Monday 8th February 2010 – Forming the Group and Initial Ideas

When first given the brief last Friday, we were asked to form a group of four. I was pleased that we were given the opportunity to form our own groups as I feel that it allows me to work with people with similar interests and ideas to me. Last year when we were put in to groups by the tutors it often took a while to get used to each other’s interests, and there was a lot of time wasted debating about which ideas to use (e.g. somebody who hates sci-fi and loves comedy wouldn’t want to produce a sci-fi, similarly the person interested in sci-fi might not want to produce a comedy). Having said that, I have also experienced negatives when working in friendship groups. For example, when working with friends in previous projects, the whole production process was turned in to a social event and the job simply didn’t get done. However, with good organisation, motivation and management within the group, I’m confident that we can avoid this.

The brief for the project is ‘Making Trouble for the Public Good’. This didn’t straightaway trigger any ideas for me at all, however, between the group, we came up with the following:

· Waiting staff – the truth behind tipping

· Nutritional information – is it misleading?

· University food prices

· Effects of binge drinking

· The effect of students on Sheffield – asset or nuisance?

· World cup city bid 2018 – Sheffield

· Up and coming filmmakers in Sheffield – what route do the take/how do they get a big break?

I personally felt that the university food prices (although I think that they’re ridiculously high!) and effects of binge drinking are very typical topics for student filmmakers, and so would rather not use those ideas. I think that the waitress tipping idea could be interesting, although I’m not sure how much information we could get about it.

After a group meeting at the end of last week, I think we narrowed it down to the World Cup bid, filmmakers in Sheffield or any other ideas we might come up with. Harry and Dan really like the World Cup idea and, although I would be happy to go along with it, I’m not convinced just yet. I’m from Sheffield and don’t really have an opinion on it – it all seems so far away! Therefore I’m not sure that other people from Sheffield will feel that passionately about it just yet – at the moment, if anything, it seems to be a war between the Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday fans because it would be held at Hillsborough. Having said that, it could be interesting to look at the positive effect it could have on the economy in Sheffield, or perhaps the negative effect it might have on the residents of Hillsborough. We’ve planned to go away and research this idea further, then bring what we have to the next group meeting on Wednesday.

Since the last group meeting, Jonathan has joined our group and so we might have more ideas to consider on Wednesday from him.

Our group is now as follows:

Jonathan Alsop

Dan Lees

Harry Rollin

Harriet Middleton

Amy Tuffnell

I think it might be a good idea to each adopt a different role in the group – manager, cinematographer, picture editor, sound recorder, and possibly a separate sound editor and art director.

Does anybody have any idea which role they would like in the group if we were to do that?