Group Roles and Responsibilities

As a group of three, we shared group tasks relatively evenly. During the planning stage, for example, it was mostly a case of each of us brainstorming ideas, first independently, and then discussing them in group meetings. In this way, we used bits of each of our ideas in order to shape our music video. Our storyboards were constructed in a similar way, as we each sketched ideas for possible scenes before discussing them and arranging the ones we liked into a narrative.

During the shoot we again shared out our roles as evenly as we could, although at times it became more difficult as both Lucy and I were acting in our video. Before filming any scene, though, we would discuss the composition and camera angles together. Clearly, when both Lucy and I were in a scene, Helen would be doing the filming, and would often play a more prominent role of planning the shot. In scenes featuring only me or only Lucy, however, we would alternate between me and Helen and Lucy and Helen filming, although there were also times when one of us would have a sudden idea for a shot and in such a case would take control for a short time, before allowing someone else to takeover for a while. Our shooting process was long and rather drawn out, as we shot and re-shot several scenes and often needing to create new scenes to fill holes in the narrative. Consequently, good organization was required so that re-shooting sessions could run smoothly. We achieved this through regular communication through the Facebook email service, creating ‘threads’ in which we discussed both shooting and editing times.

An example of a ‘thread’ of us agreeing on editing times

Editing tasks were also shared evenly. We always edited together, even though sometimes it was hard to resist working on it independently, so as to ensure all decisions were discussed and agreed upon. Therefore, even if someone wasn’t always involved in the hands-on process of editing, they would be contributing by offering advice and criticism.

In summary, we tried very hard to distribute group responsibilities evenly and in that I believe we were successful. The distribution of workload was certainly much more even compared to the group I worked with in last year’s project, in which I was often forced to do the bulk of work

myself; constructing the narrative, drawing and planning the storyboard, doing the vast majority of editing and filming almost every shot on my own. As a result, in this sense this year’s project has certainly been an improvement from last year’s and, hopefully, will result in a more successful final product.