The student used various media technologies throughout the construction and research, planning, and evaluation stages of their advanced portfolio project. Prezi, PowToon, Pages, and Word were used in the planning stage to present findings and brainstorm ideas. A video camera, audio recorder, and smartphones were used to film footage, which was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro. Social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp helped facilitate communication and sharing of documents between group members.

1. 4. HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION
AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?
BY REEMA CHAUHAN

2. OVERVIEW
I used a lot of different media software's and websites which was significant in
order to fully complete my advanced portfolio.
Research and
planning:
PowToon
Prezi
Pages
Word
Powerppint
Voice memo
Slide share
Soundcloud
Emaze
Netflx
Production:
InDesign
Premiere
Hardware:
Video camera
Audio recorder
Smartphones
Communication:
Facebook
Hotmail
Whatsapp
Tyber

3. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
The site blogger is where we have uploaded all of our findings and research as a
group so that we can view each others work conveniently. To present our findings, I
have used a range of different presentation websites or software's in order to
ensure that the blog looks varied and interesting. These include Prezi, PowToon and
emaze. If we were to just write all our findings straight intro blogger the blog would
not look physically appealing. Instead, using these presentation tools has helped
me increase my digital technology skills for presenting my ideas and will definitely
help me in the future when I have to create presentations at university.

4. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
At the very beginning of the coursework, before decided what topic we wanted to
do for our documentary, I watched ‘Supersize Me’ and the first episode of ‘Benefits
Street’ in order to get a clear idea of the typical codes and conventions used in a
documentary and how specific micro-elements conveyed. I presented the analyse I
had written up in presentation on Prezi which allowed me to show my ideas in a
creative way. I also used simple software's such as using Pages to list my ideas
down for the magazine article and Word to create brainstorms. By using these
methods I could quickly and easily create the documents when I had new ideas in
an effective and simple way.

5. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
I also watched ‘Auschwitz’ and ‘Planet Earth’ on
Netflix, an online streaming service. The reason why I
chose to watch these shows on Netflix is because
you can use it on many different devices such as
your smart phone, laptop or TV so I re-watched
specific parts such as the first five minutes of
‘Auschwitz’ on my iPhone when I was out and about,
meaning I could fit my coursework around my
timetable. I watched the full episodes on a big
screen TV in order to examine closely aspects of
mise-en-scene, editing and camerawork properly.

6. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
One way in which we shared our ideas in the research and planning stages of the
documentary was by creating a WhatsApp group chat. This helped to keep us
organised and plan ahead what we needed to get finished for the next lesson or
time we met up. You can easily share images, voice messages and documents on
WhatsApp and because it is an application everyone had on their phone already it
was a convenient communication tool to use. We also used the Sixth Form
messaging system called ‘Tyber’ to contact our teachers as this an easy way to
digitally contact them as we only had short messages.

7. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
In order to embed some of the documents and sound files I had created I uploaded
the documents to slideshare and the sound files which I made on my phone using
the app ‘Voice Memo’ to Soundcloud. They allowed me to simply add files to the
blog without hassle as it is quite straightforward. We also uploaded our
progression meetings on to YouTube as this too was a convenient method of easily
embedding our videos. We could then watch these at home to see what to do next
in our own time. We used Soundcloud to that we could send the radio trailer to
everyone.

8. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
I used social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter in order to contact my
friends and close family members when I needed them to answer the questionnaire
as I know that a lot of people my age use social media sites a lot and so this was a
convenient way to message them if I did not have their number. Due to the fact
that the questionnaire was online, I could just easily copy and paste the link to it
whilst I was messaging everyone. If they said they would do it to me in real life but I
could see that they hadn’t I could also message them on social media sites to
remind them about it.

9. PRODUCTION – FILMING
The professional video camera that we used in
order to film the footage for our documentary
was a Canon HG20. This allowed us to capture
video clips and images that were of high
quality due to its high resolution lens. We
could effectively control the focus, brightness
and exposure levels to make sure the footage
we filmed looked as clear and professional as
possible. This would save time and hassle
during the editing stages of the documentary.
The use of focus and zoom was essential for
the filming stages of the documentary as it
ensured the documentary was of a high
standard and allowed me to film the focus
pull shot that I had planned previously.

10. PRODUCTION – FILMING
For all the days we filmed the footage we made
sure that we used a shotgun microphone. Due the
foam covering, this meant we were able to keep
background noise to a minimum. This was
particularly important when we were filming in a
room which was right next to the refectory where a
lot of students socialise and it therefore becomes
very loud. Although at some times you can hear
the background noise, it adds to the student
atmosphere in a positive way and it not
overwhelming at all. This meant that were were
able to pick up the dialogue from the expert
interviews and vox-pops clearly to generate a
professional sound quality. Their opinions are
important so the audience needs to be able to
clearly hear what they are saying.

11. PRODUCTION – FILMING
The use of a tripod was a very essential tool when
filming to make sure that our footage looked as
professional as possible. The hand held camera
technique not only usually conveys a sense of
danger to the shakiness of the frame but also a lack
of professionalism as the camera is not steady all
the time. Therefore, we used a tripod for all of the
footage we used even the background footage
recorded off YouTube. We could also perform
establishing shots more easily for instance the
panning and tilt up shots we recorded of the
exterior of the Sixth Form. The shots were therefore
smooth and the angles looked professional. We
categorised the different footage by creating
different folders of dates for the footage in order to
manage all our clips and make sure we knew where
everything was when we started the editing stages.

12. PRODUCTION – FILMING
We used high quality headphones too
to make sure that the microphone
was working properly and that when
the experts were talking they were
talking loud and clearly enough. We
used a pair of Sennheiser HD 201
headphones which are from a high
quality brand so we could also notice
any precise noises during filming that
may hinder our footage such as the
background noise being too loud.

13. OTHER HARDWARE
We also used a voice recorder in order to
record the script for the documentary as
well as the dialogue needed for the radio
trailer. It was simple to use and because its
sole purpose was to record sound it was of
very high quality and when we listened
back to it on the Mac my voice was very
clear.

14. EDITING – PREMIERE
We used Adobe Premiere to construct our five minute documentary. There were
specific tools which helped us cut and edit the footage we had used and then place
it together in a sequence so that it flowed seamlessly. We edited the sound levels,
added titles, the Sixth Form logo as well as speeding up and slowing down footage.
We also used Premiere to create the radio trailer as we thought it would be
convenient to use as no one knew how to use garage band so it would save time
and hassle.

15. EDITING – PREMIERE
Adobe Premiere was a very useful and
helpful software for us to use because it
had a wide range of tools that allowed us
to manipulate the footage we had to best
suit our vision of the documentary. The
screen is split intro different sections so
on the top left hand side you can view
and play the visual elements of your own
media images or videos. The top right
hand side was the visual aspects of the
sequence you were making. The bottom
right hand side was had different tabs of
sequences with a timeline. Lastly, the
bottom left hand side was where you
could view your own hard drive and
search for specific clips through the media
browser too.

16. EDITING - PREMIERE
I found this website link from the official adobe
page very useful in helping me understand the
basic of premiere:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-
to/create-video-story.html It goes through each
step from starting the sequence to exporting it
as there are a number of different videos
explaining how to use it if you want to
specifically create a documentary using video
clips and still images.

17. EDITING – PREMIERE
I have created a YouTube video to briefly explain the basic tools I used in Premiere.
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=HyPoINfee
Nw&feature=youtu.be

18. EDITING - INDESIGN
As we used InDesign to construct the product
for our foundation portfolio, we were quite
experienced in how to use it and I believe it is
much simpler than using Premiere. It is
designed to create articles, both magazine or
newsletters. It was quite simply to incorporate
the the three columns which are a main feature
of a magazine article and to organise the two
pages too. We imported screenshots taken
from the documentary footage as well as
captioning those screenshots through creating
boxes. We exported this as pdf file to be sent
to the exam board but as a jpeg file to go onto
the blog.

19. EVALUATION
The first question I have created a presentation on ‘Canva’ which I had not used
before but it is very similar to the Prezi and emaze which I used for questions 2 and
3. I have used PowerPoint for question 3 and 4 as well. I have created a video for
question 4 as well using QuickTime Player. I have uploaded this to YouTube and
will link it directly into the blog post as well. All these presentation tools are very
similar in their formatting and are therefore quite simple and easy to follow.

20. CONCLUSION
• I have used a wide range of software's to aid me during the advanced portfolio
process especially when presenting my work.
• I have learnt most about how to use Premiere and am confident that I can now
independently create short videos and audio clips by using a range of tools and
effects.
• I liked how we have used so many ways of presenting all the findings and analysis
of this coursework and it is much more creative then writing everything in an
essay style manner.