Brief 4 was a collaborative piece in which each group was given a topic that they had to research, and then eventually produce a media artefact that creatively responded to one of the conceptual ideas central to Media. Once divided into our groups we were set on our way to research this topic. My group, consisting of Alexander Jones and Ali Raza Bucha, was a group that I could tell would be an innately hard-working and determined team. Having never done such a hands-on group assignment before at university level, I found the overall collaborative brief to be stimulating and extremely refreshing from the inherently popular solo assignments. Our final media artefact was decided to be a documentary style film that evolved into a television show and gaming enthusiast segment similar to ABC’s Good Game and Good Game SP. The final outcome was scripted, directed and shot by myself, with Ali acting and editing the final piece and Sandy acting as well as helping with the editing and being a major part of collecting everything for our Production Dossier.

From our submitted work, I believe that the most successful parts are the amount of pieces in our dossier, as well as our tremendous final outcome and the clear and informative minutes that were taken each week at our meetings. Our dossier is filled with lots of photos, video and sound excerpts as well as drafts and final outcomes for documents such as scripts, contracts and our annotated bibliography. On top of all of this, our final media artefact of our five minute long film entitled Game Scope was a major success. The film was produced in a way that was closely inspired by the aforementioned popular gaming programmes Good Game. In terms of the coverage, we took on board advice from our tutors to try and use different camera angles to keep the film engaging and visually appealing. From the front facing camera, as well as the two alternating side cameras, the coverage was an extremely positive point to be made from the piece. The found footage, as well, was an inclusion that we knew needed to be done right in order to provide cuts throughout the artefact. Both Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto were cited when each gaming footage was shown, as well as the production company that made the game. The background music, logo graphics and audio were all points as well that truly heightened the expert level of the film.

In terms of problematic aspects from our submitted work, there were definitely some moments in which I found writing the script to be a struggle as I am not a gamer by any means. I found that even though writing is my strong point, the script could definitely have been refined in some places. Once Ali and Alexander had drafted the script by adding in gaming terminology, or removing specific sections due to timing issues, the script did come together a little bit more. However, I still think that the script was not perfect as I found it hard to maintain a relaxed and very general conversation but remembering to include a very scholarly backbone to the piece. Overall, however, I do believe that this was our main – and perhaps only – problematic aspect. Without sounding delusional, I think that because of all of our laidback and respectable nature, we always made sure to agree on everything that went into the dossier and outcome, making sure that everything was of a high standard.

What I learnt in the making process about collaboration that may be relevant to my broader development as a made practitioner is that a collaborative contract is of the utmost importance when collecting a set of group rules. In conjunction with this, I believe that one must check their pride and ego at the commencement of any assignment, as you must be willing to listen to every member’s ideas and to never pity or make fun of any suggestions. Each person offers something new to the table and no idea is to ever be undermined by another group member. I also learnt that you must play to your strengths in terms of knowing where you fit into a collaboration; for example, if you display excellent researching skills, then lead the research portion of the group. For me, in this assignment and for our outcome, I have very little gaming knowledge. However, I know that my writing skills are one of my strengths so I chose to be of use in writing the script, knowing that Alexander and Ali could refine and draft the script through the eyes of a gamer. Generally speaking, I found this assignment to be an extremely enlightening, inclusive and eye-opening brief where collaboration is of paramount significance.