Week 16 - Mon 6th Jan 20 (A.D.):
Reflective Evaluation
As a team, we were required to produce animated documentary based on a number of themes based from the creative conscience open brief. After some brainstorming the group decided to think of some ideas for each of the topics (Community • Education & Learning • Environment & Sustainability • Equality & Justice • Health, Wellbeing & Disability • War & Crisis) given to us in a Mindmap. We eventually decided on doing the environment & sustainability.
Initially, I felt enthusiastic about the topic/animation itself, however I began to feel a little frustrated due to time management issues related to making decisions about moving forward. The time constraints stemmed from decisions regarding the storyline which changed multiple times. However eventually a storyline was decided upon and the group proceeded with this together.
An issue which occurred in the group related to tasks that people were undertaking and the communication between group members. Keeping in close contact became difficult due to technical issues such as not a lot of members checking Facebook messenger every day which meant that group information was not being received in a timely manner. Furthermore, there was an issue with the Behind the Scenes video (Making of) whereby some team members were unable to stay at university which meant that a lot of the material was produced separately. Due to this I recorded the video on my own however the other group members sometimes forgot to screen/film themselves which resulted in a lack of materials for the Making of video.
The communication issues were present throughout the project also impacting on the final animation by losing time to produce the final product in time. At times there were crossed wires between team members which were further impacted by the lack of time which made group members anxious and a little irritable. I did produce a Gantt Chart / Production Schedule which helped me greatly, but the other team members did not appear to find these useful. The lack of collaboration within the group massively impacted on the smooth running of the project and made group morale and motivation lower.
For future projects I would ensure that communication within a group is maintained by ensuring there are more avenues for communication such as Video chat (Skyping), Texting, meeting in person more regularly etc. this would help maintain regular contact so that all group members are aware of what each other are doing. This would also help keep the project on track and assist in the time management of the project which also may help reduce time management tensions which will help keep group morale higher.
In relation to the scheduling this could perhaps be uploaded in a different online format which would enable all members to edit therefore keeping everybody in the loop, whilst also involving the whole team in ownership of the project.
