4. During the process of creating my music documentary, I used a variety of
different hardware in order to help create the documentary. For example, we
used the Sony HXR_MC2000E camera when recording footage for our
documentary. This was a really great camera to use in terms of producing the
documentary, because the picture quality was amazing, and it was able to
balance out any slight shaking. The majority of our footage was taken around
Warrington town centre, Priestley College, and even Manchester.
We also used a Manfrotto tripod when recording our B-roll footage. This was a
really well supported tripod, which was really handy when we were
interviewing subjects for our documentary as I could imply the rule of thirds
without quirkiness.
In order to transfer any footage taken with this camera, I needed to be able to
use the Sony’s USB cable. This cable plugs into the college’s media studies
computers. The computers we have at our college are the DELL XPS Pc’s.
These contain 16 G Ram Hard Drives, which allow us to store a lot of footage
and other pieces of work for our blog accounts also.
5. Other Hardware's Used
In order to import and export files from hard drives and
pen sticks, I was able to connect them with the use of
USB ports. By doing this, I was able to import data from
the cameras when recording, and upload them onto a
personal file. I am currently using an 8GB SanDisk
Cruzer Blade pen drive, which has been really
beneficial when storing lots of work.
In order to get top quality sound when I and my group
were interviewing, we used the Sony camera’s clip
microphones. These were attached to the interviewee,
but we made sure that you couldn’t see them when
recording. We also used a microphone in Priestley
College’s radio room. We hooked it up to a software
programme called Audacity. We were able to do some
editing with this software as well as just recording,
which was really useful to use!
6. Software – Adobe CS5
After only a few weeks in the production of making a
documentary, I have learnt how to use Adobe Premier CS5, in
a way where I can produce a music magazine, from editing
clips with a cut tool to adding in sound beds for my music
documentary. After finally finishing the documentary in a few
months, I feel confident on how to produce my own
documentary with this software, as it is easy to use and it’s
very “up-to-date” in terms of the technology used to make this
software.
Like in my first year of Media Studies, I also got the opportunity
to use the Adobe Photoshop CS5 software. I predominantly
used this software when I edited a small title for each of the
interviewee’s. I found this software really easy to use,
because I know how to use certain tools better. For example,
I was able to use paste several vinyl records into one title
box, and change the hue and saturation, as well as the
colour of each vinyl in order to give them a different colour in
the centre.
7. Software – Microsoft Office
During the process of making my documentary, I used some of
the Microsoft Office programmes, which allowed me to copy
what I had saved on their onto my blogger account. For
instance, I had used Microsoft Word to paste parts of work
onto my blog. This software was really easy to use, because
it’s a basic day-to-day programme which I tend to use
regularly.
I also found that Microsoft PowerPoint was a programme which I
felt was very much needed, as pie charts were created for
audience feedback about the generalisation of our
documentary, and whether or not it would be appealing to the
members of the public.
8. Software - Internet
Programmes
In order to import archive footage for the music
documentary, I was able to download plug-ins on
websites such as YouTube. These plug-ins
enabled my to download footage which would
relate to our media project into a file on our
college computer, and then copy the link into
Adobe Premier CS5. I was then able to edit the
footage(s) with the cutting tool into certain places
throughout the documentary.
Another programme I have used is Prezzie / slide
share. Here, I and my group were able to upload
pie charts of an audience feedback from a
questionnaire we handed out to the members of
the public. Once this was uploaded, I could then
copy the link and upload it to another piece of
software known as Blogger.
10. Microsoft Word
In order to get the public’s opinion on what the music
documentary should be themed about, we created a
questionnaire which we gave out to the members of the
public. I personally thought that this was the best way
to get the public’s views on what music is more popular
than others, and whether or not our documentary would
suit a vast majority of people. We then collated the
results back onto another Word document. Pie charts
were created through the use of “Illustrations”. We
were able to split the charts off into sections, which
normally consisted of a couple of answers, and how
many people ticked one specific answer from one of the
answers available.
11. YouTube
We used this internet programme in
order to research songs which were in
the charts. We picked specific songs
to use as a sound bed for our
documentary. This sound bed ran
throughout the narration at the start of
our documentary, as well as through
interviews. Each song which was
selected was cut into Premier CS5
and we reviewed each song as to
whether it fits well with the clips.
13. Television Broadcasting -
Channel 4
For our documentary, there were a few different
channels which we thought of using for our
documentary. We researched from each
channel what types of documentaries are
documented on each one. For example, what
documentaries does each channel specialise
in, and what are their target audiences in terms
of age brackets etc.
In the end, the conclusion was that Channel 4
would be the best channel to use for the
broadcasting of the documentary.
14. Social Networking Websites
I and my group used social networking
websites rather a lot in order to keep in
touch with each other after college
hours. For example, we used sites such
as Twitter and Facebook to arrange
deadlines for certain pieces of work for
our blog accounts.
I think that we have worked really well as a
team in terms of communication, as we
have managed to arrange schedules for
pieces of work, from uploading sketch
designs for interviews, to finishing
recoding footage and editing everything.
