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

Hardware used in construction of documentary:

For the construction of our documentary, we had to use different forms of hardware such as a canon camera, a tripod and a microphone. We used the canon camera for the filming of our shots as this produces a high, professional quality that we need to acquire for a sophisticated documentary. The tripod helps to keep the camera steady so that our shots are level and not shaky which would reflect an amateur finish. The tripod also allowed us to do a steady pan for the establishing shot. The microphone was a small, handheld one so that it was easy to carry around with us as this is what we needed to enhance the sound for our interviews and voxpops. For our voiceover, we used a small voice recorder so that it could capture the sound clearly as it is important for the voiceover to be clear so that it is understood by the audience.

For my research and planning, I used the search engine google to find articles to extract facts to include in my script for the voiceover. To make a documentary truthful and reliable, facts and statistics are essential so that the audience can trust your documentary. I used websites such as ‘mail online’ and ‘bbc news online’ as I knew these were widely trusted and widely used newspapers that I could trust.

For my research and planning, it required detailed analysis of every element of a documentary. I used embedded Youtube clips to help me research into similar products, which inspired us to include certain conventions. Presentation tools such as powtoon, emaze, wideo, prezi and slideshare were used by me so that I had an interesting range of different software. This would avoid repetition and make my blog more exciting to watch. I personally like powtoon the most as presentation software because it allows you to do various things to create an entertaining presentation and is extremely easy to understand.

This is a screenshot of how you can apply a background track to your powtoon, whether it be music, or a voiceover. This allows you to be able to play music that relates to your topic to develop a significant meaning behind the presentation.

Here is a screenshot showing how you import images to place into your powtoon. I used this throughout all my research and planning, especially when creating powtoons about similar media products, because it allows you to give visual examples and comparisons to your own media text.

You can also import videos into your powtoon, for example if you wanted to import a video of a documentary convention to show your knowledge, however I didn’t use this tool even though I knew how to as I used other software to do this such as prezi.

I especially like powtoon as it allows an exciting visual in terms of applying text effects and transitions. I used transitions between each slide so that my presentation would flow fluently and I also used the text effects so it would be more enjoyable to read a block of otherwise boring text.

Emaze was a new software that I hadn’t used previously in AS, showing my development through to A2 in terms of expanding my skills into newer software. Emaze allows you to import powerpoint presentations where it would then let you choose a template to present it in. These templates had included lots of transitions and also allowed you to create connotations by choosing templates that linked in with your product. For example, for our secondary research into newspaper articles, we used a template which was a newspaper which clearly reflected our research well. Emaze also allows a change from software such as slideshare and scribd, which just simply present a powerpoint as it is with no appealing elements.

Wideo is one of the software that I used in my AS coursework, but only briefly as I found it complicated to use. For my A2 coursework, I developed my understanding of wideo by using templates already provided and inserting my own texts and images. This made it a lot easier and the templates also linked in with my topic well. For example, I used templates of Ipads and Iphones as picture frames, which kept reinforcing the topic for my documentary throughout

Evaluation software

When conducting my evaluation for my documentary, I discovered even more new presentation software as I felt I had used the previous websites repeatedly. One of the new software I used was called ‘animoto’. I used this to show the construction and development of the TV guide insert and how we reached the final product.

Prezi is a common software that I use because I feel it has a lot of useful qualities to it. As well as presenting information with an entertaining element, it also allows you to add in youtube clips, images and videos to your frames. A new skill I learned in my evaluation stage (when analysing my radio advert) was that you could insert a voiceover on just one path. This allowed me to insert a clip of the convention I was talking about ON the path I was talking about it, without it becoming a voiceover for the whole prezi.

First, I chose a template to present my pictures and then added my screenshots in the order I wanted, adding captions if necessary. Although this was a very simple piece of software, it was effective in showing the gradual stages of construction and the simplicity made it easy and pleasing to watch.

The second new presentation software I discovered was called ‘glogster’. I used this in my first evaluation question to discuss how I followed, developed or challenged codes and conventions for my TV guide, and I also used it in question 2 to show how all of my 3 final products link together to create a strong and effective brand. The use of new presenting skills shows my development from AS where I generally stuck to the same software throughout. Here I have showed a range of skills by exploring new ways of presenting my work. Glogster was my favourite piece of software to use as it created a ‘notice board’ style to place my evaluation on. I could import audio clips and video clips to demonstrate how my three products linked together, and I could also insert frames for my text and pictures to represent a contemporary, fun feel which links in with my target audience of students as they are young, and would therefore most likely use this type of style.

Inserting audio Inserting video

‘Scribd’ and ‘Slideshare’ are both ways of presenting either a word document, or a powerpoint presentation. Rather than placing a word document straight onto the blog, these two pieces of software allow you to present them in a neat and sophisticated way. They are very simple; therefore I used them to a minimum. However, I did use Scribd for my formal proposal in my research and planning as it required a lot of text and I felt Scribd was the most practical one to use. I used slideshare for posts on my blog such as ‘purpose of this research’. This was because these were checkpoints that were summarised into a powerpoint and I felt slideshare was the best way to present it so that it was easy to view. I also used it for this evaluation question because there was a lot of information to present.

Examples of frames for texts and pictures that I have used

Software for construction of the documentary

Premiere Pro was the software we used to edit our documentary. Premiere Pro was at first difficult software to use as it was different from the software we had used in our preliminary task. However, throughout the editing process we gained skills and knowledge for the software and it was extremely useful in aiding us to create a professional final piece.

Firstly, the razor tool was an extremely helpful tool that we learned to use. We used this to separate one clip into several clips so we could extract the parts that we needed. We mostly used this for our interviews as we used gatekeeping to depict the parts that only showed one side of the argument, and then placed transitions such as ‘cross

dissolve’ or ‘dip to black/white’ in between each clip. This was to ensure a steady, fluent string of clips and helped us with our linear narrative – showing a clear beginning, middle and end.

The trim tool was the most common tool we used. As most of our clips were originally too long to place in our documentary, we had to trim them down to the right size so that we didn’t go over our time limit.

Premiere Pro also allowed us to control sound levels which are very important for a documentary. When background music is playing at the same time as a voiceover, the voiceover needs to be as loud as possible so that it isn’t drowned out by the background music. By adjusting the ‘audio gain’ to maximum, it meant that the sound became as clear and loud as possible.

Another tool we learned to use was how to add in a title. This was important for the experts to have a title to give them a sense of authority, and also for our title screen. We could change the font, the size and colour and even add a background to our name titles, as they weren’t easily visible.

In Premiere Pro, you are also able to separate the audio of a clip from the visual. This way, you can use background footage and play background music over the top of it without the audio from the footage interrupting.

Software for construction of radio trailer

Garage band is the software we used to create our radio advert. This is the software where I am least developed in terms of skills as we only had to use this for a short amount of time (our radio trailer only lasts 30 seconds).

To insert a music clip onto garage band, you simply select the file you want to use, and drag it onto the editing section. You can then crop the clip to however long or short you need it, which was useful as the background track for our trailer was too long at first.

There are also separate voice clips so that you can edit sound levels individually. By having separate voice clips, it lets you play a backing track at the same time as having a voiceover.

Software for construction of TV Guide article

Photoshop InDesign

Photoshop was the software I used to create the background for the double page spread before inserting it into InDesign. I didn’t get much chance to develop my skills in Photoshop from what I learned in AS as the main focus for A2 coursework was using Premiere Pro.

However, I used the opacity tool for my background so that text could be placed over the top of it. This creates a subtle background as the colours were originally very bright – logo’s of different forms of social media.

I then placed this background into InDesign, and learned how to flip the picture so that it mirrored onto the other page. I then placed my masthead onto the page, and inserted my article. To put images onto the background, I had to click File place and then select my image from my documents.

I learned several new skills in InDesign. For example, I learned how to move an image without it cropping part of it out by holding down shift, control and command all at once when moving it. This came in very useful as I had 4 images in total on the double page. I also learned how to use the opacity tool on InDesign for the background for a small piece of text. This was so the box background wasn’t too harsh against all the subtle colours currently on the page.

I also learned how to make a background for an image or text transparent, so there wasn’t a box white background showing and only the outline of the image. To do this, I selected the image/text I wanted to edit, clicked ‘effects’, ‘transform; and then from the drop down menu, ‘multiply’. This was extremely useful because I wanted to have a smooth finish without boxed items.