In the end, I thought our seminar went very well. The feedback was resoundingly positive, despite my anxieties on the day. We met up at about 2:30, discussed how we would go about doing things then split off into groups to collect furniture, technical equipment and meet guests. I went to grab furniture, which turned out to be incredibly frustrating, as we probably didn’t have enough people to help, I ended up doing most of the heavy lifting. I also had to make a second trip because we didn’t have a side table which was necessary for the set up we had envisioned. I also picked up a couple of fake plants, which we hadn’t originally planned. I thought this snap decision worked fantastically in our favour, as it filled the space on stage and framed the guests well.

Once inside the space, I set to work organising the set, projector, zoom recorder and popcorn machine (which people were panicking about but no-one was doing anything).  The time constraint was stressful, and my divided attention caused me to mess up and forget to double check the zoom recording, which ended up being off for the first half of the seminar.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, the seminar seemed to me to be a big hit. In no other seminar have I seen so many people sticking around to chat with the guests afterwards. And the guests were happy to oblige, which we were suprised but immensely grateful about. It took a long time before people started packing up, so I took the initiative and started returning furniture, which turned out to be more stressful than getting the furniture there, not least of all because I was doing it myself and we didn’t have a trolly.

Overall, I am very proud of myself and the group for what we accomplished. If I could do it over again however, I would be a little more on top of my other group members, as it seemed as though once people had organised themselves, they were content to sit back and wait till the seminar begin (though certainly not everyone). Massive props to Natalie, James, Jim, Dom and Henry for their efforts.

It was a while before we began editing the trailer. In the meantime we had gathered ideas and footage from films we thought we would like to use in the trailer. These films included the rover, mad max, walkabout and a few others. Given that our seminar wasn’t until week 9, we were under no pressure to get the trailer done in a rush.

In the meantime, I attended meetings with the rest of the group. Putting forward ideas and helping troubleshoot any issues that were popping up. One thing which I feel i had a decent input in was in regard to the staging of the event. I insisted that we needed a lamp, as the group was quite reluctant to have any stage lights as other groups had done. Otherwise, I felt my role was to confirm and reassure others on there ideas and work, making suggestions on things such as the poster design and the guests were inviting.

Editing the video went very smoothly. While Dominic did the majority of the technical work, I assumed the role of the director, making decisions on the arrangement, what we should and should not include, and advising on where to make fine cuts. I also did the voice over which I was quite proud of. The end result was awesome, far better than any group before us (if I don’t mind saying so myself).