The student created a documentary about university fees using various media technologies. For research and planning, the group created mind maps of ideas and chose university fees after finding sufficient resources. They storyboarded shots and researched statistics online. For filming, they used a professional camera, tripod, and microphone to capture interviews and footage following conventions. For editing in Final Cut Express, they adjusted audio levels, added transitions, titles, and exported the documentary and radio trailer to YouTube and their blog. They designed a double-page magazine spread in InDesign and Photoshop to promote the documentary.

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

2. Research and Planning.
The research and planning for our documentary
contributed significantly towards the production. As a
group we created a mind map of potential ideas of
what we could base our documentary on, some of
these being the music industry, unhealthy eating and
smoking. We chose to base it on university fee’s in the
end as we felt the information and recourses were
much easier to find as we were restricted to transport
to travel our of Solihull. Once we had our idea, we had
many storyboard sheets so we could start planning our
documentary shots where we hand drew all the
drawings and wrote the text.

3. As part of the research we had to find our more information such as up
to date statistics about the topic and its current affects. We researched
on the BBC News website and went onto UCAS to find our university
fees and how much it would cost current A level students. By using
resource's such as books, internet and Connexions we were able to
make sure our research was very accurate to avoid false information.
We also looked at Panorama and the type of documentaries they
created so we had a potential documentary to follow as we had a
serious topic. We also researched the weekly listing all the channels to
see which would be suitable to broadcast our documentary, in this
case it was BBC1. All the research we carried out was uploaded onto
our group blog so to show that progress we were making each lesson
with regards to this task.

4. Filming
• After doing our research and planning, we started to film our footage following the
storyboard. With our professional, high quality camera, which we learned many
things so we were able to carry out shots which consisted of focused and out of
focus shots. As we had other equipment such as the tripod and the microphone,
we were able to travel comfortably around to get the shots we wanted. For
professional shots such as the vox pops and expert interviews we used the tripod
to keep the shot stable and to keep the rule of thirds in mind along with the mise-
en-scene. we sometimes had lighting difficulties in some expert interviews,
however we were able to overcome them. Also, when we were asking questions,
in order to check the sound was clear we had to plug our headphones into the
camera and aim the microphone directly towards the direction of the speaker. To
avoid the microphone from picking up any unwanted noises, especially in the
expert interviews we used a quiet room which was available, and would arrange
that before hand to avoid any time wasting. We also made sure all our interviews
had been pre-arranged before the day and had a conformation that they were free
to avoid rushing the interviews. We had planned the questions as a group and
used whatever answers we felt contributed to the documentary.

5. The different technologies we used
throughout the process.
• Scribed
• Slideshare
• InDesign
• Photoshop
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Microsoft Word
• Youtube
• EdExcel
• Recording studio
• Final cut express
• Garage band

6. The equipment used during the
process
• Camera
• Microphone
• Tripod
• Headphones
• Apple Mac computer
• Mobile phones
• Printer

7. Screenshots of Final Cut
Express- Editing
Documentary.
This screen shot shows that
we have bent the sound levels
to keep it all stable and for the
documentary to flow
together. It also shows how
we experimented the sound
levels to see how they all
sounded.
This shows we have
used transitions to
allow the
documentary to
dissolve into another
scene. the purpose
of this was to keep to
the conventions of a
documentary and
also by keeping it
professional.

8. This shows we have
used a variety of
techniques to follow
the typical
documentary
conventions. By
having this shot sped
up allowed the shot
to be in sync with the
voiceover.
We created a logo for our documentary
to make it more realistic and for it to
typically occur in the documentary.

9. This shows the
variety of
transitions we The editing
used in toolbar that
between our was used
clips to convey throughout
time pass and the creating
also keep the process.
documentary
interesting
instead of using
all straight cuts.
Shows we
exported our
video to
YouTube to
make it easy to
view for other
people.

10. This shows the
transfer
process with
the clips.
Shows the folder
created with all
the extra fillers
that had to be
filmed to finish
the final few
seconds of the
documentary.
This shows the texts and
spaces between the clips
when placed on the
timeline.

11. This shows the list of
clips we had filmed for
the production of our
documentary, we had
many vox pops,
interviews and fillers
which were all
appropriate for our
documentary, however
we were unable to
repeat some clips
therefore had to go and
film a few more..

12. Placing text onto the clips.
This shows how the
text was placed onto
the interview to make
it look professional and
to follow the
conventions. We were
able to choose the
font, colour and
backdrop to make it
look realistic.
This shows the
opening 15 seconds
of the documentary
giving the groups
information.

13. Both of these
print screens
show the text
paced on this
folder clip and
the sequence of
different text
placed to show
up to date
statistics from
our research.

14. Print screens of music and
radio trailer creation.
Shows the final creation of the
music.
This shows how the sound levels for
the music was managed well to keep
it balanced and we adjusted it
wherever we felt needed. This shows the different music
extracts used and how they
were looped to create the
music for our documentary
and radio trailer.

15. This shows the music for
the radio trailer was
exported so we were able
to have a clear listen to it
and upload it onto the
blog for viewing purposes.
This shows we successfully
exported the radio trailer
and was saved into our
folder.

16. This shows the full
radio trailer project
and shows how it
has all be put
together.
This shows the fade at the
end of the radio trailer to
give it a smooth finish and
avoid it from just cutting
off.
This shows the radio
trailer sounds levels
and the different
sound involvements.

17. We completed our radio trailer in Final Cut Express which
allowed us to use extracts for our documentary. The
background music which was created in GarageBand was the
same as the documentary which we used for consistency
purposes. This was kept on a loop to keep it short and simple
and to avoid it from going off scale.
The radio trailer was simple to create as the majority of it was
extracts from the documentary, we decided to use a female
voice as we had a male voice for the documentary voiceover
and it would have clashed. We had the correct sound
adjustments for the music and voiceover which was created in
the music studio and ended with the date and time of the
broadcast. We chose to keep it simple for it to appeal to the
audience and for them to be intrigued to watch the
documentary.

18. Double Page Spread
To produce our double page spread we used Abobe InDesign which
allowed us to use a variety of professional skills to make this look as
realistic as possible. For the article, we used Microsoft Word and
then imported it into InDesign.
Firstly, we had the main image placed after we had taken the image
of our group member standing in front of the projector to create a
silhouette, we then placed it into Photoshop and edited it slightly
to make the figure turn completely black. We then added the text
in and added the minor images in and the pull quote to fill up the
blank spaces. However, the article still was not looking appealing,
we then decided to change the background colour from white to
grey and it automatically looked much fuller.

19. The conventions we followed
These are the few main conventions for the TV& Satellite
magazine we followed as we wanted it to look realistic as
possible and keep the house style consistent.
The new documentary box
with the time and date
A images placed in a circle
to follow the conventions
with a caption written on it.
The magazine logo on each page.