Redesign Video : Almost Wasted Effort

Today was the day I stayed up overnight to complete this silly video for a redesign project.


It's actually the 2nd to final day of classes, and there was a final for the class too. Turns out we were showing the videos first before having a "short" final mid-term exam. I spent the last minutes tweaking the music to the best of my ability since I at least wanted it to sound nice.

But lo and behold, I am left utterly devastated when he doesn't show our video because we "had to move on to the test". A test that took less than 20 minutes, with 30 minutes to spare for the class. I should have focused on that instead. There goes listening to that in-joke laden soundtrack that only keen listeners could be able to pick out.


Now on to the project itself.

The group I was in was a little bit disorganized. Silly schedule conflicts, lack of enthusiasm for half the members, generally a lack of direction, and somewhat poor communication were what led us to this moment.

Thank goodness we got the group together to work on stuff this past weekend. Even if the product of our labours were a little bit incomplete, especially compared to others, they were still at least 80% of the way done. That's quite good considering we've been using up too much time planning everything without implementing and test. Another lesson learned, to not rely completely on team members unless they are self-motivated for this particular project. Someone has to delegate sometimes, but my decisions have not been the best so far.

What we missed and could have completed? More sound recording to patch up the little statistics we had. Had I not been so keen on having the voices done by the one person I would have done it myself. Also, test record always. Never record for an hour without checking what the heck you are working with. Sound is finicky and hard to edit depending on the source.

I have mixed feelings about this course. I should not be the one to be carried by the designers of the team. Next time, I'll just write and design what I can, even if I have poor mental imagery skills. By practice and effort, I'll be more valuable and have a better understanding of others too. Also, don't wait on group members and just do it yourself sometimes. Else, you'll end up with an hour of effort spent on crappy laptop recordings instead of awesome mics. Oh, and you won't have sound to edit to.