Wow, it certainly has been a long road to this point. Today we hand in our final project for  Media 1 – Project Brief #4. I must say, that this has by far been the most enjoyable assignment for me this semester. I really enjoyed the group aspect of the task as well as the challenge of creating an audio and video essay as both concepts were quite new to me. I also found the research into the texts and narratives of Harry Potter also to be very interesting. So although this was a big assignment with a lot of work, I almost looked forward to working on it because for the first time I was really enjoying what I was working on and I thought that as a group we could create something really great.

I fell that as a group we worked really well together. Both Penelope and Rory are really lovely people and we all got along great. But I think what made us a really successful group was that there was a mutual respect between us. Our communication was always clear and we kept in contact with new research/any problems we had so that we could work it all out together. I really could not have asked for a better group in that regard. The only problem I say that we had was when we go together to do recordings and filming we were having so much fun that often we would get distracted. I think that we probably could have gotten things done a whole lot quicker if we hadn’t mucked about as much as we did. The delay we caused ourselves in this pushed us further behind then we should have been so it was a bit of a rush in the end. I think that it would have been a lot better if we managed our time more effectively. Perhaps we could have set clearer goals when we were getting together so we didn’t just keep saying “we’ve got plenty of time” and then panic when we no longer did. Generally however I feel like we did work effectively together. The workload was shared evenly between us and we never argued or had any problems. I would be more than happy to work with Penelope and Rory again as they are intelligent, kind young people and were a pleasure to work with.

Individually I was also quite happy with myself. After having some difficulties mid-semester I knew that I wanted to put in a large amount of effort into this assignment. I set myself a weekly plan detailing what I needed to get done. This included research, script writing, planning, recording, filming, ect. Although I did not stick to this plan exactly, it did help me manage my work load. Sometimes I would not get everything that I wanted done in a single week, which was not the greatest. I think that next time I either need to be more strict with myself or make more realistic goals. However, I did find it very useful to have everything written down. Making lists helped me be more organised because I could easily see what needed to be done. I also would write down little deadlines for myself of when I needed to get things done by. This helped me stay on track and not get far behind. Being within a group atmosphere is also really helpful for me I think. If I needed help with anything they were right there and so approachable. It also gave me so much more motivation because I wanted to work hard so they wouldn’t be annoyed. The absolute worst thing that could happen is that someone has lost marks because I wasn’t pulling my weight.

This assignment allowed me to strengthen my study habits which is something I have been working on since week 8. It also gave me a chance to improve my hands on skills of filming and audio recording. I haven’t been confident with my abilities in these areas so I am pleased to have gained more confidence. Again, working within a group was really helpful for this. Both Rory and Penelope were confident in their skills with a camera so it was really good to be able to learn from them. There is something really nice about the comradery of group assignments, as Penelope said “we struggle through together”.

Overall, I am extremely happy with how we handled this assignment. Yes, there were moments of stress. panic and disorganisation that could have been avoided. But we’re still learning. Generally we were mature and well organised, sharing workload and communicating well. I think we were also very lucky because we chose a topic we were all passionate about – Harry Potter. By being able to study something you love it was easy to create work that you were proud of.
It has inspired me for later on. As long as I can find some kind of love in the work that I am doing, I know that I will always turn something in that I can be proud of.

Until then,

Rose @)—