Roles of multimedia team members

 Multimedia Team (Project manager, Multimedia Designer, Interface Designer, Writer, Video Specialist, Audio Specialist, Multimedia Programmer, The Sum Of the parts). A typical team for developing multimedia for CD-ROM or the Web consists of people who bring various capabilities to the table. Often, individual members of multimedia production teams wear several hats.

1.      Project Manager: A project manager’s role is at the center of the action. He or she is responsible for overall development and implementation of a project as well as for day-to-day operations. Budgets, schedules, creative sessions, time sheets, illness, invoices, team dynamics-the project manager is the glue that holds it together.                        

2.      Multimedia Designer :Multimedia designers need variety of skills. We need to be able to analyze content structurally and match it up with effective presentation methods. We need to be an expert on different media types, and capable media integrator, in order to create an overall vision.

3.      Writer : Multimedia writers do everything writers of linear media do, and more. They create character, action, and point of view-a traditional scriptwriter’s tools of the trade-and they also crate interactivity. They write proposals, they script voice – over and actors’ narrations, they write text screens to deliver messages, and they develop characters designed for an interactive environment.

4.      Audio Specialist : the quality of audio elements can make or break a multimedia project. Audio specialist are the wizards who make a multimedia program come alive, designing and producing  music, voice-over narrations, and sound effects.

5.      Multimedia Programmer : a multimedia programmer or software engineer integrates all the multimedia elements of a project into seamless whole using an authoring system or programming language. Multimedia programming functions range from coding simple displays of multimedia elements to controlling peripheral devices such as laserdisc players and managing complex timing, transitions, and record keeping. Creative multimedia programmers can coax extra performance from multimedia authoring and programming systems. Without programming talent, there can be no multimedia. Code, whether written in Java Script, OpenScript, Lingo, C++, is the sheet music played by a well-rehearsed orchestra.

6.       The Sum Of Parts: Successful multimedia projects begin the selecting “team Players”. But selection is only the beginning of a team-building process that must continue through a project’s duration. Team building refers to activities that help a group and its members function at optimum levels of performance by creating a work culture incorporating the styles of its members. We should encourage communication styles that are fluid and inclusive, and  we should develop models for decision making that respect individual talents, expertise, and personalities.