It was an extremely boring first lesson, though I get the feeling Carl will be good to get on with.
For the first hour or so, he had us get into pairs and write down what the other persons opinions were on the course and/or what they want to get out of it and stuff like that. It was more for him than us as we all know each other. He doesn't.
Around 10:30am, I begun getting a really bad headache. It was verging on migraine, but not quite. I had the same kind of symptoms though, namely partial sight. It's horrible and it makes my head hurt more. It feels as if something is pushing against my forehead.
Carl had wanted us to do some research on what sound actually is, but none of the computers in the room were hooked up to the internet so he sent us all the library instead to research it. I didn't go there though as my head was hurting too much and instead, decided to go over the road to the chemist and buy something for the pain. I then went back to class without doing the research. I knew he wouldn't be asking for anything from anyone anyway and sending us the library was just a time wasting excersize as he couldn't really do anything else.
I was very glad once 12pm came around and I was free to go and sit outside for a while and try to make my headache go away somehow but it didn't. Around 12:30pm, I went into college and found some stairs to sit on on my own for the next half an hour, just resting.
I had Brian in the afternoon. He asked me how I was. "Not so good", I said, "My head hurts. It has been all day."
Still, I carried on with what I had to do as I really wanted to press ahead with it.
I called a meeting with my group and asked them to show the work they had been creating for the past two days. Alex hadn't done any which annoyed me. All he does is play about with the Dashboard feature on the Macs and listen to music.
Will A hadn't done any either, but he could be forgiven, as he wasn't in college on Wednesday and didn't know that we had decided on the Interactive Listening Station as the final idea.
Dylan came with the cavalry though and produced a total of three ideas which had some useful features. This was also true of Will T. John however, for some reason, did have ideas, but had completely misunderstood what it was that he had to create. Instead of producing some designs for a Flash movie, he had created designs for actual 3D models that he thought we were making. We're not making 3D models. I could see Alex laughing out of the corner of my eye as John went through the three or four pages of sketches he had done. I did want to laugh myself really, as I was really confused why he'd done them in the first place when no one else had.
After that, the next step was to brainstorm on how the ILS should look for real.
I know this sounds quite big headed perhaps, but I don't quite know what this group would do without me as creative director. I mean, if I wasn't the one telling them what needs doing and what needs discussing in the meetings we have, we'd all be lost.
As for the other group, they're not even working together really. They're doing a Flash movie as well but instead of all working on the same thing, they're all working on six different pages of it. Personally I think this is a bad idea, as none of them are going to look the same. You're just going to have six pages that look as if they've been designed by someone else.
However, with my group, I've really tried to keep it very group orientated. There's only going to be one page. However, on this page will be plenty of information and as such, will need everyone's help in making it. The way I'm doing it is a better way than the other group because this way, everything will look similar and compliment everything else.
We got a general look to how the ILS should look like in the end. It was just a basic sketch which actually resembled my first idea for it. Of course, I was happy that it did. I probably influenced that about it too but I'm allowed creative input as well as them.
Of course, I'm still annoyed at the fact that I have to work in a group at all. I could have easily been on my way to the design stage by now. I know exactly how I want it to look and feel. But, because I have to work with other people, everything is slowing down and being diluted.
Also, while in theory the Interactive Listening Station is a good idea, I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull it off as it requires more than just a bit of basic Flash work, which is what the other group are doing. I want more than basic. I want to make theirs look shit. I want to win. And we will.
No one else really sees it as a competitive thing other than me. Brian and Danny tried to instill some competitive feelings in us about it but they failed. However, I don't care because I'll just keep pushing and pushing my group until they deliver what needs to be delivered. Failing that, I'll just do everything myself in the last week and make a point of saying that it's all mine and get all the credit.
After we'd settled on a final design, everyone had a break. I called them back to the meeting though after it because I wanted to discuss a plan B. I wanted to entertain the notion that plan A might not work and if it doesn't then we need a plan B that is doable.
I don't know if it's the fact that I'm in charge of this group or the fact that they're not bothered or that they're really easily taken control of, but after suggesting another of my ideas to them they pretty much said yes straight away. I opened the floor to anyone else's idea, but everyone was happy to go along with that one.
So, plan B is to create a bluescreen room full of dancing people. Except, all you'll see are their arms in the air, jumping up and down. You know, like they were at a concert or something. They perhaps add some cool effects and backgrounds in Premiere and then display it via a projector in the foyer of college.
I would have loved to do something like this as plan A, but the group chose the stupid ILS. Admittedly, it was one of my ideas, but I didn't think they'd actually choose it!
After settling on plan B, the next thing was to give the group jobs to do over the course of the weekend. See, this is what annoys me. No one seems to take any initiative and speak up about something they think they should be getting on with for the project and instead, I have to hand out jobs to them and order them around.
John is doing well with initiative however. He's very research based which is great. So far he's done things like find out information on John Peel and turn that information into bulletpoints for easy reading and then given a copy to everyone. Very useful. In addition, he's taken photos of the foyer where this project will be displayed and in addition to that, he's typed up a list of questions that Brian will give to the guy in charge of actually putting on this exhibition to begin with. Questions such how many bands will there be, what type of music will it be, how long will it last for etc. All very valid questions.
So, a breakdown of the jobs for people include:
Alex - In charge of collecting the music which will be used in the ILS. He also has to find album covers and any related imagary.
John - After Alex has done that, he'll give the list of bands to John who will then found out more information about them.
Both Wills - They're creating a vector based image of John Peel so as not to infringe on any copyrighted image of him.
Will and Me - We're going to be designing the Flash movie.
Dylan - In charge of taking photos of anything we may need to add to the Flash movie.
All of these jobs were given out by me and then I ended the meeting. I have to admit that although written, it sounds trivial, in reality, saying "Ok, that's it" and then watching everyone go and do what you've told them to do is quite...satisfying? It gave me a great sense of responsibility and not only that, but I feel confident that I'm actually doing things how they should be done. The other group on the other hand aren't.
They've had one meeting which was 'forced' upon them by Danny on Monday. They've not written up any agendas for meetings (a requirement), they've not chosen a creative director, they've not sketched any ideas down, they've not assigned any specific jobs to specific people. All they've done is decided to make a Flash movie with six seperate pages and everyone is going to get on with their own page. Wrong wrong wrong.
There is a part of me that does get a little worried, seeing them designing what they want to design right now. But, I have to keep reminding myself that that's only because they haven't followed the proper course of action for something like this and started on paper, sketching out ideas first and discussing it at length with their group. I have to remind myself that I'm doing it the right way and their way is unstructured and ultimately, will get them less marks.
Good!
As I said earlier in this entry, I don't know what my group would do without me. But I do, I suppose. They'd be doing exactly what the other group is doing right now, but because I've steered them in another direction, they're doing things right now and because of it, we may just end up with a decent project on our hands. And if not, well...I suppose the responsibility lies with me. It's my idea and I'm the one giving out the orders. So if it does go awfully wrong, I only have myself to blame. It won't go wrong though. Hopefully.
Four weeks we have to create this. Week one is up. On Monday, hopefully I'll begin to see some action from my group members. I gave Alex the easiest job I could think of for the sole reason that I know that there is a big possibility that when I ask him to present me with the tracks on Monday, he won't have them.
Dylan, I know will have the photography for me. I'm not confident it'll be of a good quality though. Unfortunately, he doesn't really have an eye for design and this will probably affect his photography skills as well. Perhaps he'll prove me wrong. I did emphasise the fact that he needs to take photos of all items needed on bright, white backgrounds so it's easy to cut around them in Photoshop and use them easier. Hopefully he'll listen to me.
John doesn't actually have anything to do right now until Alex gives him the required information.
The two Wills will get on with their vector image of John Peel on Monday.
Me and Will will get on with the Flash design on Monday as well.
And maybe, just maybe, at the end of next week, I'll actually see some progress being made and things coming together.
"Relax", Brian said, a little while before leaving for the day, "Relax. It'll all come together, don't worry."
That was my day in college, which, even though my head had been hurting all day long, I managed to survive and although I wasn't productive in terms of creating anything, I feel like I've done my job as creative director quite well and made sure everyone has something to do.
After college, I had to go and see my mum. She wanted to show me some furniture. I still have none in my room. As I walked into town, Abigail joined me and I asked how her group was doing. She's in the other one. I took the oppurtunity to see how the 'enemy' was doing, asking her lots of questions about what they're doing and how it's going. As I said, none of them see it as a competition so she was happy to divulge. She basically said that they're very unorganised. I was happy.
I met my mum and said hi to her and looked at the furniture but it wasn't what I wanted. After that, we went to find some bedding for me. She said she'd also buy me the watch that I had bought on eBay. I was happy about that as it means that I'm not out of pocket with it.
After that, I went on my way home, only to forget to give her all of the mail that was amassing in the house so I had to go back to the apartment and I ended up sitting there for about two hours or so, before deciding to get a cab back from town as I couldn't be bothered walking to the station. My mum paid for it. Since my mum is with Gary now, money pretty much isn't a problem at all it seems, but I still hate asking her for it and yet there are times when I do have to do so simply because I can't afford some of the things that desperately need.
Once home, I went straight to bed at around 7pm. I didn't wake up again until 6am this morning, luckily, with my head feeling a little better.
There was a package in the living room which turned out to be my new bag. I had been looking forward to getting this as it meant that I now had a proper bag to put my sketchbook in, along with anything else I needed instead of a crappy plastic thing that's a year old and has holes in. It looks cool.
I felt quite active this morning so I took the time to clean the kitchen, wash my clothes and then I started to refine the rough sketch of the ILS and add colour as well. The next step, I'll do tomorrow, which will be starting work on it in Flash. And then the problems begin of how to actually make it all work.
If it doesn't all work then it's time for plan B. If plan B doesn't work and we don't have anything to show then I can still take solace in the fact that the actual creation of the final design of whatever isn't actually that important, ironically. It's everything leading up to it. We get marked on stuff like communicating with others, using and making good roughs, planning, getting across your ideas easily etc. The final outcome, although visually important, isn't important when marks are concerned which is a bit silly really but for once, maybe it'll work for me if things do go to shit.
But that won't happen!
