The Arc of St.Charles came to us as the Advanced TV Broadcast class at the Satellite Center and requested our help in making commercials for their enterprises. My group, which consisted of Asia Hill, Jordan Kay Gros, Mokeaja Mitchell, and myself was assigned the Cajun Swamp Shredders enterprise. We first had to learn everything there was to know about the Cajun Swamp Shredders. Once we had the knowledge of this place we were making a commercial for, we began the process of planning our shots and the ideal order we wanted to put this commercial in. After it was planned we went to the actual store and began making our shots a reality and getting the interviews we needed to make this commercial possible. We then put our shots on the computer and began editing all our shots and interviews together to make a rough draft, which turned into feedback and revisions multiple times. We then presented our videos to the director of the Arc of St.Charles who gave us one last, final feedback which we corrected.

I enjoyed doing this project however stressful it may have felt. I really enjoyed getting to work with and interact with the individuals because it was eye opening. I have never really interacted with special needs individuals over an extended period of time and I enjoyed this opportunity to get to do this. I did not particularly the part where we chose what commercial we wanted to make but did not get a say in our group members but I was satisfied with my group. I learned more about my fellow group members and I about myself throughout this project because we had to collaborate a lot and be in close confines for a large portion of the project’s duration.

It was a lot different than working among the school systems because we get more freedoms and if necessary we can get extensions whereas with an outside client, what they want is what we have to make and when they want it is when they will get it if we are doing our jobs properly. It was a kick to the gut for me. It showed me a glimpse of what the real world is like and how serious it is to give the client what want. Our group did work well together for the most part excluding the few scraps that occurred between Jordan and Mokeaja. I feel like the stress of everything was affecting me too much and I was too weak to get past it and so my involvement was not where it should have been. I contributed creative shot ideas as well as filmed a portion of it but I did not contribute much compared to my group member and I felt very bad about this.

When we launched this project, I was uncertain of my skills in the field, as well as my fellow member’s skills. However, as soon as we started working, I knew that my group members were prepared and knew what they were doing. I had faith that my group was going to pull this project together in a neatly wrapped present. I feel like our video was honestly one of the best because of our team’s amazing editing skills and our creative minds putting together an amazing video. We had consistency among our two videos which was desired and we had some very unique shots. The other groups helped a lot with some very helpful contributions on things we may not have seen otherwise. To me, it was uncertain whether other groups viewed and took our advice on their videos, but that is not to say they didn’t take our advice.

I would definitely help my group members more and invest more of myself into the project. I fully regret not doing as much as I could for my group but my grade reflects this and i have also reflected upon this. If they were to do this project again next year, I would recommend allowing more time to research the commercial enterprise they were given. Other than that, I was in love with this project. If I had the chance to come back and talk to next year’s students, I would tell them to invest everything into every project so that you actually get better at these things and once it’s over you have amazing footage to be proud of. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I hope next year’s class gets a chance to work with the amazing people over at the Arc of St. Charles.