Allocating Tasks & Planning
It turned out to be quite serendipitous that all of us really wanted Alien as our film to analyse. This gave us a good starting point for creating a blog theme. Katie chose to write her essay on Fandom and Viral Text and both Cayla and Luke decided to focus on Franchising and Cross-Promotion and I picked Spectator to Audience. We all discussed our chosen essays and Cayla volunteered to create the blog and add us all as administrators. Because we all chose the same film this meant we could discuss texts and sources that could be cross referenced with our various topics. On discussion, it became clear that our individual interpretations of the Alien text had led us to picking it for different reasons, so although we were initially a little bit worried we’d all picked the same film, it became a great part of working as a group as we could discuss the film and all get something from it.
Blog Design
Cayla took the lead with the blog design as she already had experience using WordPress. Aw we were all doing Alien, our initial thought was to have a strong Alien theme in the aesthetics of the blog. Basic WordPress has limitations when it comes to customising your blog, however, and we didn’t want the design to be too ‘busy’. So eventually we decided on a simple, clean design of dark, muted colours and industrial looking text, to give an Alien feel without going overboard with images. Where appropriate, we have used images in our individual blogs.
Peer Feedback and Support
We were all very open and willing to give each other feedback and support, which was very much appreciated by all. Cayla and I looked at each other’s thick description and sent notes on editing. We had a Facebook chat to keep in touch with each other which was very useful, however we didn’t meet up in person very often. When working in a group again this is something I would rectify, as planning to get together would be very useful. At one point we arranged to meet in the library but as we hadn’t booked a space there was nowhere for me to sit, so I went to work independently. This is all down to planning, and I would prioritise arranging times to meet up for in-person feedback in the future. As a group I feel we all did our best to be sensitive, respectful and helpful to each other
My Participation
In general I am satisfied with my participation in the group. I feel like I offered support to my other group members and, on the whole, communicated effectively. As I am used to working by myself I did at times prioritise independent study over the group at times when I should’ve been feeding back with them. This is something I am aware of and will work to rectify in future.
The Movie Experience Blog 