“I always find that if two (or more) of us throw ideas backwards and forwards I get to more interesting and original places than I could have ever have gotten to on my own”

This quote from John Cleese is almost always true from the limited experience I’ve had in coming up with ideas for narratives.  Tossing ideas around to different people will give different perspectives, which will in turn give different suggestions. Taking the best of what a group has to offer will allow for the best result. My idea for my VCE media film came about from group discussion; simply discussing what I had in mind with friends made me realise what was working and what wasn’t. Last week during our workshop we were asked to create a narrative from a series of photographs taken in the RMIT campus. Just by walking around and trying to find the right location for the shoot we started talking and bouncing ideas off each other, attempting to find something we liked. The task was quick and simple and the group was easy going, so we didn’t have too much difficulty with coming up with something in the end. Our final product – Look Both Ways – was the result of collaboration and a transformation from a story about star-crossed lovers to a romantic tragedy, both of which are quite a bit satirical.

For all the strengths that come with throwing ideas around as a group, there are some drawbacks that come with it. When in a group all members must come to an agreement, or at least be content with the end result of a discussion, which could lead to disagreement and conflict. As I previously said, I haven’t run into this during any studio activities, nor have I pretty much ever, but they are always a possibility when working in a group and sometimes out of your control. Another possible weakness of this sort of collaboration is the loss of somebody’s vision for a project. Asking for help from a group of people is often useful, but when you have a very particular idea in your head of what you want, that idea could be twisted by others who are trying to help, resulting in something so radically different that it is no longer the same concept. A possible way around these issues is to conceive an idea with a group to begin with, shaping and molding it around suggestions that have been bounced around. Despite the downsides of discussing ideas with a group, I agree with Cleese’s quote for the most part. The best projects I’ve been a part of have been collaborative, and the potential for things to go awry shouldn’t deter people from the possibility of a greater idea.