Evaluation 4

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

I have used many media technologies throughout the research, planning and evaluation stages. Firstly in my research and planning stages, I used many media technologies, such as; The Internet. Before we even started i researched into what a documentary was and what different types of documentaries there are. I researched topics for our final documentary and when we agreed on psychics, i then used the Internet to see what was available in Warrington and if there was anyone available to film e.g. psychic nights. I then looked on youtube for psychic related documentaries to get an insight into the content and layout of how they perceived the idea of psychics and how all the key elements were put together when people react differently to this subject.

I also used the Internet in order to plan my print advert by looking at all kinds of channel 4 posters, and annotating and analysing them to see the key features, colours, text, layout etc that channel 4 posters have used in the past, so that our poster would reflect this and look professional.Finally, i looked on the Internet to listen to radio adverts. I collected all the codes and conventions of radio adverts, which then helped us to construct our own radio advert.

I used Microsoft word in order to create our target audience research questionnaires. we used word because it was simple and easy to create and display each question one after the other. We also constructed the timeline and various plans using mind maps so that are ideas were clearly displayed and visible. If necessary, we could then develop these ideas further.

In the construction stages, we used a variety of media technologies. These consisted of all of the camera equipment that was offered to us as we had to be sure to create a variety of shots, angles and frames when filming footage for our documentary. We used the tripod and camera to film our vox pops in Warrington town centre. This helped to support the camera to create a still frame when recording and made all the shots clear and focused. We also used the same equipment to film our interviews because we wanted the shots to be continuous and be aimed at the people we interviewed.

We also used the camera and microphone in order to film our radio advert and narration in the red room. However, throughout the filming process, we had a lot of issues with the microphone as it made the narrators voice sound unclear and therefore made it difficult to hear, bringing the quality down. We also experienced this when filming the palm reader as we had no clip for the microphone so it was not positioned in the correct place in order to record a clear sound. This caused many problems throughout of editing process and even when the sound levels were changed, the quality was still low.

I also used Adobe Photoshop throughout the process, to construct our print advert. This was successful as we could adapt the colours, sizing, scale etc to create the best advert that we possibly could, relating to other channel four adverts. This programme didn't restrict us in any way as we were able to change almost anything on the image we had chosen from our footage. This was a long process due to my illness and Adam also being off ill the week after.

We used adobe premiere to edit and capture our entire documentary opening. We had all worked with this programme before which gave us an advantage as we didn't need to waste valuable time becoming familiar with it. We cut all of the shots into separate sections so it was easier to handle and made sure that each section was put in order so that everything flowed well and was as perfect as we could get it. Throughout the interviews and vox pops, we added cut away shots in unclear changes and when the interview was getting too long, we added some visuals to make it more interesting and entertaining which is very common with documentaries.