Friday Night Journo Fights – Sovereign People.mp4 from Media Factory on Vimeo.

2) If you were going to continue to develop the work (have it screen somewhere like a festival or for broadcast), what would you improve or extend upon and why?

I had the most fun creating ‘Friday night journo fights – Sovereign people’ with my group. I think we achieved what we set out to create because we were all equally as enthusiastic about the topic, and creating something amazing.

Maddy really took the lead initially because this was their idea. Their style of comedy and way they wanted to approach the topic of sovereign people aligned with my opinions. I felt that I didn’t do enough to contribute to our pitch so I was very eager to make up for this in scripting and performance. When planning each section of our project we gave each other creative freedom because we knew we were all excited to create. It didn’t feel like one person was forced to create something they were uncomfortable with or wouldn’t be proud of. I think this gave our final project lots of diversity in form and the content came from four diverse perspectives that entwined very well.

We had to be realistic about what we could achieve during covid which is why we chose to do two Zoom segments. We were able to play off each other and ad-lib based on our characters while being comfortable and safe at home. Boronia is in my 5km zone so I knew that no matter what I would be able to go out and film and my mum was super keen to help in any way she could and even threw a can at me—she is so nice! But really, having her support was wonderful because she understands my humour and doesn’t get embarrassed filming in public.

I think our final work shows sovereign citizens as idiots who are deeply confused about the laws and social norms they have to follow. I think we have done this well by considering public pedagogy when scripting and creating characters. We show how easy it is to get swept up in this community but also through classic parody (and judgement).

Ideally we would improve on our work by filming Maddy’s monologue and the interview between them and Karen in-studio for a more professional look that provides more variety. I think the Zoom meeting segment could realistically be secretly recorded. I would get a better quality mic to use in the field report and make sure my broad Australian accent doesn’t slip. I really think that our ideas were translated effectively and that our project doesn’t need much editing. I’m happy and sad this project is over and thoroughly enjoyed myself.