3. I used the internet explorer as a gateway to access the Solihull Sixth Form
Media Website. This website is easy to navigate, with the categories of web
pages placed at the top, which you can see past student documentaries on if
you go to the ‘media page’ as shown. This was very helpful for me to use
with research into documentaries codes and conventions, as it gave me
inspiration from past documentaries for elements I could use in my own
documentary. From this website, I analysed 4 different documentaries which I
thought were the most inspirational, on their representations of social
groups and the features they used and how successful they were in engaging
me. This piece of software overall was useful for my research stages as it
gave me an idea of what to include in my own documentary.
4. This piece of software was helpful in documenting my research and planning.
The website has tools which allows you to include text, images and
embedded codes of videos or presentations you have made, which we used
to show the development of our documentary and ancillary products. We
used the text tool to keep a ‘diary’ which we updated throughout the
planning and construction stages, we used images to show scanned
documents of drawn drafts of products and furthermore we took advantage
of the embed codes to include presentations, links and videos which show
our research taking place, for example we included embed codes for
YouTube links for our audience research which we filmed on camera and
uploaded to the computer.
5. Throughout the research stage I used this website to view different documentaries which
was extremely useful in giving me inspiration which shaped the production of my
documentary. For example, by taking features from documentaries such as slow motion
editing and finding interesting ways to gain teenager’s views, (which inspired the ballot
box idea) which was all seen in the research I carried out into professional
documentaries I found on this page. It was also useful because this is the channel my
documentary is shown on, therefore the features used in these documentaries appeal to
my own target audience, which further helps with both audience research and research
into documentaries. I found one specific documentary similar to my documentary which
talks about teenager’s lives, therefore this was the most useful to use from this website.
The information I found was put onto the Microsoft (office) word software, which
enables certain tools, such as hyperlinks to videos and webpages, text where the font
style can be edited, images inserted etc. Therefore this software was useful and easy to
use in the documenting of the research into real documentaries I carried out. I also used
this software to document topic research, which I then put onto Blogger.
6. Slideshare was another software I used in order to upload
presentations I had made from my documents to the blog,
through the ‘share’ and ‘embed’ code, which I then copied
and pasted to the blog. This is easy to use, as it is quick and
simple to upload documents and share them to the blog. The
PowerPoint software is another one of Microsoft’s that allows
you to make a presentation, which I used for certain parts of
my research and planning, such as deciding on possible
colour schemes for our three products.
7. These are the online software programmes I used throughout
the evaluation and research and planning stages of my
coursework. These are used to create presentations which
you can edit to make personal by adding and cropping
images, selecting layouts, inserting text and shapes, etc.
quickly and easily. They were useful in explaining how I was
conducting my research/planning and producing the final
products.
8. In order to get a good idea of planning where we were going
to be filming footage for our documentary, we used the a still
Canon DSLR camera to take pictures for a location recce. This
was helpful in planning because it allowed us to practice with
the camera to improve our skills, for example manipulating
the zoom for different shot types, the focus, the brightness
and the saturation. Therefore we were able to plan thoroughly
where and how we were going to film from the camera. The
tripod was also very useful for keeping the camera still and
steady, to make the shot stay in focus and therefore make it
look professional.
9. We used a voice recorder to record certain aspects of
planning, such as how we are going to initiate brand identity
and how we were going to approach the construction of the
three products, from meetings held within the group. The
voice recorder was fairly easy to use, as you simply press the
record button, speak, then stop recording. If you press the
replay button and plug in headphones, you can hear back
how it sounds and adjust sound levels if necessary. For this
reason, we improved on our knowledge of how to work this
piece of technology as well as progressed with our planning.
Soundcloud was the most suitable software to upload the
voice recording to, from then we could embed it to the blog
so we could hear the recording on the blog.
10. We emailed the experts we wanted to feature in our documentary, then put
this as evidence on our blog for good planning skills. Once the experts Julie
Maitland and Emma Hurst agreed to a certain time and place to conduct the
formal interview, we sent them both the questions we had prepared to ask
them, so that they too could prepare to answer them easily after having
some thought. Therefore, the computer hardware was responsible for
allowing us to do this, so very useful in planning our products. Another thing
we had to do was phone-call one of the companies we wanted background
footage of (within their shop) and agree to a time to go and film, therefore
we needed our phone to do this, which was successful because it enabled us
to get some background footage and to communicate with the company
easily. The emails were also accessed through Tyber, where I emailed certain
experts in our documentary for their permission to interview and film. This
was also helpful for sending them the questions before the actual interview
was conducted so that they could prepare their answers, and therefore this
suggests good planning research through emails online.
11. I used a scanner for my research and planning in order to scan in drawn
drafts of images, such as the drawn storyboard draft of the documentary
and the magazine listing drawn draft. This was helpful in emailing the
images to myself, therefore making them readily available on the
computer and able to upload to the blog. The pencil and paper were
used to draw the imager, and this shows that not all parts of my
research and planning was carried out through technological devices, as
this shows practical and manual equipment being used, which was also
helpful for planning what the designs of the products would look like.
Without this we would not have a baseline for our finished products as
we would not have an idea how to set out the layout of the magazine
listing, for example. The printer was a good piece of technology for
printing out the questionnaires that I produced on the computer. This
was helpful for carrying out my audience research, from gaining the
audience’s interests, target demographic and opinions about
documentaries, magazines and radio trailers. So the printer gave us the
planning technology we needed in order to fit our products to what is
appealing for our target audience.
12. Youtube was an easily accessible online software which
allowed me to upload videos such as focus groups of
audience feedback I had filmed, to put onto my blog. All I had
to do was upload the clip onto the college’s account, share
the clip and copy the embed code and paste it onto my blog
through the text in order to let viewers play the Youtube clip
from my blog.
14. I used adobe premiere software to construct my documentary
on the pressures that teenagers face and to construct my
radio trailer. I edited the documentary by uploading takes
from the camera onto the timeline, and cutting and placing
the scenes across the timeline to actually construct the
documentary. I used the mouse to select and move the
scenes across the timeline and the razor tool to cut scenes,
where I wanted them to start and end if I didn't want to
include certain sections of a camera take/scene. This was
quite useful for cutting the clips down to get the
documentary to the right length of time of five minutes.
15. I used the clip editing tool and adjusted the speed of certain clips to either speed
this scene of the documentary up or use slow motion to slow it down. Mainly I
used the slow motion for the statistic shots, for example with the close up of
students feet as they walk which is slowed down and edited in black and white.
This adds interest to the scene, keeping the audience engaged but also gives the
audience enough time to read the statistic shown within the frame. To edit the clip
to make it black and white, I added visual effects and transformed the clip I
wanted to ‘black and white’. For another scene of a formal interview with Emma
Hurst, the medium shot of her had to be brightened as it was too dull at first and
difficult for the audience to see her face. Therefore, I brightened it similar to the
black and white effects, however I brought the brightness up instead. To add the
text, again I simply selected the clip I wanted, and added a title, and changed the
font style and size to how I wanted it to appear.
16. In terms of the music embedding editing for both the
documentary and the radio trailer, I uploaded the track of our
choice onto the timeline by dragging it across, then used the
razor tool to cut the section of the track we wanted to use (we
used the same track for both products to add consistency and
identity branding to the products), then used the copy and
paste tools to loop the track so that it played throughout the
whole sequence. This was very useful in adding some
background music at a low volume in order to keep interest
to both products, so the scenes seem engaging and
professional to the audience.
17. However, in order to adjust sound levels of he
narrator’s voice for both the documentary
and radio trailer sequences, I used the pen
tool and selected points where I wanted the
sound to be louder or quieter to create lines
across the clip, then raised or lowered these
lines to adjust the volume of the narrator.
18. I used Indesign to create the magazine listing which will be used to promote the
documentary. The double page needed an article. To insert an article, I typed up
the copy into Microsoft word, then used the copy and paste tool within the article
guidelines in Indesign to insert the article here. The text appeared, however the
font needed to be selected to ensure the font style was consistent with that in the
documentary to include brand identity to the products, so I selected the font I
wanted. I used the capital text enlarger tool to make the first letter of the article
bigger in size. This is conventional for articles in double page spreads, therefore
this made the page seem professional and it set the serious tone of the article.
Finally, in order to adjust the number of columns on the page to however many I
wanted, I used the column text tool to increase or decrease the number I wanted.
19. To insert a text box for pull quotes on the double page, I used the text
tool and then adjusted the font as necessary. These pull quotes engage
the audience by giving them intriguing pieces of text taken from the
article. To insert an image, I used file, place then selected the image I
wanted from my files and documents to add interest to the page. Then, I
added borders around these images to add more detail and interest to
appeal to the audience further and fit the images with the
education/teenager theme. I added the borders by creating shapes with
the shape tool. (The text and shape tool are both shown in one image).
20. I used Photoshop software to edit the background image of
the ballot box for the magazine listing. I did this to make it
more appealing and more suitable for the double page
underlying the text. Firstly, I placed the image from my files
into Photoshop as I did with images on Indesign, then I
blurred the whole picture by selecting the blur tool and, and
made the picture brighter by raising its brightness with the
brightness tool.
