How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. A2 Media Studies: Coursework evaluation
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
Initially we started with using
software called Microsoft
Office word to jot down ideas
and to get acquainted with the
task set before us. We also
used this to distribute
individual roles for each mini
task. This was used on a
computer this was very simple
and easy to operate due
previous experience and also
the simple layout of the straightforward typing that is involved.
Next we felt it suitable to set a
meeting to discuss about how
were going about our tasks and
setting personal deadlines for us
to progress, the technology we
implemented this with was
YouTube as this is one of leading
online broadcasters. Also I felt
this was useful due to the fact we
didn’t have to take down minutes
from the meeting we could all access the information by just a playback button
online, which saved us alot of time in the planning process.

2. To begin our market research
we decided to go back to
Microsoft word as it is easy to
replicate a similar conventional
questionnaire that audiences
are used to filling out as you are
able to see the clear layout. By
using Microsoft Word we were
able to print and distribute a
vast amount of questionnaires
to our target audience.
To make our gatherings appear more attractive to the eye we decided to use a
spread sheet based document called Microsoft Excel this was simple to use as the
instructions were straightforward to help us produce graphs like shown below

3. Next we thought it would
benefit it us to watch
documentaries as it was vital
that we chose a relevant institution for our
documentary, this would be useful to have as a base
to follow similar conventions that they use. We
dominantly used Youtube for this task as this gives us
a wider range whereas you are restricted to what you
can access on TV catch-up players even though they
were used such as BBC, ITV and channel four. To
watch the documentaries this was online players
Then choosing a relevant
institutionto broadcast our
documentary was
implemented using Prezi
which is a presentation tool
that helps organise ideas. This
is similar however more
advanced than Microsoft
Powerpoint, furthermore this
is more beneficial due to the
layout and the ‘paths’ you can
set to make the presentation
more appealing to the eye.
Additionally this is good due to
the mobility you are able to
save this to a memory stick this could be emailed to other members of the team for
additional input.

4. For the student risk assessment and the storyboard I
went with the pen and paper method to get down
the ideas this was successful as we could draw
exactly what we wanted whereas as we may have
been limited using media technology to draw
specific elements and this was uploaded onto a
computer via a scanner. I then uploaded this to a
basic site called slideshare along with the student
risk assessment.
This is the storyboard I drew as you can
see no technologies were involved
apart from uploading this to Scribd
which is another online sight which
allows you to view documents and
images.

5. During the process we utilized a number of equipment such as a microphone,
headphones, cameras and also tripods. We felt utilizing all of the equipment would
help us create a professional and conventional documentary that will help the
audience engaged for the whole five minutes of the documentary.
The camera we used was very simple to use as this was not a
high tech camera it was very basic. One of main objectives
was to get numerous manual focus shots for our
documentary as watching similar and previous
documentaries this is used widely and this camera was able
to capture a good standard of manual focus shots.
For recording and filming interviews
we used both the microphone and
headphones in most cases to find the
correct environment to record in.
We used the tripod to get a professional look whether filming
establishing shots, interviews or panning whereas hand held
would look very shabby. Wherever possible we felt it vital to use
the tripod for the majority of our shots.

6. For the editing process I
used Final Cut Express,
the first step was to
import all of the raw clips
so they were ready to
Unedited clips edit.
Time
Editing Tools
Using Final Cut Express I was able to implement cuts, trims, transitions and special
effects to our documentary when necessary an example of this is the beginning intro
was various clips overlapping each other whilst the opacity was alternating, although
I did find Final Cut quite daunting when I initially started using the program due to
the layout. But I believe as time progressed my abilities grew and I was able to create
a reasonable documentary.
I felt the zoom option
was vital during the
editing process in
Visual footage order to get specific
cuts and trims for the
documentary, failing
this the documentary
Audio clips would have blackspots
and would look
unprofessional.
Zoom

7. To complete the Radio trailer I used Garageband this is acknowledged worldwide as
one of the leading audio editing software’s. Similar to Final Cut Express I felt
Garageband daunting initially due to no previous experience and also the layout was
not very revealing in the case of knowing how to operate it.
Here I have deleted
tracks that we felt
were not good enough
to be considered.
As you can see here I am editing the
radio trailer and the bottom track is the
pre-set sounds that we will use a
background music, I felt that this is very
Tracks
useful as there is such a wide variety of
sounds that can be suitable for the
mood I wanted to create for the
documentary.
Time
soun
ds
Pre-set sounds

8. All of the research that we constructed during the whole task was uploaded to our
own group on blogger.com
This shows the hurdles we had face during the process and also how we have
develop both individually and as a group furthermore Blogger was very
advantageous for us as a group, as it meant we could put all of our ideas together.