Media technologies were used throughout all stages of the process, including blogging, YouTube, Slideshare, Prezi, Photoshop, camera equipment, and Apple Final Cut Pro X. Blogger was used to document the process. YouTube was used for research and embedding videos. Slideshare and Prezi were used to create professional-looking presentations. Photoshop was used for ancillary tasks and research. A Canon EOS600D camera captured high-quality footage. Tripods ensured steady shots. Final Cut Pro X was used to edit the documentary footage with voiceovers, effects, and cuts.

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

2. Media technologies were used in every stage
throughout this process and a wide variety of
contrasting media technologies were used for
different presentations and productions. These
being the programmes, software, websites and
equipment used in order to complete our tasks.

3. Blogger
The first media technology used was of
course blogger as to begin we created a
blog and provided a briefing about our
production and then used this throughout
the process to upload each piece of work
done for every stage of the process.

4. YouTube
The first stage of our research and planning involved a
lot of use of YouTube. YouTube is the largest website on
the internet for sharing videos and contains a very good
range of existing documentaries that we were able to
watch and analyse for our codes and conventions
research. We were also able to embed videos from
YouTube so that we could share them on our blogs.

5. Research and Planning
The presentation of our research and planning was
predominantly done through the use of several programmes
and software that were new to us, including Slideshare and
Prezi. Both of these programmes made all of our research and
planning appear more presentable and professional compared
to the basic programmes that I was used to such as Microsoft
PowerPoint and Publisher. These programmes were easy to
understand and use through the tutorials provided on the
websites. I also used these programmes to present some of my
evaluation.

6. Ancillary Tasks
For the research and the production of my ancillary tasks I used a programme
that I was familiar with from my production portfolio last year. This was
Photoshop. Although I had used it to produce my magazine last year, there were
still certain aspects of the programme that I was certain on how to use
effectively. As well as watching tutorials I asked for help with these aspects from
a friend that I knew was a regular and advanced user of Photoshop, and he was
able to help me solve these issues. This was the integration of the channel 4 logo
with the background picture and the house colour that I was helped with as you
can see on the right of the image. Photoshop was also used to present my
research into forms and conventions of ancillary tasks that were similar to those
that I created myself.

7. Equipment
In order to produce my ancillary tasks and main task I
needed some original pictures and video footage that I took
myself, therefore the equipment for this was a big source of
technology for this part of the process. This meant that I
needed a high quality camera to capture the images and
footage so that it looked as professional as possible. The
camera that I used was a Canon EOS600D. This was a good
choice of camera as we were able to take very clear and
professional looking photographs for the ancillary tasks and
shoot footage at 1080p full HD at 25FPS, but it wasn’t just
the camera that we used to be able to maintain high quality
footage, we also were helped by the use of tripods and
steady frames so that our shots were not shaky at all and
allowed us to make appropriate camera movements at a
good standard.

8. Editing
After filming all of the footage for our documentary, this
footage then needed to be edited in a way that appeared as
professional as possible, and we did this through the use of
Apple Final Cut Pro X. This software was completely new to
me although my partner had previously used it for his
project last year. This was a benefit as it meant that we did
have some previous knowledge on using the software
within our group. This type of media software was very
advanced and allowed us to make our documentary appear
better than we had originally expected it to. It allowed us to
match the voiceover with the footage, additional sound
effects and appropriate cuts and transitions etc.