There aren’t many careers in the media that don’t involve collaborating with someone. Our lectures believe that collaboration in this program is a skill set that can be learnt and there are specific practices and templates that can assist our collaboration skills.

Here are some cases of good and bad collaboration.

BAD

• You do all the work other people get credit for it.
• You don’t feel comfortable expressing your opinion
• You feel outnumbered
• You cant reach a compromise – the process either gets steam rolled or comes to an impasse

GOOD

• Shared ideas/ solve problems – more heads better than one
• Inspiration – when you are able to bounce off each other
• Rigour – having a stronger vetting process to evaluate ideas and approaches
• Support – having someone there to catch you when you fall
• Maintain focus/drive – it makes you more responsible
• Speed – can get project done faster – more hands
• Can tackle BIGGER projects

I’ve had many good and bad collaboration experiences… one time a group member wasn’t pulling their weight and began dragging us behind in a particular area of the shoot. This resulted in us still shooting B-roll on the day of its deadline…Absolute nightmare. On the other hand I had a group pitch for a short film once and we managed to communicate our ideas across effectively and received approval to shoot the film.

Looking forward to collaborating on projects this semester!