Question 4 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages?

Documentary Research We owe most credit to the internet which we used to help find our basic information regarding all media products in terms of their conventions and examples to study as well as finding out more about our target audience and what channel we should use by looking at their remits carefully. We used internet explorer so browse the web and search engines such as google and bing to help us look for our information furthermore we use boolean operators to make out searches more specific to what we were searching for so the information we obtained was more reliable and the time taken to search for it was reduced.

1000 1000 - sockitmama.com

n order to show our work we used blogger an online blogging website which allows us to upload a range of files in chronological order so our work can be reviewed easily. We were also able to check our blogs at any time and monitor whether or not we have covered certain things or track progress so we all knew what we had to do. !ne technology we used to help us plan and keep on schedule and time management is a time line software found on www.timetoast.com which allowed us to plan our "ourney from the start of year to the final deadline of handing in all media products. We inserted all the dates and times we already knew which we had to complete things by and so we used this to manage our work and decide what we were going to work ion each week in order to keep on track. We also regularly updated our time line as it was easy to login and edit which allowed us to look back and reflect upon where we should of put more time in and what we could of improved on. #icrosoft $ower point is a technology we used to present our information with slides rather than pages of information so it can be broken down and easier on the eye for the reader. We edited the style of the slides and house style so that the frames were more graphically appealing to make it look more interesting.

%nother technology we used was $re&i which allows us to present ideas in a more interactive and motion graphic way which is more interesting than a standard power point. We used this to brainstorm ideas about the possible topics we would be making our documentary on and went onto further detail regarding our final choice of topic. We also used #icrosoft Word to present my channel research whereby chose all the potential channels and that could broadcast our final documentary and then analysed their channel remits with the use of bold effect and images so could outline key aspects of their remit and say why or why not our documentary is appropriate in accordance with it. n order to upload the word documents we used 'cribd which allows the viewing of these documents upon blogs once uploaded because it can read and view the file. We used this software for a number of research features some of which include channel remit research and our chosen target audience text. We used (outube to researcher into similar as well as other documentaries so we could find some inspiration as to what we wanted to include within our documentary as well as recognise key conventions that we needed to include to make it appear professional. %s well as (outube we also used ))* iplayer and +onDemand to access documentaries that wee more recent so we could ensure our documentary would be modern enough to appeal to the target audience. Planning !ur planning didn,t involve as many technologies as it was more getting things written down and brainstorming within the group. !ne technology used was -yber which is a direct messaging system which allowed us to re.uest permission from the experts regarding filming them to take part in our documentary. -his allowed us to get on with things whilst awaiting a reply and the reply would have been relatively .uick anyway because it was a direct message that of which the experts regularly use to contact other people in the college. We also used blogger to regularly give updates on what we were doing each lesson and what had to be done or even "ust to give a .uick message regarding where we were at. We used a scanner to upload images of drafts and potential content that was going to appear within our media products which we felt was a nice different way of presenting information rather than having computeri&ed word processed documents all the time. Construction We tried to be as professional as we could so that we would end up with a professional looking documentary by the end of the filming process. We used a *anon /010 /D camera2recorder to record our videos and it had all the features that would be re.uired to obtain good shots. !ne feature was the &oom in and out button where by we could get close to an ob"ect without having to physically go to it3 this came n handy when we needed to capture things that we could get close to such as people using there phones which we re.uested permission for so it looked like everyday life. %nother feature was the manual focus whereby a ring upon the camera lens could be turned and we

set the camera to the manual focus option so we could ad"ust what the cameras focus was actually on3 in some cases we used this for special effects upon background footage or to provide depth in a certain ob"ect. 4urthermore if people didn,t want us to use their faces but were okay with the footage3 we blurred them out by ad"usting the focus. 5ploading the files onto the computer was very convenient as the camera was able to connect via a 5') port so we could upload straight into our documents and we even placed it into organised folders so when it came to editing we knew exactly where to find the footage. n addition to this almost always used a tripod to ensure all shots looked still and smooth if we were panning. t ensured we got the correct framing and allowed us to make the interviews appear professional as the conventional angle of an interview was easy to obtain once we had set up the tripod correctly. -he process of setting up the tripod was some what time consuming because we had to make sure it was level with the air bubble feature upon the tripod and also attach and detach the camera to the plate on top of the tripod. -o record the sound from videos we used a hand-held shotgun microphone that was always evident in interviews because it gave a better .uality of sound compared to the cameras built in microphone but we were very careful not to get it in the shot. %lthough the microphone gave us good .uality sound it was fidgety because of the wire that had to be plugged into the camera so there was a little ha&ard there but it was worth the trouble. We also used 'ennheiser /D101 headphones when recording interviews and vox pops and when reviewing footage. )ecause these were good .uality headphones we used them to ad"ust the sound levels of the clips so it was more professionally done rather than listening off the mac screen speakers. )y using the headphones in interviews we made sure the sound was working through the microphone which saved us a couple of times because of a faulty microphone which could of cost us time re-doing the interview at a later stage and then prolonging the next process of editing. Editing We used 4inal *ut 6xpress to upload and edit the videos in order to make our documentary. )ecause all the clips were in folders and organised all we had to do was use the log and transfer tool to move the clips into 4inal *ut by dragging the folder into that window and from their we could preview the clips before doing a final transfer into the actual 4inal *ut 6xpress file. We then selected the clips we wanted and transferred them so we could edit the clips themselves once we added them to the se.uences7 time line. -he tool bar usually located on the right hand side of screen is where found the tools needed to edit the clips. !ne tool used was the pen tool which allowed me to select certain points on the sound of a clip and move them up or down so at some stages of the clip they sound was more evident or lower. %nother tool used was the ra&or blade tool which allowed me to cut clips where wanted which was very useful for when an interview or vox pop went wrong or went on for too long. /owever they tool snapped to certain bits of clip which meant couldn,t get a smooth edit so what did was &oom into the clip by using the sliders on the time line which showed a closer time scaled and then it allowed me to cut closer to where wanted to enable a smooth running edit. What also found useful was he snapping feature whereby when put clips together it would automatically 77snap77 together so no gap was left between the clips where as if it was left off then would not be able to see a gap between the two clips until have watched it which would have been

very time consuming going back and sorting all the clips out. We also used some transitions from some clips3 for example a cross dissolve for 8ichard #apperllys interview so we could skip to a good bit of speech without boring the target audience otherwise we used a fair amount of straight cuts. wanted to shorten clips but not cut them because was keeping to a 9-+ second clip them as background footage so used the speed feature whereby could speed up a clip which in turn shortened the clip furthermore it looked like a nice effect so it seemed successful. %nother feature used was a text transition whereby used these to caption the expert interviewees with their names an professions. -hese worked well as we could make them transparent so it looked professional furthermore we were able to freely move them and use the wire frame to help us make the decision as to where to place it and if it looked right. We also used the pink noise level line to ad"ust the sound levels of each clip so they were not overpowering each other or the voice-over therefore when the clips changed the sound linked smoothly. -o obtain the background music we used a software called garage band which consisted of numerous presets of instruments of all ranges that of which you select and put to together in order to make a soundtrack. We wanted something that was not too powerful or distracting and in order to obtain this we had to make numerous combinations in order to find our final soundtrack. We exported the soundtrack as an #$9 file into 4inal *ut 6xpress and matched it up against the footage so it linked nicely. -: #aga&ine ; Double $age 'pread Research/Planning We used #icrosoft $owerpoint to do our double page spreads7 analysis so we could insert arrows and move texts boxes around with more ease so we could portray the information clearly. We then saved it as an image as it was easier to upload as a "peg which helped us view the conventions of a -: maga&ines double page spread. We then used the internet and blogger to upload these images and we could change the time of the blog post so that we could sort the order out if someone posted something before the other person because they had finished first which was a rare case. We also utilised a scanner in order to scan in potential content for the double page spread and drafts of potential and final layouts. We felt these were more effective as visual posts because it was clear information so we could scan through it and know what we wanted to establish. 4urthermore we word processed the final article via #' Word and used 'cribd to upload this document so we could view it upon our blog. Construction We were supposed to use %dobe nDesign to create the double page spread because t has special features in order to line up columns of text for the article and borderlines which helped make a conventional spread. /owever felt more comfortable using %dobe $hotoshop because regularly use it for my other course therefore could potentially do more than would do in nDesign furthermore it would have increased the time spent upon the double page spread because was not familiar with nDesign.

also was able to manipulate the images used to make them clearer on $hotoshop so the aesthetic look of the spread was no effected by odd lighting or colours. -he article was word processed into #' Word in order to prevent grammatical errors as we used the grammar and spelling check to keep the article grammatically correct which ensure a sense of professionalism. then took the text into $hotoshop and arranged it accordingly. 8adio -rail Research/Planning We used #icrosoft word to analyse radio trails with a template ready made to fill in regarding different radio trails. We word processed our findings and ad"usted the text accordingly so it looked neat and presentable. We used (outube to find the radio trails we intended to analyse which proved effective as we could pause and select the different parts of the radio trail we wanted to listen to if we missed something. %s well as this if we didn,t get enough time to finish it off in lesson then could could it at home since the videos were available on the internet upon (outube. We also used a scanner to upload out hand written script for the voice-over to the radio so in case we had lost the sheet we had back up of our work. -his goes throughout our work as we uploaded when the posts were ready so we had a backup of our work in case anything happened. 4urthermore we had backups of pieces of work on different websites such as 'cribd as it saves to the user. We used #' $owerpoint to present our findings in reference to the codes and conventions of radio trails. -o make the information less chunky to read we utilised bullet points so the reader reads short sentences and doesn,t have to go though long paragraphs. Construction -he software we used to put together the radio trail was 4inal *ut 6xpress ; the software used to create the documentary. We used this because it made it easier to drag and drop the snippets of interviews and expert interviews into another se.uence which was the radio trail. We firstly used a 'ony sound recorder to record the script being spoken by <ayal and then uploaded this file to 4inal *ut express so we could edit any bloopers and arrange all the sound clips. We then dragged the same soundtrack from the documentary into the radio trail se.uence and added all the snippets we needs to that se.uence and ad"usted the sound levels because some clips background noise made them seem louder or .uieter than they actually were so we had to find a norm. from there we had to export it as a movie file which we then uploaded to (outube so it could be heard despite there were no visuals. 6valauation