Brief 4

Reflection (Brief Four)

Brief Four: Reflection

This project, although enjoyable and engaging, the process was incredible tiresome. Brief four was both challenging and rewarding, it offered me the chance to engage with new people and broaden my connections. The process allowed me to understand the time it requires to create work with groups. From the minor mistakes and problems that we had during the process, these were only things that I could learn from and improve in the future.

Our group worked really well together, from the start we were fully engaged and focussed to complete this project at a high standard. By setting our goals to a high standard at the start of the project, we had something to work towards throughout, this kept us motivated throughout the group project. From the beginning, these goals allowed us to maintain a good pace towards the the end product. By maintaining our group meet ups, this allowed us to keep on track and maintain contact with each other, ensuring that we were all on the same page with what we had to achieve by the next major dead line. Working with Rob and Emma was very rewarding, both in a social way and in a formal/work way. Our personalities gelled at the start of the process, allowing us to be open about problems we may have been having during the group process. It also allowed us to give each other constructive criticism into the work we were producing. Throughout the process, we often double checked our work with each other, constantly getting feed back so that we could ensure that improvements are made and that the product we produce is of a high standard. Meeting both these members was very rewarding. I can see myself working with both of them again on similar assignments or larger group projects in the future.

One of the things I found most beneficial was seeing the other groups drafts as we tracked towards the finished product. This allowed me and our group to identify what we thought worked and what things that we wanted to avoid. For example, when creating our own documentary it was constructive to view other groups short films in relation to our own film as a means of comparison in order to see how our own project was stacking up with the rest of the media task.

There were very little issues that we had along the project. If there was one thing, as a whole group we struggled with narrowing down our ideas so that they were as clear and concise as possible. We had so many ideas that we wanted to achieve, however, given the time constraints, it was proving to be difficult to limit our selves to only a few different aspects of texts. Eventually we were able to narrow the project down to four main things that we decided to concentrate on. One important thing that I learned from this was that more, is not always better. I went into this project expecting that I would have to create a major analytical piece about as many examples as I could find, fortunately I realised that not only would this be cumbersome, but it is also more beneficial to limit your self to only a few resources and create a detailed explanation on those ones.

One individual problem that I had was focus. I found it hard to maintain motivation throughout the project. Although I got the project done in the end, I feel like I could have managed my time more effectively so I didn’t feel as stressed towards the end of the project. Overall however, I think the process went well!

Completing this project very early on in my media career has allowed me to realise the importance of collaboration in successfully succeeding in any group project. To effectively produce any work within a group, there must be a healthy atmosphere that allows for collaboration to flourish within the group.  When working with groups in the future, I can see myself being much better in managing time during the process of a group project. Furthermore, I see myself having greater awareness into how the dynamics of a group operates so that I can go into future group projects knowing what it takes to create a great piece of work.

Jess

Collaboration

In sports, business, creative industries and almost everything in between, collaboration is crucial to the success of any task. Whether it’s to win the grand final or make big bucks in a company, having a set of clear goals when working in a team is paramount for the group to function in a harmonious ‘flow’. In Keith’s article about collaboration he focuses heavily on the concept of ‘group flow’, what it is and how it is created? One of the fundamental points that come out of this reading is that “teams can win only by improvising, collaborating and changing constantly” (Keith, 2007, p.47)

‘Group flow’ cannot be achieved by one individual, it is the entire group that leads to this magical chemistry that is generated through collaboration. When a group reaches a particular ‘flow’, individuals are in a state of “heightened consciousness’ where there is a unified movement from one idea to the next, in which we feel in control of our actions and the separation between our self and surrounding environment becomes blurred. It is the point in group activities where everyone loses self consciousness, getting so absorbed in the task that they lose track of time.

Keith draws on relevant study materials, describing how ‘Group flow’ is more likely achieved when their environment is in line with four key factors. ‘More likely’ is a key word because there is no definite or concrete equation that lays out how ‘Group flow’ is created every time. However, with these four characteristics in mind, the likely hood of this mysterious but wonderful ‘flow’ being created is far greater than if some of these points were omitted.

Four Key Characteristics (That are likely, but not certain, to contribute to ‘Group flow’):

  1. Relative Skills: The skills required for the task need to be equated to the skills of the individuals in the group. If the task is too hard, the group/individual will become frustrated and demotivated to work towards completion. On the contrary, if the task is too easy, the group/individual will simply grow bored and in turn, will also lead to demotivation. A balance needs to be reached where the task is both achievable but challenging enough to the group/individual is pushing themselves.
  2. Clear Goal: What wants to be achieved in the group? The whole group must have a clear and concise goal that all members are aware about so that members can all work coherently and effectively, knowing what the team wants to get out of the end product.
  3. Feedback: At various stages of any task a group or team must be given feedback. Feedback helps teams and individuals track towards their goals, it maintains motivation within individuals. If hard work is not recognised then groups will become discouraged from reaching a target.
  4. Effective Environment: The environment where a team works in is crucial to a teams productivity. Depending on what the group is trying to achieve, different environments will suit each team differently. An appropriate environment must be chosen, that both harnesses the creativity of the group, but allows each individual to work effectively on their own without distractions.

With these characteristics in mind, understanding why collaboration is so important has been very helpful to our group when undertaking the new project in Brief 4. Considering these aspects that contribute to ‘group flow’, we have been able to use the short periods of time that we do meet up and work on our project very effectively. Each time we meet up, we gradually get more comfortable with sharing our ideas with each other, making sure that each individual in the group is tracking towards their own goal and ultimately the whole groups goal as well.

Trojan Llama

TEXTS

BRIEF FOUR

It’s been a few weeks since we have started our project for Brief 4, it has been fast paced like always, but I feel like the pace is just about to ramp up. The semester is drawing to a close, meaning that assessment tasks are not far behind from finishing. This is a good thing of course, however, it also means we have to lift our workload. The process so far has been very cruisy, casual meet ups and overall a very blasé attitude towards the project has been carried on throughout. This not to say we have not accomplished any work (we have gained some considerable leverage on the project over the past weeks), but if we continue drifting on ideas on where we should direct our project, we may, very well, fall short of the deadline. In the next coming weeks we must trust our ideas and stick to them. At the present point in time, we have the major outline of what we want to achieve, although it may seem daunting, we just need to start. Once you start, you gain momentum and become immersed in the collaborative project that Brief 4 inevitably is. Reaching a state of ‘creative flow’ is something that is truly magical, I don’t believe our group has reached that point quite yet, but I feel it coming… I really do.

I guess it would be appropriate to introduce you to the direction our group has taken in regards ‘TEXTS’.

Originally we were baffled to where we would go with this topic. Ideas were thrown around about ‘copyrighting’ and ‘Plagiarism’ however many of the other groups were doing similar things along the lines of ‘originality’ and ‘rip off artists’, so we decided to stick away from that. As we delved into this conundrum we became increasingly interested in ‘remix culture’ and the art of adaptation. Initially we had a wide range of mediums that we were going to look at in order to broaden our research. However, this was going to be difficult given the time restraints we were given, so we thought it would be wise (with the guidance of Rachel) to narrow the different mediums down into more succinct categories. We chose texts that covered a wide range of mediums and offered us a broad range of concepts to talk about, hoping that the text would remain interesting and relevant to an audience.

  1. Film, Theatre, Music and Books

For this wide range of forms, we chose the famous play, Romeo and Juliet. Arguably one of Shake spears most well known plays, Romeo and Juliet continues to have a major impact on popular culture as well as story telling today. Given the vastness of Romeo and Juliet, we decided to focus on 3 different adaptions of the famous play:

  • Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli -1968)

  • Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann – 1996)

As a group we will focus on the following questions when unpacking each of the films, in order to understand how each text is adapted differently:

1. Core focus: themes, characters, storyline, setting – do the elements stay the same or are there changes?
2. How does each adaptation reflect the time period in which it was made?
3. How does the form influence the message/relatability/audience experience of the text?

In conjunction with some small elements of western pop-culture, our next main text is going to be focussed on The West Side Story. Again we will focus on the same questions and unpack each of the mediums that this play is adapted into.

Following on from Romeo and Juliet, we aim to interview a Ballet Dancer in order to un pack how ‘remixing’ is an integral part of dance culture. We will discuss the importance of ‘remix culture’ as well as the issues that may arise when adapting another individuals work.

During the discussion of these various texts we aim to generate a better understanding of adaptation and how important it is in shaping our culture.

I my self will be giving a broad overview of Romeo Juliet’s influence on our society, focusing on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet Adaption, as well as exploring a range of important aspects from The West Side Story.

The next time you hear from me, I (hopefully) will have a more concise explanation of Romeo and Juliet and the various adaptions associated to it, namely, Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version.

Train