As per any group project, it seems like everything is falling apart at the last minute. David, our host, is trying to bail, we have an extra guest with no content made for him, the run sheet revealed a handful of roles that weren’t being filled, and everyone’s stressed and tired. Honestly, we’ll be fine. Browsing through the Facebook group reveals at least three people who’d be more than happy to step into the role of host should David make a run for it, the only loss would be the introduction video, which we would still probably play, considering how impressive it is.

I’m not at all excited for this, even though it’s gonna go fine. I didn’t expect to be made the computer operator, and I don’t even understand how to control the scenes. What’s even going on them and when? Originally, I was to be the lowly time-keeper, though honestly, what would I be doing then?

The quality of the pre-production work is very impressive. The introduction video is amazing, and the green screen work is flawless. Even if David leaves, we’ll have to show this as our opening, it would be horrible for Georgia and Jenny if we turfed it at this stage, and it’s clear that so much work has gone into it.

The threat of David leaving forced a bit of a rift in the group, as there was blame to throw around. In the end the blame kinda fell on David, as there was evidence that he was informed of the show well before now, and it looks like he’s still on board. It was surprising that there hasn’t been more disagreements, especially after the blow-out between Jenny and Max earlier in the process.

I’ve had issues collaborating with Regina, our schedules just don’t seem to sync up. In the end, she handled the first draft of the run sheet, which I then reformatted into a different layout and added specific timings. Apart from that, most of my contribution has been assisting Jess with her many, many (too many) tasks, and giving input in the Facebook group.

The issues with collaboration have given me a few ideas about how I’d have organised things. Jess’ insistence on calling people was great, and lead to some good results. The Facebook group is good for keeping track of everyone, but a phone call works great for making sure things get done. With a group this size, proper communication is necessary to keep track of everything. I noted a few times when certain tasks would be re-assigned without anyone telling Jess, so she would call the wrong person or assume that someone else would do something. Organising David was a fine example of this, so when he started having all these issues, it was strange that they were discovered by Tiana, who had been given a different responsibility.

The television seminar group continues to roll on towards the 28th of August. As of this stage, my role is to organise the format and runsheet of the event with Regina Lee. Tomorrow, we’re having a group meeting immediately before the lecture in which will begin to properly coordinate the preparation process.

I have a few qualms with the format of this assessment, not the least of which is the relevance of it. There are clear benefits to organising this seminar, such as the chance to network and the continued development of our collaborative practice, however, I wonder if the production of media might be more relevant to media course. This, at its base, is event planning and management, which, while a useful skill, is not overly pertinent. It’s great for those of us who might want to get into corporate management, or maybe production managing, but the media-specific skills we should be developing are being ignored.

It was a stretch to make the experience relevant to what I’d like to learn, so I find myself favouring time management roles or jobs involving coordination. I’m signed up for the time keeper job on the day, as well as putting together the runsheet. My ultimate goal for my career is something along the lines of producer, production manager, production coordinator or  assistant director, which are some of the roles that require proficiency in managing time and people. I guess it will be useful to practice those skills, even at their most basic level. That said, these skills would be developed more through creating media, rather than event planning.

The process of networking is at the centre of this, however it seems like I don’t have anything to do with guests for the seminar. That’s fine with me, I can get more networking experience from the PNR report.

Ultimately, there are a range of skills being improved or tested through the seminar experience, at the forefront of which is collaboration. However, it’s a massive shame that the result is not something I would want to make – or be involved in making – outside of this degree. On top of that, it’s disappointing that instead of making media, this is all we get to do in our final semester.