So here we are - after 7 weeks of hard work, there's a solid project I can show people - and, more importantly, something that I can learn from and reflect on.
Over these past few weeks, the most important thing I have learnt is the kind of effort that must be put in when you work in a team. Although I have worked in teams before, the kind of briefs and instructions we had been given were quite basic and not entirely complex. My INSIDE project was the first instance were myself and a group of people were really given the chance to have this much creative and technical licence whilst completing a brief.
One thing that we struggled with at the start of our project was time management. We spent a lot of time ironing out pre-production details, and while I believed that this lead to a very organised and panic-free project, in hindsight we probably should have started entering studios and composing earlier than we did (we were about a week behind our peers in this department). That being said, this late start posed no threats to our project and everything was completed on time.
Although this delay did cause a different type of issue, whereby one team member felt that they were not being heard in terms of their ideas or feedback. Furthermore they felt like the postponed studio time was indicative of a lack of passion in the rest of the group members, making them feel like they were carrying the weight of the project alone.
This was a very unfortunate thing to hear when myself and the rest of the group members eventually found out, but we were able to have a calm discussion about this and resolve any tension that the team may be feeling, as we all reassured each other that we had the passion and intention to see this project to a successful completion.
I think that moment in particular is one of the biggest takeaways from this project, as I feel everyone's communication skills improved as a result, as well as our confidence in speaking to each other about our thoughts, ideas, and feedback. From that point on we were working in a much more positive environment and were more productive.
I have noticed that my main notes in this post-mortem are not very relevant to the final piece of media itself - although the project was a new challenge for me, I think it is always more important that with each project I am more focused on thinking about 'soft skills' - things like team work, communication, confidence, all attributes that will hopefully make me a better person to work with and all round good human being.
But, since it's been mentioned, I would also like to reflect on the fact that this project was a new learning opportunity for me because of its heavy focus on electronic elements.
before this project, I had not spent much time listening to music in the electronic genre, preferring the sound of tangible instruments over synthesisers. Since working on this project I now know basic knowledge about MIDI synthesisers and how to use them, and have also had my ears 'opened' and am able to recognise a large amount of synthesis and electronic elements in the media I consume, particularly in films. This is interesting for me because I hope to learn more about the world of film post-production and sound design. I hope the work that I have done with synths in my INSIDE sound project has set me up nicely for this.
Since theres no rest for the wicked, I'm only taking a few days off before I think about what my next sound project will be. Onwards and upwards!
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