TV: A REMOTE JOURNEY

ON THE DAY

On the day of the seminar my tasks were to assist with set up, ushering guests in, still photography and to pack up. I arrived at 2.30 and helped with smaller tasks as we waited for the lecture theatre to clear out and when it did, I helped to move our set pieces in, including chairs, old tv’s and food. As we got in and set up the furniture, we also had to distribute popcorn packs to the seats as we were sponsored by the popcorn company, Cobs, as well as our programs and feedback forms. With only one stapler we managed to create a system to staple the three together and distribute the popcorn and forms in an efficient and timely manner. After this I chipped in where I could, to finish setting up the lecture theatre before setting up my own DSLR and then helped to usher in our guests and seat them.

While the seminar was running, everything was going smoothly and I began to capture photos from different angles and with different settings in order to give myself a number of options to edit and submit. Even after our unlucky evacuation, Monika and I were the first back in to help reorganise and regroup. Clean up ran smoothly as well; while some group members left early, most of us stayed until the very end to clean up all the mess and return props and set decorations to their homes.

CONTRIBUTION AND COLLABORATION

Throughout the semester as recorded in previous blog posts, I contributed to the preparation and execution of the seminar through the poster design, seminar format, helping with the promo video and still photography. With the poster, I felt like I collaborated well with Jenny as we discussed the construction of the poster going off Helena and Miguel’s ideas. I was sure to present any updates to the group in order to keep everyone in the loop and felt that this was a good approach to avoiding conflict as everyone was aware of the progress of the poster. When I wasn’t sure about a creative decision regarding the poster I was sure to seek advice from my group members and kept an open mind and accepted their suggestions and feedback before progressing. I felt that my approach to my delegated tasks and taking the initiative to ask for advice and be open to suggestions is reflective of my understanding of group work and is a demonstration of my ability to be the kind of leader who listens to my peers.

I took the same approach constructing the seminar format (discussed in a previous blog post)

I am extremely pleased with my contribution to the preparation and execution of the seminar and believe that I conducted myself in an organised manner. I led where necessary and followed instructions in a timely manner without compromising quality.

Proactive Learning: 

I found myself to be a lot more proactive in my learning throughout this assignment than I thought I would be- when stuck on technological or creative issues I always tried to seek help myself before calling on others and in turn, learnt a lot throughout my individual tasks!

As discussed in previous blog posts, I sought out resources to teach myself certain photoshop skills instead of pulling my group members away from their tasks to teach me when I had the resources to do so myself. Additionally, by sitting in on the editing sessions for the promo video, I learnt new editing skills such as ultra key and colour grading (refer to this blog post). Not only did this extra learning benefit the work I did for the seminar, but also taught my skills that I will be able to use throughout my creative life/career.

Participation

I will admit that while I did seek to engage with my group and contribute to class/group discussions, I was absent for one group meeting/class due to personal reasons but I informed my group one week in advance, and laid out my tasks, completing them by the agreed upon date. In between meetings I was sure to catch up and update my group by communicating with them through the Facebook group and through phone. I made myself easily contactable and was sure to provide constructive feedback/suggestions to my group members where applicable. I feel that I accurately fulfilled the goals I set myself in week 3 and organised myself in the way I set out to (as stated in this previous post).

Connections and Intersections

I found the seminar series extremely valuable especially at this current time leading up to graduation- Despite having studied for the last three years and trying out a range of roles and learning a plethora of skills, I am still completely overwhelmed by the number of career options this industry has to offer; the seminar is extremely valuable for all of us to help try and steer us in the right direction and open us up to the working world.

Additionally, the preparation of the seminar itself was extremely beneficial for me as I found it a new challenge to coordinate myself within such a large group of people and communicate through different parties (i.e. tutors and the steering committee) and it forced me to re-evaluate my approach to group interactions and networking. I found it both difficult but refreshing to have so much to do in such a short time frame while working with such a large group of people and can happily say that I believe I put 110% into each of my tasks and into my seminar! I am confident that the skills I have l learnt throughout the seminar series (both technological and personal) have helped shape me to become a strong candidate for whatever I end up doing in the Media industry!