After presenting our ideas for our assignment, and listening to feedback from Ruth, our classmates, and other studio leaders, we were able to start producing the media for our assignment.

While we looked at changing the format to reflect the narrower reach of our assignment, we realised that we could use the original format – a ‘host’ interviewing ‘Jobseeker’ – a human form of the social security program. We also looked at the host’s character, as we had a number of options of how they could be written. The idea that we liked the most was to have the host pushing various popular misconceptions that have been used to undermine support for social security in the media and from politicians, using direct quotes from politicians. We would also use graphics to show who said those lines. We would combine this with some posters debunking misconceptions about Jobseeker, and a social media presence for the same purpose.

I quite liked the Change My Mind concept that we used, especially the way that it tied the different artefacts together. I also believe that it could easily be expanded to look at other issues. If we were making something for a larger audience, we might have to change the name, just in case Steven Crowder spits the dummy.

While working on the piece to camera, I took the role as director. While it was quite a large task, I found it fairly straightforward; even if I need to practice using communication devices and limiting the amount of headroom in shots. It also gave me the opportunity to attempt to assert myself, which I struggle with both at uni, and in life in general. I still find it hard to delegate, which is probably why I constantly feel like I’m not making enough of an effort in groups.

As a group, I feel like we worked well, though I believe that if we were able to work together in person more often, our assignment would’ve been stronger – particularly our social media presence. To be honest, I feel like I was the weak link when it came to that, as I often missed classes, meaning that I ended up wasting the collaborative time we had available. This also showed up while filming. While directing, I misinterpreted what the rest of the group wanted to do. In my head, I assumed that the piece-to-camera was going to run like a traditional interview, with the talent sharing a space, but the rest of the group had been set on a split-screen interview – as if the two presenters were in completely different locations. If I had asked to make sure we were on the right page, then we could’ve set the piece up as intended.

With all being said, being constantly critical of myself gets tedious, demoralising and annoying, especially if I just appear to whinge without making an effort to change.