Project Brief 4 was all about forming our own ideas, arguments and creation after being given the very broad topic of: “technology”. We decided to take on the social media side of this because it is something we have all grown up with and is an aspect of life that has affected us greatly. The initial main idea that was decided upon was how social media has made tasks much easier for journalists due to the fact that information is always out there and ready to go; they don’t have to work as hard as they used to. The main problem we faced with this is that it was too broad and after speaking to Rachel, it was realised that a more specific topic had to be chosen. This began as a problem because it meant we had to start from the beginning and go back to our researching stage. This was easily fixed because of the many ideas we already had devised in our heads and our brainstorms. The second main idea that I thought up of was “is social media making us more social or ironically, making us more anti-social?”.
With this idea, we all did some individual research for arguments for and against this statement.

I believe one of the most successful parts of this group project was that even though it took a while to come up with a distinct topic and strong idea, once we did, all the tasks that had to be completed were done quickly and efficiently.
The script was completed in less than half an hour.
The filming was completed in less than 3 hours.
And the editing was completed in a day.

I wouldn’t say I learnt this during the research but it definitely reaffirmed my thoughts on the fact that older generations will always be finding faults in younger generations; no matter if it’s in 2015 or if it was 500 BC. What I did learn during this project was that with group assignments, the quote “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” is undoubtedly true. Everybody must put in the same amount of effort and energy because energy is contagious. If one person began to stray or felt unmotivated, it would rub off on the rest aswell. But if one person was pushing the other members to charge on, then that’s where the team’s momentum really moved forward.

This project will affect my broader development as a media practitioner because it taught me how to professionally work in a team environment because this will not be the final time where you rely on others and others rely on you. It has also boosted my knowledge on technical tasks such as filming, editing and knowing what would look best on camera.

I would love to create a short film one day and this has been a notable experience.