2. Overview
Throughout our coursework in media we
have used and development a range of skills
whilst creating the opening 5 minutes of our
documentary “Life Choices”, a magazine
article to inform the readers about the
documentary and the radio trailer
advertising the documentary.
3. Camera
When filming and capturing scenes and a variety
of shots for our 5 minute opening sequence we
used Canon HG 20 camcorder. This camera
allowed us to blur the focus of what we were
shooting, also to zoom in and out of a shot.
4. Tripod
Along with the camera we used a tripod, this
allowed the camera to film a steady scene
without making the shot shaky in anyway
which makes our documentary look like it was
to a professional standard. The tripod also
allowed us to tilt the camera so we could use a
high or low angle shot. We used a range of
shots in order to make the documentary
engaging for the audience. At the
beginning, we struggled to use the tripod as
we weren’t taught how to use them before we
set out filming however after the first day of
filming we became more established and
developed new techniques in using the
equipment.
5. Apple Mac
After each filming session we had to upload our footage on to the Apple Macs, this
was a challenging task but it became simpler after more frequent usage. This
included getting a power cable to plug into the
camera, an usb connector to plug into
the mac, and use the mac to copy and paste
the footage into our drive. The Apple Macs
were a difficult task to master as we had never used Apple Macs before, the system
is completely different to a normal computer but nevertheless it was an essential
piece of technology when editing our footage and creating our radio trailer.
6. Programmes
In addition, we used programmes such as Final Cut Express, one program that we
had never used before, it was quite hard to grasp at the beginning, but we were
more familiar with the programme after we were taught how to use it. We also used
Garageband to create the music for our documentary and radio trailer. In
Garageband we could mix the sound levels, create new music via the different sound
tracks that were already there, we could even record live sound, using microphones
and other instruments ourselves. Furthermore, we used Adobe Indesign to create
our double page spread magazine; we had good knowledge from this last year, but
were a bit rusty because of the occasional usage after the coursework to produce a
music magazine from last year therefore we required a bit of help from teachers and
other students.
