In this week, we were officially introduced to the next group assignment in Augmenting Creativity, which is especially meaningful for me. I forget whether I have mentioned this in my previous blogs – but I really HATED group projects. I know people often say that we “should get out of our comfort zone”, and although I’ve been trying to live up to this most of the times, I always found it the least motivative when I am facing a group project. I have a long recognition about this mindset myself, and I have been actively trying to figure out why it is so. Lately, I found out something new – I hated group projects because I always get disappointed at myself for not being able to express my ideas in English. In groups where everyone else is native English speakers, most of the times I would just be nodding and doing what other members told me to do, even if I have my own ideas in mind. I was always so eager to say my ideas, but every time I stopped because those ideas never sounded as awesome and convincing as they would if I say them in Chinese.
After experiencing that feeling repeatedly, I started to get a sense of inability where I doubted myself whether I can be at all conductive – until I started this group project. This is the first time throughout my uni where all of the members in the group have Chinese as our first language, which is why I said this project is especially special at the start of this blog. Not to be exaggerative, but I do think that I have become a whole different person in this project. I have taken up the sort of ‘leadership’ that I have long wanted to try in group projects but never succeed before. In the first lesson of the week, I composed a group document with timelines, requirements of assignments 3 to 5, submission details, and production portfolio parts, so the whole project is clearly laid out in front of us (felt so good when I finished all of that). We then quickly arranged a meeting on the weekend, and more importantly, what our objectives are for that meeting. I have wanted to do this for so long!!!! In my previous group projects, I found that we often come out of a 3-hour meeting only finished discussing half of the things we initially wanted to finalise, so I wanted to learn from that. With the objectives for each meeting clearly listed, we were able to follow them during meetings and quickly tick them off one by one.
After the meeting, we have finished allocating parts in the Production Portfolio, a comprehensive timeline by personnel, mini deadlines, theme / concept for the short film, ways to integrate AI into the film, shooting schedule, presentation template for the presentation in Week 9, and our next meeting time & objectives. I think the biggest point of this group project is not about teaching me to ‘only collaborate with Chinese students’, but to give me confidence about the contributions that I could make in group projects which I have been doubting for a long time. I want to try my best in this group project in every way I can, because I have enjoyed this studio so much and I want to draw a nice full stop for it.
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