Going into this task, I think both me and my group members had incredibly high hopes.  We all knew, got along with, and had worked with each other before, so we assumed that this would make the task easier.  It definitely made our dynamic easier to figure out, as we all had some understanding of how we worked already.  This previous set up of friendship did make it more difficult to give and receive criticism, in my opinion.  As we were all friends, criticisms felt, or sounded, more personal, so we were all trying to be careful with our critiques rather than outright stating them.
Our meetings were very productive, and we had an equitable distribution of work whenever we met.  It may have been worth our while to send the minutes of the meetings in our group chat after we met, however, as tasks were occasionally forgotten.  They were very minor setbacks, but still frustrating and preventable.  There were also some tasks that were distributed that ended up being done by other members of the group, due to miscommunication, differing levels of understanding and ability with some tasks, and outside circumstances affecting the amount of work people were able to do.
These were, again, minor setbacks though.  One of the major strengths of our group was our resourcefulness.  We made several attempts to find people to interview, but all but one fell through, with the interviewee’s cutting off contact for unknown reasons.  Rather than letting this stop us, we changed course.  We created an online forum discussion that requested older generation comic book enthusiasts stories, and from their responses, created a script, which we then had an actor read.  The effect was the same, as we were using real peoples words.
We were also very in tune with each others abilities.  Although along the way certain jobs were forgotten or left incomplete, each members central purpose was utilized to the best of our abilities.  Amber created incredible, section specific audio that didn’t focus too heavily on spoken word, and was able to correct unpolished audio edited together by myself or Patrick, blending the sounds together smoothly so that the styles matched.  Patrick was an excellent leader, and ensured that we were sticking to our schedule, delegated jobs, and kept us focused when we’d been working for hours at a time.  I think that I served my major purpose quite well as well, ensuring that all documents were correct and formal, and included all of the information required.  I also edited our script and other documents to ensure there were no spelling or grammatical errors (although now that I’ve written this, you will almost certainly find some).

Our work connects quite strongly to the idea of attention, and how both the fandom and the Superhero stories themselves connect with major political and social issues.  For example, as recognition of the issues faced by the black American community grows, a vocal part of the Superhero fandom asks for change not only in real life, but also within their stories.  This leads to the changing of stories being told and casting choices within comic books, television shows, and films.  We have seen these socio-political changes throughout history affecting superhero stories in different ways, and through different forms of media.  The producers of content pay attention to the changing fandom demographic, and use this information to change their stories.

In terms of what I learned through this process, the number one thing is that the ears are very sensitive and perceptive, possibly more so than the eyes.  Where eyes can only look and process one image at a time, the ears are able to take in and process multiple audio sources, and are able to determine whether or not the go together more fluidly than the static nature of vision.  This being said, when creating an audio piece, it is more difficult to get across a message without relying on spoken word too much.  With visual media, you have the ability to show, rather than tell.  In audio, “showing” can be quite ambiguous and often needs further explanation, or multiple listening’s to be understood.  If you aren’t going for a chaotic or ambiguous sound, you have to be very clear to your audience, which can be difficult without spoken explanation.In our submitted piece,

I’m very proud of the fact that we used very little original material.  We did record several in-person interviews and vox pox’s, but a majority of the sound is found audio.  This may seem like a misplaced pride, but the fact that we were able to create an audio piece that made sense, had a story, and is aurally pleasing is very impressive in my mind.  We also treated the audio so that it flowed together, and had the sense to cut out audio that was too distorted and unable to be saved, even if it had interesting or crucial information.  I also think our ability to blend the past and present seamlessly is commendable.  There are some areas in which the volume of certain sounds is incorrect, and we could have fiddled with the levels some more (such as the interview with Hannah and several of the vox pox’s), but this is a minor criticism in what I think to be a successful project.