The ask – write a Yelp review of your teammates from the Blender project. Ok ok, not that exactly of course lol – how was it collaborating, to put it in the “official” term.
One word – fun! So fun – I had never chatted with Dan or Alyssa (my teammates for this project) before this – Alyssa briefly though I think while talking to Clayton – and I was excited for the chance to work with people I didn’t know. The ideas started flowing instantly and even though Dan was unfortunately sick during the first few days of the project, I got the chance to get to work with Alyssa closer. Within the first brainstorm we had, I really appreciated how she would check in to make sure I felt my ideas were being heard and I tried to do the same for her – it was interesting to get to know people’s interests from scratch to see what we’d all find fun to work on – it’s not often you’re thrown into such a deep project with people you don’t know! So the first part I felt was kinda gauging what people liked and were willing to try and everyone was really good at hearing out other’s thoughts and ideas.
I could see that people really used their strengths well but also were willing to try things that were new to them! I’m so used to doing all the steps of video making by myself – story concept, storyboarding, shooting, editing, etc etc so to lean on others skills like Dan’s experience in theater and stories as well as Alyssa’s in writing and acting (And organization skills, I feel she really embodied her mockumentary role of director hahaa – I was really appreciative of the shot list she always had on hand) was a really good experience for me. And whenever I needed a hand with the camera they were both down to operate it as well as doing the sound!
It felt like a tight-knit experience! We had a zoom call to bounce ideas and I felt everyone really cared about this project which made me really happy – the enthusiasm to do the best job we could while also having fun made it a great experience.
And omg, I can’t get over Dan’s acting – I very much regret forgetting to vote since I was 1000% going to put in my vote for him as best actor – I learned pretty quickly just to keep the camera rolling since he would improv into a deeper and deeper spiral and I’d just be behind the camera grinning like the Wonderland cat and trying my best not to laugh and interrupt his monologues. At one point he literally rolled around in the dirt on the school balcony to get ready for his in-the-woods wolf character – the commitment of this man! XD
And as I said in our presentation, I felt very supported by my teammates – I was racing the clock editing the day before the due date and everyone had to go home – but they were both there on Slack replying in a matter of minutes whenever I had questions and that was sooo reassuring to me – teamwork until the end!
If it hasn’t been clear already, I really really loved working with Dan and Alyssa and I was sad when the project was over! But I’m super happy to have had the time I did with them, and also having the fun of doing my first off-school shoot in the woods – that was so incredibly fun! Hope to have more stuff like this in the future!
And one final thought, I can’t wait for when I have time to make a blooper reel of this project hahaa! There’s a lot of gems for sure!