Assessment Task Three: Self-assessment

Production Project 2 – COMM 2323

The Social Studio Documentary Group

Tutor: Christina Heristanidis

Worked successfully as a team member

Our group worked very cohesively and well together, so I found it really quite easy to work successfully as a team member within it. I think the fact that we all knew each other previously helped a lot, because we knew each other’s personalities and how to communicate properly with each other. I knew going in to this that each of us had very strong-minded personalities and so this might lead to a few clashes when it came to decision-making, but I think that once we each settled into the groove of how we worked as a team I found my role as something of a mediator between the others helped us work cohesively together. I made extra care to listen to everyone’s input, and helped act as a mediator when the other’s weren’t listening to each other too well. I also made sure that I delivered on everything that I committed to do so that we could work efficiently as a team and be able to rely on each other.

Successful time management

We began filming really early on which was a blessing in disguise for us, because we then had more time to plan subsequent interviews and editing sessions. I had a discussion with my group early into the semester about how I thought one of the best things we could do was to just be really honest with each other about our other time commitments, so that when things started to get really busy towards the end of the semester we wouldn’t get frustrated or angry with each other.  I made a point of keeping them updated and asking them what they had on throughout the semester too so that we could plan editing sessions together around times that would be convenient to us. I also made use of weekends, coming in on Sundays to edit when there more editing suites available and I had more time free. When it came to editing, I made sure that I sat down at the start of every session, watched what we’d done so far and then made a list of everything I planned to accomplish during that session. I gave these goals time flexible time limits throughout the session so that I wouldn’t get stuck obsessing over minor details, and could instead move on and keep progressing. Because the sessions were usually hours long, I also set little alarms to remind myself to take a break and eat some brain food, and then come back to the editing suite with a fresh set of eyes to keep editing with. Because we had to slot our filming in between other uni work and jobs, I made use of my time in the car on the way back from the interview by uploading the fresh footage to my laptop so that we wouldn’t have to sit at uni for an hour waiting for it to upload once we got there. I took care of most of the communication between us and The Social Studio, and I tried to manage my time doing this wisely by often composing and responding to emails from my mobile while on the train or tram.

Marketing role (role in organising screening)

I can’t really respond to this section because we haven’t yet been given any opportunities to contribute to organising the screening yet.

Good technical skills in chosen production role

For this project we didn’t actually elect specific production roles but instead chose to share in the roles of producing, filming and editing together. I found  this to be extremely beneficial because it meant that I spent the semester improving not just one of those skills, but all three. I made particular effort to work on my filming and editing skills before it came to shooting for this project, because I knew this was where I lacked. A couple of weeks before we shot the TSS parade I booked and borrowed the exact equipment we were going to be using and took it home over the weekend so that I could get really familiar with how it operated, and practices filming with it to see what worked best. I filmed a short sequence around the house with my sister, and then uploaded the content and started editing it together. To get my editing skills up to scratch I started watching lots of different Final Cut Pro how-to videos on YouTube on other sites. I found this to be extremely helpful in learning how to efficiently use the program, and this also meant that by the time it came to edit our final doco together, my technical skills were of a much better standard.

Excellent problem solving skills

We ran into a few different problems throughout the course of this project, but I found that creative thinking often helped me come up with solutions for them. The first major problem occurred when we were shooting the TSS fashion parade, and we ran out of camera card space before the show actually started. I remembered that I had brought my laptop and camera cables with my in case something like this happened, and quickly started uploading the footage to my laptop to free up space so that we could continue shooting the show. We ran into another problem on the next shoot where we’d forgotten the right audio cables for the microphone, and collaboratively came up with the solution to move the camera up close to the subject and record the audio through the camera. This in the end presented more problems when it came to editing because the sound wasn’t the greatest quality, but upon reflection we all decided the interview footage wasn’t as great as what we’d shot at the fashion parade, and so decided to focus on editing that together to music. Another problem we ran in to when coming back from the interview shoot was that none of us could stay back to log and capture the footage in the editing suites, so I simply started uploading the content to my laptop in the car to save time and so that we could keep the footage safe.

Took responsibility for role

As I mentioned above we didn’t elect separate roles, but instead shared responsibility for them all. I shared the responsibility for producing the documentary by taking control of the majority of the communication between us and the Social Studio right from the start, and also formulating questions for our interviews and then conducting them. I shared in the responsibility for filming by helping book and transport all the equipment to our shoots, shooting the footage itself and also logging and capturing it. When it came to editing, I also took responsibility in sharing this role by being present at all group editing sessions and contributing to them, coming in on my own time to edit, giving up weekends to edit the footage, and spending whole days editing 9 – 5 when it came closer to the deadline.

Assisted on another shoot or mentored a fellow student

- During the semester Maddie and I often looked to each other for support because we were both lacking in technical skills at the beginning. Throughout the semester as I learnt more about editing and Final Cut Pro from different YouTube tutorials I taught Maddie the same techniques so that she could progress with me too.

Self-assessment score: HD 93%