Looking back on the Good Form web series studio will be with positivity and a sense of accomplishment, as so much was achieved in terms of collaborative work as well as a greater understanding of production. I had an opportunity to be involved in creative & production based discussions in class throughout the semester, as well as be involved with collaborative work with more than my media peers but also the creative writing students, using our collaborative strengths to create a piece of work we were proud of. These collaborative opportunities gave me a greater understanding of production of a web series and live action production in general, the issues and challenges that arise from it as well as how to approach new solutions.

Throughout the semester there have been many chances for contribution to class discussions, events and guest speakers. Though I have been involved in attending guest lectures, my main contribution towards the class was through discussion and feedback sessions that myself and group attended regularly. I’m happy to say that the group I worked with all made an active effort to be a strong participant in class discussions and show up to help give other groups feedback and development during the many pre productions sessions as well as the work in progress presentations. I realise that attending these helped my group and I feel a part of something more than just our particular production we were collaborating in, but helped give support to others outside of that built a camaraderie for the work both we and the other groups were doing. We were all in it together, dealing with similar challenges and failures, so it was helpful to know we weren’t alone in it and all wanted the same thing, to create a great web series.

When it comes to the collaborative group productions, it gave a huge opportunity to be involved in working closely with a group of both media and creative writing students in developing something we have a passion for. Before anything else this semester, it must be noted that the group I worked with, both media and creative writing, was my best experience in any collaborative work I have attempted during my time at University. They were passionate, hard working and we were all willing to compromise and hear what each other had to say. So outside of my specific contribution, I wanted to note the collective teamwork and support we all showed each other throughout the semester. I myself got to work closely with the creative writing team early on in the scripting process, to give my thoughts and feedback in the development of the series and its characters. In fact, after reading the first episode, it was me that said I knew a guy that could play Oscar (Cleaned Out’s main character), a friend of mine Jordan Williams. Who in turn, took the character as his own and helped the writers further develop the character’s personality around the actor himself. I got a lot of chances to share roles with my media comrades, in both working the tech side of camera and sound, working as a director on episodes and take charge of some of the production shooting as well as a lot of behind the scenes work on social media and post production development. I felt by sharing the experience and roles with others, it gave me an opportunity to best improve in all areas as well as see further what I most enjoy and would like to continue to work on. With my experience of running a YouTube channel outside of this course, it made sense for me to set that up and take that on as a responsibility to how best produce and present a final product as well as help with the schedule of release. In ways I could improve however was in the editing process. Though I was there to lend assistance and give feedback, it was Adrian who took the whole series editing on his shoulders and ran with it. I fell he did a tremendous job, though I do feel bad for leaving him with the weight of that, it certainly wasn’t an easy task to take on.

I think when it comes to collaborative work, like anything it totally depends on the people you work with as to how it will turn out. However this semester’s group has helped me identify some key elements of success towards this collaborative work, specifically the goals we set ourselves from the beginning. You can set all the work in progress goals or collaborative contracts you’d like, but when it comes right down to it, it is what the people come into the work for, that defines how it will turn out. Are we all on the same page, do we all want the same thing? That’s what matters in the end, that we all have the same end goal to create a finish product we are proud of and to have a great time doing it. Each person needs to want to do the work, want to be there and want to get involved on each step toward that end goal.

Now when it comes to the production of a web series, there were many ideas that were reinforced to me as well as a lot of procedures that I learnt and how I can improve my approach to production in the future. Of course as I half expected going into the production process, anything that can possibly go wrong, will. So it was a matter of dealing with the problems early and helping improve moving forward and not making the same mistake twice. From the web series we watched early in the semester it was interesting to see how ours actually felt like a larger production, we had more characters, sets and props than necessarily in a regular web series episode. However I felt we compromised and met half way to what makes a great show and a great web show. The bigger surprise was the work outside of the essential production process, things like how impactful social media outreach can be and what goes into it. We all worked hard on regularly interacting with various social media platforms, posting promotional photos and videos without giving too much of the show away. This also includes Youtube the platform we chose as our release location, and then dealing with how we should release the episodes to the public. At first I thought best however to release a week apart, however I have since considered the benefits of releasing the show all at once, as it is a web series and only so much fits into an episode. Therefore when it comes to the first one, its hard to both develop characters, fit in story background and have some complications and events that get people excited moving forward. Whereas if we released it all at once, the audience gets to see where it all goes straight away from that first episode, rather than have them forget about the series in that time, if the first episode on its own did not hold their interest. Definitely something to remember for the future.