Why Not Make a Video Retrospective?

At the end of most of our undergraduate modules at Escape Studios our students write a retrospective of approximately 2,400 words. Students must explain how they approached the practical work in the module, what they learned, and how they might perform a similar task better the next time around. The idea is to reflect on their performance, analyse what went wrong, celebrate what went right, and draw conclusions from the process.  Lately we’ve been exploring some alternative methods of creating a retrospective, either by writing a blog or – as in the case of Ross Green’s Video Retrospective above – cutting a video.

Recently one of our external examiners asked why we don’t offer some more creative alternatives to the traditional written format of a Retrospective. 

 

Video editing is much more closely aligned with the kind of skills our students will need and use in industry, and can potentially lead to a much more informative outcome.   

 

So we’ve been trialling a different approach to the traditional retrospective – why not cut a video, rather than the traditional written submission? Watch Ross’s video above for an insight into what it might look like.  

 

In his Video Retrospective, Ross talks about how he participated in two award-winning films at Escape Studios, BoxBots and Malloe.  Ross explores the challenges that the team faced in making these films, and how he and his team-mates overcame those challenges during the course of the year. 

 

Ross reflects on the quality of the work (both films have won many awards) and what could have been done differently or better. 

 

Right now this is a selective approach, which we are experimenting with on a case-by-case basis. However, video retrospectives may prove to be a useful complement to traditional written work, at least for some students. 

Ross Green

Retrospectives Resources

• How to Write a Great Retrospective – Video
• How to Write a Great Retrospective – blog post.