Unit 2 Evaluation

I believe that creativity was one of my main strong points during the course. I always stuck with initial ideas and developed them accordingly, with a firm view in mind of what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it.

I believe I was at my most creative when writing my music video treatment, using descriptive words to set a particular scene, as well as to describe shot angles and emotions.

My wide vocabulary and creative imagination were a big help to me during the course, and I always had a very firm picture in my mind of what I wanted. I encountered very few problems with the more creative side of the course, my only hindrance being that sometimes my ideas were to bold to be created with the materials and sources I had to hand.

Near the beginning of the course, I didn’t take as much care over work as I did later on, mostly because of my inexperience with the equipment and systems used and my reluctance to share my ideas. I overcame this by learning to use the equipment, the skills for which were slowly gained over the course of the year and were applied as I went along.

Once I became familiar with the Mac books, using them became easier and I became more skilled with programs and software like Photoshop and Garageband.

The Mac books were a new concept, as well as a number of systems on them that I had not come across before, such as Garageband and Photoshop.

Near the beginning of the course, I struggled to use the Mac books and the systems on them, but I overcame this through repeated use and experience.

I was helped repeatedly by my teacher and T.A, who were more than willing to help me overcome my inexperience with the software.

As I gained experience with the equipment, it became less of a hindrance and more of a useful tool, and my skills with programs like Photoshop have improved vastly since the beginning of the year.

Saving and storing material and documents proved a problem at the start of the course too. Saving documents and files to the wrong places or to the desktop meant they weren’t there next time I logged on, or simply could not be accessed from other computers.

I overcame this by choosing to save important material to my USB stick instead of to the computers.

Using my USB allowed me a chance to order my work and sort things into subjects and units for easier storage. I was encouraged to type essays and documents on Google Docs, or even straight onto the blog. Although I rarely did this, I still feel my experience in this field has improved since the start of the year.

I believe my strongest skills were my creativity and my use of grammar.

My creativity meant that my initial idea for projects was usually my best, and almost always ended up as the final product with a bit of alteration.

Creative writing has always been a passion I like to indulge with, and the amount of creative freedom over the course of the year allowed me to express myself in more than a few areas.

Once I had mastered systems such as Photoshop, my visual creativity was also allowed to shine through in more practical products, such as my C.D cover and packaging, which was a big leap forward in terms of my Photoshop skills.

My use of grammar meant I could use a wide range of descriptive words to accurately describe what I wanted to say.

I excelled in more practical work due to my use of grammar in my documents, using formal and informal language respectively where they were required, and making good use of my wide vocabulary.

My feedback summary, my Music Video Treatment and my Questionnaire all relied on my use of good grammar to make a rigid structure that I could work from.

The only skill that I think needs improving is my use of systems like Garageband and Photoshop, which, although I have familiarized myself with them, I still feel I could benefit from improving.

Though sheets detailing the keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop are commonplace, there are some techniques I still need to master before fully getting to grips with the software.

Garageband is still mostly unfamiliar territory.

Although I know the basics, I still need to do a fair bit of work before I fully grasp the software.