@MithLuin , I think you've been doing a great job of summarizing our ideas and suggestions in very small space, and conveying it to the Execs. Thank you! I'm also grateful for the summary and description of how this process works, it really helps me to gather my thoughts about what might be done to improve it.
My constructive criticism of this process is that while ideas are being conveyed to the Execs, concerns are not. Our concerns can't be acknowledged or addressed if the Execs don't know about them.
For me, as long as some of my ideas are included some of the time, it's only a disappointment or relatively minor frustration when an idea of mine isn't used. I know that collaboration means using ideas from many different people, and part of the fun is bouncing ideas off each other and synthesizing them together. What bothers me much more is when my concerns are not addressed, or even ignored entirely. If my idea isn't used then somebody else's will be, which is nice for them and the others in this project have great ideas too. But if my concerns are brushed aside without consideration, then I feel that I have been brushed aside and that the problem I anticipated is now extremely likely to happen, to the detriment of the story we're trying to write.
I'll use your Hildorien slides and Executive-summary as an example here, Marie. You summarized our ideas well (although you seem to have left out context for who the Voice was). But it looks like you didn't mention something to the Hosts that was important to me. I have a strong concern that Morgoth can't be the tempor, because of his terrifying appearance and inability to shapeshift. Haerangil also had a concern about how the Edain will learn that they can trust Avari. It appears that these concerns weren't mentioned in the materials sent to the Hosts. I don't mean to say that you ignored our concerns, but that you maybe didn't realize how important they were among the other things on that thread.
Sometimes we suggest a particular idea not only for its own sake, but also because we want to avoid or solve a problem to address a concern one of us has had. I suggested sending Annatar to address my conern about Morgoth's hideousness. The context was a significant part of that idea.
My suggestion for the process is to include major concerns, as well as ideas, and display the concerns in a somewhat separate way from the ideas so it's clear that they're an important category of information in their own right. One way to relieve you of having to guess which points are most important to each contributor, would be to say in Episode Questions on Monday or Tuesday before the Podcast "Briefly tell me the few most important points or concerns you want communicated to the Hosts this Wednesday." This would both remind us it's coming up, and let us encapsulate our thoughts and clarify which are most important to us. It would also make it more likely for those who can't participate live to have their ideas and concerns seen by the Hosts.
I know that my ideas won't always be used, that's the nature of collaboration. We'll always be discarding this or that idea. But I don't think anyone's concerns should be dismissed out of hand. (When I don't respond to somebody's concerns on this board, it's because I didn't read the thread or don't think I have any useful solutions to suggest, but I hope that I haven't outright told someone their concerns don't matter.)
@Ange1e4e5 I haven't replied in casting just because actors aren't an area I have much knowledge in, so there's not much I can intelligently add.
My constructive criticism of this process is that while ideas are being conveyed to the Execs, concerns are not. Our concerns can't be acknowledged or addressed if the Execs don't know about them.
For me, as long as some of my ideas are included some of the time, it's only a disappointment or relatively minor frustration when an idea of mine isn't used. I know that collaboration means using ideas from many different people, and part of the fun is bouncing ideas off each other and synthesizing them together. What bothers me much more is when my concerns are not addressed, or even ignored entirely. If my idea isn't used then somebody else's will be, which is nice for them and the others in this project have great ideas too. But if my concerns are brushed aside without consideration, then I feel that I have been brushed aside and that the problem I anticipated is now extremely likely to happen, to the detriment of the story we're trying to write.
I'll use your Hildorien slides and Executive-summary as an example here, Marie. You summarized our ideas well (although you seem to have left out context for who the Voice was). But it looks like you didn't mention something to the Hosts that was important to me. I have a strong concern that Morgoth can't be the tempor, because of his terrifying appearance and inability to shapeshift. Haerangil also had a concern about how the Edain will learn that they can trust Avari. It appears that these concerns weren't mentioned in the materials sent to the Hosts. I don't mean to say that you ignored our concerns, but that you maybe didn't realize how important they were among the other things on that thread.
Sometimes we suggest a particular idea not only for its own sake, but also because we want to avoid or solve a problem to address a concern one of us has had. I suggested sending Annatar to address my conern about Morgoth's hideousness. The context was a significant part of that idea.
My suggestion for the process is to include major concerns, as well as ideas, and display the concerns in a somewhat separate way from the ideas so it's clear that they're an important category of information in their own right. One way to relieve you of having to guess which points are most important to each contributor, would be to say in Episode Questions on Monday or Tuesday before the Podcast "Briefly tell me the few most important points or concerns you want communicated to the Hosts this Wednesday." This would both remind us it's coming up, and let us encapsulate our thoughts and clarify which are most important to us. It would also make it more likely for those who can't participate live to have their ideas and concerns seen by the Hosts.
This, for me, has been the hardest part of this project. I have very often felt that my concerns about problems were not considered and were brushed away, especially by the Hosts. That together with them having very different goals from me, and their humor that I find incomprehensible or hurtful, has made it virtually impossible for me to understand or trust the Execs so far, or to feel that they respect me as a contributor or participant.In any collaborative creative endeavor, it's important that people trust that others will listen to them when they contribute, and no one's concerns get dismissed without consideration.
I know that my ideas won't always be used, that's the nature of collaboration. We'll always be discarding this or that idea. But I don't think anyone's concerns should be dismissed out of hand. (When I don't respond to somebody's concerns on this board, it's because I didn't read the thread or don't think I have any useful solutions to suggest, but I hope that I haven't outright told someone their concerns don't matter.)
@Ange1e4e5 I haven't replied in casting just because actors aren't an area I have much knowledge in, so there's not much I can intelligently add.