Post Production Essay

Detail how your post production skills developed throughout your AS and A2 coursework. 

At AS created a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. To do this we used Photoshop which we imported our images to, enabling us to edit them. It also meant (especially for the double page spread) that we had a good template on which to work. For A2 we created a music video and two ancillary products; an advert and a digipak. For the music video we worked in pairs and we used Final Cut Pro and for the ancillary tasks we again used Photoshop. Through the more regular use of these programs my skills developed and I became more confident.

At AS we initially created a preliminary piece to get us started on Photoshop and this helped me to get used to the different settings, effects and tools that I could use. My lack of knowledge about Photoshop at that time meant that the preliminary magazine was very simple. I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the image for my front cover which took longer than it would now because I wasn't used to the technique. I also wasn't too sure about what order I should do things in to make it easier for myself but the layering part of Photoshop helped with that so it wasn't too much of a problem. I remember that I used the gradient tool and the rectangle tool to create a simple background in two colours. I used the text tool to create a heading and some strap lines for the front cover but the font I used was very simple. The preliminary task was helpful as an introduction to Photoshop but my product could have been greatly improved.

The next stage was to create a draft of each page of the magazine. I think I started with the front cover because it was what I had done for the preliminary task, so it wasn't too daunting to start with. I imported the image that I wanted on to a blank A4 page and layered it over a background I created with the rectangle tool. I then used the rectangle tool again to create a masthead at the top of the page where the title of the magazine would be and a box at the bottom where I later placed the barcode and a strap line. My layout was very simple but it was starting to take shape, in terms of style it was a lot closer to what I wanted than my preliminary task. I used a font from a website, but couldn't download it at the time, so simply print screened it and then imported it as an image. I changed the saturation on my main image to 'dull' it down a bit because I thought this would be more fitting for the rock genre I was trying to achieve.

The contents page of the draft was the thing that I changed the least because I was most happy with it. At this point I hadn't done too much research into conventions so it didn't look quite right but I was happy with the general style. I used a white background created by two rectangles and then I was able to use the layering tool to fit in a panoramic picture between the two. I was really happy with the way this looked and I wanted to use it in my final magazine contents page. I also used two vertical rectangles in black with an effect added to create the background for the text. I then used the same font as on the front cover.

The double page spread was probably the most simplistic of all the drafts because it was a very different layout and I was more hesitant with creating it. I again used the rectangle tool to create a black background and then I added another grey rectangle along the top of the page to try and fit with the convention of the header. I added another photo of my 'artist' on the right hand side of the page and I again slightly dimmed the saturation to try and fit with the genre.

On the final version of my magazine I again started with creating the front cover because it was something familiar. Instead of the black background I used a grey but I still used the rectangle tool to create it. I then added the image of my 'artist'. I used the magnetic lasso tool to do this and I was more used to using this tool by now so it didn't take as much time. I then used the spot healing brush tool to make it look more professional and I adjusted some of the effects such as the saturation again to change the brightness of the image. I was more experimantal with fonts this time and I layered a lot of the text too, to make it stand out. On the contents page I used the gradient tool that I had tried to use on my preliminary task and I was happy with how it turned out, it was definitely more succesful this time.

At the A2 post production stage most of the editing was just fitting the clips together. However, we had wanted the flashbacks sequences to look different and we had planned to use the black and white effect. We tried this initially but after looking through some more of the effects on offer we decided on using the 'cold steel' effect which had more of a blue tint. We also used the slow motion tool (which we could adjust ourselves) more one or two of the clips.

After using Photoshop a lot at AS I was more confident when making the ancillary tasks. It had been a while since I had last used it though so I had to get used to it again. The advert was quite simple to make but making the digipak was a lot different to the AS magazine task so I found it more difficult. Because of the six panels it was important to make sure everything was the right way around and that the images fit perfectly to the page. Getting everything in place was the hardest part but the layering tool definitely helped. I used most of the effects on the images because they were hand drawn and scanned in meaning that some of the colours were a little off.

I think I did improve from AS to A2 because I was able to take more risks rather than staying safe. My knowledge of conventions and the technology I was using also improved greatly so the products I created were considerably better at A2.