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

2. CONSTRUCTION
• For the construction of our documentary we needed to use digital technologies in order to capture the
footage necessary. For this we used 3 different flip cam’s so it was possible to capture footage from all
different angles. Because the sound that was filmed through the camera was not that clear we used a
microphone for the non-diegetic sound.
• For the actual editing part of our documentary we used IMovie. We found that it was very time
consuming to use IMovie to edit our documentary, however helped a lot as we were able to add non-
diegetic sound, voiceovers and transitions in order to improve the production of the documentary.
• For the video snippets we needed of ‘Got To Dance’ and ‘Britain's Got Talent’ to include in the
documentary we had to use YouTube and Tube Chop. This allowed us to edit the snippets we needed
without using the whole YouTube video and was very easy to add to our documentary.
• For our ancillary product, we had to make a double page spread and an advertisement to promote our
documentary. To create my double page spread I used InDesign. I was going to use Photoshop however
found a few limitations. For example, when I needed to align my columns it was a lot harder than it
needed to be. With InDesign we were automatically able to align the columns and it also gave us a
template that was easy to follow. This helped me keep my text straight and my images at the right size. It
also allowed us to us the codes and conventions needed for a double page spread, whereas Photoshop
would have been much harder to use.
• For my advertisement I did use Photoshop. It did not take very long as all I used was a screenshot from my
documentary, and incorporated the channel it would be shown on and what the documentary was
called.

3. RESEARCH
• Firstly we created a survey on Google Drive for our primary research. This allowed us
to get the audience feedback we needed to draw conclusions, for us to see what
documentaries they wanted.
• It was very important for me to understand what channel would be best suited for
my documentary, therefore had to research about commercial television, public
service channels and satellite television. This allowed me to see what channel I
would be using in order to promote and show my documentary. This also depended
on the age, social class and gender of my target audience.
• In order to find out what type of documentary we had made we had to do general
research on google which lead to YouTube and a variety of other different websites,
to look at what all the different genres of documentaries there is. This was important
for us as we had to understand the purpose of our documentary.

4. PLANNING
• For the planning of what sort of documentary we were going to make, we
used Text2Mindmap on the internet which allowed us to create a Mind Map
of ideas of all the types of documentaries we could possibly make and what
they would be about. We then shortlisted some ideas and came up with
some reasons why it would and wouldn’t be possible to make a
documentary about these ideas.
• Before making our documentary we had to make a shot list of the all of the
different shots, at what angles and what was going to be in each individual
shot. For this we used Word to create a table. This was good for us as it gave
us a guideline to follow when we started filming.
• A risk assessment was also created on Word. This was to highlight all of the
risks that could occur and what procedure we would follow if they were to
happen.

5. EVALUATION
• For the evaluation process we used SlideShare in order to create a slideshow
to present all of the information we found from the Google Drive Survey we
created. This allowed us to generalise the information and make it easier for
us to see what the outcome of the survey was.
• Overall I found that the audience feedback helped me a lot, and gave me
a process which I had to follow to be able to create a documentary to fulfil
our target audiences needs. The codes and conventions have made our
products more realistic for our audiences.