Group Project?! Is it too late to drop this class...?

The dreaded group project. The bane of every student's existence. Even the very word shakes the most sociable of students. It goes without saying that none in the 336 class was ready for what Pabico was about to unleash. Still, the class took their number, a deep breath, and perhaps a shot of whiskey when they got home. Though the idea of a group project may have shaken the class at first, it seems as though each group came out on top--for the most part.

The abstract group had an interesting time with their group project. Brett immediately thought up the idea of using spoons as the subject of the video. Replacing them with everyday objects, making them seem more important than they are.

"I'm always thinking of something stupid," Brett said when asked why he chose spoons for the abstract project. Still, his stupid idea was a boon to the group, as they did their best to shoot video, edit, and stay glued together as a group.

Perhaps what was most troublesome for the abstract group was finding times to meet up. Siobhan never has class on Friday, and so was unable to meet due to work scheduling. Brett and Dimitri seemed fine with meeting for most of the times the group could think up. No time was a bad time. Shooting individual video seemed to be the hardship of the group. Najee nearly did not have enough footage--even for his personal video--to make ends meet. He quickly remedied that and, after adding his face to the group video, made the video really come together throughout (continuity errors aside.)

Editing was perhaps easiest for the group, and where the group came together. Indeed, Brett did amazing work with his cuts, however, it truly was the input of all that brought the video to it's final stages.

"Try this song," Dimitri said, handing over his flash drive.

"Why not add this?" suggested Siobhan.

"Let me handle the credits!" Najee said excitedly.

The above quotes are, of course, only a few examples of what went on during the editing process. Each cut was handled professionally--even if the class was only using iMovie. Most of all, perhaps, it seems that the "dreaded group project" had finally become fun as the group put their finishing touches on the video. There was truly a connection between the four.

Rarely in the abstract group were there any disagreements--aside from what times they would meet. The group communicated through text for the most part, perhaps not unlike other groups. It was the preferred method. It is a social media class, anyway.

At some point, Siobhan referenced music by the band "Spoon" to be in our video. And although they found some likely good songs, it was decided that perhaps the group was trying to push the "spoon" idea a bit too much. And perhaps no one would get the reference anyway.

One tiny hardship the group faced was how to convey their message. What should they do? What is their narrative? It took a few tries, many text messages, many ideas, for the group to finally arrive at "the dream." Once again, Brett's "stupid idea" shined bright as brilliance.

Posting the individual video went smoothly on YouTube, the preferred website. The video is linked below to check out!

Actions speak louder than words, as the saying goes. Video can often be much more powerful than writing, or even a photograph. A video can be much more engaging, much more inviting to the watcher, and can make them feel like they are a part of whatever is going on in the video. For the abstract group, the big success was bringing everyone into "the dream" that Brett was having. A strange dream of spoons, where he and his friends are not using them to eat. But to play drums, change the channel, and so on.

It is also likely easier for a group to work on a video than to write collaboratively, or to work on any single photograph. The process of filming, editing, and mixing audio is generally done by multiple people as it is, especially more than four people.

Perhaps the subject of abstract at first seemed broad, but as the group narrowed down on their narrative, the message they tried to convey perhaps became somewhat lost to them until the editing process rolled around. It was perhaps then that the group realized that this was more than just a video for class that would be shown to their peers. Bits and pieces of their personal life was to be presented in an abstract way. Brett the drummer, Dimitri and his dog, Najee the nerd and Siobhan the driver/piano player. There was a bit of everyone in Brett's dream, although the focus may have been the spoon, the context was really on the people using the spoon.

Feedback from the class toward the group was, relatively positive. The dream worked! The group conveyed a message that was, for the most part, clear to the class. The class picked up on aspects of their life, as well as on the overarching theme of the video abstract.

The themes for each group seemed very general and broad, but perhaps that was the point. It would have been easy for the abstract group to go to an art gallery or something. It would have been easy for the politics group to do something about the recent political race. But, creative communication students know better, it seems.

Vine is a strange, cruel, and unusual platform for posting videos. In this case, six seconds seems too little to convey a proper message. Though most can do it, it seems that others cannot. Perhaps the biggest obstacle was creating a proper video for only the allotted six seconds. Furthermore, having to move the video from drive to phone to drive to phone. Nothing is more annoying, except not being able to upload the video after all that time.

Perhaps some of the students in Professor Pabico's class have changed their tune about group projects. Perhaps forcing the students to work together on such a wide range of topics has brought the class together in some way or another.

Perhaps another group project lurks on the horizon.

Perhaps not.

As stated above, check out one of many individual videos below!

https://youtu.be/VkCi5uVCoHs