This was my first experience working as a team on a creative project. At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of directing, filming, and editing the short documentary in such a short amount of time but I was really impressed by how effectively my group worked together. I loved that the groups were mixed with people from other schools, and I loved getting to talk to Annie and Mekhi and learn a little about their experiences at Muhlenberg and Lehigh. Annie and Aidan were the only two film majors in the group, and took leadership straight away. Aidan was well-versed with the Lafayette FAMS department and offered great suggestions on how to set up the scene and Annie knew how to work the editing program. As a photographer (and not a filmmaker), I have lot of experience behind the camera, but I had never worked with microphones or sound before, and it was a really unique experience. Working with a group to come up with a creative project also was interesting because it was about merging all of our visions together to create a final project. Usually when I am solo behind the camera, if I have an idea for an angle or a shot I can just do it. But here, it was all about selling one’s ideas to the others. We truly had to work together and sometimes it was important to just sit back and let other people run the show, which was a new experience as I usually am the more vocal one in other group projects.
My favorite part of the exercise was watching everyone else’s documentaries and seeing how diverse everyone took the topics. Because a lot of us did pets, I assumed they would all be similar, but it was clear everyone had a different vision of what the prompt was asking. Although all the documentaries were entertaining and well-done, I loved the political documentary group because it was so raw and so powerful. It made me want to watch more. I was thankful for Annie and Aidan’s demonstration of how B-roll can be used for creative effect and I was really proud of our overall final product. My role in the group was just to provide ideas for how to integrate everyone’s stories together as I thought up using pet therapy as a way to weave the stories together. It was quite strange for me to be in front of the camera as I am always behind it, and I found myself unable to talk normally while filming (I felt more like I was acting).
Overall, I really enjoyed this project and it got me even more excited about this class and the future opportunities within it!