4 December, 2013: Rehearsal "Otherside of the Game"

Serena, Kian and myself met at my house, where we rehearsed Erykah Badu's "Otherside of the Game" for an hour and 30 minutes. Kian had learnt the chords for guitar in his own time and brought both an electric and an acoustic - as he prefers playing with the former.

In our arrangement, Serena led the song, whilst I and Kian supported on vocals and Kian also accompanied on his electric guitar. We incorporated elements from various recordings of the song, including the one below.
For example, we harmonised the line "pays the bills" - as seen at approximately 0:35 in the video - similarly to how Badu and her band performed it for this particular live recording. However, I suggested that we not harmonise anything until after the first verse, to build interest as the song progressed. This differs from both the original studio recording (which doesn't contain any harmonies on the "pays the bills" line) and the live performance featured below in which the line is harmonised throughout.

Below are the lyrics of "Otherside of the Game" -  green text represents the sections of the song which we rehearsed to a near-performance standard and red signifies areas which are much more of a working progress.

Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills
What we gonna do when they come for you
Gave me the life that I came to live

Do I really want my baby?
Brother tell me what to do?
I know you got to get your hustle on, so I pray
I understand the game sometimes
And I love him strong but

Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills, yes it does
What we gonna do when they come for you
God I can't stand life withoutcha

Now, me and baby got this situation
See brother got this complex occupation
And it ain't that he don't have education
'Cause I was right there at his graduation

Now, I ain't sayin' that this life don't work
But it's me and baby that he hurts
Because I tell him right, he thinks I'm wrong
But I love him strong

He gave me the life that I came to live
Gave me the song that I came to give
Pressure on me but the seed is grown
I can't make it on my own

Summer came around and the flowers bloomed
He became the sun I became the moon
Precious gifts that we both received
Or could this be make believe

Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills
What we gonna do when they come for you
Gave me the life that I came to live, yes you did

Don't worry baby

I know there's confusion
God's gonna see us through, yeah
Peace out to revolution, but we paid though

Don't you worry, keep your balance

(What you gonna do, What you gonna do)
The work ain't honest but it pays the bills
(Yes it does)

Don't you worry keep your balance
(Don't have to worry baby)
Gave me the life that I came to live
(Yes you did)

Don't you worry keep your balance
The work ain't honest but it pays the bills
Don't you worry keep your balance

You gave me the life that I came to live

Gave me the song that I came to give
Pressure on me
But the seed had grown
I can't make it on my own

Summer came around and the flowers bloomed
He became the sun I became the moon
Precious gifts that we both received
Or could this be make believe

Oh yeah
Badu is with you baby
We gon' make it, yeah
Me, you and the baby

You gonna do
Whatcha you gonna do
Go, yeah, baby, baby
Oh go on

See I ain't tryin' to bind your life
But I want you to do what's right
I'm your wife

Peace out to revolution
I know there's confusion
You gonna what you gotta do now

By the next rehearsal I aim to have learnt all the lyrics so that we can focus our attention on perfecting the arrangement so that we can start performing it as soon as possible so that it will feel completely natural by the time of our major performance.

3 December, 2013

In this session we pressed forward with key marketing and staging plans, naming the event The Lounge, in refernce to the live lounge staging of the event.

To create a chilled lounge environment we will need the following:
- Lamps (lava, fairy)
- Candles (possible health and safety issue)
- Flowers (rose petals)
- Sofa chairs
- Stools
- Rugs
- Warm colours: cream, brown

We also compiled a list of critical things we need to check at the venue before the event:
- What lighting they have available for us to use
- What Public Address system do they have and is it suitable for our event
- Number of chairs, sofas and tables
- If cafe is available for rent and at what cost

Also during this session Kian began learning the chords for Erykah Badu's "Otherside of the Game" on an acoustic guitar whilst me and Serena sang through the song, with her singing the lead vocals and me providing some backing. I improvised harmonies based on this live recording of the song:

27 November, 2013

In this session we presented our ideas thus far before the class, covering our choice of event, venue and style as well as fundraising, how much we've raised and how much we plan to raise. Our presentation was not as detailed or as organised as it could have been due to numerous members of the group (including myself) not sending their slides to Tamara (who was tasked with creating the PowerPoint presentation) until it was too late, at a time when she was not available to add them and so it was less cohesive than it should have been, which somewhat reflects tensions and divides within the group. A consequence of this was that ideas were presented to other groups which had not even been shared with or co-signed by the rest of the group - such as the lounge set up.

After presenting, I felt it was paramount that we all compile a list of things we need to accomplish as a group and also individually by the next session so that our time together could be used most effectively. This is the list that we made as a group:
- List things we need
- List things we have and can contribute
- Research cost of obtaining things we don't have
- Create name for event

This is the list of tasks I set for myself to complete by the next session:
- Update Finance spreadsheet
- Inquire into cost of Lounge set-up and update expenditure
- Present updated financial report
- Draft design ideas for posters and tickets

Lastly, we set a £2 entry fee for our games tournament, which we postponed indefinitely and added the game Injustice: Gods Among Us.

19 November, 2013

In this session we discussed our plans to host a Games Tournament in college - for which Crystal secured sponsorship from entertainment retail giant, HMV, who offered to provide a games console and video games.

During discussion, one of the games that was a favorite amongst the group, Call of Duty: Ghosts, was ruled out as it can only be played by one person at a time. We eventually settled on Halo 4, which can be played by a maximum for four people at a time, allowing us to have up to 16 players participating at the tournament at one time on four consoles. We also finalised our console choice, picking Microsoft's Xbox 360 over Sony's PlayStation 3 as Crystal could bring in three Xbox consoles to add to the one provided by HMV.

Furthermore, we set a date for Thursday, 27 November, 2013 to hold the tournament and Dylan and Luke went to speak to students of a Games course to see if they could offer assistance or be interested in participating, whilst myself, Kian and Serena had our first rehearsal of "Otherside of the Game", which we plan to perform together during our final performance event. Due to the time we spent dileberating on various elements of the games tournament, we did not have time to achieve much during our short rehearsal but I became more familiar with the lyrics.

14 November, 2013: 2nd Fundraiser - Cake and Lemonade Sale

This sale was spearheaded by Kian (seen pictured above in the center) who was responsible for providing the produce for this sale. Both lemonade and cakes were sold for 50p per serving. In total I made 11 sales. I sold most effectively and efficiently - as with last time - when I walked around campus with Stefan, where I sold 4 cakes and 1 cup of lemonade, nearly half my total sales (and achieved in a fraction of the time as the others). In total we raised £24.39, bringing our overall running total to £65.79 which is virtualy %22 of our fundraising goal.+

5-12 November, 2013: Prepping for and Executing Our 1st Fundraiser: Bake Sale

5 November, 2013
We spent some of this session reviewing our song choices thus far by playing them to one another so we could share feedback and also offer to contribute to the performance - for instance, I expressed that I'd love to sing backing vocals for Serena on Erykah Badu's "Otherside of the Game" and Kian offered to accompnay her on guitar.

Fundraising was the hot topic however. With our first one imminent, we assigned job roles for our bake sale so it was clear who was baking produce and who was selling it. We also set the date as being the 12 November.

For the next fundraiser, Crystal suggested using the Small Hall and the adjacent dance studio to host the games tournament fundraiser. She suggested shooting games be set up in one room and fighting games in another. Other ideas that were presented and discussed included; the winner wins video game (Call of Duty: Black Ops for instance) or Microsoft points.

Bake Sale poster - designed by Serena

12 November, 2013
- I arrived at 10:40am to help set up
- We set up two tables and placed a white sheet over them

PRICES
- Cup cake: 25p
- Cookie: 50p

Peak trading was from 11:00 when we started selling till 11:30 as many courses have breaks during this time. Sales slowed to almost a stand still after 12:00 until some time between 13:00 and 14:00, I and Stefan took the initiative to walk around campus; where we made more sales in half an hour than we did sat down for an hour before.

We discounted our products by 20% after 13:00.

Stefan's sales technique was somewhat of an acquired taste - he was very confident but at times forceful which was slightly intimidating for some customers. My approach was comparatively soft. I smiled and offered our confectionery in a polite, warm and welcoming manner. As my confidence grew, my sales did and I finished by selling a plate of 6 cupcakes to one customer.

The cake sale was a success as we raised £41.40 towards our event - %13.8 (rounded to the nearest decimal) of our fundraising goal. However, it wasn't without fault. The entire group was not present to help sell and we did not sell lemonade as advertised on the very lovely poster which Serena designed. Though we discussed selling lemonade, those who were to make and bring it did not, nor did they attend the sale. The date on the poster is also incorrect - the sale was held in November not October. Though the errors on the poster did not affect the success of the sale, the lack of lemonade surely did as it would have been another means of income, which could have pushed us closer towards our goal of £300.

22 October, 2013

FUNDRAISING
 In this session we developed our fundraising ideas and focused our attention on 'pay to play'-style game nights which would feature multiple players competing against each other in a range of styles; fighting and action (Call of Duty), peformance (Just Dance, Singstar), racing (Need for Speed, Gran Turismo) and sports (Fifa). Each genre would get its own night - as it would be highly exhausting and excessive to attempt to do multiple styles at once. We plan to project the games onto a screen in the Small Hall and hold the game nights in the evenings, when the rooms we require aren't occupied by lessons.

Another fundraising idea we discussed was holding a Halloween party, where we charged a small entrance fee (£1 or £2) at the door.

MARKETING
We reviewed potential ideas but made no definitive decision.

PERFORMANCE
We compiled a list of songs we would like to perform in our show:

Rock/Pop:
- "Eutopia" by Within Temptation
- "Misery Business" and "Ignorance" by Paramore
Reggae
- "You Don't Love Me (No No No)" by Dawn Penn
- "Stir it Up" by Bob Marley & the Wailers
- "Loving Clear" by Julian Marley
Soul/R&B
- "Otherside of the Game" by Erykah Badu
- "I Can't Stand the Rain" by Ann Peebles
- "Doo Woop (That Thing)" by Lauryn Hill
- "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)" by Soul II Soul
- "If It's Over" by Mariah Carey

However, there number of songs in each genre is uneven and the genres Funk and Country/Folk are not even represented at all in the list. We need to correct this if we aim to stick to our initial pitch of having 4 songs in each genre - essential in ensuring we produce a balanced show that can enjoyed by a range of audiences.

8-15 October. 2013: Pitch Day and the Clarification of Job Roles

8 October, 2013
It was in this session that all the FMP groups pitched their ideas, concepts and plans using Powerpoint Presentations. Our group's presentation was somewhat disjointed as the slides were split into seperate documents as we'd agreed to complete individual slides pertaining to our job roles but not everybody (including myself) had sent these to Tamara, who took the responsibility of compiling all the slides into a single presentation. This resulted in us having to switch through more than one PowerPoint document during our pitch, which I found embarressing as it made us appear comparatively unprofessional as the other groups presented their pitches with a single PowerPoint Presentation.

Other than that, our pitch went well. We covered all the points we'd discussed last week; the live lounge theme, 5 genres with 4 songs of each and The Craufurd Arms and MKCC as possible venues. We each individually described our job roles during the pitch also. I expressed that I'll be creating and updating a spreadsheet detailing the group's finances (income and expenditure) in addition to contributing to the marketing of the event by holding the title of Graphic Designer, in which I will design promotional materials such as posters to be distributed to raise awareness of the event.

Though the overall response to our pitch was positive, it was not a positive reflection of our professional conduct as a group, something which I'm ashamed to note I contributed towards. Due to huge changes in my personal life; such as moving out of my parent's house and all of the complications that come with, I simply failed to balance my personal life, college work and professional work commitments. I'll have to improve my time management skills in order to fully succeed in executing my job roles and making a notable contribution to the success of our project.




15 October, 2013
 Today we started by clarifying job roles as there was still some confusion expressed by others as to what role they were to execute throughout the process.

Job roles/responsibilities within the group:
Project Manager
- Kian

Finance Management
- Myself
- Stefan

Fundraising
- Serena
- Crystal
- Elica
- Tamara

Marketing
- Dylan
- Luke
- Myself (Graphic Designer)

We also worked on the planning of our first fundraiser which will be a bake sale in addition to further discussions on possible song choices - which seems to be constantly changing. It is important that we be decisive in our choices, as the sooner we confirm our performances, the sooner we can rehearse them.

More importantly though at this stage is fundraising as I estimate we will need approximately £300 to comfortably put on this event with the hire rate of the Discovery Suite at MKCC being £200. The £100 difference could be used for refreshments - which has been a recurring topic in our group's discussions - and all the necessary cutlery and utensils we'd need to serve them at the event or to pay someone to operate a PA system (which Luke, Kian and Dylan have said they can get for free) and lighting at the venue also.

The production students at our college provide an opportunity to save money as we could ask one of them to assist us with the technical aspects, such as setting up and operating lighting which none of us have experience in. We'd be trading a portfolio opportunity, valuable experience and possibly free refreshments for free or discounted service.

As the success of our project is partly dependent on whether or not we make a profit, it is pivitol that we raise this money ASAP so that we can perform debt-free without having to worry or rely on selling a certain amount of tickets. Fortunately, fundraising is currently prioritised in group discussions, which is promising.

__________________________________________________________________________



PROPOSAL
I am going to be responsible for Front of House and Finance Management. My roles will include (but not be limited to); compiling list of expenditure, producing financial reports and presenting them to the rest of the group, graphic design and also marketing and promoting.

I feel I am suitable to effectively execute the tasks listed above as I have a strong attention to detail and previous experience in graphic design and producing promotional materials.

- Job roles selected
- I am doing Front of House and Finance Management

I NEED:
- Cost of; venue hire, food and beverages, PA hire, transportation, printing costs

I WILL:
- Produce report on possible expenditure and how much funds are needed
- Provide dates for when funds need to be raised
- Manage funds throughout

Availability, cost, suitability

Introduction to FMP and Preparing for First Pitch

24 September, 2013: Introduction to FMP
In our first session we were tasked with choosing what style of performance we would like to be a part of, the options being; dance, drama, musical theatre and music. Though tempted to join the dance group; as I'm a former dance and have attained a GCSE (A) and AS Level (B) in the subject, I opted to join the music group.

I wish to develop my performing abilities as I aspire to be a professional singer-songwriter and feel I can gain essential experience and knowledge by contributing to the production of a music event. I hope that the experience gained will assist me as I plan my own events and performances in future.

Other than myself, the group consists of my entire music class; Kian, Crystal, Serena, Stefan, Dylan and Luke. Additionally, Elica and Tamara, who I have not worked or socialised with before are also in the group. They seemed rather shy during the session but this is only natural considering the majority of the group have been studying together for a year. I'm sure that with time they'll open up to the rest of us and be less hesistant to share ideas.

We discussed possible themes and genres for the event but failed to settle on any. We were more decisive when discussing fundraising, which I highlighted as a priority since we are required to fund our event independently without financial support from our college. We settled on a bake sale as our first fundraiser and also agreed to all contribute to fundraising efforts irrespective of our job roles within the group.

I'm excited about what the future holds for our group as I've witnessed most of the group perform and thus know their capabilities and strengths. With the calibre of talent in our group, the show looks very promising from the outset. Plus, we made our first group decision today - the first of many I anticipate. I was pleased with the progress made today and how vocal I was in discussions.





1 October, 2013: Preparing for First Pitch

Today we were tasked with producing a pitch to present in a week's time to our tutors and all of the other groups, detailing our initial plans for our event. This pitch is especially important as a poor pitch will result in us being sent back to the drawing board and our plans being declined by our tutors.

We returned to discussing themes and genre, with a chilled, live lounge theme being popular amongst everyone. This will require the use of predominantly live instrumentation throughout and so haste in choosing songs is vital as we will need a lot of rehearsal time.

In regards to genres, with our musical taste being highly varied and eclectic, we decided to showcase this by including a mix of contrasting genres to appeal to a wide audience. The genres we chose are; reggae, funk, rock/pop, soul/r&b, and country/folk. This may prove problematic in future when organising the set list as the contrasting styles could clash, resulting in a disjointed or artistically messy show. Ideally of course, the show will flow seamlessly from one song to the next so that the chilled, relaxed, lounge theme and atmosphere is not only created but maintained.

I was particularly vocal in the song choice discussion we had, suggesting Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" which surprised the group who did not expect me to suggest a rock song as I tend to perform jazz, pop and R&B music mostly. However, the song is a favourite of mine and critics and in addition to being a well-known classic will also challenge me artisically and professionally as I've never performed a rock song outside the confines of a musical theatre production. I was pleased with the group's support in my suggestion and the group's instrumentalists; Kian, Dylan, Luke and Crystal seemed eager to accompany me if I performed the song in the show.

Most importantly today we discussed and decided on our job roles. I put myself forward to contribute to the marketing of the show - with a firm emphasis on graphic designing, as I have freelance experience in addition to studying the art form for a year. I also offered to take responsibility for the management of finances as I have a fair knowledge of Mircrosoft Excel - which I will use to create and update a spreadsheet detailing our income and expenditure - but more critically feel I could get help and advice (if needs be) from my parents who own a business and thus have a wealth of knowledge in that department.

I delved straight into my marketing role by suggesting a range of ways to market our event in a way that will draw and entice audiences through various formats, these included;  a free mini concert/showcase a month before the event in college to attract fellow students, staff and tutors also, the utilisation of social media in the form of a Facbeook event which we all could share to potentially thousands of Facebook "friends" and the simple but effective use of tangible materials; posters and leaflets.

The topic of venues was also investigated with the top choices being The Craufurd Arms, which Kian and Dylan have played as part of their band the Silver Tongue Bandoliers and Milton Keynes Christian Centre (MKCC) for whom Serena is not only a churchgoer but employee. The guys in the group seem very keen on Craufurd which is situated in Wolverton but I think MKCC is also a very promising option as it is located directly across the road from our college, has a large car park and Serena has expressed that she may be able to get us a cheaper rate to use the venue. However, Kian and Dylan also mentioned they could better this with a very small hire fee or none at all as they know the owner of The Craufurd. I have my doubts as to whether our tutors will approve of our event being held there though as it is also a licensed pub as well as a music venue and not all members of our group are of legal drinking nor will all of them be by the time we are likely to do hold our event. Fortunately we don't have to concern ourselves with buying or renting a PA system as both venues have their own.

We of course can not afford any of this without raising money first and so we discussed a variety of different ways to fundraise, these included:

- Pay to Play: Battle of the Bands
- Waxing
- Sumo suits
- Bake sale
- Pole dancing (hire a pole and charge for usage)
- Busking
- Bag packing
- Sweet contest (guess how many sweets are in a jar)