relation to our assignments that we were to be appointed later on in the course; we were asked to create our own horror film poster, filled will imagination and unique formats. Filled with logos, slogans and directors names. In this case, Photoshop became very useful. I used this programme for all my different formatting and editing. I imported a photo, cut, cropped, edited it etc. Photoshop looks extremely confusing, but once you get to grips with it, it becomes very simple and efficient to use it. A very useful skill.

As our understanding of Photoshop progressed we moved onto still cameras. We were set an assignment to take a photograph of one another, which would eventually be posted onto our blogs. We could use our own imagination and desire to photograph one another in any area of the school, but one which portrayed our personalisties the most. I enjoyed this task because of the freedom we had to take our own personal photos as well as for others to grasp the art of photography, negative space and the rule of thirds.

After using still cameras we moved onto filming techniques. We had a lesson on the film camera, there is a lot to learn in filming, especially how to work the camera correctly to capture great clips. Like Photoshop and still cameras, filming is simple once you understand the processes. Learning vocabulary and basic camera shots helped me shoot clips in different angles and movements. We were eventually set an assignment in class to create a two minute short film clip. This task was to practice and learn camera shots; Extreme Wide Shot, Cut-In, Extreme Close-Up etc not plots, characters and acting skills. We did this in groups and after we watched one another’s. We critiqued each others short clips and recognised what we had done wrong or right. My group found we over exposed our shots from the sun. This was a good way to learn how to correct this, before our real two minute horror film that will be made later on in the year. This exercise also taught me that you must chose the correct scenery at the correct time of day. Our short clip was ruined by the sun, this at the time could not be corrected because of the nature of the day, but in future I know to either shoot internally or away from the sun light.

Finally, we have started to create our personal blogs. We started with an introduction to the blogs, set assignments, like this exact one and from there we have added to our blogs, to eventually produce a full blog with all of my work through out the year posted.