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

2. • 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.

3. • 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.

4. • 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.

5. 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.

6. • 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

7. • 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.

8. • 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.

9. • 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.

10. • 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.

11. • 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.

12. • 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.

13. • 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.

14. 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.

15. • 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.

16. • 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.

17. 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.

18. • 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.

19. • 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.

20. • 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.

21. • 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.