NAME NETHANIEL ROCHESTER
STUDENT # s3436508
COURSE THE DIGITAL DIRECTOR
TEACHER MARK POOLE
ASSESSMENT PROJECT BRIEF 5 REFLECTION
HOW IT WENT
Upon reflection of the entire Digital Director studio, I was impressed with the development of the class collaborative project that eventuated to become the Sketchy Students mockumentary miniseries. As a largely student-led project, it was fantastic to see various ideas from throughout the class cohort all come together to formulate the basis for a collaborative project. Furthermore, the creation of different groups allowed the roles of the Sketchy Students campaign to be dispersed throughout the class cohort in a manner that allowed people to work in an area of interest, but more importantly the groups emulated an industry practice. As the leader of the production team I was the director and primary editor for the main body episodic material of the campaign. Personally, this was a great opportunity for me to gain experience in fundamental areas of my interest within media. Overall, the campaign was completed to great success in my opinion, evident in both the quality of the material produced, but also the development of class collaboration. Moreover, the progression of the campaign journeyed through times of seamless, efficient group collaboration, both internally within groups, as well externally amongst groups. However, as a cohort we also experienced times of dispute and disagreement within groups, as well as within the class. I think both collaboration and dispute are a fundamental aspect of professional practices within the media industry and so this diversity of experience was important for our preparation for future employment.
WHAT I LEARNT
Explanation of the extent to what I learnt far exceed the limitations of this document, however the most notable was definitely in relation to the ability to manage a group of people. As the leader of the production team I seized the opportunity to manage my team in a manner that would provide the most positive outcome. This involved a balanced process of delegating tasks, motivating team members, setting expectations and leading by example in order to ensure not only the group achieved our goal as a collective, but that each individual achieved their own goal in relation to the project. The ability to manage people within a team to this effect was an important goal for me, as I believe it is a completely transferable skill in relation to future employment opportunities.
In addition to furthering my ability to manage people, I also gained valuable experiences in relation to the role of a director. Being my first experience as a director, I learnt an immense amount about the different processes required to ensure organisation standards, as well as production standards were met. Personally, this was a challenging process that entailed a high degree of trial and error. Lastly, I improved my editing ability greatly, not only by learning more techniques within an editing software I wasn’t entirely familiar with, but also by practicing methods of efficiency.
WHAT I WANT TO FIND OUT NEXT
As the Sketchy Students project was my first experience of a collaborative campaign, the process has triggered many personal motivations for my future progression into the media industry. Most notably, one complication I experienced in relation to the campaign, was the logistics of the manner in which a writing team cooperated with a production team. Moreover, due to tight filming constraints in terms of time, along with particular expectations of content set by the class cohort, my production team had to create a logistical process of modifying scripted material to accommodate for time limitations and expectations. Thus, I am interested to learn and also gain experience that would allow me to understand the equivalent process from an industry level perspective. Moreover, I am interested to learn further specifics in relation to how each team within a professional practice would not only collaborate between each other, but also compromise for each other. Lastly, given that the Sketchy Students campaign utilised the possibilities of the online environment to distribute and promote content, I am eager to further explore and experiment with how contemporary technologies can provide a director or other media professional with an opportunity to succeed.