Evaluation

Overall I believe the quality of the production to be of a high standard. With guidance from the lecturers and meetings with Sarah Crook, my work has met a standard the I am confident will succeed in promoting the college. I also feel that had it not been of a good standard, then Martin Tucker would not feel prepared to spend money on a product that he has no confidence in. However, he did say that he would happily use them to market the college of Penwith and this makes me positive that the standards of my work have not fallen below what is deemed to be professional. I also felt that when he told me he would be pleased to market the college using my products, that it would be a good time to mention the property rights. As all but one (the Penwith logo) of the elements of my design is mine, then he agreed that I most definitely own a big share of the product. However, we also came to the agreement that as I used the college equipment to make my product, then he too own a big share.
During my role as an employee for my client, Martin Tucker, I have definitely applied and developed my technical skills. My whole understanding of Photoshop, the main software I have used to create my products, have developed greatly and I think this is evident in the work I have produced. I have not only employed technical skills involving ICT but have also used skills involving the personal learning and thinking skills that we are taught alongside the diploma. As I have established in the next couple of paragraphs, self managing was one of my strong points in this project. To be a good self manager, you have to work to deadlines and not let time frames become a factor in keeping your products from being completed. I feel that I have been a good self manager and I have confidently applied technical skills that you only have if you are one.
I feel that in this project I have maintained a high standard in my whole working ethic. I have not slacked or procrastinated, and this has pulled off greatly as I have met all deadlines. To be a good self-manager you have to 'organize time and resources, prioritizing actions' and I believe I have achieved this during the project.
I have learned a few vital things that an employee must need in the workplace. Firstly, I didn't expect my work to be as critically analyzed as it was. I had to constantly change my work until it met that of a professional standard and my client accepted nothing lesser. I felt my project was strictly treated, but another thing I learned during this project is that it has to be treated like that for a consortium to be successful.
The strength of my project has definitely been, as highlighted earlier, to be how I self managed. I really feel that I did the best I could achieve and applying my self managerial skills I both had, and had learned more of during the project, definitely contributed towards the success of my work. My weakness was probably my naivety in this area of work. I didn't know what to expect in this project and this was a blow to my production. However, I quickly tried to adapt myself to my in-expectancy and gain experience in this type of work so that I wouldn't be so naive in the latter stages of the production.
If I ever had to do another commission in the future, then I definitely feel that I will be more successful than what I have been in this one. In this commission project, I was a bit inexperienced, however I do feel I have learned a lot and developed my skills greatly in this area of work and so if I were to do something like this again, I am sure I will have even more of a positive input on what the client employed me for. What specifically would make me better suited as an employee for a client are the skills I have learned that are essential under commission restraints. These skills include working to the deadlines, working effectively for the client's needs and accepting criticism until my product fits the purpose of my clients commission.
I have also asked a number of students and staff to give feedback on my work, all of which was positive. These people said that I applied learning techniques successfully and created a sophisticated piece of work. Although I also received minor criticisms along with the praise people gave me for my production, such as slightly altering the title by adding the subheading 'Creative Media Diploma' so people know what CMD stand for, they can easily be corrected and most of which I have already improved upon.
Recently there was an open evening for people to come and explore what goes on here at the college of Penwith. I saw this as a great opportunity to display the work I completed for the commission project as it allowed a wider audience to see what I had done. Overall I was very pleased with what they all had to say. It seemed they received my work very well and my target audience, 16-19 year old's, were very enthusiastic about reading a copy.

Feedback from Martin Tucker

Yesterday, I presented my finished work to Martin Tucker. Overall, he was pleased with the work and only had a couple of minor criticisms which I have already corrected. He thought I had put a lot of effort into commission and said he would happily use the material to promote the college. One question I needed to ask him in order to complete one of my last bits of evidence, was the budget. I asked him how much it would cost if I were to use 50 copies of the magazine and about 20 copies of the poster to distribute around the community. He told me that if the college were to use my produced material as marketing products, then the college would pay all costs.

PLTS

In this commission project, I feel that I have already successfully fulfilled the roles as a self manager, team worker, independent enquirer, creative thinker, effective participator and reflective learner.
Firstly, I think I fulfilled the role as a self manager, and still am, by keeping my time managed in the correct way.
Secondly, I think I fulfilled the role as a team worker by helping others develop their ideas for this project by giving critical analysis for their work.
Thirdly, I think I fulfilled the role as an independent enquirer by reaching goals such identifying questions and answering those problems by finding suitable ways of resolving them.
Fourthly, I think I have fulfilled the role as a a creative thinker by creating the ideas I have had for this commission project. I believe they are creative ideas and I have made them more so by using industry standard software such as Photoshop.
Fifthly, I think I have fulfilled the role as an effective participator by proposing practical ways forward and breaking these down into manageable steps.
Sixthly, I think I have fulfilled the role as a reflective learner by inviting feedback and dealing positively with praise, setbacks and criticisms.

Budget and Health and Safety

Today, the rest of the group and I did some tasks and exercises involving budgets and health and safety. For the budget, the task we did was estimating values and costs of equipment for a ten year contract with the makers of Avatar 2. We linked this with the health and safety task, by estimating the values of things concerning the health and safety of people involved with the making of Avatar 2.

The Law and Photography

The law is now cracking down on the rights to take photographs. Cameras can be taken off people who are believed to be taking pictures of iconic buildings, because they could be a terrorist. People are not allowed to take pictures of children incase they are peadophiles. Basically any photographs that are seen as arguably wrong, can be seen as an offence against the law, and the photographers who took them can be arrested without evidence of doing anything bad.

Change in Ideas

I have recently had the problem of a student disbanding from my group, and now as it is just me on my own, feel that in the remaining time we have for the commission project, that it will be a sensible choice to cancel one of my ideas for the project. Instead of the video, I will continue to pursue both the poster and the magazine ideas. Also, this project only requires one product at the most and so as I am doing two, I feel I will still fulfill more than is needed to achieve a good commission project, regardless whether I cancel one of my product ideas from going into production.

Photography

In photography I captured many professional standard photos of the new Zennor building. I then downloaded them onto a mac and edited them to make them more professional and attractive. Once I had done this, I downloaded a useful program that arranged my photos into a collage of different shapes, depending on the settings I had input. After this, I copied it into my poster document and this is what helped me complete my poster for the commission project.