What do you think you’ve gained from taking part in the competition?

• I learnt how to work well under pressure and how much work I can do in that time period.

• Working in a team, working for a cause bigger than myself, working under pressure; it was a really good experience.

• I gained experience in working fast and efficiently.

• What I have gained from this competition today is, that I have learnt that there are different stages to mental illnesses such as dementia, and it has opened my eyes to support anyone in need who is suffering or knows anyone who is suffering from this illness.  

• When taking part it shows confidence.

• I normally struggle to complete tasks within a time scale, especially short ones, and I think I have been able to practice generating ideas and creating character in such a time. Having to present my ideas has helped me to get used to presenting in front of others and gaining confidence. I've improved my ability to work in a team, and take a step back and trust others that I work with more. It's also a very important subject to be aware of, and the knowledge and awareness I gained is really important. I think I've also re-enforced that it's important to take opportunities, having gained what I did from it.

 

This kind of task is usually completed individually, but today you were working in pairs. How did you find working as a team? What was made easier as a result of working collaboratively?

• I liked working in teams which was different as I never really like working in groups, but it helped me because I could not have done that quality of work by myself and it was nice to have a second opinion.

• Working as a team was easy because I was with someone who is really talented, really determined and a great listener who motivated me and made it a wonderful learning curve for me.

• I feel like working in a team is a good thing because you can split the work, you can discuss on what your best at and what your bad at so then you can decide on what your good at and what the other person is good at. I also feel like it helped a lot doing research as well.   

• I found it irritating, but I found it fun as well because, we think quite alike and since we are close friends we got it the way we wanted from both sides, without arguing.

• By working in pairs it helped add more ideas, and to get the work done much more faster and more simpler. Also by sharing each others ideas we find out a lot more information from different sources and guided each other along the way.

• At times, I can be a bit of a control freak, and may often choose to work by myself and take on an entire task load. However, this means that my ideas often don't receive any outside opinion, and can stagnate within my mind. What I discovered working as a pair, is that having someone to share and exchange ideas with, and bounce concepts off of, is helpful and inspiring, as together you reach places that alone you might not have. Furthermore, due to a time limit, working in a pair was extremely helpful, and made completing the task within the limit, as after mapping ideas together we could both work with a common vision for what we wanted to achieve. Another thing I noticed was how we could motivate and trust each other, and get into the 'zone' while enjoying ourselves.

 

What did you find challenging? Did you make any mistakes? What might you aim to do differently next time?

• It was challenging to get a great standard of work in that time period but it pushed me and made me challenge myself more. I made mistakes by making work too detailed so next time I'll water down my work.

• I thought getting the same quality that I know I am capable of to the page, in a set time, I couldn't quite get to those standards, so I think that is something that I will try and improve on next time.  

• what I found challenging is time management, also not making my work as detailed as i normally do. The mistakes I made was taking too much time on drawing and not taking that much time making the other drawings. For the next time I do this, I feel like I would track my time making sure that all of the work is done.

• We didn't make any mistakes really, however we just improved our writing plan. because we wanted to put our point across effectively.

• How the story board may be portrayed towards the audience. For the audience to feel and to understand the issue and to relate to the situation of Dementia.

• I found completing the work within a short time difficult, I am normally a perfectionist who has trouble keeping within timescales, however I saw this as a chance to practice working under pressure. I also found the start difficult, as creating the basis for the character designs had a level of pressure to it, I could focus more on brainstorming with my partner to gather ideas and have a better idea of where to start.