Paper football friends - "The art of problem solving"

     During my first semester at SUNY Fredonia, I had enrolled in a film class. It filled one of my communication electives, and it seemed like it would be an easy, fun class to take. When we received our syllabus on the first day, I noticed that 50% of our overall grade hinged on our final project. It was to be a group project with 5 or 6 other students. We had to write a story board, film, and edit a 5 minute conceptual movie. On the day that we were forming groups, I realized that I hadn’t gotten to know anybody in the class. So by default, my group became 3 other guys and one girl who happened to be sitting near me. We were all really nervous about waiting until last minute to start our project, so we started it right away. It’s a good thing we did, because this project would end up being the most time consuming thing I ever did in my college career.

     Everybody in the group (including myself) was a bit introverted, except Kevin. He just so happened to be from Binghamton also and he was a film major. Therefore, he quickly became the “leader” of our project. He had written up this ridiculous concept involving handicap super heroes. It was easy to tell that the whole group thought the concept was stupid, but we just went with it. Nobody wanted to speak up and tell him that that idea seemed foolish, although we were all thinking it.

    We ended up getting together for 3-4 hours almost everyday to film and edit the project. After about a month, we all agreed that our entire concept was a complete disaster. We all knew that we were going to have to scrap the project and all of the hard work and time we had put into it. It was really disheartening for the group. But still, nobody wanted to speak up and tell Kevin that his entire concept was awful. However, since we had spent so much time together, we had become a very close knit group. We even began to hang out together when we were not working on the project. Eventually, we all had a heart-to-heart, and agreed that we would have to start from scratch.

     Anyways, a few days later I woke up with a great idea. I wrote up a story board in about 10 minutes. It was about 2 competitors, Kevin and I. It started with us both being interviewed about our upcoming title match against each other. Then, there would be a 1980’s type montage showing us each going through vigorous training and hyping up the title bout. Finally, the great reveal towards the end was when the match begins. We are sitting at a table staring each other down, and a paper football is lowered between us. (The whole film had very carefully and subjectively hinted that it was going to be a fighting or boxing match of some sort) The match ends with Kevin scoring on a slow-motion field goal that hits me between the eyes. Then, this great celebration ensues followed by post-game interviews. I had solved our problem, now I just had to go to school and pitch it to them.

     On my way to school, I had to stop at the post office and send a rent check. However, when I got to the post office, I realized that I had left my wallet at home and I didn't have any money for a stamp. The landlord only lived about 10 minutes away, so I came up with a great (probably illegal) idea. I filled out the envelope backwards. I put the landlords address as the return address, and my address as the intended recipient. Then, I mailed it without a stamp. Certainly, they would return the mail to sender without postage and my mail would end up where it belonged.

     As I left the post office and boarded the bus for school, I found a $10 bill on the steps. I asked the others on the bus if they had dropped it and received no response. This was going to be my day, I was sure of it.

     When I got to school, I pitched the story to the others and they loved it. We immediately began to film the title match portion of the film. I used the $10 to buy some donuts and persuaded a bunch of random students to "act" as our audience.  A few hours later when we were editing it, we realized that we had made a giant mistake. A number of the scenes that we filmed accidentally had our tripod in it. We were all beginning to feel like we were going to have to shoot it over again. However, I quickly came up with another abstract idea. I said, why don't we just insert; “Tripod Stadium” as our venue title. Everybody loved the idea and it worked out great, yet another problem solved.

     This group ended up becoming the best friends I made in college. Suddenly, the project turned into “fun” and it no longer felt like work. We worked on our project during all of our free time; it ended up becoming our masterpiece.

     During our final class when everybody was presenting their projects, we asked the teacher if we could go last. We didn't tell her why, but we promised her that she would understand during the great reveal.

     As the rest of the class showed their simple, corny, 3-4 minute films, we smiled at each other. When the time came for us to show our film I was sweating a little bit and my stomach felt uneasy. In the end, our film had ended up being 16 minutes long. There were about 60-70 people in the class and they were all laughing hysterically. It completely demolished all of the other projects by miles and miles. When the film ended, the class gave us a standing ovation. We all had the biggest smiles on our faces as we stood up and bowed.

     I heard that the professor for that class had showed our film on the first day of class to some of her future classes. I know she is still the director of the communications department at SUNY Fredonia, so I wouldn't be surprised if she still has it. And even though our whole group had received an A in the class largely because of our film, it wasn't the best part. The best part was that we had become the best of friends. We still continued to hang out long after we had finished the film. They were all a year behind me in school, so the next year after I graduated I would go to Fredonia to hang out with them. There is nothing that would give me more pleasure than to have a copy of the film to show. In fact, I think I will email the professor and all of my "group" to see if any of them still have it.

  
     I remember having to work with another group of students for my most important "capstone" project. This group hated me. My vision for the project was far different from all of the others. It was easy to tell that they were talking bad about me behind my back. So one day I had a conversation with them. I explained that I understand that we have different opinions, but that it is important that we stick together. We are all working towards a common goal, and if we fall apart it will affect us all. Since it was 4 against 1, I realized that this time it was me this time who was holding the group back. I decided to scrap my idea and to go along with the groups decision. Although this group did not become friends in any way, shape, or form, we still worked as a team. It was a difficult experience, but in the end we all came together to get it done and get a good grade.

     Sometimes in life or in our professional field, we will be forced to work with those we would prefer not to. But it is very important to be patient and empathize. If we point fingers and fight with each other, it will never solve anything. When we work against those who we are assigned to work with, it only adds another element/challenge to the task at hand. I believe that if mankind as a whole can just grasp this concept, I think that it would equate to a far happier world for all of us.