How did you use media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

What programmes did we use in the research and planning stages?

For my documentary, the research and planning stages were vital for the production. I planned the documentary thoroughly using a variety of media technologies, firstly creating a detailed mind map of possible ideas. As well as this, through using the internet throughout the whole product but in particular the research and planning stages, we were able to research our topic thoroughly. These brought us to the conclusion that alcohol is a huge topic of conversation and is very much the centre of most peoples social lives, therefore it would be a good topic of which we could make very interesting. The research stage had to be very detailed which meant by using Google Images, Chrome and internet explorer we were able to find a variety of articles, images and statistics.

Microsoft word was a vital program we used throughout our research and planning stages as we were able to create questionnaires. The program was extremely easy to use as we were familiar with it.

We conducted our research and planning onto blogger.com which was extremely helpful as we could put all of our information in one place, no matter what program it was made on. All four of us in the group could access the blogger both from college and home which was extremely useful. It also kept everything organised and in chronological order.

In order to create other more interesting presentations we also used programs such as Prezi and Slideshare which we had to learn about in the process of producing presentations.

During our research and planning stage, it was vital that we watched other documentaries in our genre to see the codes and conventions they used, and also how they presented the topic. We analysed these documentaries in great detail and uploaded it onto the blog so we could constantly use them as inspiration and refer back to them. The software ‘Youtube’ meant this process was very easy for us as we had access to hundreds of documentaries which would inform us on what works well in a documentary of our topic and what doesn’t.

We also used our college media centre in order to watch other A2 students’ documentaries and analyse them.

Hand sketches was also a very effective part of our planning for all three products – documentary, radio trailer and double page spread as it meant we could produce hand written storyboards and express our ideas more freely with labels etc instead of producing it on Microsoft Word. Creating detailed plans made it easier with the creation of the product.

Not only did we research news articles to gain information about our topic, we also researched different channels in order to see which one would suit our documentary the most. We looked at Channel 4, BBC 3 and ITV1 in order to find out which of the channels shows similar documentaries and topics to ours. We also looked at TV listings such as TV guide which helped us to understand which channels did show certain documentaries and also what times they were on at which helped us to decide the target audience and what time we were going to air our documentary.

4od was the most useful resource for us as it had the most documentaries about alcohol or real life stories.

BBC 3 iPlayer was quite helpful for us as it showed a few documentaries on a similar topic.

ITV player was the least helpful website for us as the documentaries it shows were of completely different topics. The one documentary that was similar to ours in topic was ‘Ibiza Weekender’ which was helpful as it is an influence to young drinkers.

This is evidence of PowerPoints we made during the research and planning process. We researched Channel 4 and Capital FM as these were the channels and stations we decided to air our documentary and radio trailer on. We knew these stats and facts were reliable as they were taken off the official websites and quickly producing these into a powerpoint was helpful for us as we could refer back to it at all times to remind ourselves of what to include with our target audience in mind and what not to include.

We made sure we had planned the questions for the expert interviews to ensure the experts had an idea of what they could talk about to save time and so they had high quality comments. We also made sure we had got in touch with experts well before the production of our documentary to avoid disappointment and rushing interviews. Emails were very useful for our planning of the documentary as it meant we were able to contact all sorts of experts, from teachers at our college to local authorities like policemen.

The original message sent to the police.

The police’s reply – they were willing to help us.

We had to let reception know we were having an outside visitor.

Email threads via our school system ‘Tyber’ which is also another technology we used in order to get in contact with teachers.

As the production of our three products required more time than we had in college, communicating with each other was very important. We regularly kept in contact through social media and the other software on mobile phones. We messaged each other to organise dates, times and share different ideas. It was also extremely helpful when planning to get together to complete coursework or the production of the documentary.

What programmes did we use in the construction stages?

After spending a lot of time conducting extensive research and planning tasks, we began to film our footage, using our planned storyboards as a basis. We were provided with high professional, quality hardware. Firstly, we were provided with a high quality professional camera, we used a Canon HG20 HD. We found this extremely helpful with the production of our documentary which meant we were able to carry out shots. It further enabled us to manipulate autofocus, which allowed us to create more dynamic shots. I believe this gave the documentary a professional and clear look. We were also provided with other hardware products such as a tripod and a microphone which enabled our sound quality to be good and we were able to create smooth shots as the tripod held the camera in a steady position. An example of this is when we were filming the college sign. The tripod allowed us to pan the camera which provided a smooth elegant shot.

For our voxpops and formal interviews we used a tripod to keep the camera stable to make the shot look clear whilst we talked to the interviewee and asked them questions. This made it easier to keep mise en scene and rule of thirds in mind. Sound levels were an important aspect to us throughout the filming as we wanted to keep them consistent. Therefore we used plug in headphones which were Sennheisser HD201 headphones. These came in very handy as it meant we could listen to the sound to make sure it was loud and clear. At first this was difficult to grasp as it meant preferably the same person would wear the earphones for consistency and also we had to make sure we were using the same kind of earphones. Once we had got the hang of this it was extremely effective. When we were asking the questions we made sure we pointed the microphone directly at the speaker’s mouth, hiding the microphone out of shot.

We used a voice recorder (TASCAM’S DR-05) when constructing the voice over for both of the documentary and radio trailer. This device was very helpful and more effective than using our phones as the microphone enabled us to see the sound levels which made the voice over a lot clearer and gave a professional finish.

As you can see here is proof of us using the voice recorder. At first we had difficulties using it as we weren’t very used to using it, for example we tried to record some of our voice over at one stage but it turns out we hadn’t clicked the record button properly. As this was a minor mistake we overcame it quickly and soon got used to using the device.

Once we had gathered all of our footage, we used the editing software Premiere Pro. We imported all of our raw footage onto MAC computers. The program enabled us to clip certain shots down and was useful as we could select which bits we wanted to use effectively. A key tool on the program was the razorblade tool which enabled us to slice the clip and delete the parts we didn’t want which created straight cuts. We didn’t end up using all the clips we had filmed in our documentary which wouldn’t have been possible as we were only required to make the opening five minutes. Each clip we used was shorted down to its best form, including the most important quotes. This meant our documentary was informative and effective. We edited the sound levels effectively using Adobe Premier.

What programmes did we use in the editing stages?

Despite our efforts filming, there are still some noisy shots in our clips where background noise distracted the noise of the interviewer speaking. Both programs were effective in edited sound levels more consistent, making the voice of the interviewee slightly louder than the background noise so there was no loud noises distracting what the interviewer was saying. We decided not to use clips that we didn’t feel were relevant to our documentary and its purpose and also that didn’t fit codes and conventions of our documentary genre.

An aspect that is an important codes and convention of documentaries we wanted to carry out was titles on our interviews. We were able to chose the font and colour which kept it consistent throughout the documentary. To make sure the titles and the content within the frame were fitted proportionally we used the wire frame. This helped us to position clips where we wanted them and avoided them being cut off after the exportation of the documentary.

Radio Trailer

Our radio trailer was produced using mostly extracts from the documentary. We decided to use the same female voice as in the documentary as we felt if we hadn't of done this the three products would not have been consistent and we would have failed to create a brand identity. During the making of the radio trailer we encountered some problems. We had originally attempted to create the product in Garage band, however when it didn’t work effectively we were forced to create our product in Premiere Pro. This was actually easier for us in the end as it was the same program we had used for the making of the documentary. This was probably the easiest option in the end as we had spent so long editing the documentary in this program so we were highly skilled in it.

How did you use media technologies in the evaluation stages?

In the creation of my evaluation, I used a variety of programs such as Microsoft Word to plan ideas and Microsoft PowerPoint to create presentations which I then uploaded to slideshare and also Prezi. I could then upload my presentations onto blogger which was very easy and effective. For question 3 I used Prezi which is a slightly more creative resource, allowing me to experiment with a different technology. This was useful as I wanted to show more creative things like graphs etc.

The use of Soundcloud

For my second question I used the voice memos application on my iPhone. I recorded my answer which I had already written out and edited many times. I found the recording part very easy as I had used this method before and therefore this meant I knew it would produce a good sound quality. Once I had saved all my voice recordings I uploaded them onto sound cloud. The aim of this was to make my evaluation interesting and unique so the examiner doesn’t have to read through realms of text. As well as this I wanted to use another media technology.

Software products I used…• Prezi• Slideshare• Scribd• Soundcloud• Garage band• Adobe Premiere Pro• Microsoft Powerpoint• Microsoft Word• Youtube• Blogger• Whatsapp• Snapchat• Facebook• Twitter• Internet Explorer

Hardware products I used…• Apple Mac computer

• Windows 7 computer

• Camera

• Microphone

• Headphones

• Mobile phones

• Printers