Project brief 4 is a group project, which should be completed by three or two

students. At first, I was very worried about this. Because this is the first time doing a

project with others, there may be some problems.

Our topic is technology and my group members are Jack and Jamie. At the very

beginning, we had many ideas, we always came up with different new ideas,

therefore after several discussions we hadn’t decided what the theme was and how

we made the video. We all did a lot research but we focused on different things: I

focused on virtual reality; Jack focused on special effect; Jamie focused on

audience’s reaction. Then we had a talk with Dan, and Dan suggested us just pick

out one thing, which may be much easier for us to do. Finally, we decided that we

would shoot a debate about desensitisation then go into technology violence. We

spent a week on writing the script and a whole day shooting.

After several discussions, we became familiar with each other. At first I didn’t talk too

much to them, because I was shy and I thought my English was not that good. But

after talking to Dan and Rachel, I became much better. I told my group members my

feeling and they were really nice. They understood me and always helped me. Our

cooperation became better and better. For the shooting, Jack and Jamie were the

camera operators, and I did the audio recording. I said that I would like to do the

editing too, and Jack was willing to teach me. He showed me how to edit the audio

and I learnt a lot. Then I did the rough cut.

The most successful part of our work is the content and shooting. As I mentioned

above, we had different sources and it was difficult to talk all of them. So after

several discussions and our careful consideration, we finally made a great script,

which involves some of our researches and still focuses on technology. There are

many smooth changeovers, from films to desensitization to technology. I think it’s

very successful. And for the shooting, we used two cameras so that we could shoot

different shot. As can be seen in the video, there are always shot cuts, which I spent

a long time on. We used close-up shot for the person who was talking, so for each

part we did several times to shoot the best shot.

The problematic aspect would be the lighting of the video. Because the cameras we

used are not the same type, so the quality would be different. Also, we shot this

video indoors and shot from different position, so the lighting would be different.

Some shots would be dark and some would be bright, which is also difficult for

editing.

For the collaboration of our group, I can’t say it’s always very good, but it becomes

much better without hesitation. Everyone has his/her own ideas, we can understand

each other and accept the different ideas. I admit that at the very beginning of our

group collaboration, I didn’t do a good job. Sometimes I couldn’t understand what

they were talking about, but I didn’t ask. I was afraid to speak out, I was lack of

confidence. I realized that it was not good, and I should talk to my group members

and tell them what I’m think about. Then gradually, I felt that I was much involved in

it. When I had something I couldn’t understand, I asked them and they were very

willing to answer my questions. I learnt how to cooperate with others through this

project. We need to know each other’s strength and weakness, exploiting our

advantages, and avoiding and strengthening our weakness. We are supposed to

allocate reasonably so that everyone will has his/her own role. I think it would be

much better in the future degree.