During this project, I have learned so much about event management, promotion, video editing and myself. When we first started I was really nervous as I had never done anything like this at all and felt that even though I was trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, I would do a bad job of managing the entire project due to my quietness and dislike of being bossy. But once I got stuck in, I found that not only was I fairly good at it. I also realised that I enjoyed it a lot and grew in my self-confidence. This helped me to also perform better and not worry as much about how I sounded and just have fun, which translated into the final performance video in the stream as many people said they enjoyed that for the pure amount of energy we had as a band.
I believe that I could now manage an event of my own, whether that is a live streamed event or a live in-person performance, among other things. I am now aware of the amount of hard work that goes into it and I hope I can put these skills to use in other upcoming projects.
Next up was promotion. I found this rather interesting to see that if you share something enough (even at last minute) people will be so intrigued that they will check it out. I have noticed this in my daily life now too that if you see an advertisement on social media or television enough times, you are much more likely to look at it just because of your curious nature as a human.
Whilst video editing, I have learned how to use 2 different types of editing software: iMovie and Adobe Premiere Pro. Although I struggled to grasp a basic understanding at first, I have learned very quickly how to use processes such as panning and zooming especially if that is used in a ‘Ken Burns’ style. As well as adding video and audio transitions, cutting them and editing the exposure of footage as well.
Finally, myself. I have learned that I can do things if I just put my mind to it even if I feel that it is out of my comfort zone. I have done things over the past 4 weeks that I never thought I would do. For example; I have presented a live stream, interviewed for the radio and newspaper, organised an event and even helped to edit and promote it. All of these things were completely new to me but now I know how to do them and feel much more confident about these things and myself.
I am extremely proud of everyone who took part as the entire project was student led and was very successful. The only way I would improve it is by using my new knowledge to prepare in good time and also to communicate better with those involved. Even if that is just a quick check in with different groups once a week.
Overall, this project has taken links from past projects we carried out last year in terms of our knowledge of live sound set up and performance, recording and overdubbing music, teamwork and problem solving but also it is unique due to circumstance. That uniqueness did not stop us from creating a product to be proud of and that shows that pandemic or not, we can do anything we try to and we can do it well.
At the beginning of the project, I set myself some targets. First of all, to keep in contact with everyone involved. I feel that this was something I tried to do as often as needed but should have been done more often as a formality with certain people such as the first-year performers to see how they were getting on and to offer them more advice as oftentimes there were things I wished they would have listened to me about that should have been emphasised. Secondly, to create an organised timeline with deadlines. I feel as though this one was met perfectly. Whenever an important part of the schedule had arrived, I made sure everyone was notified and instructed accordingly. That was by either speaking to them in person, messaging or emailing them and adding major events to their Microsoft Teams calendar. Finally, to ask the opinions of my colleagues to make sure that my decisions are made in favour of as many people as possible so that the event goes as smoothly as it can. This was important to me in the beginning as I did not want to step on anyone’s toes. However, when it came to it, I started to converse with people such as heads of department to assist in decisions such as who made the best edits and which to use because although it may upset some people it was something that could improve the quality of our final product.