Apparantly, for this project, we would be working in groups. He wrote the two groups on the board.
Me, Alex, both Wills, Dylan and John
Abigail, Joel, Rob, Sean, Tom
They're the two groups. Although perhaps I didn't think it at the time, I thought that I had the better group.
The project is to create an exhibition for John Peel Day next month. The deadline is October 13th, which is when it will be displayed. It can be created however we like, but we must work as a group to create it.
The morning was spent researching John Peel and his life, along with the kind of bands he promoted. In the afternoon, I called a meeting with my group to discuss what exactly should be happening.
The first thing we needed to do was elect a creative director, who would oversee the group and have the final say on things.
"Who wants to be the creative director?", I asked the group. Silence followed. I was quite happy about that, as it meant that I could voice the vote for myself. Alex did pipe up after the silence, but in the end, it was decided that I should be it.
Also, a scribe needed to be elected. A scribe would make all the neccessary notes on whatever meetings with had. Again, since I was the one who had called the meeting and since I was the one with a bunch of questions ready to discuss with the group, it seemed that I was already doing pretty much all of the work and trying to get the group moving.
The first meeting didn't really get much done, however. What it did do was set the wheels in motion. I told everyone to start putting their ideas for the project down on paper in written form so they could explain them to the group and from that, we'd decide which idea we'd use.
After the meeting, I typed all of the notes up from it and gave everyone a copy. As I said, I was happy that I was the scribe, as it meant that I could produce a legible agenda, documenting everything we had discussed.
What annoyed me was the way that Alex, for one didn't even look as if he was working. He was just messing about. Even Dylan wasn't getting on with the work involved either really. I really don't care what they do, but when it's going to be affecting MY marks, it pisses me off. Still, I kept relatively quiet for that afternoon.
The last hour or so, I spent coming up with six ideas for the project and giving a brief description of each one.
Tuesday, I put two of those ideas onto paper. Just simple sketches with more explanation. I couldn't remember the other four. In addition to this, I also typed up a document, explaining what everyone's tasks should be in our group, along with more questions for the group to discuss in our next meeting which I knew had to take place the next day.
I went to college on Wednesday morning with just one hour's sleep and had been awake since 4am. I was extremely tired, but went in anyway. It was spent with Danny again who went around everyone seeing what they were doing. He asked everyone to get into their groups and discuss stuff. I hadn't seen the other group actually have a meeting yet but in this session they did. I got into my group as well, but nothing very productive was done, only that I gave them specific instructions to get their ideas down and we'd have a meeting in the afternoon.
Danny came to talk to me for a bit after that, asking what the group had achieved so far and to be honest, it isn't that much. I showed him the agendas I had printed out and the two ideas that I had sketched. I also showed him some work that I'd been doing for an old friend and we mostly talked about that.
At lunch, I met Jamie. I also met Lauren and seen Siobhan, although I didn't actually talk to Siobhan. I need to though. She's nice and I want to get to know her!
Jamie's lunch hour is different than mine. He finishes at 12:30 and has until 1:30, whereas I finish at 12 and have until 1. It means that I only really get to spend 30 minutes with the only real friend I have in college.
I had Brian for the afternoon. At around 2pm, I called the second meeting. I had been pestering all of my group all morning to write their ideas down and provide drawings. As I said, I had six and had spent 1pm-2pm sketching up the four ideas that I had left.
I asked Alex to go first, presenting any ideas he had. He had one. Infact, all he had to show for it was a terrible doodle and some arrows pointing to the various part of the doodle with illegible writing. I was annoyed. He had been messing around all morning and not produced anything the group needed.
Will was next and he had faired better. He had laid out a kind of small storyboard which, although was a little confusing, showed that he was much more into it that Alex.
Dylan told the group his idea too, and then so did John, who had about three ideas in total, although none of them were written down or sketched out. I don't understand why none of them could do this simple task when I had been going on at them all morning to do it.
I then showed my SIX ideas WITH sketches and WITH descriptions, while at the same time writing down everyone elses idea while at the same time explaining mine.
Eventually, one of my ideas was decided upon. An interactive listening station that will provide an oppurtunity for the users of the 'station' to listenin to bands that John Peel had promoted and while they're doing that, there will be images and information on the screen. It sounds awfully boring and to be honest, it probably will be. I wanted to do something different. The other group are doing a flash information thingie too and I wanted to be different but the group decided that that was what they wanted to do.
After the idea had been decided upon, we began a brainstorming session on what we needed to do with this ILS. After that, a visual style board was also done but to be honest, I don't think they have that much of a clue of how to make something look good. I would much rather just spend these four weeks producing every single thing myself and get better marks for it. But I can't do that. Part of this brief is that I have to work with the group.
So, with the meeting adjourned, I asked that they begin drawing how they think this ILS should look like. The first thing I saw Alex doing was messing around again. Dylan was doing something completely different too, as was John. I think Will was drawing though.
The other group are technically 'ahead' of us. However, I don't think they've done the written work that we have. I consider this very much a competition. It's us versus them and I'll be fucking damned if they're going to win when I know that I can outdesign them. They've already started designing how they're Flash thing should look and they're all doing an individual page for it. They seem much more organised right now and it's bugging me because that's what I require from my group.
It's not happening.
In other news, Brian wanted to show the class a short film from Modern Toss. It's pretty immature really, but I found them funny when I first seen them. He had never actually been on the website, but had found the video somewhere else. Anyway, the group found it funny, but I wanted to show him the actual website and in particular, one video called "Public Information Film". I thought he'd find it as funny as I did when I first saw it. Laugh out loud funny.
So, he watched it and half way through when the 'gag' was revealed I could see him laughing. A lot. I laughed at him laughing. He found it hilarious. I don't mean just a chuckle, I mean proper belly laughs.
Ten minutes later and he was still laughing, which meant I was too. There were tears in both of our eyes. At one point he was hunched over the desk, crying with laughter from it. In the end, he decided to leave the room for a few minutes to stop laughing. He came back about 10 minutes later.
"Thanks for the Neil", he said, "I had to go the staff room and have a rest".
Best belly laugh I've had in ages.
