In my role as event manager, there are a lot of tasks to complete as well as a few problems to solve.
Creating a schedule:
When drawing up the timeline for the live stream, I knew it was likely that I would encounter a few issues. I thought that I would plan something that did not fit the timetable or which fit into an unrealistic time frame. These problems, of course, did occur.
First of all, I asked the second-year, group when they thought the best day for things such as the stream release and photoshoot would be. Because of this, many of the other students began to bicker over the dates due to personal engagements such as appointments. The photoshoot, in particular, caused a lot of problems regarding availability because I need both years to be present for this. That meant I had to compare my times with both timetables and personal matters. Finally, we set the date for Tuesday 13th October.
Secondly, I began to have a problem with certain teams needing to use specific rooms to practice their roles. I am still in the process of finding a good time for the sound and lighting team to go into B25 (the venue for our stream) and learn how the lighting rig works and plan for microphone positioning. As well as finding time to move instruments and other various equipment into that room.
Meeting up with the first years:
Due to the current situation, it is hard for me to get into contact with the first-year students. Our timetables do not always cross and it is hard to be able to speak to them in person because of social distancing guidelines. Finally though, after working closely with Nic, we managed to get a time to talk (Wednesday 7th October). During this meeting, I will ask them to tell me a little bit about what they have been doing and ask them to fill out a form that I have created.
The form itself has come with a few problems I didn’t expect. The first draft did not look very good and was missing a few contractual questions. But after making a few edits, I managed to include everything and make it look professional yet easy to fill out. This is the final draft
In this first conversation with 2 of the 3 bands in the first year, I missed out some key information. This was followed up by Nic after the video when he asked me questions designed to create a better explanation of things. I forgot to talk about the form that I would be asking the band leaders to fill out which was a very important thing as it allows us to know who is in which band and what they will be playing among other things. After this, Nic and I had a conversation on the way to speak to the third band about how I could improve. He said that if I were to have someone give me information that they understand completely I may not understand it myself. This meant I needed to elaborate on the points I was making to ensure that they understood why we were doing things in certain ways and time frames.
This conversation went much more smoothly for a multitude of reasons. First of all, I had a much better idea of what to say and got my points across much more easily. This was assisted by acting on the advice I was given and elaborating. Although in both talks, the other students looked scared, they seemed to understand more of what was going on and why things were happening in the way they were. I tried my best to reassure them that it won’t be as daunting if they try to practice as much as possible without causing themselves damage.
Radio and Newspaper interviews:
David Carpenter at BCB Radio interviewed me and four other students in my class as a way to promote the stream. In the above SoundCloud link, you can listen to the full interview. Something that I think went well with this is that it was a really good way to expand our promotional reach and involve our local community. As these interviews have been spread out at different times during the weeks coming up to the day of the live stream, I am sure that we will have informed many people of the event with clear details on how to find out more and watch it. However I think that if I am to do something like this again, I need to work on my confidence and think carefully about my answers. During some questions, I sounded like I was lacking confidence, which could deter viewers. In order to prevent this, I will prepare beforehand as well. Once this had been recorded and edited, David informed me when all of the interviews would be aired and sent us all a copy of them for digital space. This was extremely helpful. (Carpenter, 2020)
Next, I did an interview with Ruth Peterson from the Bradford College Marketing department. We talked about all things virtual concert. Once again, I explained my role and described the effort put into the entire product by all involved. I named the acts both solo and ensemble. Thankfully, Ruth was able to contact the Telegraph & Argus (T&A) newspaper and get us into one of their articles. Once the article had been written, it was sent to me to approve before it was published. This allowed me to check that student’s names had been spelt correctly and that all of the information was accurate. After this, it was published. The only problem I had with this process was that we were not informed about when it would be published, unlike with BCB. I only found the article from my parents. Next time we use the newspaper to promote we will ask that we are given some more information so that we are aware and can share that with others. To read the article, click the link below: (Meek, 2020)
Filming For the Stream:
Due to my role, I had the task of presenting the show which meant introducing both the acts themselves and the stream in general. This seems fairly simple but on the day we decided to film this, I was dressed completely differently to the performance. This seemed okay at first but as we progressed through the bands and got closer to my own, I realised that it was a huge continuity error and would appear to be extremely unprofessional. So we decided to reschedule a day to redo them on the week after this. This meant that I knew when to do my hair, makeup and outfit choices. I managed to make it look almost exactly the same and no one noticed. If I could have changed this situation because of knowledge on what to do, I would have set a specific date and time for doing this on the schedule. That way, not only would it look more professional but it could be done much earlier to detract from the stresses of attempting to edit these videos at the last minute.
Similarly to this, I will make other people aware that if they are performing solos and ensembles that are on different recording days then they should wear the same outfits to prevent continuity faults and in turn audience confusion. Unless of course the choice is deliberate and obvious, for example a costume.
Bibliography:
Carpenter, D., 2020. BCB Listen Again – BCB Listen Again. [online] Podcast.canstream.co.uk. Available at: <https://podcast.canstream.co.uk/bcb/index.php?id=55245> [Accessed 12 November 2020].
Meek, N., 2020. Watch Bradford College’s young performers in virtual gig. Telegraph & Argus, [online] Available at: <https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18870948.watch-bradford-colleges-young-performers-virtual-gig/> [Accessed 16 November 2020].