By Shafiqur Rahman

1. How did you use media
technologies in the
construction and
research, planning and
evaluation stages?
By Shafiqur Rahman

2. Research & Planning
The Research and Planning stages of our TV documentary was very important as this
Contributed to the final finished production. A lot of the planning conducted was done
Using media technologies such as INTERNET EXPLORER, SAFARI AND YOUTUBE.
Internet expolrer and safari are both web
browsers which were a crucial part of our
research and planning. They helped me
research into my topic and find facts/statistics
that we could use in our documentary. As well
as looking for facts/statistics we had to conduct
research into broadcasting channels such as
channel 4,bbc three, bbc one etc, so that we
were able to find a suitable channel for our
documentary to be featured in. The web
browsers helped us find what was most suited
for our target audience/topic and we decided
to go for BBC three as they often feature
serious/factual reality documentaries and serve
our target audience.
Youtube was something that was
used a lot throughout our research
and planning. When analysing other
documentaries it was the first place
to go as it contains a mass range of
clips/items and had many trailers on
there. It enabled me to also view
conventions that other
documentaries used, such as
sounds/camera angles so that I could
maybe reflect some of the norms into
my documentary.
Google is probably the biggest
web search engine, therefore we
felt that the research we
conducted will be best from there
as they have some of the most
reliable sources. Reliability was a
very big part of the research we
gathered as false information can
mislead viewers. Using google we
found verified websites such as
‘DirectGov’ and this gave us
certainty and confidence in the
statistics we discovered.

3. Filming
We used a HD Canon HG20 video camera to capture all the footage
and stills for our documentary. The camera was easy to use with its
simple menu functions. One thing that caused problems at times is the
lack of focus when we zoomed in. Because some shots came out
blurry; we had to shoot again and this ofcourse wasted more time. The
white balance was easy to change on the camera and this was highly
valuable as it gave more of a natural look to the lighting. The camera
was light to hold and this was good as we shot a lot of handheld
footage. All of the vox pops were recorded using this handheld method
and the advantage of this was that we could present more of a realistic
view to the audience and this reflects on the informal styling which vox
pops are.
Unfocused Close Up Focused Close Up

4. Filming…
Tripod: A tripod was used in a lot of the
filming. We found this piece of equipment
to be very useful to certain aspects of our
filming. For example a steady shot was
needed for the formal interviews and using
the tripod helped us achieve this. Also
filming students walking up and down the
stairs would’ve looked very
unproffessional if a tripod wasn’t in use.
As well as using a camera and tripod for our
footage, we also needed equipment to capture
the sound of the recordings. A directional
microphone was used to record sound for our
interviews, script and radio trailer and this was
successful as clear concise sound was recorded.
Headphones had to be connected to the camera
so that we could check that the microphone was
picking up the sound we wanted it to pick up
and also helped us avoid any added/background
noise being recorded.

5. Editing
Upon completion of all the footage, we uploaded all the
clips onto apple Macs. We used these industry standard
computers as they contained the best software whilst
providing ease of navigation and quality. We were required
to copy files over to our personal media drive. Overall using
apple Macs was a positive experience as they were easy to
use and gave us the opportunity to produce the best results
After copying all our clips onto the media drive, we opened up Final Cut
Express (This is the editing software we used to edit our whole documentary.
Firstly we had to ‘log and transfer’ the clips we could potentially use in our
documentary. At this stage we also renamed the clips so they were easy to
find when we went back to them.
All clips were imported and renamed into final
cut express and ready to be edited. Every clip
that we could potentially use was labelled so
that they were easy to access. We were then
ready to look at our story boards and initial
research and planning so that we had a
guideline to work alongside.

6. Editing…
The storyboards I created for the opening of our
documentary was very useful as it gave us a guideline to
work alongside as we were not too sure where to start.
None of us had prior knowledge of final cut, therefore at
first it was difficult to get the hang of. At this stage we
had to experiment with lots of different editing processes.
Some of the clips were to slow, such as the vox pop
questions being typed onto twitter; this was speeded up.
Other clips were too dark and the lighting had to be
adjusted. At first all these changes were diffcult to solve
as we didn’t know how to use the software but after we
edited a few times it was much easier. Fading the clips
from one to the other is something we did consistently
and with this we had to make the sound/music do the
same. Overall Final Cut was probably the best software
we couldve used for the editing of our documentary as it
had many tools and functions which added to how
proffessional our overall product appeared
storyboard

7. InDesign
The production of our double page
spread was done on the creative
software program ‘Adobe
InDesign’. This software had the
tools to create a professional
looking article which allowed us to
abide by the conventions of real
magazine articles such as ‘Drop
Capitals’, ‘Pull Quotes’ and
‘columns’. I feel InDesign definitely
was a software that worked
successfully in the completion of
this ancillary task we had to
complete. It helped us lay out the
article which gave us indication on
where to edit further and where to
place things . We added snapshots
from our documentary into the
article to create a brand identity
and link for the audience.
Snapshot from documentary used
In double page spread

8. Garageband
For our Radio trailer we used garageband as it holds
the speciality for creating quality audio products. We
recorded the script and put it onto final cut and then
transferred this into garageband. We made the
decision to use the same backing track as our
documentary so that there was a link. In addition to
the same backing track we decided to add ‘keyboard
clicking’ in between each verse so that more of a
‘cyber’ effect was in place.
The basis of our radio trailer was of a victim reading
out their emotions about what cyber bullying has done
to them. We had to cut out parts from our
documentary such as ‘Nick Waring Interview’ and find
a place for them in the trailer. The trailer had to be no
more than 30 seconds as this is the normal convention
for a radio trailer. Certain parts had to be cut in
garageband and some had to be sped up/slowed down.
It ended with the time/date/title of the documentary.
Overall Garageband was an easy program to use as it
had a simple layout and also helped us achieve the
results we wanted to for our radio trailer

9. scribd
Scribd is a social publishing site I
used to upload many of my tasks to
my blog. It is a very easy software to
use and you simply just upload the
chosen files and they come out in a
organised format at the end. There is
also options to share the documents
onto social networking sites such as
facebook and twitter.

10. Slideshare
Slideshare enabled me to upload
and share powerpoint
presentations publicly or
privately. It also enables word
documents and PDF files. All I
had to do was simply sign up for
free and upload my
documents, after that I was
allowed to embed my
presentation onto my blog and
this set more of a professional
look which was easily accessible
and viewable when uploaded onto
the blog.

11. Prezi
prezi is a presentation software
which enabled me to complete
many of my tasks in a
chronological and creative way
without much confusion. This
software was very effective as it
allowed me to chsnge
themes/fonts/colours/paths and I
also had the option to create my
own theme which helped
because some of the themes were
not to my taste.

12. Blogger
Blogger is the website I used to
upload all of my work and blog
entries. It is a site which allows
the upload of text, videos and
photos and I was also able to
embed videos onto my blog so
that other softwares such as
slideshare presentations can be
seen. Blogger was good and
easy to use and it allowed me to
insert tags which would show
that my blog belonged to me.

13. Blogger…
1 2
Firstly we were all given individual groups
As our coursework was a group based task.
This Eased access for each group and enabled
Us to navigate through our work and easily
Organize.
Blogger was good as it enabled us to
Organize folders for each group. It gave
The option to view what each person had
Posted and this helped us figure out tasks
Yet to be completed by each person.
3
There was easy indications
On how to add new posts etc.
The bold and simple layout
Of blogger is what made it
Easier to use.
When I created
Work on
presentation
sites such as
slideshare I had
to embed it and
make sure it
was on
‘compose’
mode.
Overall Blogger was very pleasant
To use and helped me manage and
Organize the work that had to be
Completed . It also gave me the
Option to easily look back and view
Mine and my groups work and
Edit if necessary.

14. I used youtube as it was a
software/website that I felt many of my
target audience would know and be
familiar with, as it is very popular
amongst young people. I uploaded the
second part to question three on my
evaluation and this was a very quick
process and didn’t take long to upload.
Also a lot of the research and planning
was done on youtube, such as ‘finding
similar products’ (other documentaries
related to our subject).
http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=7gTBQU9j9Rw