Reflection Essay

While completing our group documentary on Resident Advisors, my group experienced some struggles as well as many successes. I would have to say the biggest struggle was the attitude people had towards each other in the group. In a group, there is always a person that takes more control, and like any other group project, this happened. Although people need to assertive to get things done, at times this was taken a little too far and I felt it got a little disrespectful.

Other than the few little tiffs, our group seemed to work well and efficiently. One thing I really enjoyed about our documentary was the way each section of our video flowed together. I feel that we always had the perfect part of an interview that helped us work our way into the next topic. I felt that this made our video hold a steady focus and feel more professional.

One thing I wish I could change about our video would be the way things were filmed. I feel that when some other groups used a video camera to record their interviews, it had better quality as well as a more steady shot.

If I had six months to work on this project, there would have probably been more interviews. We used my RA for most of the podcast and I would have liked to interview her for the documentary part of this project too. My RA was rushing a black sorority, which took up almost all of her time between that and school. I tried to make many appointments with her to get a short interview, although every time it fell through. I would have also liked to find more interesting stories that we could have recorded to make our class more engaged in the documentary.

Overall, for the documentary I was responsible for recording and editing. I recorded the interview with a student in my dorm, as well as took many shots around campus. After everyone uploaded their videos, I watched them all and made notes of what clips I felt were good for each topic we had discussed we wanted to include. I also typed up the entire proposal for the group before we even began the project. For the editing aspect of the documentary, I was in charge of the closing scenes as well as mild cases.

Although group work is frustrating, I took the stress off of my part of the project for the group because I always came to class and meeting times in the library with my sections completely finished and edited. This helped because the group could move forward and not waste time on waiting for my sections of the documentary to be completed. Like I said before, I wish I could have contributed with an interview of my RA because she has been a Resident Advisor for two, going on three years, and I am sure should would have given a great contribution to the documentary. Overall, I feel like I contributed a fair amount to the group.