AM Project Meeting 04/11/08 Thoughts

We actually got together for our second meeting last Tuesday. We met at the Imperial, a quietish pub without music and the only one that has round tables.  A good mix as, it's only my perception, but people seemed to be a bit wary.  After all the emails that have been flooding round I was interested to see how the day would pan out. 

We waited for about half an hour for people to arrive, get drinks, order food etc - all the usual necessities. Then eventually dived right in. There was no agenda, but it seemed to flow fairly well. 

I haven't really been able to work it out, but there's been some awkwardness in the group. When the group task was announced I thought, 'Oh No, we'll never get it together to agree on anything'. As the time progressed on people have really worked at trying to get along. Some have quite a strong view of how the final product should look, but this hasn't been explored properly at present. 

Back to the meeting... after some pussy footing around we got to the one of the 'Elephants in the room'. For anyone who hasn't heard this it just means a huge issue which everyone can see yet no-one mentions because no-one wants to talk about it or have confrontation. 

The elephant.. whether we have one narrator telling the whole story or whether we have a narrator and some presenters. This has been a huge issue for some reason. One person does not want presenters at all, other people only want certain people to present and some people want everyone to present. 

My interest has been what are the real issues behind this. We have had conflict because there are two agenda's to making the documentary: we have different priorities when we all have to gain equal input into the documentary than if we were just making a good documentary. Some people don't want to be in it, but want to be able to hand the recording to a future employer and say, 'look this is partly my work'.  For my part I'm probably seen as an overweight, middle-aged mum not unlike Dawn French and I can understand that If you want to present your product to a young music magazine or programme - the fat lady singing is not going to get you the job.  I do understand this point of view, but the other part of me rebels at the prejudice. Needless to say I didn't opt for a presenters role in this instance and bowed out of it as I couldn't stand anymore of the awkwardness. I have the independent study to complete this part with. 

Prior to the meeting one of the group emailed everyone and suggested myself for Editor, but it wasn't brought up at the meeting. I am happy to be a team player, so it makes no real odds. 

Agreed elements: 

Deb - Farmers Market

Jaime - Vox pops

James - Independent Stores & Shops

Steve - Independent Stores & Shops

Luke - Devon County Council

Initially I agreed to do an element on Princesshay, this was soon cut up and boiled down to organising an interview with Land Securities. This interview is significant because up till now it is known that Land Securities don't give interviews and it couldn't be filmed till the end of the project because we need all the other information before we can go to interview.  The long and short is I ended up with an interview at the end of the project which may never happen. 

I would point out at this point that these are my feelings, I am entitled to them, but I may not be correct in my assumptions of how others have thought or acted. 

I went to the toilet to have a think ... why do we do that, perhaps it's being closer to water or just needing a bit of privacy or something . I decided I wouldn't be left in a situation where I felt marginalised. So, I came back and said I'll do an interview with the Job Centre, a local training provider and a recruitment agency.  I feel whether Exeter has gained jobs from the Princesshay project is an important point. 

We spoke about the website. I mentioned including methodology - 'How we did it'. This seemed to be taken as a good idea. 

The meeting went on for approximately two hours.  We agreed to have a narrator - James and two presenters - Steve and Deborah. There was some discussion about what to film and when (see minutes 04/11/08). 

All seemed to leave happy.