The document describes the various media technologies and software used at different stages of creating a documentary project. In the planning stage, online research was conducted using Google, YouTube, and social media. Information was organized in PowerPoint and uploaded to a blog. Footage was filmed using cameras and microphones, and edited together in Adobe Premiere Pro. Photoshop was used to enhance images. The final products, including a double-page magazine spread, were presented on the blog using tools like PowerPoint, Prezi, and SoundCloud.

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

2. Software we used:
• Prezi
• Powtoon
• Microsoft
PowerPoint
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Exel
• Scribd
• SlideShare
• Soundcloud
• Adobe Photoshop
• InDesign
• Adobe Premier pro
• YouTube
• Facebook
• SurveyMonkey
• Blogger
• Twitter
• iPlayer
• Netflix
• Google
• Gmail
• Tyber
• Emaze

3. Hardware/Equipment we used:
• Apple Mac computer
• Window 7 computer
• Shotgun Microphone
• Canon HD HG20
• Voice recorder
• Sennheiser HD201 Headphones
• Mobile Phones
• Printer
• Tripod
• Canon camera

4. Research and planning:
When beginning the coursework we created a mind map to decide
what topic to focus on. Our decision was the movement of
‘Meninism’, which is linked to ‘Feminism’. This movement is most
prevalent online and on social media, so we used sites such as
Google, Twitter and YouTube to gather information. Using social
media was helpful because there is a lot of content that is both for
and against the movement so we were able to get both sides of the
argument easily and effectively. Also because the movement had
grown there were articles on sites like; The Telegraph and The Oxford
Student, talking about Meninist’s, these were useful as they are more
trusted institutions talking on Meninism so having their opinions
would add to out argument greatly.
With this we received information in class about Bill Nichols
documentary modes and examples of these conventions used in
documentaries such as; ‘Super Size Me’ and previous students work
like ‘Selfie’.
This information was collected together in PowerPoints and uploaded
to Blogger. These programs were useful as they allowed us to collect
information and then keep our entire project together in one blog.

5. As further research we found documentaries to watch that
were similar to our topic. This allowed us to be more aware of
conventions we wanted to use. To find these we used streaming
website ‘Netflix’ as it has an extensive documentary section
and is popular among young people. Additionally we used
iPlayer to watch BBC documentaries, primarily on BBC Three.
The BBC as a brand is infamous and trusted so using it as
research was useful.
We then moved on to planning some of the content of the
documentary. For this we contacted the person we wanted to
use for Voice Over and possible filming locations. For this we
used Gmail as the places we wanted to film (ie, The Bullring,
Mell Square) often had websites with this information on,
making it official. We also needed to contact ‘Birmingham
Cathedral’ not just through email but in the telephone, this put
us in dire contact with them and meat that was where we
eventually filmed. Finally we contacted some of the teachers at
the sixth form, who we felt could talk on the topic, through
‘Tyber’, which is a website created for the college only that
allows you o keep in contact with teachers and important
college information.

6. Throughout this process we kept in contact as a group
through Facebook and its messenger service, this meant
that we could keep up with what each other were doing
and ensure the work was as good as possible.
For primary research we used the website ServeyMokey
which allowed us to create our own online questionnaire.
Then we shared this on one of our personal Facebook
pages and meant that we were able to reach a wide
audience (receiving about 50 responses). We also used
word and a printer to create a paper questionnaire to give
out, for better control over who fills it out, keeping it to
just out target audience. To collate the online and paper
feedback we used Microsoft Excel which allowed us to
make graphs and charts of the results and these were
then presented on PowerPoints.

7. Filming:
When filming we used a ‘Canon HD HG20’ to film footage. This
ensured that the visual qualities of the documentary would be
of a high quality. When filming we also used a Tripod to keep
the camera steady and perform professional camera
movements like pan or zoom shots and to keep to the Bill
Nichols Expository mode we knew that the shots had to be
still, with no use of handheld camera as that is not
conventional seen on news programs. Another piece of
equipment was a ‘shotgun microphone’, this allowed us to get
a professional sound quality as it was designed to pick up our
interviewees while eliminating background noise. Though this
was useful for the expert interviews and some VoxPop’s the
microphone didn’t work well enough when filming at
Birmingham Cathedral so we added the footage to the end of
our five minutes as the ‘coming up next section’.

8. Whilst filming we used ‘Sennheiser HD201’
Headphones to make sure the sound quality
would be good and we wouldn’t have to re-
film anything. Once everything was recorded
we uploaded all the footage from the camera
onto the Apple Mac Computer via USB. They
were catalogued by date of filming and
placed in files on the desktop, which meant
they could be found easily. Each clip was
then watched and the sound checked using
the same headphones. Each clip was logged
by hand and it was decided which ones
would and wouldn’t be used. Finally this was
all scanned using a printer and put on the
blog.

9. In regards to the Radio Trailer we used the same
person who was our voice over and recorded their
piece on a handheld voice recorder. This created a
high quality recording and allowed us to put it
straight onto a new Premier file, with just audio and
no need to worry about visual.
For the double page spread we wanted to take a
original photo of our ‘Meninist’ so we used lighting
from the colleges photography department and a
canon camera which took only still photos. This
meant that the images would be well lit and look
professional as is the convention seen in the Radio
Times Magazine.

10. Editing:
Now that all of our clips were organised we began to
drag and drop them into Adobe Premier Pro CS6, a
feature which allows the clips to be very easily
accessible.
With Premier it is possible to preview the clips and
then use keyboard shortcuts ‘I’ and ‘O’ to dictate the
start and end of the clip, which can then be dragged
into the timeline. A feature that was extremely
useful in the timeline was the adjustability of it. We
were able to extend the number of columns on both
the audio and visual tracks. This meant there was the
ability to layer different images, so as one of out
interviewees were speaking there could be visuals
layered over to emphasis what they were saying. This
gave a professional look and meant that each point
would be emphasised, improving the informative
quality of the documentary.

11. A tool we used frequently in the editing of our documentary and
Radio Trailer was Adobe premier’s Pen tool. This allowed you to
edit both the audio and visual levels of a clip. It worked by
separating the audio/visual levels at a point of your choosing,
signified by a small circle, you could then choose more points to
edit. After, using the pen tool or general selection tool you could
dray your points up or down. This would either lower/raise the
sound for a period of your choosing. Or change the opacity of the
image for a section of your choosing. We used this to soften the
audio levels in parts, so that a change in audio could be softened
at times. And to fade out of a visual in order to show that a certain
scene was over which was more effective than a harsh jump cut.
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12. A second tool we used frequently
was the Razor Blade tool to
precisely cut clips in places we
desired. If we wanted a section of
the clip to be taken out we would
simply select the section on the
timeline and delete it. The tool
allows you to cut the lips audio
and visual at the same time or
separately, cutting sections of
one but not the other. This saved
time and real documentaries that
we viewed used this style of
transition so the tool allowed us
to accurately produce a
professional product.

13. One important convention of
documentaries are words and
titles appearing on the screen.
Therefore they were included in
our documentary. To do this we
would go to the title menu tool
and select ‘Default Still’, which
then allowed us to type the
words we desired, edit font,
size, colour and position. Then
from this ‘project media’
section it could be dragged into
the timeline and the length
with which it could play on
screen could be altered. We
used these titles for our
statistics and as small name
cards that would inform the
audience of who was speaking.

14. Photoshop:
In our research of similar documentaries we found that a
technique they would often use involved concealing a
persons face so it appeared black. This was something we
wanted to use for our Meninist interview. To do this we first
place him in front of a window during filming and asked him
to wear a dark hoodie, this meant that the least amount of
light possible would be hitting his face and already creating
a shadowed effect. In editing it was decided that his face
was not covered as much as we desired so we followed a
YouTube tutorial that told us how to edit the images
exposure and white balance. The video was successful and
we were able to almost fully darken the Meninist’s face.
Looking back at our style model (The documentary on
Banksy; “exit through the gift shop”) we noticed that they
had superimposed a black shape over Banksy’s face to fully
conceal his identity. This could not be created on Premier so
we did this, by creating a black oval, in Photoshop, which
had a transparent background. This was then exported as a
‘.png’ file, which was uploaded to Premier. Then using
Premier’s ‘motion tool’ in the ‘edit’ menu we could move
the oval so it was constantly covering the Meninist’s face.
Providing a professional look and believability to the
Meninist’s want for anonymity.

15. For out Double page spread there
were some designs that we felt could
not be achieved by InDesign’s tools.
So we again created some on
Photoshop. Here a box was needed
to hold the magazines masthead, but
we wanted it to have curved edges.
To do this we created a box and
placed a circle over it as this would
create the curved edges we wanted.
Then using the ‘Magic want too’ we
were able to select the sections we
wanted, cutting the boxes corners.
This selected area was then filled in
red, saved as a ‘.png’ and placed
within the double page spread file.

16. InDesign
We wanted to produce our double page spread in the most
professional way possible, so for this we used the pregame
‘InDesign’. For elements such as the title and masthead, they
would be made using other programs like Photoshop, could
be saved as a ‘.png’ file and uploaded into this program (as
described in the slide before) using File>Place. Additionally
because we were uploading the original file if we went back to
Photoshop to make an edit the changes would be
automatically saved and changed on InDesign.
In Design allowed for many of the listings magazine codes and
conventions to be kept at a very high quality. Having a
columned article is a convention of print media so once our
article was written on Microsoft Word is was then copied onto
InDesign and the program would put it into columns instantly.

17. Blog Presentations:
When planning and researching the topic and then creating the products
everything would be evaluated and saved onto the blog. Creating a place
of reference to show our work develop over time.
When presenting out work we used an array of programs so that the
information would be presented in a organised and visually leasing way.
We regularly used Powerpoint and Word to collect information and the
best way, we found, to upload these onto the blog was through services
like ‘Scribd’ and ‘SlideShare’ which allow you to embed your work onto the
blog.
In addition there are online sites that let you present work in an interesting
way. Such as; ‘Prezi’, ‘PowToon’ and ‘Emaze’. These gave you premade
templated to collect your work and ideas on. They were extremely easy to
use and again allowed you to copy an embed code and place the project
onto the Blog.
Another positive of these sites was that it gave you another platform to
save work on, while USB sticks and personal desktops were used these
sites gave you a personal log in a place to save work, making out project
easier and safer.
Our Radio Trailer was uploaded to ‘SoundClound’ so that the listening
quality would be high, as the programme was made specifically for sound
files.
Finally we recorded Videos, using our mobile phones, in which we would
recap work we had completed and what was left to do. This was then
uploaded to ‘YouTube’ before being placed on our blog.
(Link to all videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsNQ41YKUgexWflFGAXFHPg )