Reflecting on the Making of “Jewish College Students”

In this last project of the semester, the main argument we try to make in the video is that students who belong to minority groups often face discrimination, and have trouble finding their own identity when they face new chapters in their lives. We used various sources that studied this phenomena along with Sterling’s personal experiences, both arriving at Wake and throughout his life. Those sources help support our argument, and bring this minority-group topic to a bigger stage to ask the society’s attention. In the process of doing this project, although there were times we struggled and got lost, we definitely gained a better sense of how to use different rhetorical choices in new medias, and how to work well together as a group.

In order to adapt the essay to a video, the first thing we did is to make a script. After Sterling made a rough draft of a script from his paper, Vivian volunteered that since she is good at organization, she could make the script have better flow. It turned out well. We were able to jump right into the next step, filming. Similar to the papers we have written in previous projects, we set the beginning of this digital autoethnography as introducing the argument and the background of Sterling. We used the body part to address his own experiences, as well as experiences of other Jewish college students here at Wake Forest. The conclusion emphasized that how his identity has changed since arriving at Wake Forest, and the connections with his assimilation into the community and his in-group.

Despite that the script gave us a good foundation, lots of the video clips were still off-the-cuff decisions that Michael, the videographer, thought would flow well with Sterling’s narration in the background. “Wait, that angle doesn’t show the best view. Try get to the front.” “Can we have a do-over? Have a pause in between here, and have more emphasis on this sentence.” All the laughter and fun we had together not only made making this video an enjoyable process, but also created a tight bond between us.

During the process, there were also many upsides. Tone was probably one of the easier rhetorical devices that we used to this project. If we wanted to be serious we could lower the voice and make a scholarly tone, and if we wanted to have a sarcastic or funny tone we could easily raise the voice and laugh while we speak. This is often tough to do in writing because the readers have to interpret the tone of the writers themselves. However, in this video we were able to express much more freely and make it easier for the audience to hear.

Despite the fun that we had, polishing the final video was a little tough. Because this medium requires lots of thought-out and planned steps, we had to reshoot some of the scenes because we didn’t realize the mistakes when we were filming them. This was a pain because it often involved Sterling putting back on the same clothes and us trying to get the same angles with the same lighting. For future reference, the planning-out process is definitely something we should work more on ahead of time.

This time of the semester, we really get to understand that the major goal of this class is not only to teach us how and what to write, but also to help us later on in our lives, in every aspect where we need to adapt writing and beyond writing. At the beginning of the semester, we talked about how people write to achieve a certain goal, to express and convince, to make a difference, to sign a business contract or to sell the consumers products. Now, we are using video as a new media and really working hard as a team to achieve a goal. Throughout all this time, we’ve been learning. We are all aware that the things we’ve learned in this class will stay with us for a long time in our future lives, and we’ll keep reflecting back on them.

Sterling

The biggest thing that I have taken from this project is that everyone has their own opinions and ideas on how to achieve the end goal. I learned how to compromise and how to not feel upset when my ideas were not used. When someone had an idea that was better than mine, I felt that it was my duty to be a good team member and admit that their ideas were better. This was tough because I am a little stubborn and do not like to be incorrect or lose. I would say the toughest part of this project was trying to communicate with the rest of my group what I thought would be the most effective means of communicating our idea to our audience.

Vivian

Teamwork is something I haven’t done before. It is truly important to communicate and cooperate with others in the group.

Getting into this project, I was worried about how the team work would be divided and whether or not we all could work well together. When I was in high school, I had some group assignments as simple homework grades. I usually easily finished them by myself and call the team good. However, a part of me knows clearly this is not the right way to do it, and it is not something I will be able to apply to my future. This time, the team work experience really touches me. One thing I appreciate a lot is that all our team members have very active attitudes towards each other and our common goal to do well on this project.

We all are great communicators; we listen to and adapt each other’s opinions and ideas; we don’t take the disagreements personally but think it is out of the same desire to make our work better.

I have to admit that because of the lack of experience, I was really worried when I first started the revisions of the script. Because it is not my story, I hesitated to make big changes. I had a big fear of “what if I do this and make Sterling upset.” Luckily, we communicated. I really think that I wouldn’t be able to do as well to make the script if that day Sterling didn’t smile and give me full permission to do it, “Hey, I trust you.”

Michael

I personally believe teamwork is hard to compare side by side with individual work because there are so many more components due to multiple minds working on the same project. That said, I believe that group work has it’s time and place. Although it makes sense when creating videos like the ones in Project 4, I don’t think it is best applied when it comes to writing. In other words, I’m arguing that group papers like these are less efficient than three individual papers. This could be due to the difficulties that come with meshing three different equally strong voices, but it also boils down to reflection being an individual process. Undoubtedly it can be discussed, and opinions can be bounced off one another, but as we have found, we are still attempting to split the work up.

Moving back to our film, I would agree that I have become a better communicator not only when it comes to creating content in the form of video, but also when it pertains to working with others. For instance, if I were to create this project on my own, I know for a fact this would look nothing like it does today. It has gone through several severe revisions. They may not have been entire makeovers, but were definitely insertions of new and different ideas, which we as group members agreed upon after laying the groundwork for our project. This ability to work as a unit has innumerable applications to both school and beyond. I believe that the ability of communicating clearly and effectively is a priceless life skill. Thus, practicing communicating and playing well with others is a talent that will forever be our friend both in our personal, school, and work lives.