The production of my PB4 group assignment has been the most fulfilling assignment this semester. Navigating the collaborative process has its fair share of difficult moments, but overall my experience in this instance with being assigned ‘random’ partners for the means of creating and meeting academic criteria has been gratifying. Brainstorming new ideas and working through differences of perspective through open dialogue discussions with new people helps to put your own reflections in a broader context amongst those of your peers. I find this helpful, especially as discussion is usually always goal-oriented.
Although communication barriers may sometimes be apparent, especially if assigned a group member with a non-English speaking background, it’s important to understand and empathise with how alternate cultural contexts may influence modes of practise in our increasingly multicultural society.

As for reflecting on the final product itself, I think I’ll start with the not-so-good (I’m refraining from saying negative)…

Despite our group’s overall dedication to planning, meetings and always thinking about the next step I think we ultimately spent too much time thinking and talking about the potentials and breadth of desirable research, as well as the possibilities regarding what our topic of exploration could entail. With that said, however, all of this did eventually lead to the final audio product (with which I am pleased with), so how much time did we waste, really?
Without formalising a completely comprehensive script in advance (we initially worked from an outlined structure) we set the bar as high as the stars; failing somewhat to understand what can humanly be spoken by three people in a casually consumable audio form within an 8-minute timeframe. The goal was to explore prestige television and how audiences and their viewing habits have shifted production values and narrative practices of long-form television over time. From Twin Peaks to Game of Thrones. There are books on this shift. Books that, if condensed into audiobook form, would certainly exceed an 8 minute span.
Too. Much. Content.
We narrowed our scope down to Netflix’s Stranger Things – very contemporary.
Still, listening to the completed audio file I get the sense that we have knowingly skipped over a portion of information relating to the ongoing trends in complex television production and the critical/cultural assessment of these products. A topic better suited to exhaustive essay writing, perhaps. It became necessary to compromise the comprehensive history in order for the audio piece to replicate an enjoyable listening experience.

Overt Positives!:

• Our time spent researching shifting televisual and narrative practices afforded us the background knowledge on the industrial contexts of Stranger Things’ production.
• The piece sounds good and is easy to listen to. The editing succeeds in assisting with the media’s flow, and the stings and backing music sounds…cool. It sounds cool.
• We worked as a group throughout the time given for the assignment, rather than having the production be a last minute rough submission. The affordances of time let us contemplate our intentions and orient our workload.