A few things went particularly well in the making of our blender film, the little mole. I think first and foremost was the commitment each member of the team showed to the work. All three of us showed up on time and were fully present throughout every step of the process. I really appreciated this as having worked on group projects in the past where I had teammates blow off meetings or not be communicative. We communicated well and easily coordinated meetings and production. I really appreciated not having to be overly responsible for shepherding my team through to the finish line.
Another thing we did well was supporting each others ideas. Anytime one of us threw something out there, people were open and didn’t immediately shut down ideas even if they felt a little out there. People were open and curious with each other which made for a safer space to share and ideate.
Once we chose our final concept we easily shifted into making it happen. Since Jordan wrote the story, I committed to producing all the props and really thought about how that could in and of itself be one of the characters of the story. I really enjoyed building the world that our story existed in and could see that as a potential career path down the line. getting do do research into a genre, in our case, Film Noir, and learn what are the components that make something feel noir, from music, costume, title design, and props/sets. That came naturally to me and felt like I already had an instinct for this world-building work. I’m really proud of how the final film came out and how the props/graphics, and details form the sets really contributed to it feeling real and legit.
I appreciated how we each had something that we “owned” on the project. Jordan wrote and helped direct, I built sets and props and titles and voice acted, and David acted, was DP and edited. It was useful to have these clear roles and responsibilities in reducing friction along the way.