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

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 didnt 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 hadnt

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
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

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

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.

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 mostInserting
likely use this type of style.
Inserting
audio

video

Examples of frames for texts

and pictures that I have used

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 this evaluation
question and my formal proposal in my research and planning,
as they both require a lot of text, meaning these two
presentation sites are the most practical ones 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.

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 didnt 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 isnt 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
werent 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 didnt 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 logos 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 wasnt 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 wasnt 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.