how did you use media technologies in the construction, research, and planning and evaluation stages?

8/12/2019 how did you use media technologies in the construction, research, and planning and evaluation stages?

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Question Four: how did you use media technologies in the construction, research, and planning and evaluation

stages?

Research and planning for our documentary was extensive, it built up our general knowledge and documentaries

and helped us be more precise and create a documentary specifically tailored to the chosen topic. Technologies

played a big part in the research phaseof the process.

We managed our research by planning what members of the

group would tackle what tasks, the plan was fairly simple. We

created it using word, instead of emailing I opted to print out

copies for each member. A mixture of both computer and

paper based planning. These proved to be effective as it

helped each member of team when not together to manage

time and be reminded of what tasks should be completed to

contribute to the overall blog.

Ensuring our knowledge of the chosen topic area was

important; it contributed to the overall contribution of

ideas such as structuring our information at the

construction stages, as we all had similar vision of what we wanted our

documentary to look like. As our topic was Violent Crime, searches tended to be:

Violent Crime statistics in Britain / BBC News Violent Crime / UK Violent Crime

documentaries / Important UK Violent Crime facts / UK Crime 2013 helping us

research relevant information that would restrict us from straying to farm from the topic

of Violent Crime. We used news sites and paid attention to the date of which certain

articles may have been published. Our general browser was Safari, using Google Chrome

and gathering information from News Sites such as BBC News and The Telegraph. If information was

interesting and we felt it could be used in the documentary, each of us made a note of this in Microsoft Word.

Research was carried out in the early stages of focusing on Documentaries,

this was to not only help us make sure that the broadcast channel was right

for us, but also to analyse conventions and make note of popular trails that

come up. The internet and programmes available such as YouTube, Vimeo,

BBC IPlayer proved helpful when research specific types of documentaries or

documentaries we were already family with.

As shown, Blogger holds all our research and each individual member have

uploaded their own contributions to research as a whole. The blog was veryuseful; it enables us to reflect on previous work completed. For example

using data from the previously uploaded questionnaires.

Action Plan for filming.

What the blog dashboard looks like. Here is an

archive of previously published work, the site

allowing us to import work from embedding,

the work then becomes interactive on the blog.

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Out of focus shot, using the

still feature on the camera.

The planning stage for filming was essential for our production running smoothly. Our research up to this stage

allowed us to have a set idea of where we wanted our documentary to go and the type of shots we needed to use.

One thing I knew we would have to record was the interviews, but ensuring that one interview was of high quality

and would have to be organised beforehand.

For this, I used our colleges internal website

called Tyber. This allowed me to message a

teacher for one of our interviews.

To record our footage, a Canon HD camerawas used. This piece of media technology really helped us get the shots we planned on taking. The camera was

lightweight and very mobile, on the camera it had features that allowed us to adjust to the type of environment we

were in, in order to get the best quality shot. For example the white balance adjustment; this function allows us to

compensate for difference colours of light being emitted by difference light sources. The Canon also had different

functions; prior to filming we had a short introduction learning how to effectively use the camera. We learnt how to

adjust the focus; this allowed us to get professional level shots.

All of collected footage was uploaded onto the Mac computers,

where it was stored into a project specific folder ready for us at

the construction stage of editing.

Whilst filming we ensured we carried a tripod with us on almost

every day of filming. As our documentary

consisted of limited hand held shots, we

needed to make good use of the tripod in

order to record professional footage. Needed

a tripod was easily justified, a well set up tripod will enhance the sharpness of our shot, improving the picture quality

much more than a hand held shot would. In our interviews the use of the tripod enabled us to have great precision

when framing someone. We could pan in order to follow the rule of thirds rule appropriately and the tripods height

could be adjusted to ensure the interviewee was

positioned correctly in the frame, many of our

framed shots link in with the storyboard plans

drafted our before production.

Without a Tripod at hand it would have been

difficult to record lengthy interviews with the

stability achieved on the Tripod.

The Canon camera itself allowed for external

inputs. That enabled us to insert our cords to

record sound. The equipment used to record our

sound was similar to the Boommicrophone. Most sound recording in this case was single system

which consists of both visuals and sound being recorded from the same camera. However it had great

range and could be held in hand or rested on a surface. We had to ensure we controlled the distance

After he confirmed that he was available for an

interview, I sent him beforehand the questions I

would like to ask, in order for him to have an

idea of what would be asked and prepare a

better quality response.

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Log and transfer

Log and transfer window

Footage yet to be edited.

Dissolve and Cross Dissolve present.

between the mic and subject as the difference in sound was noticeable and fluctuations in audio levels could be

heard if poor awareness was shown to distance. To ensure at all time

that sound levels were correct we input headphones which gave us an

accurate indication of what our sound would sound like.

On the other hand regarding the voiceover it was important that we

paid a lot of attention to this. Our voiceover was a double system in

which a devices main purpose is just to record sound where it can beadded to visuals during post production (Editing). My voice was the

voiceover and in order to ensure I had the best quality an empty room

Was found, this reduced the likely hood of ambience being picked up in the background.

Before recording the voiceover, a script was drafted out that matched our storyboard draft in

order to help us gage what would have to be said, adjustments

could be made to the script if need be, it was fairly simple to import audio for use

on the apple macs.

Editing

Once sound had been imported to the Macs, it was time to

edit all of our work together. The media technology available to us was Final Cut Express,

an editing programme.

Before any of our research and planning could take effect, we had to log and transfer any

collected work both audio and visuals. In the log window the option was available to

separate wanted and unwanted clips, you could select the clips you wish to import, and

this would then transfer into the transfer window and be ready for use. The

clips then appeared in a window that

consisted of unedited footage, which were now

available for edit.

Unawareto our teachers, we were around 2 weeks

into editing; however it appeared to me that the

documentary did not follow conventions of our style

of documentary. In research we knew that it had to be edited chronologically, however

the flow of footage did not follow this convention. So I asked the group if they

were happy to restart the editing process and they were happy to do so.

This editing programme really allowed us to be creative with any potential ideas we

thought may work, research and planning continued throughout the editing process. Often if I found us stuck for

ideas I would use YouTube or Google to find clips from documentaries.

Much of our editing consisted of simple cuts and fades from shot to shot. Transitions such as cross dissolve

seemed appropriate. It wasnt too extreme, but it indicated to the viewer that a smooth transition was present. The

transition could simply be dragged onto the timeline between separate clips and would automatically complete the

transition for you.

A prominent convention we followed throughout was theoverlapping of clips, this allowed for one clip to

continue playing and you can play relevant footage

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Razor Blade Tool

Screenshot of Timeline

The solution you can see the transition

and where the grey box takes control.

Title intro

Interview Names

Presenting Statistics

on top of that. I.e. our interview (2.40 minutes)

With the razor blade tool this was made much easier. This tool allowed us to clip scenes much more closely

with the help of being able to zoom into the timeline. If there were any sound levels or clips we were

unhappy with, we could simply clip each side of the clip and delete. This proved effective at the latter

stages of post-production, ensuring that the documentary flowed and limited any pauses in voiceovers or

faults in sound.

On a particular clip we had problems with audio that we were unaware of to begin with, it was only

once the file was imported to the mac that and the audio was played back that I realised the issue.

Where one song fades out there was

a noise, therefore I had to use a

cross fade overlapped with the

pen tool fadein order to get the

clips audio to fade and crossover,

but gradually and controlled.

If you look closely, you will notice how I have already began the crossover using the pen tool (pink line) however

once the fade enters the grey box, the Final Cut feature will then control the fade for

me, ensuring the transition in sound is smoother than what could have been achieved

with the pen tool.

Overall sound levels were relatively simple to control, a

playback of a section allowed you to listen back to any

adjustments you may have made to clips. If a clip was too

quiet, the pink line could be increased which increased the decibels increasing the sound of that clip and

vice versa.

Text was added throughout our documentary, examples of this can be found where we added interviews

names, presenting statistics to the viewer using a simple white text on black background and the introduction

of our documentary, where we edited the title of the documentary to zoom towards the viewer.

No text effects were used as such, however I chose to manipulate the path the text would take. This was made

achievable through editing. The use of white text on a black background meant that the text stood out and there

was nothing to distract the viewer from what was on the screen. The on screen text was synced to come onto the

Pen Tool

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Unedited audio files.

Different song choices selected for different sections of our documentary.

screen at a similar point the voiceover mentioned a relevant fact. This lead to a much cleaner sounding and visual

documentary.

Our biggest demonstration of creativity and constructing something that would hold the viewers attention stemmed

from an external programme called PowToon. This programme allowed me to select specific fonts and animations

that could be used in a creative animated way to present information, often referred to as info graphics.

Again I ensured that both audio and visuals were synced together in order to produce a clean section of our 5

minutes, I was pleased with this animation this piece of media technology, although it was not in the initial

storyboard plan, the constant research through the construction phase gave me this idea and I feel it contributed

positively, more than the initial idea in our storyboard.

Final cut overall was perfect for the main task we had to complete; our documentaries were not that of a film so we

didnt need software such as Sony Vegas Pro, which is industry standard. But Final Cut didnt restrict what was

possible to achieve, any idea we thought of there was a way of realistically putting it into practise with

the shots we had collected.

Once we felt the general structure of our documentary was in place, we then focused on

ensuring voiceover and music was as smooth as possible. As referred to above, our

voiceover was recorded on a device, the process of transferring this to Final cut was

simple, and we could simply drag and drop the audio file from our storage folder, a

shorter step than the log and transfer. Once the file was available, it was placed on the

timeline in relation to what was going on onscreen.

The final thing we added to our documentary was the sound, as this was not created

in garage band but found and downloaded from Vimeo (creative commons, music for non-

commercial use) the process for us whilst made simpler. However creative commons proved

to be very effective and saved us much time. This external media technology didnt require us to construct beats for

our documentary, from our research and planning we knew what type of music we needed at different sections of

the documentary, we learnt this from watching documentaries of similar styles such as Reggie Yates Teen

Gangs; it was a case of locating a similar sound that would fit into our documentary.

Vimeo (creative commons)

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Radio Trailer

Our whole radio trailer was constructed in Final Cut express. The procedure was fairly simply; we knew that from

research prior to the editing that we wanted noticeable music used in our documentary to carry across into our

Radio Trail. Therefore we simply opened a new sequence and dragged and dropped our audio file (background

music) onto the timeline. We then used the razor tool referred to above to snip the music to around 50 seconds,

ensuring we use the most noticeable part of the track. The music was upbeat and the use of Vimeo again proved

beneficial.

Our voiceover script was planned and drafted and

constructed before; we used Microsoft word for this and

printed out the script for me read out. For our research

we focused on relative examples of what we felt was

achievable to replicate, examples of this research can be

found onBlogger. The file was exported to Sound Cloud,

an external programme that allows you to upload audio

files in order for playback.

As our background music contained no lyrics, we

had no problem in dealing with the overlapping

sounds. The audio from the background music

could be controlled again using the pen tool; here

we could simply move the pink line higher up to

increase volume or lower down to decrease

volume. However we found that the audio tended

to be left on one level for the whole 47 seconds.

Once this was complete and uploaded to

Sound cloud, we could click the share

option, then copy the embedtext and paste

this onto our blog.

Embed code on Blogger, pasted from SoundCloud.

Music volume set to one level.

Sound Cloud website, the upload option can be seen.

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Drop cap tool,here you can see how the arrow allows you

to set how many lines down you want the letter to be.

Currently set to zero, we planned and set ours to 4,

something that was popular amongst Radio Times published

Four lines down.

The drop cap could be found under

the FX tool.

wrap tool brought up guideline in which the image could be stretched/reduced in size.

Many conventions of Radio Times and other publishers I was aware of during the construction process. I knew that

they used conventions such as the Drop capat the start of paragraphs (usually the opening) this was something I

chose to replicate as it has almost became iconic for print based magazines. The drop cap found across many

different types of magazines. We were able to manipulate the first letter of a word using the drop cap tool available

to us using Adobe Indesign.

For the masthead a drop effect was added, this helped lift the text

from the page in order to attract the viewer. I felt this choice

worked well, a popular convention found during research.