Unit 2 Part E

I feel like my project went well. Our workshop turned out great as we managed to get people involved and learn about the animation. I developed new leadership skills that I had lacked before I started the course. I am now more confident; I can organise events, people and equipment. I have learnt from mistakes and feel like I can improve on things if I were to do them again.

There were a few aspects of this project that were challenging. One of them was to organise a group of people. When in a group, it is sometimes hard to all agree on certain things and to get everyone in the same place at the same time. This was only a small challenge as we realised early on that we needed to be efficient to get a good job done. Another challenge was to talk to the public. It was scary to talk to and to demonstrate animation to strangers. This was because there was fear that we'd mess up and get something wrong. Fortunately, nothing went wrong and this caused us to have more confidence in ourselves for future projects.

Our project ended up sticking to the original plan. This was because we thought in depth on how we wanted to present our workshop. We knew what we wanted to demonstrate and say to the audience. We also knew what equipment to take and who was doing certain roles within the group. Planing this before hand really helped as it gave us a bit more confidence in what we were doing. If I were to do another project, I would defiantly use a plan again.

I feel like I have developed as a leader. I have grown confidence in myself. I now know that I can organise events and people well and know that I'd be able to do it again.

Here is feedback from Courtney Gaffney. She was working with another group that we also displaying a workshop.

From this feedback I have learnt that although I need initial support in approaching strangers, I can do it with help from the rest of my group. Having the group support and reassure each other really helps in confidence when doing scary things. Once someone has helped you, you can develop the skills on your own. This is what I feel the project has helped me on. 

The participants seemed to enjoy the workshop I led. As one said, 'The animation workshop was nice to see as many people seemed intrigued by what was going on. I had a look myself and Katie showed me how the process of creating an animation works. I enjoyed talking part and I feel like I now know a lot more about animation than I did before.'

I have learnt that leadership is tricky at first, but with some practice you can be a great leader. It takes real confidence and will power. Communication is key when working in a group. You need to talk to each other, go through plans, have second opinions and someone to support you. Planning is a huge factor in running an event well. You need to know what you are doing and make sure everyone else knows what they are doing to have s good outcome. 

Next time, I would push myself more to develop my leadership skills. I now have a strong basis of skills from doing this event as I have learnt a lot about being a leader. I would have more confidence in myself, try to get more of the public to take part in the workshop and to not be nervous. 

Unit 2 Part C

When we started our workshop, the whole group felt a bit nervous. We had set everything up and had started our activities but were waiting for a member of the public to express an interest. No one was interested at first or if they were, they were too shy to approach us. As we realised this, we approached the public ourselves and managed to interest a few people to come and have a look.

Here are a couple of examples of people who had a go at our workshop.

Here was our first participant. She was a young girl who decided that she would like a go at creating stop motion animation. She brought her father and he supervised her while she was drawing. We all helped in the process of showing her what to do. At first, she seemed nervous but she soon understood the simple steps and went right into it. She wasn't sure what to draw but we gave her some suggestions and she chose something that she liked. After drawing on each piece of paper to create her sequence of images, with our guidance, she took photos of her drawings, using an iPad that we had set up, with an app called iStopMotion. After she had taken the photos, we showed her her finished product. The girl and the father seemed very pleased with the outcome and were interested to know more about animation.

Here is a picture of me showing someone how to create stop motion animation. She didn't feel like giving it a go as she was busy but she was interested to see how it all worked. She sent me feedback of the workshop.

"The animation workshop was nice to see as many people seemed intrigued by what was going on. I had a look myself and Katie showed me how the process of creating an animation works. I enjoyed talking part and I feel like I now know a lot more about animation than I did before."

From presenting this workshop, I feel like my leadership skills have developed. I feel more confident in approaching members of the public and leading a group to pull off a successful workshop. I dealt with the problems, such as getting people to join in, along the way and managed to sort them out quickly and efficiently. Next time I hold a workshop, I will feel more confident in myself, my team and communicating with the public.