planning and development
For the past few months, I have spent a lot of time working on my project both in and out of college. I planned my time very carefully so that my in-college sessions were made useful, taking advantage of one-to-one tutor time that I couldn’t access from home. This type of planning showed to be very significant towards the success of my final project; I had a great balance between both working environments which increased my productivity immensely. Spreading out tasks between college and my independent study also allowed me to focus on more time consuming poster designs and research from home much more than I would be able to if I tried to complete all of my work at college. There are times where a quieter environment allows me to be much more productive, which proved to be the case here.
At the beginning of the project, one of the most important development stages was the design of the event poster. I had very little time to have the posters designed, printed and put up due to an extracurricular project. Therefore, this resulted in a design that I wasn’t too happy with, but did what it needed to until it could be changed and improved. Although I wasn’t keen on the design of the poster, it allowed me to explore some less time consuming software than Photoshop, which lead me to use Canva. This change was a huge success; the pre-designed templates and easy design process within the app allowed me to create a better poster, and then implement the same fonts, colours and design within the programme, allowing it to look much more cohesive. This also saved me a lot of time, the software was much easier to work with, and was very beginner friendly, therefore finding my way around the app was extremely easy. If I were to do a similar project again, I would start by using Canva. Although photoshop may be the industry standard, for a project with limited time, Canva is much easier to use.
Before any final stage plans/designs, and set list could be made, I had to wait to see what other students had chosen to do for their final projects, and how they planned on presenting them. This section of the project probably took the most time, many students were unsure on how they wanted to showcase their projects until the final few weeks. However, by documenting any changes in projects and by keeping consistent contact with them, I was able to easily narrow down to performers/showcase presentations. It was important that I stayed very organised during this process, keeping detailed lists that could be easily followed and edited should any changes occur.
problem solving
Throughout the course of my project I ran into many different problems, including design issues and last minute cancellations. When these problems occurred, I remained calm and dealt with each one a step at a time. For a project that has many different elements like mine, issues are almost certain to take place at some point. Luckily, I had planned ahead for the most part, and problems with design/venue were able to be resolved pretty quickly. One of the biggest issues I had within my event management project earlier on in the course was the printing of the programmes. This problem was able to be easily resolved within this project by using a different printer, which was much easier to operate/work out. I believe that my pre-production planning aided me significantly within this project. Most of the problems I ran into were able to be figured out within an appropriate time, putting me under a lot less stress so I was able to focus on the project much more. The biggest problem I ran into during this project was a last minute cancellation from my vocalist. I was able to resolve this by contacting Lainnie to step in, but unfortunately had to drop one of my planned songs.
Typically, 50-60% of people don’t turn up to free events, despite booking tickets (Balit, 2022). We had between 75-80 people show up to the final showcase, even though 130 tickets were booked. Therefore, we had to remove rows of seating so that the room didn’t look too empty. No-shows could be due to many different factors. If I were to do this event again, I would make sure to send out reminders to attendees about the showcase, incase they may have forgotten. While this may not necessarily guarantee everyone to turn up, it may have increased the number slightly. This is something I should have researched beforehand, but will take onboard for any future projects.
own performance
Highlighted in amber were areas I wanted to improve at the beginning of my project. I believe most of, if not all of these areas have been developed and worked on to at least an adequate standard. I communicated effectively with all of the other students, staff, and attendees, and gave appropriate deadlines and targets to performers where needed.
I believe that the strengths I had within my project were reflected within its final outcome. The showcase was well organised and put together, and a lot of positive feedback was received regarding both performances and organisation of the show. I think that my planning and organisation was definitely one of my biggest strengths, which ultimately led to a great showcase. Alongside this, I made sure to manage my time well, so that all of my work could be completed, yet I wasn’t overloaded or over stressed.
Although I didn’t complete the aim of developing my left hand piano techniques as much as I had hoped, I have developed them to a point that I am content with. I realise that I may have been too optimistic when setting out my ideas, as developing these skills would have taken much longer than I initially thought. However, I am still extremely satisfied with my work, and I have made progress in using octaves – something I was unable to do before this project.
I chose to switch from weekly evaluations to evaluating most aspects of my work as consistently as possible. Due to having so many elements within my projects, weekly evaluations didn’t feel like the correct way to assess my work; it would have been very repetitive to reflect on the many tasks I had to do each week and then evaluate them collectively. Therefore, I chose to evaluate my work as and when I was completing it. Within my portfolio, for example, I have completed elements within a design process and then analysed what I do and don’t like about it, and commented on what I could improve if I were to do them again.
what’s next?
Following on from this project and course, I will begin studying Live Events Production at university. This project has created a swift transition between this course and my study at university due to the tasks I have undertaken throughout the project. I have learnt how to liaise with several people, and communicate well to meet the needs of all parties. These skills will also be useful for me in my career. For instance, I will soon be taking on the role of Production Runner at a local festival, and the communication skills, alongside the confidence I have obtained throughout this course and project will be extremely useful, yet can still be developed even further. Using Harvard style referencing throughout this project, and the rest of the course has also helped me prepare for university, as this is something I may have to use regularly within assignments.
If I were to do this project again/on a bigger scale, there are numerous things I would do differently. Firstly, if any available I would look into budgets that could be used to cover costs of venue hire or any additional equipment. Although the venue used for this showcase was a familiar environment for all of the students, which may have eased their nerves for the performance, I feel as though a different venue would’ve made it feel more ‘real’ rather than a college showcase. This may have caused the performers to prepare differently, or in some cases be a lot more prepared than they were for this event. From my perspective, I would have had to plan a lot of things in a different way, or on a bigger scale. For example, if the venue chosen didn’t have some of the equipment we needed for the performance, I would’ve had to find a way to get some transported over. In addition to this, the preparation for the showcase (ie. setting up equipment, mock performances etc.) would have been much more difficult – we’d have less time to adjust any problems, since most venues wouldn’t allow us to set up a day or two before the event.
As well as this, I would have looked into other promotion strategies. If the target audience was for people within the general public rather than friends/family/students, then some paid ads may have been ideal, as well as contacting local music personnel who could have promoted it across their pages (for example, Bradford Music Scene).