After many weeks of working on project brief four, my group members and I have created a product that we are happy with. Working with both Chrystalla and Emily in a collaborative mind space was an extremely enjoyable one, their friendly and welcoming natures allowed us to work together as a team in a positive environment. Our creative process was constantly productive; as we moved throughout the weeks with a joint focus and understanding of the direction we wished our product to go in. It is due to this, that I believe we were able to create a podcast that fulfilled what each of us wanted out of the brief.

 

The most successful aspect of our submitted work, I believe, is our content. As a group we worked specifically on including the content we wanted, ensuring that it was focused on a specific area, which in our case was how programming affects audiences of film festivals. Throughout our research, we found that each member of the group focusing on a particular film festival – The German Audi Film Festival, The Human Rights Film Festival and the St Kilda Film Festival – allowed us to have a diverse range of material due to the contrast of the events. Through our podcast we have been able to communicate the aspects of each festival that have intended to spark interest in potential audience members. Using our knowledge of this information, as a group we adopted personas in order to create a suitable atmosphere that would be persuading to the public through our broadcast based platform. Researching in an area such as film festivals allowed us to immerse ourselves in information that we had never discovered. We became thoroughly informed, which caused our script writing to not be as challenging as it could have been. After revising our script numerous times, we finally arrived at a copy we were satisfied with, one that was true to the festivals we were somewhat representing.

 

Throughout our process, the group found the task of recording our audio to be challenging. The success of a podcast lies on the timing of lines, especially in a comedic sense, and the energy that is created by the voices bouncing off one another. We partook in various approaches of producing a solid sound – recording together, separately and using different types of microphones. I think that this is the problematic aspect of our submitted work. After recording each of our parts separately and then editing them together, it fit together well, however something was still missing. Although the lines are delivered in time, due to them being edited, the natural aspect of banter and energy has been lost. Another issue with this is the level of our voices. After testing the distance of the microphone many times, we each held it at an equal distance, however the volume of our voices differed. Through editing, this was somewhat altered in order to create a sense of each speaker being in the same room speaking in an synced conversation, however at times it drops – the voices being either too soft or too loud. Throughout the period of the brief, we have improved greatly in our quality of sound as we have become more familiar with what was suitable for what we wanted to achieve and tested the sound profusely.

 

I have learnt a great deal in the creative process of the project brief. Collaboration, although at times difficult, is an extremely enriching and positive experience if done right. It is key that each group member needs to be in understanding of the goals of one another. Our group tackled this with vigor, which I believe will assist in the molding of myself as a media practitioner as I continue in doing so with future projects. As I have experienced a positive and successful collaboration, I can take my experience and implement these actions and aspects that assisted in our success in other group work. A skill that I will take is that it is essential for each member of the group to utilize their strengths in order to efficiently produce something of the best quality possible with the talent and skill available. I will also take with me from this experience my need to constantly challenge my boundaries and comfort zones. By using the creativity and contrast of ideas of other group members, in the future I can channel their energy and enthusiasm and implement it myself. It is crucial that as a media practitioner you strategically dive into your work, which is what I have learnt from this collaboration and will take with me in order to work well in the future particularly in group work.