Media Technologies

During the research stage, we needed a digital location to store blogs, whether they were only drafts or fully completed. We utilised WordPress to our advantage as we were able to adjust research when necessary additions were necessary. It also meant that we could order our work accordingly, making it easier for us to access and find information.

WordPress allowed us to organise our work accordingly, so we could add, and adjust as our research and production progressed. It provided a clear display of what we had and reminded us of what we needed. It also allowed up to monitor the quality of our blog and posts at anytime, on any device

We also used the blog to gain feedback from our audience at each stage of our research and production, however this was unreliable as there was not much feedback given, through WordPress. We had to use other methods in order to collect reliable feedback.

It was important that we used numerous websites while researching for our documentary. These websites provided us with vital information and videos that we used to help us with our production as we were able to view real media texts. We could then identify key aspects and conventions that we would later use or not.

YouTube was one of our most used websites as it had the real texts and videos tat we could continuously refer back to. We also read the comments and could see how different types of audiences responded. This was useful to us as we knew that we could use that feature once we started vlogging.

We also used other internet websites inn order to retrieve information that would be useful in our decision making. We were able to view channel 4’s prints on google and also find their identity style guide, where conventions and guidelines of their productions were clearly provided.

The only problem we had with google was being able to determine whether the work was actually from channel 4, or done by other random production groups. To avoid including unofficial work in our research, we had to make sure they came from actual channel 4 campaigns.

We carried out and collected audience surveys using various websites such as Survey monkey and Excel online surveys. There were slight issues with the websites when we needed to collect the results but that was easy solved by refreshing the website. This was incredibly useful in providing audience preferences and guidelines.

We used Scribd as a primary website to store word documents and put them onto our blog. It was where we kept backups of most of our plans completed in the research and planning stage. This way it could be accessed by any of the group members easily.

We used Socrative to gather group feedback, which was then posted in an excel worksheet that we were emailed. We used this feedback to make any changes needed. Socrative helped because it was a quick way to get a large amount of feedback and have it all in once place. However, summarising the feedback and coming to a conclusion on it was sometimes difficult as we did not want to change certain things.

It was also an effective way to check progress, comparing the scores given and feedback received.

Slideshare was again, a site we were able to use to our advantage, while posting PowerPoints of any research and plans we had made. It was a simple way to present information on our blog, so we could get feedback from our audience easily.

Digital Camera We filmed using a cannon 550D, and a tripod. This maximised the quality of

our production and also ensured we captured every shot steadily and accurately.

There were often issues with the storage space on our memory card, so we would have to ensure that unnecessary footage was deleted and any needed footage was transferred to the iMacs immediately in order for us to continue filming.

We used Apple iMacs as our primary device throughout our production, research and evaluation stage.

These provided us with the software needed to edit our production. Also, we used Windows for Apple on this device to make power points and so on.

We used the Photo booth video camera which was built in on the iMac to create our vlogs and also to gain audience feedback in video form. This made uploading the vlogs to YouTube easier and editing them on iMovie quicker.

Again, we used YouTube and WordPress to upload videos and images while in production. These videos included our vlogs and the images on WordPress included locations and current progression, which was saved in our gallery.

From YouTube, we were able to gain feedback from our audience and access our work from any device, including our mobile phones and tablets.

Our gallery on WordPress kept in in contact with our audience, and showed them that we were still working towards our final piece of work. This was however quite difficult to maintain as we would quite frequently forget to take pictures, or upload the pictures we have taken onto our blog.

We used iMovie to edit our main production, feedback and vlogs. It was quite hard to use, but our group had previous experience from our AS work, so continued building from that. It was mentioned to us that Final Cut Pro was a lot easier to use but we decided to challenge ourselves with iMovie, and were successful.

iMovies occasionally froze and did not save automatically, which set us back at various points but the set backs were not major and we quickly caught up to our schedule.

We were able to experiment with different tools on iMovie, but because we completed a documentary, kept it simple.

For the voiceover included in our introduction, we used an advanced voice recorder to maximise the sound quality. It was also easier to transfer the file onto iMovies which meant the quality of our work was kept the best it could be.

We used Photoshop to edit and create our print advert and magazine spread. When we first started, the progress was slow but as we grew familiar with the software we were able to manipulate photos and create pieces as desired. This was affective as the end results were as we wanted.

Photoshop was good because we were able to change the format into a JPEG, meaning that it would’ve been easy to upload to our blog, print out and get feedback.

We were able to mimic channel 4’s techniques using Photoshop, so our print advert looked similar /conventional to the other channel 4 print adverts. This made our print adverts look professional.

While creating our print advert, there were no fonts on Photoshop that were similar to channel 4’s C4 font. Therefore we had to use external font websites to find a font that was similar to c4. This created realism within our print advert.

There were no digits available on ‘Dafont.com’ so we used digits provided on Photoshop. It blended it very well, though not C4.

Deciding to put our evaluation on a different website, we needed on that was not difficult to use. Wix was recommended to us and we found it exceptional to navigate around and adjust to our preferences.

We were able to create pages for the different evaluative questions so the website was easy simple to navigate around.

Prezi – was used a creative way to create a presentation for the answer to Question 2. We thought it was entertaining as we could use images, providing visuals and text, while it being easy to access and use. Learning how to use Prezi was not time consuming, so it was suitable for our group.

We used Padlet to plan our answers for our evaluation. This was easy as we could display all ideas and have a clear idea of what we want to evaluate. It was very easy to use, even though it was a new website which made it practical for us.

All of these sites were used to upload work for our evaluation because we had prior knowledge of them as we used them through out the entire process of creating the documentary. We were able to upload our Question 1 onto YouTube as it was in video form. Our PowerPoints were uploaded onto Slideshare and the plan for our questions, onto WordPress. This helped incredibly when it came to organising our work.

We used the iMac built in camera to film for our question 1 instead of a digital camera, as it meant we could use iMovie to edit the clip because it was less time consuming.

We detached audio for the majority of the video, so we were able to show examples accordingly. This was effective as it provided visual aid to the voice overs, supporting the claims mentioned.

We used a variety of devices to complete our evaluation. This depended on the convenience of each device, according to our settings and what we were doing. In some situations, an iMac nor laptop was available for us to use, so instead we used our mobile phones or tablets to complete different part of the evaluation. Also to review what we have done so far, seeing how our Prezi looked on different devices, so we could make changes if necessary.

However, the iMac was the only device we used to record and edit.