evaulation

1. By Niamh Fitzgerald
Evaluation Question 4:
How did you use Media
Technologies, to research,
planning and evaluation
stages?

2. How we used media
technologies to conduct
our research?

3. TV Documentary Filmmakers
Throughout our research, we looked into various TV documentary film makers such as Reggie
Yates, Louis Theroux and Adam Curtis. This is so we could gain further knowledge into the codes
and conventions of Documentaries. I analysed documentaries such as; Louis Theroux’s ‘Savile’
and Reggie Yates ‘Addicted to Ice’ to see how they presented the codes and conventions in their
work to make it professional and engaging for the audience to watch. This research helped us to
gain more in depth knowledge into narrative and presentation, to make our documentary as
authoritative, creative and unique as the TV Documentary Filmmakers. We each took elements
that these filmmakers were known for, such as Adam Curtis’ psychological theme and Theroux’s
and Yates’ real and raw topics that occur around the world. This inspired our idea to base our
documentary around a teenage girl who suffers from panic attacks and is going on a journey to
find out more about her condition. This includes psychological elements whilst ensuring
verisimilitude, which is appealing to our target audience.

4. Search Engines
Most of our research stemmed from search engines such as Google, YouTube and DuckDuckGo.
Google was useful for conducting in-depth research into TV documentary filmmakers and existing
documentaries. This informed us on how we should create our own documentary to ensure that it
is professional. Not to mention finding out facts and statistics into the condition of Anxiety in
relation to the topic of our documentary, panic attacks. We witnessed people suffering panic
attacks, and watched interviews with them through YouTube. This was to make sure our
documentary would be real, educational and raise awareness about the illness. We wanted our
documentary to push people to act upon the issues around anxiety and to understand what panic
attacks are really like.
Furthermore, our research into a theatre production called Low level Panic commenced when we
found examples of presentations around anxiety on DuckDuckGo, leading us to look into a
website called the Orange Tree Theatre, who were releasing dates for a play called ‘Low Level
Panic’. This production is about women’s struggles within society to be beautiful, confident and
popular, which made us eager to go and watch it. This trip was included in our documentary, to
explain to our audience about how women being paranoid about their image led them to have
anxiety, which they could need to be aware of. This is due to the fact that it could cause further
consequences such as depression and even suicide.

5. Emails and Phone Calls
Continuing on from talking about the Orange Tree Theatre, we were so interested by the
production of Low Level Panic that we wanted to ask the company production team if it was okay
to interview the actors of the production or even members of the production team. This was to see
what they thought of acting out these characters, who suffer from self esteem and self confidence
issues, especially in today’s society, where everyone is judged on what people look like on social
media, how they act in school in front of people and how confident they are. We called them and
asked if we could speak to the the production manager of this production and they gave us an
email. We emailed them as soon as we could but unfortunately, they did not allow us to interview
the actors. Luckily, we were able to go the production so Aicha and rest of production team could
watch it and film Aicha’s reaction after, to include her opinion in our documentary.
Our phone call
script for the
orange tree theatre
production team
Aicha calling the
production team to
get the email for the
production manager
Aicha’s Email to the
production manager
of the theatre
Orange Tree Theatre’s
reply to our question to
interview the actors of the
production.

6. How we used Media
Technologies, to complete
our planning?

7. Text Message
For our ancillary task, we had to create a Radio
Advertisement, which required considerable and
detailed planning that was conducted digitally. As
conducting Radio Advertisement takes an
extensive amount of time from our lessons, we
had to use text message to organise ideas or
meet ups. For example, Aicha contacted me
using the platform text message to get a second
opinion of an idea we could include in our radio
advertisement, which we - as a production team -
collectively elaborated on. This was to create a
radio advertisement that was innovative and
engaging towards the audience, for them to be
eager to go and watch the documentary.

8. WhatsApp
We also used WhatsApp to plan and discuss
research when we were out of lesson and to
decide what we could do in the next lesson. This
was to make our production more efficient and
unique. As we didn’t have much time to film in
school, we organised meetings on WhatsApp
allowing us to meet up on the weekend and film
for our production. For example, Aicha’s panic
attack, the doctor’s interview and visit to the
Orange Tree Theatre. It was extremely helpful
when something went wrong or someone was
running late, as they would be able to text the
group chat quickly and we would be able to plan
something else quickly without wasting the day of
filming or planning.
Here are some examples of some of messages
sent when answering our evaluation questions or
meeting up to film

9. Script Writing using
Microsoft Word
As you can see, my production team and I took advantage of
word to help us with our Radio Advertisement Script.
When constructing the script of our advertisement, we had to
consider which people had the best acting voices in terms of
portraying a scary voice, after receiving good feedback from
our audience about it. This would improve our effective
method of drawing the audience into our production
through the effective tools found on Audacity. This is also
what happened when we conducted our newspaper
advertisement and the TV documentary. However, we really
had to consider the timing of the advertisement as were only
given 30-40 seconds in our brief to entertain and inform the
audience so that they watch our documentary on the
provided channel, time and day. We constructed a table of
the timings of each of the voices that were heard and how
long it would take, just to balance our timing with the brief
we were given. This helped us to get our advertisement as
efficient and effective as possible, while getting the timings
on track, which through this script we successfully did.

10. How we used Media
Technologies to construct
our media products

11. Technological Equipment
Sony shotgun
microphone for
directional sound
recording, perfect for
interviews
Sony Lens E 16-
70mm F/4
This lens has
variable zoom as
well as a smooth
focus ring, to adjust
focal range
effectively
Blackmagic Video Assist 4K
This monitor was used to help us
frame, as well as see our subject in
front of the camera in the truest
lighting and focus.
This technology was helpful as it
helped us frame and adjust the
colour settings on the camera to
best suit the documentary’s look.
Overall making the production as
professional as possible.
Sony A7s ii, is a digital mirror-
less 4K Camera, that assisted us
in the recording of our
documentary.
The 4K resolution really
increased the professionalism of
our documentary

12. Camera for constructing our Documentary
and Newspaper Advertisement
These pictures were taken for the
construction of our documentary. This was
when went to watch Low Level Panic at the
Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. Where
we decided to show our audience an insight
into the production of what Aicha was
watching. This was gather research into
Aicha finding more of her condition of Panic
Attacks. We thought it would be effective to
take photos of the production set and use it
within our documentary to show our
audience what Aicha was witnessing in the
production, to get the audience to feel their
on the journey with her and be more
engaged within our TV documentary
We decide to construct our
Newspaper Advertisement by
trying out different positions and
backgrounds. This was to see if it
would fit with our theme of
darkness and effectiveness of
engagement for the audience to
watch our production. This led
us to use the Canon and have
Alex and Aicha try out different
positions to figure out which one
is the best to use.

13. Use of Microphone for our
drafts within our documentary
The shotgun microphone
was a directional
microphone, used to
capture audio in front of
the camera. The
microphone also had a
Deadcat over it to make it
clearer as it restricts the
wind being picked up.
Within our construction of our
documentary, we decided to
have Aicha create a speech of
her telling the audience that
she is going the Orange Tree
Theatre and why? How is it
going to help her in terms of
our research into her
condition.
For us to get her speech to
perfection, we decided to have a
draft of her doing the speech
before filming it for real the
next day. As we were filming on
a tube on our way to Richmond,
were only allowed to have
certain amount of takes until its
not possible to include within
our documentary.
We thought this would
be effective to contrast
the audience feel like
their on a journey with
Aicha, which is why
filming on the tube,
related it to the journey
of Aicha and taking
them with her to find
out

14. Premier Pro
The software Premier Pro, was a critical
part of the construction of our
documentary, as it was the main
software that allowed us to encode the
whole documentary, the reason why it
was used because it was a simple, easy
to use software, that included all the
professional effects and settings that
allowed us to keep it professional
throughout.
An example is the doctor scene, were we
had to editing the doctors interview to
best fit the time of the documentary, the
software allowed us to cut down the time,
as well as add a colour correction effect to
enhance the colours in the interview
scene, as it was quite dull, however
without this software's effects library it
would have cause that specific scene to
lack in professionalism.

15. Use of Photoshop With Our
Newspaper Advertisement
Photoshop was the software we
used in order to create our
newspaper advertisement. One
of our production team, Alex,
was able to get a picture which
he took and turn it into a
channel 4 TV documentary
poster. It gave him the tools to
edit and alter the picture, not to
mention add multiple layers of
images and add them in.
With Photoshop he altered
the texture, contrast, color
and lighting of a picture, to
change the tone of a picture
of suspicion, darkness and
discomfort.
Alex was able to replicate a
channel 4 poster thanks to the
use of Photoshop. This was
by adding the logo and
colour, from going on google
and copying the channel 4
logo into the advertisement.
In addition, he was able to
make the logo have a horror
theme thanks to the use of
some tools found on the
software such as…

16. Audacity
In terms of using Audacity, it commenced when we were
consuming our radio advertisement for our TV
documentary. We got help through the use of microphone
to get 4 different people including Aicha to record the script
which we constructed on word. We were aiming towards
our audience that this documentary is a psychological,
educational and emotional documentary, while wanting to
make it out that Aicha is hearing voices in her head,
informing the audience what this documentary might
contain, eager them to find out what is going on, what has
happened to the girl and what this journey to find her
psyche is about?
This led us to use an Audacity Tool called the ‘Echo Effect’
which was extremely useful when it came to aiming for a
low dark atmosphere and voice to mirror the idea of Aicha
hearing voices in her head. This tool allowed the audio to
sound more like a hollow thought, which emulated how
some victims may hear voices in their head, just how Aicha
does. We came to the conclusion that the immense delay
time and decay factor was 0.2, as it produced great echo.
Completed Radio Advertisement
The Echo Effect

17. Soundcloud
Soundcloud was very efficient when it came to our construction into our formative
feedback for our TV documentary, Newspaper Advertisement and Radio
Advertisement. As we needed formative feedback to know whether our audience
approved our 3 ideas for our documentary and the essentials (newspaper
advertisement and Radio Advertisement, we recorded them through the use of mp4
and exported it into mp3 using the software of soundcloud. This is efficient when it
comes to having easy access to see and hear from soundcloud and is easy to upload
into our blogs. It was also effective when it came to my research into radio
advertisements, as I was able to export the audio from BBC4’s radio advertisement
from mp4 and upload it to soundcloud to convert it into mp3, to show my evidence
that I have done research into the advertisement before constructing our own one.

18. How we used Media
Technologies to evaluate
our constructions?

19. Camtasia
For Question 1, we used Camtasia to help us construct the codes and conventions we
evidentially used in our TV Documentary. We composed this by Camtasia allowing us upload
any form of media, from filming, images and audio. We had help from one of Camtasia’s tool
called ‘split’ at play head, which helped to us to make sure our filming is going smoothly,
while making sure our editing of the shots we selected was accurately cropped.
The advantages which was extremely useful in answering this question, was that we were
allowed to have filming and audio run simultaneously with the help of animations, which we
could not of done if we were answering this on PowerPoint for example. In addition, we were
allowed to record anything, from taking out achieve footage from different TV documentaries
on Television channels such as ITV, BBC and Channel 4. Finally, we were able to upload our
work from Camtasia to YouTube and to our blogs in a fast and stress free manner unlike
audacity, where we would have to export before uploading it on to YouTube, taking up loads
time.

20. Powtoon
In regards to answering Question 2, we used Powtoon, which is a free service which creates
animated videos. When constructing, we used transitions such as ‘TV Noise’ to move from slide to
slide – which was interlinked with the topic of TV Documentaries. Furthermore, Powtoon works
through using a timeline and adding text, images, sounds or animations onto that timeline and
adjusting the length of time that each thing appears for. Most pieces of information lasted for the
whole length of the slide, but each appeared at different times.
Powtoon was an immensely useful website to use for the purpose of answering Question 2. This is
because it allowed us to upload different mediums that were necessary to support our points. In
addition, it was easily exported and transferred onto our blogs.

21. Prezi
For Question 3, we used Prezi, a visual storytelling software and alternative to traditional slide-
based presentation formats. When we constructed the question, we included snippets of YouTube
clips from our draft documentary, to tell a story of how we showed our audience our first draft
and how did the formative feedback we've received made made us edit our TV Documentary, to
make it more efficient and effective towards the audience. In addition, we included screenshots
from any website we needed, to prove what we were explaining in that question was true. An
example of this was the newspaper advertisement, when we were able to show the narrative of
how we edited and constructed from our chosen image which was chosen by our audience, which
was constructed and exported by the platform ‘Soundcloud’.
Overall, I believe this software was extremely effective in being able to place YouTube clips,
screenshots and images to story tell how we improved through the use of feedback and how did
the formative feedback help us in terms of our overall TV Documentary.

22. Powerpoint/Slideshare
Lastly for Question 4, we used Powerpoint to construct and answer, while using slideshare to
upload it onto ‘Blogger’. We were able to write in an academic manner, being able to evaluate
and explain what we did, why we did it and why would it be effective for either our TV
documentary, Newspaper Advertisement or Radio Advertisement. As you can see, I had to
answer four questions within this evaluation question, in which I could include endless amount
of slides, that will not looked cramped or out of place. I also included images to again be able to
show evidence of what we did and include diagrams of how we constructed it.
Overall, these four questions were equally as effective in answering our evaluation questions.
We were able to include different platforms within our answers to make it interesting, engaging
and informative. This is to make sure answering these questions showed that we understood
our management into making our 3 elements for our A2 coursework.