Some students don’t really enjoy group projects, and groan when they hear about them. However, a recent collaboration between David Small’s TV Production and Elizabeth Pellicane’s Social Media classes shows that group projects can inspire creativity and problem-solving, while teaching valuable life skills.
The project was a news package that involved students creating their own news story and then reporting it on camera. The Social Media students wrote the news story scripts after getting paired up with groups from the TV Production class to film and edit the projects together.
“The process, I think, was fun and smooth, since we already knew each other and worked together well,” said FCHS junior Paul Addington, who is also a member of the TV Production class.
Fellow junior and TV Production student Camryn Ngov shared the same sentiment. “Much like a normal working environment, you are assigned to a group. We were given a designated meeting time where we would talk about the project, meet the rest of our team, and then get together with our group to talk about possible topics. We tried to get our base idea the first meeting, then we would separate to write our script and shot list, then later come back together for a final overview to iron out our last details. Lastly, we would have our production when everybody comes and works together to create our film,” said Ngov.
She added, “My favorite part about this project was getting to work with new people outside of our classroom. It gave us a chance to work with people we may have never met before and it gives you a look at what a normal, professional job can look and be like.”
Students in Pellicane’s Social Media & You class also enjoyed the project. “I didn’t know anyone in the group, except Cash, but we all clicked. We had a good editor, great crew, great partners, and it was a good script. We had to get two different cameras because one ran out of battery or the microphone broke, but we got it done.” said FCHS sophomore and Social Media student Micah Vogt.
Vogt’s group ended up filming from a script based on an imaginary breaking news story where aliens came to earth and ended up challenging the humans to a football game. He said his favorite part about the project was “working the cameras and stuff,” although he added that “doing the football [one-on-one] was fun.”
While there were plenty of positive things students had to say about the projects, there were some things that could have been improved. “I would change the amount of time we had to work with our team. We didn’t have much time to see them and plan with them, so it was a little harder to communicate everything clearly,” said Ngov.
The teams only had a few days to write, shoot, and edit together the project, while dealing with the limitations of locations, weather, and 83-minute class periods in which to film.
“We couldn’t get on the football field, so we had to use the soccer field, but it was just as good. The grass was a little wet, and we didn’t want to have that, but everything went pretty smoothly,” said Vogt.
The students learned multiple things over the course of writing, filming, and editing the project. “I definitely learned how to work with people older than you. I have only really worked with people my age because of sports and everything,” said Vogt. As for Addington, he said that he found the project taught him a lot about how documentary style films work.
In the end, the two classes got together for a watch party, complete with popcorn, and watched all of the projects. They even got to watch some other projects done by the TV Production students, such as elliptical edits.
Pellicane, who has been collaborating with Small on this project for the last decade, said “This was definitely one of the best collaborations Mr. Small and I have had. The level of creativity was really good and they produced some really amusing and well-acted productions. It’s so great when students can learn a new skill, collaborate, and have fun in the process.”
