Keen to develop our performances after the feedback we recieved from other groups the previous day, we focused on running our set list. I initiated a vocal warm-up by singing lip trills to a major scale, which gently prepared my voice for the rehearsal.
Before running through the set, we lent time to rehearsing the group performances; "Golden Brown" and "Pride", focusing on the vocal arrangement and harmonies to ensure the utmost accuracy; as I've noticed at times other group members being inconsistent in their pitching, causing all of the vocals to sound discordant. In rehearsing these songs it became immediately apparent that 11 days before the show others were still unsure of what their melodic lines were. This causes me great concern as it shows a lack of initiative and ability to rehearse independently without the aid of the group.
We then ran through our set list, pausing to share feedback after each performance. I took notes during each solo performance so that my feedback could be as detailed as possible.
Elica commenced the run with Emeli Sande's "Read All About It". She sang more confidently than previous renditons but her ability to project is still lacking, especially on the bridge and last chorus - the climaxes of the song which require the most projection, power and passion. Her pitching on the bridge is still inconsistent but she has expressed that she struggles on this part of the song. I have suggested that Tamara or all of us could provide backing vocals on the two final sections of the song. This may boost her confidence, resulting in better projection of her voice. I must note however that her eyes were engaged throughout the song which is a stark contrast from the nervous laughs of previous rehearsals. She could improve her performance further with very simple gestures to emphasise the lyrics - which are very poignant at times.
Tamara followed with "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me". She performed and sang confidently, gesturing to the audience and effectively using body language to emote and perform the lyrics rather than simply sing or recite them. The only negative was her inability to cover mistakes seamlessly. Whenever she did something she did something she perceived to be wrong, she'd make it very obvious in her facial expressions - when we hadn't even noticed up until the point where she let it get to her. As well as mentioning the points above, I suggested that she explore the stage to take her performance to the next level.
Crystal's choice of "Edge of the World" by Within Temptation is the perfect match for her voice, which floats effortlessly on the song. Her beautiful vocal performance was really refreshing and I love her style. As her vocals are faultless on the song, I think she should definately focus on working on audience engagement, movement, gesture and the use of eye line which are noticeably lacking, which is a shame considering how beautiful her vocals are.
Crystal passed the torch to Serena who also delivered pretty vocals, this time on Lianne La Havas' "Lost & Found". Though beautifully sung, I commented that she should also work on matching her body language to her vocals and emote through her face just as much as she does vocally, so that all contribute to the performance for greater impact.
Tamara and Crystal performed their duet, "My Immortal", with different staging which made for a more interesting visual set-up. They also appeared more relaxed which will lend itself well to our lounge theme. Their harmonic blend was euphonious but there were quite a few mistakes which disrupted the flow of a performance unfortunately. It is evident that they need more rehearsal but I look forward to seeing them perform the song error-free. I commented that they should work on their facial expressions and staying focused regardless of mistakes, so the intensity of their performance is maintained for the entirety of the song.
Tamara displayed her vocal agility on her performance of Jessie J's "I Miss Her". Once again maintaining focus in the face of errors was an issue but her vocals were very pretty throughout and she was noticeably more engaged emotionally and artistically in the second half of the song, which was touching.
Me and Tamara received very positive feedback from the group for our "Say Something" duet. Crystal described the performance as "incredible", which was very encouraging and she commented that there was a much stronger connection between me and Tamara. One negative that both her and Elica pointed out was that I pulled away from the mic too much causing me to be overpowered by Tamara at points. I tend to overthink whilst performing and worry about being too loud during the climaxes in the song and so I pull back so that the sound of my voice is not distorted, but from the feedback received it is clear that this is not an issue and so I will work on focusing completely on emoting rather than analysing whilst performing.
Saturday, 14 June 2014
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
6 May, 2014: FMP Showcase
After cancelling a rehearsal yesterday due to bank holiday we along with all the other FMP groups were required to showcase our most and least rehearsed pieces to each other. With our event being based on a 'live lounge' theme and the majority of our instrumentalists being absent, the outcome for us was already looking to be painfully uninspiring. To make matters worse, it took us time to find a room to rehearse in.
Once we'd found a room, we decided on the two pieces to showcase, settling on the group piece "Golden Brown", which we'd rehearsed as a whole group numerous times and my solo (featuring Serena and Stefan) "Fire" which is a relatively new and late addition the set list. We rehearsed for the first time using the one of the instrumentals Kian and I recorded. I suggested we develop the performance with some movement and we implemented some swaying and synchronised clapping to make it more interesting for the audience as it is an upbeat song.
Me, Serena and Stefan then briefly ran through "Fire" and though the vocals all-round sounded fine, the simple choreography was not executed well which concerned me about showcasing it in front of the other groups, considering one group is putting on a dance show. My fears were put to rest when we received feedback for our performances which was mixed but not overtly negative or exceedingly positive. In the feedback for "Fire", the audience commented that the mistakes in the execution of the choreography was the giveaway that it was the least rehearsed performance and so I will be rehearsing this vigilantly with Serena and Stefan to ensure it is so well embedded in their memory that it's second nature to perform.
Today's session certainly highlighted areas for improvement on both songs. Though "Golden Brown" was much better rehearsed than "Fire", this wasn't reflected in the feedback which is of concern to me and signals that the standard of all the group peformances desperately needs to be raised if we want to put on a great show instead of a reasonable or mediocre one.
I do feel though that our performances could have been better had there been a room available for us to rehearse in. This would have given us valuable time to rehearse "Golden Brown" with mine and Kian's pre-recorded instrumental.
More positively, today we made progress in the marketing department despite Luke and Dylan's absence, thanks to Crystal; who travelled to the city centre of Milton Keynes to distribute physical copies of The Lounge poster I designed. I was unable to assist due to a rehearsal for the college's prestigious Student of the Year Awards, which I am performing in.
Whilst distributing the posters, Crystal received some great, positive feedback on the poster design from a stranger.
After such a wobbly start, this was a great morale booster and encouragement to keep striving for the best. It's also further evidence that my design is effective.
Once we'd found a room, we decided on the two pieces to showcase, settling on the group piece "Golden Brown", which we'd rehearsed as a whole group numerous times and my solo (featuring Serena and Stefan) "Fire" which is a relatively new and late addition the set list. We rehearsed for the first time using the one of the instrumentals Kian and I recorded. I suggested we develop the performance with some movement and we implemented some swaying and synchronised clapping to make it more interesting for the audience as it is an upbeat song.
Me, Serena and Stefan then briefly ran through "Fire" and though the vocals all-round sounded fine, the simple choreography was not executed well which concerned me about showcasing it in front of the other groups, considering one group is putting on a dance show. My fears were put to rest when we received feedback for our performances which was mixed but not overtly negative or exceedingly positive. In the feedback for "Fire", the audience commented that the mistakes in the execution of the choreography was the giveaway that it was the least rehearsed performance and so I will be rehearsing this vigilantly with Serena and Stefan to ensure it is so well embedded in their memory that it's second nature to perform.
Today's session certainly highlighted areas for improvement on both songs. Though "Golden Brown" was much better rehearsed than "Fire", this wasn't reflected in the feedback which is of concern to me and signals that the standard of all the group peformances desperately needs to be raised if we want to put on a great show instead of a reasonable or mediocre one.
I do feel though that our performances could have been better had there been a room available for us to rehearse in. This would have given us valuable time to rehearse "Golden Brown" with mine and Kian's pre-recorded instrumental.
More positively, today we made progress in the marketing department despite Luke and Dylan's absence, thanks to Crystal; who travelled to the city centre of Milton Keynes to distribute physical copies of The Lounge poster I designed. I was unable to assist due to a rehearsal for the college's prestigious Student of the Year Awards, which I am performing in.
Whilst distributing the posters, Crystal received some great, positive feedback on the poster design from a stranger.
Here is Crystal's post in the group Facebook message explaining the story:
After such a wobbly start, this was a great morale booster and encouragement to keep striving for the best. It's also further evidence that my design is effective.
4 May, 2014: Recording EP of Group Songs Instrumentals
Kian, Dylan and Luke had mentioned their plans to go on holiday for a week from Monday 5 May, 2014 to Saturday 10 May, 2014. Concerned about how the week-long absence of 3 of the group's 4 instrumentalists only 2 weeks before the show date would impact rehearsals, I had suggested previously that Kian, Dylan and Luke record instrumental versions of the group songs so that we could still rehearse with their musical contributions despite them being away. They failed to this however, so I pressed Kian to come to my house to record his contributions.
Late Sunday evening after work and less than 24 hours before his flight, Kian came to my house with an eletric guitar of his, as he'd left a small amp there previously. Setting up to record proved a challenge as the highest surface I could find to place the amp on without disconnecting it from a power source was my desk. This proved problematic as the vibrations from the amp as the guitar was played transferred through the desk, distorting the sound that was recording through the microphone. To solve this, I used a large pillow to sit the amp on which stopped the audible vibrations, but the angle at which the amp was resting on was somewhat disconcerting.
We recorded methodically; Kian would record between 2 or 4 guitar parts which I would pan side by side at around 50% if there were two. In most of the songs where there were 3 seperate guitar recordings, I panned one 70% left, another directly center and the third 70% right. Kian would then record his vocal contribution which I panned directly in the center. I set a metronome so that the timing and rhythm would remain consistent throughout each song and Kian suggested that we play it loudly so that it's not only audible for him playing but also to those listening to the mixed tracks - as rhythm had been an issue for other group members in rehearsals on songs such as "Golden Brown" which has an irregular time signature for a popular song.
I applied a Hard Limiter, Graphic Equalizer and Reverb on each track individually to give the cleanest sound possible. On the master track of each recording I also applied the Mastering effect in Adobe Audition (the program I used to record and mix the EP) which amplified the overall sound of each song, making them sound louder but without clipping at any point.
Finally, I edited the ID3 tags of each track so that when the other group members download the EP and add it to iTunes for instance, the song name will show up in the designated spot, the artist will be shown as Kian Vaziri, the album FMP and the genre will also be accurate. This makes it considerably easier to find the tracks in one's music library as they are ordered and tagged like a proper EP release. I even designed some quick cover art lightheartedly from a picture I obtained from Kian's Facebook page; as group morale had been bruised by the announcement of the holiday.
I then uploaded the EP to my Google Drive and shared a link to download the EP in the group Facebook message which all of the group use daily to communicate. Here is the download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7J5dypzckmzZDhCeVM4ellKeTg/edit?usp=sharing
Despite the initial setbacks which prevented a clear recording of the guitar, I eventually managed to engineer an EP of high quality instrumentals which could be released if the metronome was not audible. Though a tiresome experience I realised just how good a sound I can create with limited equipment.
I feel these instrumentals will be a great and much needed aid in the rehearsal process while Kian, Dylan and Luke are away. The rest of the group can rehearse in group sessions with Kian despite him not being present but with the added conveniance of being able to pause, skip and repeat; plus the MP3 tracks can be transferred onto mobile devices as well as computers and CDs so the rest of the group can rehearse independently to them.
There is still a glaring downside and that is that the EP doesn't substitute for Kian, Dylan and Luke actually being present in rehearsal as they will still need to catch up on alterations that are made in their abscence. Another negative is we did not record "Kiss From a Rose" as Kian's musical contribution to the song is only vocal, so we will have to use a backing track to rehearse that as we did at the rehearsal that I housed, ironically.
Late Sunday evening after work and less than 24 hours before his flight, Kian came to my house with an eletric guitar of his, as he'd left a small amp there previously. Setting up to record proved a challenge as the highest surface I could find to place the amp on without disconnecting it from a power source was my desk. This proved problematic as the vibrations from the amp as the guitar was played transferred through the desk, distorting the sound that was recording through the microphone. To solve this, I used a large pillow to sit the amp on which stopped the audible vibrations, but the angle at which the amp was resting on was somewhat disconcerting.
We recorded methodically; Kian would record between 2 or 4 guitar parts which I would pan side by side at around 50% if there were two. In most of the songs where there were 3 seperate guitar recordings, I panned one 70% left, another directly center and the third 70% right. Kian would then record his vocal contribution which I panned directly in the center. I set a metronome so that the timing and rhythm would remain consistent throughout each song and Kian suggested that we play it loudly so that it's not only audible for him playing but also to those listening to the mixed tracks - as rhythm had been an issue for other group members in rehearsals on songs such as "Golden Brown" which has an irregular time signature for a popular song.
I applied a Hard Limiter, Graphic Equalizer and Reverb on each track individually to give the cleanest sound possible. On the master track of each recording I also applied the Mastering effect in Adobe Audition (the program I used to record and mix the EP) which amplified the overall sound of each song, making them sound louder but without clipping at any point.
Screenshot of the "Time Will Tell" recording; showing the 4 guitar tracks, a single vocal track and the effects used on one of the guitar tracks (click to enlarge):
Finally, I edited the ID3 tags of each track so that when the other group members download the EP and add it to iTunes for instance, the song name will show up in the designated spot, the artist will be shown as Kian Vaziri, the album FMP and the genre will also be accurate. This makes it considerably easier to find the tracks in one's music library as they are ordered and tagged like a proper EP release. I even designed some quick cover art lightheartedly from a picture I obtained from Kian's Facebook page; as group morale had been bruised by the announcement of the holiday.
The cover art I designed for the EP:
I then uploaded the EP to my Google Drive and shared a link to download the EP in the group Facebook message which all of the group use daily to communicate. Here is the download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7J5dypzckmzZDhCeVM4ellKeTg/edit?usp=sharing
Despite the initial setbacks which prevented a clear recording of the guitar, I eventually managed to engineer an EP of high quality instrumentals which could be released if the metronome was not audible. Though a tiresome experience I realised just how good a sound I can create with limited equipment.
I feel these instrumentals will be a great and much needed aid in the rehearsal process while Kian, Dylan and Luke are away. The rest of the group can rehearse in group sessions with Kian despite him not being present but with the added conveniance of being able to pause, skip and repeat; plus the MP3 tracks can be transferred onto mobile devices as well as computers and CDs so the rest of the group can rehearse independently to them.
There is still a glaring downside and that is that the EP doesn't substitute for Kian, Dylan and Luke actually being present in rehearsal as they will still need to catch up on alterations that are made in their abscence. Another negative is we did not record "Kiss From a Rose" as Kian's musical contribution to the song is only vocal, so we will have to use a backing track to rehearse that as we did at the rehearsal that I housed, ironically.
2 May, 2014: Introduction of Choreography
Keen to speed up rehearsal progress and develop my performances, I brought in the instrumental that I used to perform "Fire" at the Talent Show fundraiser which features simple guitar accompaniment and backing vocals by myself, complete with counter melodies and harmonies. I retained the backing vocals as though I'd asked Serena and Stefan to accompany me on the sing by singing backing vocals, it would be impossible to replicate every single part I recorded.
Just like them boys Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Abednego)
I know when I come out the flames won't be smelling like smoke, oh no
Yup, that's just what you said, it went straight to my head
Remembering every day, to let you have your way
And no it don't always feel good
But yet, it all works for my good
You say I can take the burn blazing deep inside
It's feels just like fire, fire all up in my bones
Don't leave alone, don't leave me alone
Oh my, my little light
I need to feel that heat come from your (fire)
Fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Just shine like stars in the night
We need to feel that heat come from your fire
[Bridge:]
When your work is done, I'll be here shining bright
The pressure upon me, like diamonds in the sky
Turn into fire, I want to feel your fire
All over it fills me, Jesus you purify me
[Chorus: x3]
It's feels just like fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Oh my, my little light
I need to feel that heat come from your (fire)
Fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Just shine like stars in the night
We need to feel that heat come from your fire
I began choreographing by playing the instrumental repeatedly and improvising simple sways and steps which Serena and Stefan could replicate with ease. I settled with a combination of a lean and finger snaps/clicks for the intro and choruses whilst for the verses I choreographed a simple, variation of a right-left march but with the feet staying flat on the ground whilst the knees rise up and point forwards. The upper body should be free and led by the shoulders as it rocks from side to side as one alternates the movement of the legs. As the march gets repetitive in the verses, I developed it further by adding double time sections.
Here are the lyrics in my shortened arrangment of Michelle Williams' "Fire" - which does not contain the bridge, last chorus or outro of the original song - colour-coded with choreography pointers:
Key:
Choreography: Lean & Finger Snaps
Choreography: March & Sway
Choreography: March & Sway (Double Time)
Lyrics not used in my arrangement
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
They say anything that is worth it you must take it slow
They know when you come around ain't no choice but to grow
Listen for what you say when I lay down my head
I don't know no other way, but to let you have your way
And no it don't always feel good
But yet, it all works for my good
You say I can take the burn blazing deep inside
It's feels just like fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Oh my, my little light
I need to feel that heat come from your (fire)
Fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Just shine like stars in the night
We need to feel that heat come from your fire
Oh yeah
They say anything that is worth it you must take it slow
They know when you come around ain't no choice but to grow
Listen for what you say when I lay down my head
I don't know no other way, but to let you have your way
And no it don't always feel good
But yet, it all works for my good
You say I can take the burn blazing deep inside
It's feels just like fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Oh my, my little light
I need to feel that heat come from your (fire)
Fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Just shine like stars in the night
We need to feel that heat come from your fire
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Just like them boys Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Abednego)
I know when I come out the flames won't be smelling like smoke, oh no
Yup, that's just what you said, it went straight to my head
Remembering every day, to let you have your way
And no it don't always feel good
But yet, it all works for my good
You say I can take the burn blazing deep inside
It's feels just like fire, fire all up in my bones
Don't leave alone, don't leave me alone
Oh my, my little light
I need to feel that heat come from your (fire)
Fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Just shine like stars in the night
We need to feel that heat come from your fire
[Bridge:]
When your work is done, I'll be here shining bright
The pressure upon me, like diamonds in the sky
Turn into fire, I want to feel your fire
All over it fills me, Jesus you purify me
[Chorus: x3]
It's feels just like fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Oh my, my little light
I need to feel that heat come from your (fire)
Fire, fire caught up in my bones
Don't leave me alone, don't leave me alone
Just shine like stars in the night
We need to feel that heat come from your fire
[Outro]
In place of the original song's bridge, the following series of repeated choruses and outro, the acoustic instrumental I found on YouTube (and edited) gradually fades out as I ad-lib to end the song.
Serena picked up the simple choreography instantly but Stefan (who has not studied dance previously as myself and Serena have) struggled with the synchronisation of his feet and his upper body on the marches and also the double time sections. By the end of the rehearsal he did manage to perform the choreography but was still inconsistent and looked awkward on the marches. This is something I'll work on with him as it is vital that everyone looks comfortable and at ease on stage with our theme and event title both being The Lounge.
Stefan was far more confident providing backing vocals however. Whilst Serena sang the lead vocal melody on the chorus (allowing me to ad-lib), Stefan competently improvised different harmonies throughout the rehearsal to see which worked best with no input from me whatsoever, which allowed me to focus on the visual side of the performance.
I also lent time to Elica's solo performance of Emeli Sande's "Read All About It, Pt. III", giving her feedback after she performed it for the rest of the group. I commented that though it is evident that her nervous laughs are under control, she still needs to build her confidence and project her voice so it travels across the room and not get lost in the space or behind the instrumental track.
I also lent time to Elica's solo performance of Emeli Sande's "Read All About It, Pt. III", giving her feedback after she performed it for the rest of the group. I commented that though it is evident that her nervous laughs are under control, she still needs to build her confidence and project her voice so it travels across the room and not get lost in the space or behind the instrumental track.
1 May, 2014: Promotional Videos by Serena and Me
In terms of rehearsal, we did not make much progress though we did run the group performance of "Kiss From a Rose" a few times before Kian had to leave due to work commitments.
After the poor overall effort from the group earlier in the week, to participate in and contribute to executing a promotional video to share on social media, I took the initiative to post my previously uploaded and shared studio cover of Michelle Williams' "Fire" - one of my solo performances in the show - to my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts.
After the poor overall effort from the group earlier in the week, to participate in and contribute to executing a promotional video to share on social media, I took the initiative to post my previously uploaded and shared studio cover of Michelle Williams' "Fire" - one of my solo performances in the show - to my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts.
My Facebook post which
details the venue, date and time of The Lounge, and links to the event page
(where prospective audiences can RVSP), along with venue's, has received 14 'likes'
and 3 'shares' - 2 of those shares being from Serena who shared my post on her
personal account and also on The Lounge event page.
Having encouraged the rest of the group to follow suit, Serena actually beat me to it by posting a clip of her rehearsing Erykah Badu's "Otherside of the Game" (which myself and Kian will be accompanying her on for the final performance) on Facebook - the same day I asked the group to post videos independently.
My Facbeook post
Serena's Facebook post
Serena's post was clearly the most successful and I really appreciate her haste in getting a video up, thus promoting the event - I just wish this enthusiasm was shared by the entire group.
29 April, 2014: First Group Visit to Venue
With everyone present we discussed our individual progress thus far with FMP coursework (blog and portfolio) before walking over to the venue which will house our event, Milton Keynes Christian Centre - which is conveniantly only seperated by a road, leading to a commute time of appoximately 5 minutes between college and the venue - for a 2:30 p.m. appointment set up by Serena.
Once at the venue we were introduced to Dale, a member of staff at the venue who I've met previously at one of the church's events. He escorted us to the Discovery Suite which we will be using, however, the room was already occupied so he could not give us a tour of the site, instead we viewed the room through the glass door, which gave us a reasonable of the size - which is fairly vast.
This was far from ideal as I hoped we'd get an opportunity to fully inspect and size the stage, view the space behind the curtains and the adjacent rooms such as the kitchen for possible storage and preparation locations (as we plan to bring food and PA equipment) before and during the final show.
In addition to this, I also would have liked to do a test of the projector by projecting at least a random image or the video montage I created for mine and Tamara's duet of "Say Something", to evaluate how well it projects and take notes on what works and what doesn't so that I can fully utilise and make the most of the equipment, ensuring the audience can fully view and appreciate the projected visuals. However, I had not brought in a means of playing the video (such as a laptop) - a failure on my part, but one which didn't impact on progress as we couldn't access the room regardless.
I did enquire about how one would go about projecting an image or video to which Dale verbally responded that the projector would simply connect to a laptop and project whatever was being displayed on the laptop. This was a big relief as I was concerned that I may need to operate software I was unfamiliar with, which could be time consuming to learn and take my attention and focus from marketing, promoting and rehearsing for the show itself.
Dale did also mention that unfortunately due to another event we won't be able to access the Discovery Suite until 2 hours before the show. This will cut it incredibly close. In order for the night to be a success we will need to devise a detailed plan of who will do what on the day as we not only need chairs set up; but PA equipment, the sofas on stage, purchase food and set up tables for it to be purchased from to name just a few of the tasks.
Back at college, we discussed our job roles and what progress had been made in each department. I brought up my concerns about the virtually non-existant marketing and promotion of the event - which is Dylan and Luke's job role, with my role in marketing actually being the group's Graphic Designer. With the event date drawing near, I proposed the idea of recording a promotional video - which I would produce/edit as graphic designer - to share via social media and send to local media such as The Citizen publication (which our college in addition to Kian and Dylan's band, the Silver Tongue Bandoliers have been featured in before) to build an online buzz thus contributing to the marketing of the final show.
My initial idea was to have a montage of rehearsal clips set to music recorded by us; such as a studio recording of one of the group songs. This would allow us to record the audio and video seperately, splitting the workload, vastly improving sound quality and also creating a much more interesting video than a simple video recording of us singing one of the songs. I was particularly apprehensive about the latter approach considering how uninterested and unappealing everyone appeared to be during the rehearsals I filmed at my house on April 21, 2014, so I thought such a video could wait until we had worked harder on the visual aspects of our performance; such as body language, gestures, eye line, use of the stage and choreography.
A group video posted to our event page and shared by our individual social media pages could potentially be seen by the thousands of friends and followers we have collectively. Also, if all 9 of us shared the same video on Facebook (thus making it more popular), it would likely result in it appearing at the top of our Facebook friends' news feeds making it much more visible and increasing the likelihood of it being watched by many people.
Myself and Luke arranged for the group to use the college music studio from 4:30 p.m.to 5 p.m. to record audio which would play throughout the video, by liasing with our tutors. I then arranged for the group to meet at 4 p.m. to rehearse "Kiss From a Rose", which we decided as a group would be the best choice for the video as it truly personified 'The Lounge' theme and is one of the most popular group songs, having peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart in 1995; the most popular being The Stranglers' "Golden Brown" which peaked at #2, twelve years prior.
This rehearsal was essential as we had such a short window of time to get into the studio, set up the instruments and equipment and then record (mixing would have to be done later). By 4:15 p.m. virtually half the group was present; myself, Serena, Tamara, Elica and Luke (the only instrumentalist at this point). Dylan arrived shortly after this time but by 4:30 p.m. Crystal, Kian and Stefan were all still missing which I found incredibly frustrating, especially since Luke and Dylan (both instrumentalists) were not present at the last rehearsal in which we finished the vocal arrangement for "Kiss From a Rose" and so the rehearsal time which I allocated was absolutely vital in ensuring we had a rehearsed performance which we could record to not only a releasable standard but at a level which would entice audiences in very few takes.
Without a rehearsal, I decided I would no longer produce a promotional video on behalf of the group. I was very dissapointed that the entire group could not congregate for an hour and focus solely on rehearsing and recording "Kiss From a Rose" in the college studio - a recording which I would have mixed. Without a group recording, it seemed pointless to me to waste further time recording video clips of the entire group rehearsing if they were not present on the audio of the video - The Lounge is after all going to be a music show and thus the music should be the most critical element of a promotional video for it, especially considering the calibre of talent in the group.
Instead of the non-existant group video, I will share my studio cover of Michelle Williams' "Fire" which I posted in an earlier blog and/or record a live clip or snippet of me rehearsing the song and share it. I encouraged the rest of the group to do the same, so that combined we may come close to or match the impact that a group promotional video possibly would have made.
Once at the venue we were introduced to Dale, a member of staff at the venue who I've met previously at one of the church's events. He escorted us to the Discovery Suite which we will be using, however, the room was already occupied so he could not give us a tour of the site, instead we viewed the room through the glass door, which gave us a reasonable of the size - which is fairly vast.
This was far from ideal as I hoped we'd get an opportunity to fully inspect and size the stage, view the space behind the curtains and the adjacent rooms such as the kitchen for possible storage and preparation locations (as we plan to bring food and PA equipment) before and during the final show.
In addition to this, I also would have liked to do a test of the projector by projecting at least a random image or the video montage I created for mine and Tamara's duet of "Say Something", to evaluate how well it projects and take notes on what works and what doesn't so that I can fully utilise and make the most of the equipment, ensuring the audience can fully view and appreciate the projected visuals. However, I had not brought in a means of playing the video (such as a laptop) - a failure on my part, but one which didn't impact on progress as we couldn't access the room regardless.
The first draft/preview of the video I intend to project for mine and Tamara's duet, "Say Something. For the performance, the audio in the video will be muted:
I did enquire about how one would go about projecting an image or video to which Dale verbally responded that the projector would simply connect to a laptop and project whatever was being displayed on the laptop. This was a big relief as I was concerned that I may need to operate software I was unfamiliar with, which could be time consuming to learn and take my attention and focus from marketing, promoting and rehearsing for the show itself.
Dale did also mention that unfortunately due to another event we won't be able to access the Discovery Suite until 2 hours before the show. This will cut it incredibly close. In order for the night to be a success we will need to devise a detailed plan of who will do what on the day as we not only need chairs set up; but PA equipment, the sofas on stage, purchase food and set up tables for it to be purchased from to name just a few of the tasks.
Back at college, we discussed our job roles and what progress had been made in each department. I brought up my concerns about the virtually non-existant marketing and promotion of the event - which is Dylan and Luke's job role, with my role in marketing actually being the group's Graphic Designer. With the event date drawing near, I proposed the idea of recording a promotional video - which I would produce/edit as graphic designer - to share via social media and send to local media such as The Citizen publication (which our college in addition to Kian and Dylan's band, the Silver Tongue Bandoliers have been featured in before) to build an online buzz thus contributing to the marketing of the final show.
My initial idea was to have a montage of rehearsal clips set to music recorded by us; such as a studio recording of one of the group songs. This would allow us to record the audio and video seperately, splitting the workload, vastly improving sound quality and also creating a much more interesting video than a simple video recording of us singing one of the songs. I was particularly apprehensive about the latter approach considering how uninterested and unappealing everyone appeared to be during the rehearsals I filmed at my house on April 21, 2014, so I thought such a video could wait until we had worked harder on the visual aspects of our performance; such as body language, gestures, eye line, use of the stage and choreography.
A group video posted to our event page and shared by our individual social media pages could potentially be seen by the thousands of friends and followers we have collectively. Also, if all 9 of us shared the same video on Facebook (thus making it more popular), it would likely result in it appearing at the top of our Facebook friends' news feeds making it much more visible and increasing the likelihood of it being watched by many people.
Myself and Luke arranged for the group to use the college music studio from 4:30 p.m.to 5 p.m. to record audio which would play throughout the video, by liasing with our tutors. I then arranged for the group to meet at 4 p.m. to rehearse "Kiss From a Rose", which we decided as a group would be the best choice for the video as it truly personified 'The Lounge' theme and is one of the most popular group songs, having peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart in 1995; the most popular being The Stranglers' "Golden Brown" which peaked at #2, twelve years prior.
This rehearsal was essential as we had such a short window of time to get into the studio, set up the instruments and equipment and then record (mixing would have to be done later). By 4:15 p.m. virtually half the group was present; myself, Serena, Tamara, Elica and Luke (the only instrumentalist at this point). Dylan arrived shortly after this time but by 4:30 p.m. Crystal, Kian and Stefan were all still missing which I found incredibly frustrating, especially since Luke and Dylan (both instrumentalists) were not present at the last rehearsal in which we finished the vocal arrangement for "Kiss From a Rose" and so the rehearsal time which I allocated was absolutely vital in ensuring we had a rehearsed performance which we could record to not only a releasable standard but at a level which would entice audiences in very few takes.
Without a rehearsal, I decided I would no longer produce a promotional video on behalf of the group. I was very dissapointed that the entire group could not congregate for an hour and focus solely on rehearsing and recording "Kiss From a Rose" in the college studio - a recording which I would have mixed. Without a group recording, it seemed pointless to me to waste further time recording video clips of the entire group rehearsing if they were not present on the audio of the video - The Lounge is after all going to be a music show and thus the music should be the most critical element of a promotional video for it, especially considering the calibre of talent in the group.
Instead of the non-existant group video, I will share my studio cover of Michelle Williams' "Fire" which I posted in an earlier blog and/or record a live clip or snippet of me rehearsing the song and share it. I encouraged the rest of the group to do the same, so that combined we may come close to or match the impact that a group promotional video possibly would have made.
20-28 April, 2014: 'The Lounge' Poster and "Givin' Em What They Love"
20-27 April, 2014: The Lounge Poster
On April 20, 2014, keen to start designing the poster for The Lounge with the show date less than a month away, I messaged the entire group attatching a document with all of the varying poster designs I've annotated for my portfolio without any notes so they can simply tell me the page numbers of their favourite designs in the very least (as there is one poster per page) and also lend any other feedback or comments about the posters.
This would give me a starting point from which to design our poster with elements from the most popular posters within the group. However, it was - as expected - annoyingly difficult to get the group to complete the simplest of tasks and I had to ask numerous times, the last time being the 22 April, 2014.
On 27 April, 2014 I designed The Lounge poster using Corel Paint Shop Pro. I started with the concept of a sofa being central - as shown in the first of my research examples in my portfolio.
This is the sofa I initially began removing the background from as its original background did not exude the coolness that I wanted for our poster. Also, the clear daylight through the window would look out of place on a poster for an evening event and the original image itself was not long enough to fill an A4 sheet of paper - which is the size we'll be printing on.
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Even
after the arduous process of cleanly removing the background, I was not
content with the choice of sofa and thought it was more appropriate for
a Women's Institute tea party than a student-produced show titled The Lounge.
So I went in search of another image and settled on this:
The image's white background was easy to remove despite the reflection and shadow effects, plus I felt the dark, brown leather exuded the class and coolness that I was after.
I then found a high resolution image of a textured grey background with rich wood flooring, which I added the background-free sofa too and then the text to create the first draft of the poster (click to enlarge):
Though the title of the event is very clear along with the date, time and venue, after sharing the draft in the group Facebook message, we soon realised that I had forgotten to add the ticket price or any info on them at all; which may have led many to believe the event was free, which would have been disastrous if we had an audience that turned up not expecting to pay anything.
I swiftly added ticket info and also made a few cosmetic changes which I think made a great difference and finished the design.
While I am very proud of the final design, I do wish I had started the process of getting group feedback sooner so that I could have completed the design sooner and thus leave more time to use it to promote the event.
I was really pleased and flattered by the feedback I received from prospective audience members who were enticed to seek further info on the show after seeing me post the poster on Facebook.
28 April, 2014: "Givin' Em What They Love"
I arrived at 14:00 to find Kian and Crystal waiting, Serena arrived 11 minutes later and Elica soon after that. Stefan arrived around 15:00 and after discussing the general progress of rehearsals and planning of the show - which I feel is much slower than it should be due to poor attendance, motivation and focus from a few group members - we began focusing on solos.
Me and Kian began rehearsing Janelle Monae's "Givin' Em What They Love", which she performs with Prince - Kian's all-time favourite performer.
I sang Janelle's verse and the first chorus an octave lower than she does on the original studio recording. Kian harmonises above me on the first chorus and then sing's Prince's verse in the same octave before dropping down an octave. I then come in with the second chorus but singing in the same octave Janelle does on the studio recording and Kian harmonises below me. We thought we'd arrange the song this way to build up interest and tension rather than start full out and have to maintain that level of audience interest throughout the performance.
We did not get onto the bridge but the song is a personal favourite of mine and Kian so I have full faith that we'll both rehearse the song independently so that when we rehearse it next we can cover all of it and begin working on the performance aspects of our performance as the show date is drawing ever closer and we need to speed up rehearsal progress.
Also, I need to rehearse singing in Janelle's octave as though I am fully capable of singing the notes, the fear of failing is preventing me from going for it in rehearsals and if I can't belt fearlessly in rehearsals then how will I do so in a live show?
On April 20, 2014, keen to start designing the poster for The Lounge with the show date less than a month away, I messaged the entire group attatching a document with all of the varying poster designs I've annotated for my portfolio without any notes so they can simply tell me the page numbers of their favourite designs in the very least (as there is one poster per page) and also lend any other feedback or comments about the posters.
This would give me a starting point from which to design our poster with elements from the most popular posters within the group. However, it was - as expected - annoyingly difficult to get the group to complete the simplest of tasks and I had to ask numerous times, the last time being the 22 April, 2014.
Here are the responses I did get (3 of the 8 other people in the group):
On 27 April, 2014 I designed The Lounge poster using Corel Paint Shop Pro. I started with the concept of a sofa being central - as shown in the first of my research examples in my portfolio.
This is the sofa I initially began removing the background from as its original background did not exude the coolness that I wanted for our poster. Also, the clear daylight through the window would look out of place on a poster for an evening event and the original image itself was not long enough to fill an A4 sheet of paper - which is the size we'll be printing on.
So I went in search of another image and settled on this:
The image's white background was easy to remove despite the reflection and shadow effects, plus I felt the dark, brown leather exuded the class and coolness that I was after.
I then found a high resolution image of a textured grey background with rich wood flooring, which I added the background-free sofa too and then the text to create the first draft of the poster (click to enlarge):
Though the title of the event is very clear along with the date, time and venue, after sharing the draft in the group Facebook message, we soon realised that I had forgotten to add the ticket price or any info on them at all; which may have led many to believe the event was free, which would have been disastrous if we had an audience that turned up not expecting to pay anything.
I swiftly added ticket info and also made a few cosmetic changes which I think made a great difference and finished the design.
The final poster design for The Lounge (click to enlarge):
While I am very proud of the final design, I do wish I had started the process of getting group feedback sooner so that I could have completed the design sooner and thus leave more time to use it to promote the event.
I was really pleased and flattered by the feedback I received from prospective audience members who were enticed to seek further info on the show after seeing me post the poster on Facebook.
Here is some of that feedback:
The
positive response to the poster was confirmation for me that the design
is a successful one, putting me one step closer to effectively
fulfilling my role as the Graphic Designer of the group. Though I shared
the poster design on social media, I plan on printing the posters in
the next few days at my parent's house as my printer is not set up.
They also have a laminator which I'll use to protect the posters from
being damaged and becoming illegible.
28 April, 2014: "Givin' Em What They Love"
I arrived at 14:00 to find Kian and Crystal waiting, Serena arrived 11 minutes later and Elica soon after that. Stefan arrived around 15:00 and after discussing the general progress of rehearsals and planning of the show - which I feel is much slower than it should be due to poor attendance, motivation and focus from a few group members - we began focusing on solos.
Me and Kian began rehearsing Janelle Monae's "Givin' Em What They Love", which she performs with Prince - Kian's all-time favourite performer.
Janelle Monáe (feat. Prince) "Givin' Em What They Love" (from The Electric Lady)
I sang Janelle's verse and the first chorus an octave lower than she does on the original studio recording. Kian harmonises above me on the first chorus and then sing's Prince's verse in the same octave before dropping down an octave. I then come in with the second chorus but singing in the same octave Janelle does on the studio recording and Kian harmonises below me. We thought we'd arrange the song this way to build up interest and tension rather than start full out and have to maintain that level of audience interest throughout the performance.
We did not get onto the bridge but the song is a personal favourite of mine and Kian so I have full faith that we'll both rehearse the song independently so that when we rehearse it next we can cover all of it and begin working on the performance aspects of our performance as the show date is drawing ever closer and we need to speed up rehearsal progress.
Also, I need to rehearse singing in Janelle's octave as though I am fully capable of singing the notes, the fear of failing is preventing me from going for it in rehearsals and if I can't belt fearlessly in rehearsals then how will I do so in a live show?
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