Previous creative work

  I have a lot of experience with Photoshop and some experience with iMovie thanks to previous creative work.

For my GCSE Media Studies coursework, I created a magazine front cover and double page spread aimed at teens. The double page spread included an interview I conducted with my friends about their school and life balance.

Whilst this is the biggest project I have worked on, here are other projects I have created in addition:

ALL ABOUT ME (Sept 2021)

Our first task in Year 10 was to create a collage using Photoshop that reflected ourselves, our interests and hobbies.

I enjoy being experimental, and I used this task as an opportunity to learn how to use Photoshop as a beginner and to find tools that I liked. Whilst there is certainly room for improvement, this final project was very amusing and I learnt how to use the scale tool, how to move elements around, how layers work and many more vital skills. 

SPECTRE POSTER (Jan/Feb 2022)

One of the topics for my Media Studies GCSE was "Spectre" - both the film and the film poster. We were tasked with creating a film poster for a new Bond film. I decided to not feature a new character for James Bond, as I wanted to create a sense of enigma surrounding the holder of the gun. I enjoyed experimenting with the warp tool on Photoshop, as well as the drop shadow tool, which I later used frequently in my GCSE NEA. In hindsight, I think the billing block is too big and should have been made much smaller. However, as I was only a few months into my Media Studies journey, I am very glad I grew confident with Photoshop and for the experience I gained from it. 

GCSE Media Studies NEA (March-Dec 2022)

Whilst I did receive a high mark for this, there are still parts of this that could have been improved.
Some improvements I could have made could have been to make the colour scheme bolder and more saturated, as the green, blue and yellow do not stand out. Also, the picture of the front cover model on the double page spread article (crouching on top of the yellow banner) looks slightly over-exposed. This could have been fixed on Photoshop. As well as this, if I were to recreate this now, I would use a photo in which the cover model is looking at the camera. The lack of direct address, alongside the dull colour palette, may not make this magazine come across as appealing or interesting to my target audience (teenagers). However, some positives of this design include:

• including the conventions of magazines (cover lines, masthead, tagline, price line, social media links etc.)
• strong sense of branding through the colour, font, layout and shapes
• strong shots of the models for the double page spread (over the shoulder shot and crouching shot are good poses)
• cut out book and headphones - both link to the topic of the article

ALL ABOUT ME (Sept 2023)

At the start of my A Level course, we created new "All About Me" pieces using photoshop. Thanks to my previous two years of experience, I was very confident in using Photoshop, especially to make collages. Due to time constraints, we were unable to finish this in class.

When creating this, I focused heavily on creating a theme - sticking to a few colours, having similar elements and textures and filling the spaces. I used lots of cut-outs here - possibly too many - and I sourced many of my photos from online. Looking back, the main issue I have with this is that it fails to reflect me as a person and instead reflects more of a style or an aesthetic. Whilst it is hard to reflect an entire person in an A4 photoshop collage, I think I should have included more things to do with my interests or hobbies. 

BEAUTY ADVERT (Oct 2023)

After studying the advertising unit of our A Level course, we created our own adverts for beauty products. This was the first time I had created an advert, and I struggled quite a bit. I did not like having my photo taken as I prefer to photograph so that I can be visually in control of the shot and I can visualise what the advert might look like. I think this looks too much like a magazine front cover, and that I should have made the text much larger and clearer. The dress is too distracting and the brick wall is dull and does not match the aesthetic I was aiming towards. Using a natural backdrop (such as grass, trees or flowers) could have improved the photo. 

BIG ISSUE FRONT COVER (Jan 2024)

After studying the "Big Issue", we made our own versions on photoshop. I chose to have Bella Ramsey on my front cover as they are a non-binary actor who recently starred in highly successful shows (such as Lord of the Rings and The Last of Us). In a recent interview with British Vogue, they talked about how they felt about their gender identity. The quote on the front - “That’s who I am the most” has been pulled from that article. As a young, non-binary actor, the Big Issue could certainly benefit from value transference. The ideologies that both Bella and the Big Issue share include support for the trans community through the positive representation made of not only Bella, but overall, of trans individuals. The transgender community is often misrepresented and underrepresented in the media, so this representation is quite unconventional, especially as the topic of gender identity is being openly spoken about on the cover and by Bella in the article. 

The muted colour palette of the cover image reflects the honest, realistic and serious nature of the article. I chose this photo rather than one in which Bella was at an awards show to create a more down-to-earth representation of Bella. I kept most of the conventions of the Big Issue, like the masthead, the tagline, the layout etc., but one thing that separates this cover from most Big Issue covers are the lack of bright, saturated colours on the page. I searched for a photo of Bella that was a bit brighter, but as a very new and young celebrity it was hard to find an image that had the same effect as the one I have chosen. I did try and adjust the saturation of the image, but it did not work and eventually I decided to keep the orignial photo. The use of the red in the masthead is slightly conventional of the Big Issue – as they typically use a much brighter red in order to catch the eyes of passer-bys. Since the Big Issue is sold by street vendors, this cover would have to rely on the direct address made through the eye contact of Bella to engage audiences.  

I chose the top cover lines by looking through the Big Issue website and finding a range of articles that might interest Big Issue readers. I picked out one about the gender pay gap, one about the Rwanda Bill and another about Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary. The mix of topics (from politics and gender inequality to something more light-hearted like Hello Kitty) could indicate to the audeince that the Big Issue covers a wide range of articles and could broaden the audience of the Big Issue throught the diverse topics discussed. Also, the main cover line mentions Game of Thrones and The Last of Us, two highly successful and popular shows. Fans of the show may be interested in reading the article as Bella starred in both. By including these references on the cover, the potential audience of this edition of the Big Issue is broadened to the large fandoms of the shows mentioned.  

BURN THE WITCH MINI MUSIC VIDEO (Feb 2024)

This is one of my most recent works. We used short snippets of "Burn the Witch" by Radiohead and created our own music videos. 

This was my first time using iMovie and I found it easy to use, although it felt limiting in some aspects. For my NEA I will likely have to use iMovie as well as other editing software. I enjoyed filming this, and I am glad I took as many shots as possible in the allocated time, as this really helped in the editing process. For my NEA, I will aim to get around 3.5 to 4 hours of footage, as this will hopefully provide me with as much content as needed. 

I also experimented with the filters with this, and to fit the theme of alienation and isolation, I chose the “sci-fi” filter and dialled down the strength. This was a very fun project, but in future I will certainly use different apps in order to fulfil my creative vision.