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

2. • These are technologies I used to construct
my research, planning and evaluation:
• The blog
• iMovie
• Abobe After Effects
• Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
• The internet, Slideshare,YouTube, Wikipedia,
bubble.us, etc.
• Canon 500d and JVC HD Everio camera
• Mac computers
• Scanner
13

3. 14
I chronologically went
through the all the film and
selected the most
important parts to get a
documentary base
structure.
iMovie served as my base and structure editor for my
main production. After shooting my footage, I created a
rough structure of my documentary to continue
working on.
As iMovie is known for being quite a simple and basic editing software, for more complex
editing techniques, I used Adobe After Effects.
I had almost two hours of
footage over two created events
in iMovie to cut down to five
minutes.
I also made an introduction sequence through iMovie containing a montage of
archive news clips to do with social media (inspired from the opening of a film
called ‘The Bay’) to create a build up to the opening title of my documentary.
However I struggled to get the right build up and was limited with the time anyway
(short extract at of the scrapped introduction at: http://youtu.be/Nbbu7cbWvmI).
iMovie
I used iMovie’s ‘fade to black’ transition through
certain parts of the production. Although not that
noticeable, the subtle technique makes the
sequence look better as a whole.
I applied sound and music through this software. To
avoid a cut-up approach to my editing of my
interviews, I downloaded sound effects of a school
corridor where I created a sound bridge throughout
all the clips to achieve a fluid nature to the
documentary.
I was aware iMovie offered a range of footage
manipulation so I filmed a very long shot of
two students walking through sixth form,
once imported to iMovie, I selected the
speed up option to get some form of time-
lapse effect

4. Adobe After Effects
16
After Effects is a software I’m unfamiliar with, using it only once previously for my AS
coursework. Luckily I knew what a wanted from this software and so easily found tutorials
on YouTube which taught me how to achieve the aims I wanted from my production. First, I
worked on my opening title (can be seen at: http://youtu.be/QzVi6PfjTlU) and the questions
given to the interviewees. The aim I wanted was for it to be typed out to set the theme of
the documentary to the viewer. From following the steps (various coding as what I wanted to
do wasn’t a preset in After Effects) on the tutorial I achieved the type writing effect to my
own title.
Secondly I planned on working on After Effects for the credits of my interviewees. From
using a speech bubble (connotes communication and social media) image I individually
photoshopped all their names, occupation and age within the bubble.
I put the image in after effects and added a transition to it, so when appropriate the credit
appeared and disappeared off screen. However, once I achieved this I rendered the edited
film, and found the audio was removed and the video had slowed down. Therefore, as I
couldn’t resolve the issue this footage was deemed unusable and I had to find alternative
credit techniques.
Once I got what I needed from After Effects, I went back to iMovie to finish the whole
production.

5. 16
The Internet
• During the process of my production, I found appropriate sound effects,
music and archive news clip on the video sharing site, YouTube. I then,
using various YouTube download sites, downloaded them to import them
into iMovie.
• In the early research stages of my production, where I was unclear of the
documentary topic and content, as a way for clarity in my planning I created
a mind map on bubble.us as a way to brainstorm ideas.
• I used Wikipedia.org for various information. If I needed quick information for
something as simple as a shot composition type there was almost always a
page on it containing plenty of knowledge which helped my understanding to
construct my research, planning and construction of my tasks.
• Slideshare, a presentation and other professional content sharing website, is
dedicated to sharing knowledge online. I decided to put up my research on
documentary modes and a Tracking Down Maggie presentation on there as
a way to share on a different platform and was hopeful to receive feedback
from viewers. My documentary modes presentation has received over 400
views and 9 downloads.

6. Photoshop and Photoshop
Elements
17
To create my magazine and newspaper advertisement I used Adobe’s Photoshop (at
school) and Photoshop Elements (at home). I found it hugely useful in the
construction of my ancillary tasks as the software contains everything required to
create a realistic approach to creating a double page spread and ad.
For example: in my double page spread, I used the lasso tool to trace an image
without the background so the magazine text could fit sufficiently around the photo. I
did this to emulate what I’ve previously seen in magazine articles.
Although Photoshop is can be rather time consuming, if I had to use other forms of
technology, the creation of my tasks would have taken much longer and overall
wouldn’t look as authentic as my aim was to mirror that of Radio Times and Channel 4.
Problems which kept arising during the creation of both
projects was the transition from Photoshop to Photoshop
Elements. Switching between the two softwares caused
multiple formatting issues ranging from the text font
changing (due to the specific fonts I downloaded on my
home laptop not being available at school), their
positioning on the page and image colour issues which
made the process much more difficult.

7. 18
Canon 500d and JVC HD Everio
camera
• As I planned editing all my production work at home in my own time, I thought it would
be more useful to use my own camera to avoid conflict of taking the school camera’s SD
card home when other groups required the camera. Using a Canon 500d allowed me to
manual focus on film subjects (as seen on TV), better image quality and use a mix of lenses.
The one thing that concerned me with my camera was the sound quality, I’m aware that as
it’s more of a photography camera, the microphone isn’t as great. And, unfortunately I
couldn’t connect the school’s sound boom to it. I filmed in quite public places (as planned)
and was worried the background noise would cover the subject’s speech.
• At one point due to a spontaneous interview, I used the school’s Everio camera to film. I
was concerned whether there would be a drastic image quality difference between using
the Canon and the Everio that would be noticeable to the audience:
Canon: JVC HD Everio:

8. 19
Mac Computers
Scanner
A scanner was used (at home and school) during the research and
planning stage, especially on my ancillary tasks. Newspaper ads,
articles and my own sketches were scanned and placed into the
presentation in order to contribute to my research.
Every software used in creating my tasks were used through
Apple Mac computers and a Macbook. Apple products are
known to be better when it comes to art and design, so if PC
computers were used, I wouldn’t have been able to use majority
of the software as efficiently. Uploading, saving, editing,
rendering and exporting footage is made much easier on a Mac.