WEEKLY JOURNALS
Week 1 Reflection:
Starting this week I was really excited to explore this new project, this is because I wasn't a massive fan of the previous one so I was keen to do something a bit more practical and different which this project has definitely provided me with so far. The workload during this week was a lot considering we were only on Thursday and Friday, however I just put in some extra time and effort throughout the weekend so that come Monday I would be ready to start the work from that week and not have any left behind.
As a result this week my biggest challenge was keeping up with the workload set. With this project only stretching 5 weeks instead of the usual length of 6 weeks, it means that there is going to be more work every week with less time to do it. Combining this with the practical work that is quite heavy it will be easy to slip behind if care isn't taken in preventing this by using a plan.
Overall this week has already been a positive start to the project as a whole and has been beneficial to have important steps and plans in place already so that moving forward in the project there are already areas of problem solving and progressive development for me to bounce off when identifying and solving other issues.
Week 2 Reflection:
This week was the main beginning of our practical work. I took on the role of leading the studio sessions as the external floor manager, ensuring that all of the moving parts come together to create one big final picture. I have been conducting self evaluation throughout this period, however I have also been gathering feedback and evaluations from the people around me so that I can ensure I am providing the best possible outcome for the role that I am in.
The biggest issue I faced this week was keeping on top of all the theory and supporting work as well as spending lots of time in the studio and coming in early as well as staying late to ensure that the runnings of the studio are perfect for when the rest of the class comes in. I managed to keep on top of this however by just doing little bits of work every day before and after going in so that it didn't all add up and I can go into week 3 with a clean slate, ready to start the new work that we get set.
Overall however I have really enjoyed this week and from what I have heard from others, I have done really well in the position that I am in. The practical side (although heavy) was a very nice break up and change from the heavy written project that we did last. I like to find the balance between practical and written work so that I don't get overwhelmed with either side and so far this project has managed to give that to me.
Week 3 Reflection:
This week was the week where we undertook the large task of completing our planning documentation alongside working on our practical tasks such as our first proper practice start to finish of the live broadcast and then also our first of the two final live broadcasts. This week was really difficult for me due to the sheer amount of work that needed to be completed. I however worked outside of college hours and broke it down into steps to ensure that I could get it done and not feel overwhelmed.
The biggest issue i faced this week was juggling between my theory work and my practical work, it got to the end of the week where i had worked throughout and managed to come out with multiple practical experimentation and outcome pieces of work however was lacking in the theory side of it such as my planning documentation, this resulted in me feeling stressed and unhappy because i felt like (although i had) that i had completed nothing that week. I therefore spent my spare days and weekend this week catching up on work such as planning documentation and social media page creation and am now feeling much better about it all as i go into Week 4
Overall now that I can see it from the bigger picture I am really happy with how this week went. It was easily the hardest week that both have gone and will come in terms of workload and stress so I am happy that I got it out of the way and am now on the other side. It is evident that I have learnt from my mistakes in other projects as usually I would have much more work that I need to complete from previous weeks on top of the work that is yet to come in the final weeks. I much prefer this method of completing the work and will take it forward when I come to start my final major project in a few weeks time.
Week 4 Reflection:
This week we were wrapping together all of our practical experimentation work. This includes evidencing all of our previous practices that we did in preparation for the live shows. As well as this a major part of this week was getting all of the physical recordings of our experimentation of techniques within our assigned roles. This week was a great stress reliever for me as it majorly cut down a large portion of my checklist and therefore left me with time to catch up on the little amount of work that I was behind on. Going into next week therefore i am not only caught up fully but have nearly finished all of the work from that week already. This gives me more chances to be a floor manager and get rehearsals going for our last live show.
The biggest issue i faced this week was that although i was ahead and could start practising for the live shows, a lot of the people within the team that filled essential roles were not in the same position so therefore practise couldn't go ahead to the same standards as were expected, although this gave be some well deserved rest time it also left me not knowing what to do in the meantime. I solved this by getting on with work from my Unit 11 checklist so that my workload throughout was being evenly distributed and I wasn't feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
Overall I would say that this week went very well as it allowed me to feel more positive about the project as a whole and for the first time in the last few projects I was well ahead of the deadline and wouldn't have to stress at the last minute to ensure all of the work was done on time. I will definitely take what I have learned forward into future projects to ensure that I am distributing my workload evenly and don't have to feel stressed like I did in some of my previous projects leading up to this one both this year and last year.
Week 5 Reflection:
This week was our final week in terms of practical outcomes, it was where we completed our final live shows and reality wrapped everything together to evidence our work throughout this whole project. A major part of this week was going back through the files which had been being uploaded throughout the project which show evidence of us in our specific roles as well as how we all came together to make 2 large final outcomes of live shows. Both of the live shows in question went really well and I am happy with how they came out, although it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows it was primarily a pleasant experience and I enjoyed it very much.
The biggest issue I faced this week was going through the hundreds of pictures and videos which we had collected and put into a dump folder over the last 5 weeks trying to find specific photos or videos to support what I'm talking about within a specific area. This was an issue for me as it resulted in small tasks taking longer than they should have because i was spending so much time searching for the files i needed, i will cover this in my post mortem as being an issue of organisation and will be able to prevent this from happening again by using folders to separate the work by using dates or titles so that i will be able to find it easier when i need to.
Overall I would say I am really happy with how this week has gone and how this project has gone overall. It is important for me to take the issues that I have identified and create solutions to them so that I can carry that forward into future projects and prevent them from happening again in the future. In terms of my stress levels etc this week they are so much less than they usually are towards the end of a project because I did my work bit by bit throughout the project and therefore I can focus on increasing the quality and therefore feeling confident in the work that I am submitting.