Post Production

AS Coursework:
When it came to editing my photographs I decided to use the Iphone. I could use cropping tools (magic wand), colour editing tools (brightness, lightness, contrast, colour replacement ect) also image improvement tools (red eye corrector, airbrush, smudge).
Strengths and weaknesses whilst editing my photographs on the Iphone- I used photoshop for my preliminary task which was a weakness of mine as i found the tools hard to use and needed to spend extra time on learning what everything does. However when it came to taking my final photographs i decided to use the Iphone as this was very simple to use as I could crop the size of the image instantially which was one of my strengths within As post production that also looked professional and realistic. Some tools I wasn't to sure on which is a weakness but I asked my friend how to use each individual tool to make my photographs as good as possible. Editing was quite straight forward after learning the tools and my image improvement skills to get them to a good level and to produce a more professional finish. This programme was unfamiliar at first but was pretty straight forward to use and gave the final images a very realistic look.
Software pros/cons- there was positive and negative elements to using the Iphone for the post production stage of my AS coursework. The positive elements of using the Iphone is it is quick and straight forward to use and gives a professional finish to my product as it provided me with the necessary tools to make this work. The negative elements of using the Iphone  is that it doesn't have all the tools and software like the photoshop technology does which means the photographs weren't as detailed.

A2 Coursework:
When it came to my editing in A2 I used photoshop for my ancillary text and final cut pro for my music video. Photoshop I used cropping tools (lasso, magic wand, select tools ect) colour editing tools (brightness, tint, lightness, contrast, colour replacement, saturation ect) image improvement tools (red eye corrector, blur, smudge, airbrush, paintbrush ect). Final cut pro I used cropping tools to shorten the clips, the speed up and slow down tool making the clip either x2 or -2 to get a exggarated effect, colour editing or effects that can be added to each individual clip to give it a brighter, darker or blurred look.
Strengths and weaknesses whilst editing my photographs and music video- I used final cut pro for my preliminary task that allowed me to gain skills through the making which gave me more confidence when it came to making my final music video. I also gained skills from using the different types of tools on photoshop such as various cropping tools which I felt gave me a strength in my A2 post product. The weakness of using these software's is that I had to watch a few tutorials on youtube which explained how to use each tool when making my ancillary text on photoshop and on final cut pro to make my final products look professional and realistic and become one of my strengths. I also had to spend a lot of time on making the colours work on both of my products and change the brightness to give it a high level look. Doing these elements to my product took a while to learn as I was not familiar with the final cut pro program and had to start at the basic level and extend my knowledge through teaching myself the tools.
Software pros/cons- There were positives and negative to using photoshop and final cut pro for the post product stage of my A2 course work. The positives were that using photoshop included a professional software package which helped me to product a much more professional finish on my ancillary texts. Final cut pro was a high level software package that is quick and has a good range of different tools to make my music video as realistic and professional looking as possible. The negatives of using photoshop is that it would cost a lot to have the package at home on my laptop and therefore I was limited to using this technology in school which is similar to the final cut pro negatives as it only works on the mac computer's and also can afford a lot to download to home computers so a lot of time was spent on these software's at school.
Key Media Concepts (A2 main product & ancillary texts):

• Institutions: I used Simon Cowells famous syco label brand. This is well known for Pop music and the mainstream music that can be seen in the charts. I believe this label fitted the product very well as it shows the style of music Iv chosen and it is also a very well known label that everyone listens to. This allowed the band to communicate with the right target audience.
• Media Language: I used a blue white and red colour scheme on my ancillary texts and black text as this is a well know colour used to make the words stand out on the page. These colours were also used in the music video giving it a fun and exciting look.
• Representation: The girls in the ancillary texts are wearing high street products that a lot of people wear and can relate to. This shows a realistic young group of people and was also the same in making my music video and using similiar clothing style to fit in with the genre I was doing using a budget video shoot. Using a simple background for the magazine gave the indivdual artist a clean clear look and stand out. I did the same thing in my music video but decided to make the girls wear simple smart clothes and give them interesting background to show their personalities and individual styles.