How did you use media technologies in the construction,

research, planning and evaluation?Elliot Hardy

Many different technologies were used when we were planning, constructing and evaluating our three tasks; Five minutes of a documentary opener, and the two ancillary tasks of a magazine article and a radio trail.

During our research section we mostly used internet browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer to use reliable sources like Talk To Frank, The Guardian, The Independent and The New York Times who all had stories, articles and facts that we could use. However, we also used A-Level Biology books to discover the effects alcohol has on the body which we desired to include in the finished products.

Introduction

Youtube/iPlayer These free to access websites of Youtube and BBC iPlayer proved vital into

looking for existing products for documentaries that others had created so that could gather conventions and use existing products as our inspiration to plan our own documentary. And Keeping a track of these websites was also important in case we needed to go back to them and remind ourselves of the techniques they used. For this we used Blogger heavily to record our findings and address our opinions on what inspired us the most.

Slideshare/ScribdThese websites were useful in order to collect larger pieces of research such Bill

Nicholls’ (2001) Documentary modes and analysis into existing products such as ‘Supersize Me’, ‘A Good Smack’, ‘Panorama’ and BBC’s ‘Risky Behaviour”. Picking apart what modes they all were and conventions that came with those modes were important in gathering a perspective of what we wanted to produce in our documentary.

Research

Software/Websites, shown by size, how much they were used throughout.

The many different devices/hardware used in the construction stage of the Documentary and Ancillary tasks.

These were the pieces of equipment used to record and capture Video and Sound that would go into the documentary and Radio trail.

Below are the devices used to edit and manipulate our products to our liking using many programs featured on the previous slide.

Storyboarding and draftsStoryboarding and drafts proved to be essential as they help me transfer my

envisaged creation of ‘what-goes-where’ mindset throughout planning, and creating a storyboard on paper, detailing the most essential features through inherent description. Drafting also helped me create rough positioning and layout thoughts for the magazine which were both done on paper and with InDesign using frames and filling them with the context that they would hold in the future.

ScriptingThe main documentary and radio trail scripts were roughly done on paper to

begin with but once proof-read they were transferred onto Microsoft Word which proved to be a useful program in which to script the Voiceover and Camera shots to follow the VO.

Planning

Construction FilmingAfter all the planning was complete we had a direct approach mindset in

gathering the exact clips I had envisaged within my mind and tried to express through detailed storyboarding, I looked over the plans and tried to put them into action. Problems occurred in the we could not film inside pubs/with pub staff without permission from their head office so instead we could only record the exterior of the buildings. This set us back massively so we had to improvise. Using a tripod to balance to camera correctly and allowing for smooth panning shots we did manage to capture very professional clips of pubs, clubs and bars.

When capturing all of these clips we did it was essential to me that my clips had to look professional. When doing so I made sure I knew my way around the controls of the camera/tripod/Microphone/Voice-recorder. The camera angles had to abide the rule of thirds and I wanted to play around with Manual Focus on some of the zooming shots to display different depths of the field within the interviews and background footage (all of which are shown on the upcoming slides).

Filming - Rule of ThirdsPresenting the many voxpops and interviews that were shot following this convention:

Original framing was adjusted using the image frame tool on Final Cut Express to create a tighter angle otherwise the mise-en-scene would be too distracting.

With this particular clip, the camera was setup on a tripod and positioned to capture the expert in the rule of thirds (as shown below). Also the depth of field was adjusted so that the background was slightly out of focus whereas the expert was in crisp definition.

Final Cut ExpressUsing the USB port in the Apple Mac we logged and transferred all our

footage from the Canon HG20HD camera onto Final Cut Express program. From there we began editing.

We began by inserting all the raw footage into a sequence. From there we cut down most of the clips so that most of them were around 4/5 seconds and then we applied effects and transitions to them (as shown on the clip in the bottom right). Also adding graphics over the top of the clips for facts and figure and title sequences.

Construction - Editing

The insertion of text graphics moving on screen using image frame tool.

Application of a cross dissolve transition from one clip to another. This is there to separate one section from another.

Here is the usage of a GarageBand document that we placed into our opening title sequence of our documentary. We also used this software to create a constant backing track throughout the documentary.

InDesignUsing InDesign to create a magazine was relatively simple due to the fact that I

had experience in using the and Photoshop previously in Media AS and in Graphics AS. When constructing the magazine, I familiarized myself with the correct tools I would need to construct the layout that I had during the planning. Using many tools from the toolbar such as: the frame tool, Text tool, rectangle tool, eye dropper tool, both the selection/movement tools. I also used the place tool in order to take manipulated images from Photoshop into InDesign so they look edited and more professional. I had experience within using the paragraph formatting tools also and used this to my advantage: creating conventional drop cap and columns in the article itself, Using effects like drop shadow on most of the text on the double page helped enhance the look of it and really bring the text up off the page.

Construction - Magazine

Final Cut ExpressUsing final cut once again to create the radio trail did not take too long at due

to the fact that it was mostly made up of extracts from the documentary so once that was complete, the radio trail was simply the piecing together of extracts and the occasional voiceover.

Construction – Radio trail

Question 1Firstly, question 1of my evaluation I used Microsoft Wordpad and Word to type it up and

then using Scribd to transform it into a blog-worhty post, not taking up the entire blog with writing.

Question 2For question 2 I used Microsoft PowerPoint to construct multiple slides showing how each

product relates to one another. Then from that I used a website similar to Scribd, named Slideshare where this allows you to transform a PowerPoint presentation into a smaller HTML coded widget in which you can attach an embed code. Therefore, I used this to upload it onto our group Blogger account.

Question 3For this question I aimed to keep all questions different from the rest so I uploaded a video

showcasing the reactions and opinions of people regarding all three of my products. This was done via YouTube which is also available to attach to blogger via an embed code.

Question 4The final question was done on PowerPoint once again due to the fact that to include

immense amounts of information in somewhat essay form would be simpler in brief such as this. Therefore PowerPoint (leading to Slideshare again) was useful to attach pictures and diagrams to the presentation to keep it from being entirely text.

Evaluation