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

Research and Planning

The research and planning of our TV documentary was highly important for the production. We didn’t know that so much planning went into making a documentary and we didn’t know about using media technologies such as the camera, Final Cut Express and Garage Band. A lot of the planning we had to do did not require media technologies; it had to be done by hand. For example, our storyboards were done by hand.

In the research stage of our documentary, we used new media technologies to help publish our findings onto our blog. For example we used Prezi to publish our different topic ideas. This made our blog look a bit different and a bit more interesting. To research into our topic more, we had to use up to date sources that could provide us with recent and relevant information. We used sources such as The Guardian, BBC and The Telegraph.

These websites provided us with the statistics and facts we needed to use in our documentary. We also had to do research into the channel we wanted to broadcast our documentary on. To conduct our channel research, we looked at the websites of the potential channels and found out what their target audience was to see whether it fitted into our target audience. The most suitable channel for our documentary to be broadcasted on was Channel 4. We chose Channel 4 because we found out that Channel 4 broadcasts a lot of documentaries as part of their regular TV schedule so we knew that our documentary would fit in. Also, we found out that their target

audience consist of our target audience therefore we knew that our documentary would be shown to the right audience. Through giving a questionnaire to a group of students in our target audience we were able to find out that the majority of them watch Channel 4 regularly. This allowed us to be sure that we had chosen the right channel for our documentary to be broadcasted on.

We also had to research into similar documentaries to make sure that we could pick out codes and conventions that Channel 4 has used in their documentaries. To do this, we used 4OD to look at similar documentaries and note down any features that we could use in our documentary. We also had to look at YouTube to find documentaries that were no longer available on 4OD.

All of our research was then posted in our group blog on blogger.com which was used to post all of our research and planning so that it was all in one place and easily assessable. I found blogger.com useful because as a group we could

all look at the research and planning as a whole and identify what could be improved or plan what our next step was.

Filming

The next stage of production was to start filming. To film our documentary we used Canon HD Camera. This camera allowed us to take still shots as well take videos which was a useful feature to have. After learning basics of the camera, we were able to learn how to use the more complex features such as the zooming tool, focus tool and the white balance tool. Learning how to use these tools and so many others helped us to expand our abilities and use techniques in our documentary that will make visually interesting. As well as using the video filming function of the camera, we also used the still camera function to take images of posters which would be useful to fill small sections of our documentary.

During our documentary we used the tripod to hold the camera steady and ensure we have professional shots. We did use the handheld camera for shots that wouldn’t have looked professional and steady if we had used the tripod. We used the tripod for shots such as establishing shots and expert interview

because using the tripod meant that we could get the framing for each shot right. The tripod meant that we were able to shoot shots such as a pan, or tracking without the camera shaking.

We also had to make we had the equipment for the sound as well for the filming. To make sure that our sound levels could be heard clearly, we used a directional microphone to record our expert interviews, vox pops and voice over. We had to plug in headphones into the camera so that we knew when we were filming the sound

levels could be heard clearly. When we recorded our voice over we used a quiet room without the echoing effect, so that the voice over was recorded clear and without any background noise.

Editing

When we finished all our filming, we uploaded all of our clips from our camera onto the Apple iMac. Once we had done it once, the process was simple and

easy to do. We plugged the camera into the iMac and then opened Final Cut Express which is the software on the iMac that we used to edit our whole documentary. The first stage was ‘log and transferring’ all the clips from our camera and place them into Final Cut Express so that we were ready to edit straight away.

After every day we logged and transferred that days clips into Final Cut Express and named each individual clip something that would help us to find them easily when it came to structuring our documentary.

Window for viewing our documentary.

Editing tools

Visual footage

Audio footage

Unedited footage

Time

When filming we had taken our time during each shot to make sure that the shot was steady. So when it came to editing, a lot of our clips had to be modified and sped up because they were taking up too much time. To do this we went onto Modify and then down to speed where we could increase the speed so that the clip can take up less time on the timeline.

We also had a few problems with the audio levels on particular clips because when we watched some of the clips back such as the Just4U interview, the sound levels could not be heard clearly. To fix the problem we used the pin point tool on the tool bar and picked the

point where we wanted to increase the sound levels and raised the pink sound bar up. We then had to listen to the clip back with the rest of the documentary to check the sound was level. Modifying the sound levels also became useful when we wanted to fade the music in and out, which we did before and after the expert interviews.

Another skill we learnt to do on Final Cut Express was the use of transitions and effects. In our documentary we used mostly straight cuts which is a convention used in many actual documentaries. But on

some shots such as the opening sequence and we did this because we thought the audience would appreciate a more interesting opening sequence that would grab the audience’s attention straight away. The transitions were easy to use because all we had to do is choose the transition from the effects sidebar and then drag the effects onto the clip we wanted. We used the effects cross dissolve and swipe during the opening sequence. We could preview the clip and transition before we made the final editing which helped us to save time and not make as many mistakes.

After all the clips and transitions were put into the correct place and the timeline was structured the way we wanted it to be. It was time to place in the sound and record our voiceover. Before recording our voiceover, we had to script it and make sure that the content was relevant to the documentary. We had to record the voiceover on the camera using the headphones and microphone and we made sure again that we recorded in a quiet room where there would be no echoing sound. We decided to record our voiceover in sections so that it would be easier to place into the timeline.

Using Garage Band we composed a simple one beat music track that would play as our background music. We made a 5 minute track which consists of the ‘Club Dance Beat 007’ which can be located in the Garage Band library and then exported the track as an mp3. We then opened the track in Final Cut Express and dragged it in the A2 layer of our audio timeline.

Radio Trailer

Our radio trailer also had to be created on Final Cut Express. Again, we created our background music in Garage Band and we used the same beat as we did for

our documentary to link the two products together. We dragged the beat into the timeline and then saved it as our track. To choose a beat, we looked at the different types of sound that were available in the Garage Band library. We ended up choosing ‘Club Dance Beat 007’ and pasted the track

over and over again to create one 5 minute track. Once we had the basic music track done, we then had to place the voiceover and extracts from our documentary over the top. To make sure that the extracts and voiceover could be heard clearly, we had to adjust the sound levels.

Once everything was finished and we were happy with it, we then exported this again by choosing the export song to disk option on the share drop down menu. Once we had exported the radio trailer it could be played on any device as an mp3 track.

The radio trailer was easier to construct as we had already learnt and developed our Final Cut Express skills after making our documentary. We used two extracts from our documentary which were clips from our expert interviews because we thought that these extracts would grab the audience’s attention and get them interested in the documentary. There were certain things that we had to make sure were included in our radio trailer like the time, date and channel of the documentary which we made sure were included in our script.

Magazine Article

To make our magazine article we used the same software that we used to make our music magazine in AS Media. We used Adobe InDesign which allowed us to produce our double page spread.

To start our double page spread I added the purple banner with the yellow text inside it reading “The Best of this Week’s TV” because it followed TV Choice’s conventions which we had researched beforehand.

We then copy and pasted the article into InDesign from Word and structured it into columns which is also another convention which TV Choice regularly do in their articles.

To make the single page into a double page spread we had to go onto the layout drop down menu and select the option add page. This made our single

page spread into a double page spread and allowed us to make the double page spread as a whole rather than have to make each page separately.

Because we had used InDesign before, we had already learnt the basics and developed our skills during the AS Media course. Therefore when it came to making the double page spread, it was pretty simple because we knew what we were

doing.