I have to say, I’m quite impressed with myself withI have to say, I’m quite impressed with myself with the outcome of this assignment. It wasn’t perfect, but being able to see that is all part of the learning process.

First of all, I was mostly surprised with my ability to work collaboratively with my group. I haven’t exactly had the best experiences with group assignments in the past, but I with this one, I felt quite comfortable with my members, and it was easy to express my opinion on certain topics. We were able to divide the work load quite evenly, whilst still making sure we were all working together, and each of us were able to take turns in directing and leading the group, based on our strengths. The way that we did this was by having heavy discussions before getting stuck into the work. In the first couple of weeks, we met up as a group and spent the time brainstorming different ideas, and slowly narrowing down the specific direction we wanted to take this assignment in. Once we had a direction, we allocated each of the essay topics amongst ourselves, and went off to research it by ourselves. In the next couple of weeks, we then met back up to put our research together, and structure it into an essay form, which we were then able to write together after discussion the certain style that we were going to make it in. After each individually making our own sections of the essays, we were able to tailor them all together, by slightly tweaking each of them. All of this worked without fail, and so I have to say, I’m impressed with myself, and my group members.

The most successful part about the process of making the two essays was how we were able to stay focused on the actual topic, and not accidentally stray off in a different direction. Every time one of us found some new information that we thought we could put into the essay, we had to ask ourselves, “would Rachel approve of this?”. This question helped us in deciding what was relevant enough to include. I also reckon the way that we structured the essays was really well done. When we put our sections together, we went through the process of deciding which way we should order everything. After slight tweaks to the scripts we each wrote, we were able to find a way in which each section was able to flow into the next, and would only refer back to anything that was talked about before them.

Looking back on it, there were some things we could’ve done to improve the essay, as well as make our lives slightly easier during the process of creation.
First of all, when we were structuring the essay, we could have allocated time slots to each section. When making these types of essays, it’s good to find that perfect balance between style and substance. After putting all of our sections together, we were finding that there was too much substance, and there wasn’t enough space left for any style. Because of this, we spent so much time deciding on parts to cut out and parts to shorten. This made the editing process so much more difficult than it needed to be, because the way that we filmed things and recorded some of the audio was tailored specifically to flow in the way that it did. So when I was cutting parts out, there were some awkward jumps that I had to try and disguise with different effects and blends. There was even a found audio extract that we were using, in which the music stops halfway through. After cutting a small section out of the middle, the music that was supposed to fade out in the background just suddenly stopped. To fix this, I had to find out the name of the song, download it, and edit it into the essay so that it continued on throughout the rest of that specific audio file.
Secondly, I felt that we could have recorded our audio files in slightly better conditions. Sometimes, there were random sounds in the background that I had to try and mix out in Audition and Premiere, and sometimes, the volume kept on increasing and decreasing throughout, due to the fact that we weren’t sitting perfectly still when recording them, and so the distance from the microphone kept changing. During the editing process, I spent so much time having to go through each recording, and balance out the volume and panning.
Thirdly, in the video essay, we could have included a bit more original footage in throughout the whole thing. We used the original footage completely for stylistic purposes, which kind of visually introduced each group member before they started speaking.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. Working with my group members was great, and the process of learning was quite an experience.
the outcome of this assignment.