Before delving into my reflection, I think the most important thing to note is how successful I believe our group was in working together as a team, in order to create the best possible podcast for this project. After creating our collaborative contract, I think as a team, we were all committed to staying in contact, via FaceBook, and we were always willing to meet up in class time to work on the project. This alone, I think played a huge role in us being successful in this outcome. Our time management and communication meant that at no point we have fallen behind, or ended up having to rush through aspects of the task. This has allowed us to be successful in testing out multiple different ideas for our final project, ensuring that we ended up with the best plan. Other than our teamwork, I think that the most successful part of our project, was our use of layering in our final podcast. In the final piece, we used a number of different spot sounds, in order to build up the piece. This will help keep it engaging for the audience, as well as showing our proficiency with using Adobe Audition as a media tool. The most problematic aspects of the work we submitted I believe is the structure of our podcast. The opening and closing I think give it justice, however due to the time constraints, I think we gave the structure of our body the backseat to everything else. It would have been beneficial for us to spend more time planning a more clearly defined structure for the bulk of the podcast. It doesn’t run quite as smoothly as we would have liked, and at times I think there is the possibility it may be slightly confusing to listeners, especially if they have to predestined idea of what they are about to be listening to.

When it comes to the concepts and theories that we have discussed in class this semester, I think ours links back quite strongly. We focussed a lot on layering when studying podcast in class, and I think that our podcast strongly reflects that we have taken this all on board. It would have been easy for us to just use dialogue and a few sound clips, but with the knowledge of what we learnt in class, we were able to branch further out than this. We used the layering of sounds to create a textured piece, replicating that of a strong piece. Stepping away from learning about audio in class, we linked back our information to our topic, The Ecologies of Attention pretty well. As was told to us in class, we tried to stay away from looking into the psychology behind attention, and focus on the impacts of, and on the media, like we have been learning and discussing throughout the semester. We approached it in a creative way that showed our own artistic capabilities, whilst showcasing all that we had learnt and grasped in class discussions, and lectorials.

Throughout the process of creating our podcast, as a team, and as an individual, I learnt even more about how audio works, and the process of creating an audio piece. I discovered how important all elements of audio are, not just the research and dialogue aspects. Finding music, sound bites, and atmospheric sounds is just as important in creating a piece that flows well. In audio works, the sounds have to play a role in telling the story and creating the narrative, as their is no image to accompany it. Throughout the process, I’ve learnt how to create different meanings, through the use of sound and structure.

Working as a group, in any circumstance always comes with it’s difficulties, however in this case, I think it was a bonus. I learnt how important it is to be open to other group members’ ideas, because even if you think your idea is the best, there’s no harm in hearing what someone else has to say. I found that in my group, we all think very differently, and my group came up with ideas that I would have never even thought of. It’s opened my eyes to approaching tasks like this in a less literal way, and creating a more personalised approach towards it. Learning to work as a group on such a creative, but also research based task has been extremely beneficial, not just for the creative side of me, but also the side of me that isn’t always the most punctual worker. Having to meet deadlines, and knowing that my work is going towards someone else grade and outcome, not so much forced, but encouraged me to work harder and keep myself to a higher standard. All of this will help shape me into a greater team member for future and current group projects.