LULING, LA- For this project, The Arc of St. Charles came to us and asked us to make commercials advertising their 5 different enterprises. We did not really know much about the Arc at all so we had to take various steps to gain knowledge. First, we did a little research about what the Arc was and what they do to help others. We visited a few of the enterprises and went to the headquarters location. Throughout this process, we learned that the Arc helps individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They also help with different job opportunities for these individuals. My group then went to the enterprise that we were assigned, which was the Swamp Shredders, and interviewed their manager. We also got footage of the individuals doing their job and got a few other cool shots to incorporate in our video. After that, we recorded the voice over and began edited our video. It took a few tries and quite a few changes to get the overall video to look the best.

The project as a whole was a great experience for me. I really enjoyed working with the individuals. I liked how I felt that this was an actual project for a real client (because it was) and not just a random video put together for a school grade. However, there were a bunch of challenges that my group and I faced. I did not like how I was assigned a group but that is a part of life and that took some adjusting to get used to and to work with new people. We also had a short amount of time to film and get footage. After we got what we thought was good footage, we went to edit it and somehow it got lost and deleted. We then had to go back to the location and film again which wasted a little time. I learned to keep myself or my work organized so things do not get lost and deleted. I also learned that just because it is a group assignment, that you may still have to do more than just your part.

It was very different working with an outside client. Sometimes when we had questions, no one was there to answer them because they have jobs and other things to do that were more important. Not that our group didn’t work well together, but it could have been better. For most of the project, one team member was doing other things. At times, some people did not feel like helping. It was a big challenge getting our project done without having everyone to help out all the time. I feel like if it weren’t for me, then this project would not have been completed at all. I created the fullscreen and the lower third for every group. I also edited both our 30 second video and our 1 minute video.

My video came out much different than I had expected when we launched this project. When we first launched it I was a little nervous because this was my first project where I had to work with an actual client and not just classmates. I was scared that the client would have high expectations that we would not be able to reach. After I got assigned the enterprise that i would be making my video on, I had many doubts. We had a very small room to work with and I was scared that we would not be able to get much footage because of how small the area was. I feel that our video came out very nice. There were some videos that were better, and some that could have made many improvements. All of the components to have a good video were there for our video. However, some others needed to improve the audio and just add more information about the enterprise that they worked with. Not many people left us feedback but for the few people that did, we took their advice and made a few changes. I remember one specific group that did not take any one’s feedback.

If I were doing this project over again, I would want to meet with the enterprise prior to starting. This would help me understand more about the employees and individuals and what they do to help others and how they benefit from working there. When planning the project next year, I think Mr. Robinson should extend the amount of time to film. Also, maybe we can set aside a week for just the project that way all of our attention is just for the video. This would ensure that every team member is working on the video, and not just slacking off. If I were to come back and give next year’s team members advice about this project, I would tell them not to be Bill.