Roles In My Group

Who did what exactly?
NOTE: I did not do more work that some of the members of my group, however, on analysing our roles, I was able to write most of the things that I, myself, did, but could not remember exactly all of the work that other members did.

Bethany Rossiter

I was present for all of the days of filming and photography that the group did - as it was my friend outside of school that we were using, so I suppose I had to be, and also due to the fact that I have not many commitments outside of school that use a great deal of my time, as others in the group felt they did. I tried to give my opinions and ideas where I could, and stretched the small amount of creativity that I thought I had, in order to put ideas forward for the group's use. I had a small responsibility before each of the filming sessions to do Charlotte's make-up in order to gain the specific look that myself and Georgia had previously decided was appropriate to our genre and ideas. I also played a large role in deciding what Charlotte should wear in the filming and photographs, as it was mostly me and Nathan that were present, we had to choose the clothes and footwear that we would use. I filmed some of the footage used in the music video, despite Nathan doing most of this. I played a part in editing the length of 'Into Dust by Mazzy Star', the song that we have used for the video. I produced a number of sketches and was responsible for the fonts posters that my group used in deciding what fonts to use on the Magazine Advertisement and Digipak. I also formed a questionnaire so that my group would be able to get feedback on the video and Magazine Advertisement, and then later, put the results from these into graphs and tables etc. so that the information would be more easily accessible to my group.
I also played a large part in the design and production of the Magazine Advertisement, as Myself and Carli did this.

Nathan Moseby

I personally feel that as Nathan was responsible mainly for the music video editing, he played a main role in the group work. As he was the one in the group that had access to the equipment; we were using his cameras to complete the filming and photography, he was present on all of the days of filming and photography. He took the lead on the editing of the music video, despite all of our ideas and opinions being given throughout, he had the best understanding of the program, and I feel, personally, that he is the most creative, and in this way; able, to create a brilliant end result in terms of a music video. I think he did a great job with the editing and he was mainly responsible for the organising of the filming and photographing days, as others in the group tended not to make an effort in the organisation of this area of the project. As Nathan toom on majority of the 'big boys' work, the things that needed a large numbers of hours dedication, he let the other members of the group, including myself, take control of the smaller tasks, enabling us all to make a joint effort to get the project done and finished.

Georgia Drury

Georgia, despite not being able to make it to the majority of the filming or photography sessions due to work commitments, played a key role in the ideas behind the shots and photos that we used in the actual media product. As she knew that she was a busy person, Georgia decided that it was best to base most of the time that she spent on media coursework, completing the planning and ideas behind the Magazine Advertisement; for myself and Carli to complete. Georgia, with some but little direction, completed the whole Digipak by herself, as she thought that this was necessary in order to put in an equal amount of work as the others in the group- due to the fact that she was unable to make most of the days spent photographing and filming.
I think that she did an excellent job of this, completing the gruelling, and very time consuming task of the Digipak, almost entirely by herself, only stopping to ask our opinions when she seemed unsure of her work.

Carli Rowell

Carli was unable to make the majority of the sessions that my group used for filming and photography, due to other commitments. Of course this did not stop her playing a key role in the ideas and planning behind the production part of the ancillary tasks. She produced some truly great ideas in the form of sketches for the second set of photographs that we would need to use for the Digipak, as we did not like the first set. The only reason that I have chosen not to use Carli's sketches on my own collection of pieces of work as coursework, is because she mis-spelt the title of the song, and I did not personally want to include an error that large on my own collection of work as I felt it was worth the extra effort to create my own. Myself and Carli completed the Magazine Advertisement section of the coursework, as an ancillary task. During this small project, Carli was excellent when it came to putting ideas forward, and many of the suggestions that she made on producing the Magazine Advertisement are in the end result, and the reason that it looks as effective and great as it does.

How did I personally find working in a group to complete media coursework?

I found it extremely challenging to work with the members of my group, despite being friends beforehand, there were a great deal of arguments or upsets during the production of our coursework. Afterwards, we have analysed the situation that occured being due to the fact that there was a communication problem between the people in the group. For example, during filming or photographing days, both Myself and Nathan were aware that Carli and Georgia had work commitments that they could not escape. So, on deciding days to get the work done, we would ask if they were available to spend time on it and would find out that they were busy. As a result, we would do the work without the other two members of the group, and this ended up as an argument, as they were still implying that they would like to be informed on the filming and photographing sessions, despite not being able to make the date or time. I consider this a completely fair comment or request to make, however, at the time we were clearly not thinking about whether they needed to know or not, as they were busy, and we needed to get the work done. I thought that the coursework project was made more difficult by the fact that there wasn't a fair share of work being done and I have been extremely upset by the fact that some people are willing to take credit for others' hard work.
I personally feel that the coursework was also made more difficult by the lack of ideas being shared amongst the group due to lack of attendance on filming days, whether this be due to members of the group working, or taking time out at their own leisure.
In conclusion, working in a group is extremely difficult in my opinion, as working to suit four different peoples' schedules and tastes is almost impossible.
If I were to construct another music video in completing coursework, I would choose the group in which I work much more carefully, and attempt to make sure that there was a fair amount of work being completed by all of the members of the group, in order to make the whole group feel included.