Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

• At the start of our coursework we had to do sufficient research, this meant that we had to use the web and websites such as The Guardian, BBC, Google News etc. We looked at how they appealed to the audience by what facts and statistics they used to gain interest and entertainment. In addition they helped us to decide what channel to pick for our documentary as we looked at other documentaries online. This is at websites such as YouTube and BBC Iplayer as we watched many of real documentaries on this such as Supersize ME, Airline and Sun, Sex and Suspicious parents.

• All of our Pieces that we have produced we have had to put on to Blogger.com. This has been very useful towards seeing our progress from the very beginning and easy for our group to put their documents together to create our coursework efficiently.

• After we done all of the research and planning we had to start filming the clips for our documentary.

• this meant we had to use a Canon HG20 HD camera, headphones and microphone to record our clips and it meant that we could create images as well as video footage to put into the documentary. With the camera we were able to use effects such as, zooms, change the focus of a shot to create out of focus shots and the white balance of a shot.

Final Cut Express• This is where we produced our documentary which enabled us to edit and

modify the clips to create a final product.• In this programme it allowed us to be able to modify clips to speed them

up, slow them down, add a filter on the clip and include transitions at the end.

• A main part of final cut express was the simplicity of the programme so we could put together the documentary successfully and efficiently.

• The first thing that we did on final cut express was to log and transfer the clips into the programme and then rename them so that we could find them easily and understand which clips go where without having to watch all the clips to know what they are.

Rename the clips

• The next thing we did was put the clips that we intended to use into the timeline, this is where we developed the fast opening montage, altering the speed which we were able to do through Final Cut Express in addition we also slowed clips down to create effect. This was easily done as we just changed the speed from 100% to 50% so it created a slow motion effect.

• The sound levels of some of our clips were very quiet compared to others so we had to alter them by using the pan centre tool which created a level and equal sound to the other clips. However some of our clips we had to do again using the camera to get the sound levels correct.

• In addition we had to use the pen tool to alter the sound levels at the end of clips to create a balance from one shot to the next.

• We added text to our documentary this again was easily done as it is just an effect that we could add over the clip or a blank screen to add affect.

• We used the straight cuts mostly throughout our documentary to keep to documentary conventions however:-

• We used a variety of transitions in our clips such as Fade in fade out, dissolve and fade to black. We used these three transitions because they looked the most professional as they were simple transitions and made the documentary flow adequately.

• The fade in fade out shot allowed us to change from one scene to the next without it looking like a jump cut and made the documentary flow.

• The dissolve transition again made our documentary flow but it allowed us to talk over a collection of shots and make them dissolve from one to the next.

• Fade to black allowed us to let the audience understand that there is a new topic about to be discussed, we mostly used this to use with cutaways and shots of an observational view.

• Cutaways were easily created in final cut express as it had a simple wireframe so that we could easily centre our clips and make our stills move to a successful effect. We included one of these in Neil’s interview and it separated the interview so that the audience would not get bored.

• This again was very useful for the interviews as it allowed us to centre the interviewee and keep to codes and conventions of a documentary of this nature.

Radio trail• Before making the radio trail we had to listen to many other professional

radio trails to get an idea of how to set it out and how long it should be.• We had to hire out the headphones, camera and microphone to record

our radio trail and also input clips from the actual documentary into our radio trail. This time we had to make sure that he sound levels were all correct so placed the mic closer to the persons mouth.

• Once we had recorded all the clips we imported them into garage band to create our radio trail.

• IN addition we included a looped track of a siren to show fear and mystery which is our house style. This was done from the loop option at the bottom of Garage Band to find the perfect track to fit with our house style.

These are the options that we picked for our radio trail.

• In addition we had to use Final Cut Express to put our clips together to create our final piece. As we had already used final cut express before so we had the skills that were necessary to complete the radio trailer adequately.

TV Listings Article• To produce our magazine article we had to use a software called Adobe

InDesign. This allowed us to create a double page article simple enough but with enough detail to look professional and that it belongs to the Radio Times. We also wrote the article in Microsoft Word then copied the written article into InDesign.

• Firstly we decided that we should put in the original images that I had taken with my camera and added effects and cropped the images to how we liked them.

• Once we had finished with the images we had to place them in the double page spread article and then placed the images to where we wanted them to go.

• In the beginning of our article we use a drop cap this was done with changing the percentage size of the text for the first letter of the article from a size 12 to a size 40. In addition we added a bold effect on the letter so it stood out.

• In the evaluation stage of my coursework I used only Slideshare as I found this a simple and easy to use software to illustrate my evaluation.