During today tutorial we were given a little sound recording device and we were to go and record lots of different types of sound. I found that it was quite difficult to record specific sounds because of the location we are in – the CBD. There is so much going on all around us; construction, traffic, people talking, etc. This makes it difficult to record something quiet or precise. I find that when it comes to recording something for a future project you would have to make some effort and travel out to where it is a bit quieter to get those specific sounds that you need.

For days, weeks or even months I have been anxiously waiting for this day. This morning at 8am, the breakfast presenters for Triple J, Matt and Alex, revealed the big announcement of the 2015 Splendour in the Grass line up. My first attendance to the huge 3 day festival was last year and I fell in love. I absolutely adored the whole fun of packing up the car for the weekend with some of your closest friends and heading to see some of the greatest acts. You can get your boogie on, live it rough while camping for a few days and generally just be carefree. I love the feeling you get when you and all of your friends come together and create something special, a great vibe and feeling while amazing acts from all over the world come together into one place and perform to you. It is seriously unlike any other festival and I love that it is spread over the three days. Of course this year I have uni which could be a problem financially as well as when the festival lays in terms of being able to attend. But I am determined that I will find a way to join all of my buddies at this years Splendour in the Grass to have a mighty splendid time.

Collaboration is a huge huge HUGE part of the Media industry as virtually everything is done in collaboration with another person or a group of people. It has been found that rather than having extended technical skills, employers are mostly looking for people with good collaboration, i.e. initiative, communication but especially teamwork skills. Of course most people would prefer to work on their own because they can do things how they want them to be done, but in reality teamwork is a part of most aspects of life, especially in Media and Communications. So whether you like it or not, you really have to suck it up and get on with it if you are going into Media. Besides the bad things about teamwork (doing all the work and getting no credit for it, people letting you down, not feeling comfortable about expressing your opinion, not being able to compromise, etc.) there are actually some very beneficial things about collaborating. For one you can easily brainstorm ideas and bounce them off one another, it is easy to keep motivation and focus, you can get things done a lot faster and you can also accomplish much bigger projects because you are sharing the workload with other team members. However, teamwork doesn’t always work due to the fact that some people just can’t work together; it is not that they don’t get along, some individuals just have very different ways of working. But there are actually some great ways to help solve obstacles that may pop up on the way if you are stuck with someone:

1. You need to form a connection where you trust one another; trust is built from honesty, openness, consistency and respect
2. Identify and develop a sense of unity within your group
3. Generate a set of team rules that your group must abide by during the project
4. Arrange a list of resolution procedures
5. Conduct good meetings and record what is discussed in these meetings on paper