1. HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND
RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?
Leanne Westbury

2. EQUIPMENT
 A variety of equipment was required throughout the
research and planning, creating and evaluating
stages. Filming equipment was required (images
from
Q2, right) such as the HG
Canon HD camera we used
to film footage, a tripod and
sound recording equipment
which consisted of a directional
microphone, headphones and the necessary leads.
We also used a scanner as the majority of research
and planning was paper-based and an apple Mac
to access all of the software we used.

3. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
 We used the internet to conduct research on our
topic as well as audience research which required
the use of Microsoft Word to create the
questionnaires. We used sites such as BBC
News, Spotify and YouTube to carry out both topic
research and research of similar products and
recorded out findings either directly onto the blog or
onto paper which was later scanned in and
uploaded to the blog.

4. BLOG
 I used a variety of technologies to present
information using Blogger. Prezi, Slideshare and
Scribd were used for presentation whereas it was
Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft
Excel (within PowerPoint to create graphs) that
enabled creation of documents and recording of
information.

5. BLOG
 Scribd, Slideshare and Prezi all feature an option to
embed the document you create which provides a
clear and simple way of combining technologies by
embedding documents directly onto the blog so
everything is presented in one place.

6. CREATION OF THE DOCUMENTARY
 We saved all of our footage to a folder
located on the hard drive of an Apple Mac.
We started by logging and transferring
every clip in Final Cut Express and
renaming each one so that the editing
process would be more simple when
referring to our edit decision list and
selecting clips to insert into a sequence.
Each clip had to be added to a queue in
order to be transferred.

7. To insert a clip into a sequence you double click on it in the list
of all clips, this plays the clip in the preview canvas and allows
you to choose a section of the clip by pressing marking an
inpoint and outpoint. The ‘i’ (in) key on the keyboard marks
where you want it to start and ‘o’ (out) where you want the clip
to end.
This inserts two small arrows to show the selection. You then
press F10 on the keyboard to insert the clip into the
sequence.

8. Some clips had to be modified so that the speed of the clip was faster
of slower. For example, during the tiled vox pop sequence we had to
increase the speed so that is would be on screen for an appropriate
amount of time whereas we chose to slow down the blurred clip of the
public for stylistic purposes. Once the speed was modified a
percentage would appear next to the clip name so you could see if the
clip had been altered.

9. The Razor Blade tool allows you to cut clips so that
they can be arranged and moved as separate clips.
For example, this clip from a formal interview was
cut so that background footage could be inserted in
between.
The Pen tool is used to draw dots that can be
moved to adjust sound levels. We used this tool to
fade music such as when narration began and to
adjust sound levels in order to make them level.

10. The ‘Text’ folder under ‘Effects’
contained several options. We chose
Lower 3rd for the text that would appear
on the formal interview and used the
controls below to edit colour and font. I
used the Pen tool to draw dots on the
text clip in order to make it fade in and
out accordingly rather than just
appearing and disappearing.

11. We used only straight cuts and
cross dissolves in our
documentary. The cross
dissolve effect could be found in
the Effects tab under Video
Transitions > Dissolve> Cross
Dissolve. This could be simply
dragged onto the break in clips
that you wanted to fade
between.

12. We created several seperate sequences in order to
focus on certain sections before exporting te
sequence as a QuickTime movie and inserting it into
the main sequence. This could be done simply by
going to File > Export > Export as QuickTime movie
and saving the file.
Doing so combined all of
the clips into one
sequence ready to be
part of the main project.

13. The colour of the bar above
the clips indicated the status of
the clip and whether the clip
needed to be rendered. A red
line indicated that the clip
needed to be rendered and
could be easily sorted by
going to Sequence> Render
All> Both to ensure both video
and audio was rendered.

14. PHOTOSHOP (TITLE SHOT)
I used dafont.com to select a font and used
Photoshop to edit the text to create a JPEG that we
later printed out and used to film the title shot.
The design was simple, I started by creating a new
file and changing the orientation of the canvas by
going to Image> Rotate Canvas> Rotate 90°
clockwise. By pasting a print screen of the chosen
font from dafont.com and cropping it so that the
text was central to the canvas I had the basis of the
title. I then inverted the colour so that the
background of the canvas was black and the text
was white. Finally I pasted ‘The Truth
Revealed’ and cropped
and positioned it before
saving the file as a
JPEG and printing it.

15. RADIO TRAILER
 To create the radio trailer we used a combination of
iTunes, GarageBand and Final Cut Express.

16. Going to Track> New Track would open the screen
showed below which provided the option to either
insert a track from iTunes or use a Software
Instrument Track which could be chosen from a wide
variety of beats and melodies. We used a
combination of both so that we could insert our voice
over and layer a beat behind it.
To create our voice
over file we opened
the recording in Final
Cut Express, edited
the clips so that we
had only the audio we
wanted to use then
removed the video
before saving the
sequence as an audio
only file and opening
it in iTunes.

17. By pressing Command and T you
are able to split a selected track so This is the sound
that the pieces can be moved and controls that can be
edited separately. We did this adjusted for each
several times to the voice over file separate track. We
so that we was able to experiment used these controls
with order and arrangement of clips. to control the sound
This is similar to the action of the levels and attempt to
Razor Blade Tool in Final Cut make them as even
Express. as possible.

18. Mute control- used to mute individual
tracks in order to experiment with
different sound combinations
This tool could be used to zoom in and
out so that you could achieve accuracy
when cutting and arranging clips.
Basic controls allow you to play, pause, add tracks, adjust volume and more.
This shows how multiple tracks
can be selected by holding shift
and clicking on different tracks
and sections.
It also shows how several tracks
are combined and layered to
create the final product.

19. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
 We used Adobe InDesign to create a double page
spread and Microsoft Word to write the featured
article.

20. To place an image in InDesign you use the Rectangle Frame
Tool to determine the space that the image will be placed in.
Then, by going to File> Place you are able to find the file and
insert it into the design.
Text could be pasted from Microsoft Word into InDesign
by creating a text box using the Text tool in the toolbar. By
selecting the text a range of options appear in the upper
tool bar, one of which
being the option to organise the text into
columns. By typing in the amount of columns and
justifying the text the article looks instantly more
professional.
To export the finished magazine on
InDesign you go to File> Export which
opens the box shown on the left. You
have to tick the ‘Spreads’ box and
ensure that the Resolution was 300
before exporting the file.

21. OVERALL
 All new media technologies used to create both the
main and ancillary texts were fairly simple to use
once you are aware of which tools needed to
capture, edit, create and present successfully.
 The hardest software to use was Final Cut Express
as it was the most technologically challenging with
regards to amount of tools and the importance of
using them effectively. However I feel the quality of
the main text reflects the use of such tools and the
skills used to apply different ideas.