Article in the Greenock Telegraph!

On Monday 22nd April, an article about our Creative Project was published in our local newspaper the Greenock Telegraph!

If you missed seeing the article, here is the link to it on the Greenock Telegraph's website!

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/greenock/articles/2013/04/22/454425-teen-wins-chance-to-record-song-/

Photos from our "Final Showcase!"

Here is a few photos from our Final Showcase at Clydeview Academy on Friday 19th April - apologies for the poor quality!

What we have been upto over the past few weeks...

Here is some information listing all the things we had to think about before the day of our "Final Showcase" on Friday 19th April 2013.

Judging Panel: Over the Easter Break, our job was to make sure everything was being prepared for the final showcase and that we hadn’t forgotten anything. Our main priority was to organise a judging panel for the competition – luckily Miss Forsyth had a number of contacts that we could get in touch with to see if they would be interested in helping us out.  Miss Forsyth helped us get Garry John Kane (Bass player from The Proclaimers), Lesley McLaren (local drummer) and Sara Kerr (singer) who are all in a band together called “Button Up” to be on our  judging panel. And the fourth judge would be Mr Conley (a maths teacher from Clydeview Academy who also plays guitar.)

  

Sound and Light Teams: I contacted two HNC Sound Production students who I know from college Jordan and Jamie to see if they would be interested in helping us out for our Final Showcase and want to be involved with taking charge of the sound equipment on the day. Sadly they both had other commitments and couldn’t help us out, so we just got the Clydeview Academy guys to take control of the sound equipment instead. Regarding a “lights team”, another few guys from the school helped us out on the day by controlling the light equipment which was great… the whole staging looked really professional and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the light and sound teams!

Photo Permission: Due to our Creative Project being held in a school, Colette and I were wondering if we would have needed permission to take photographs during the day, however when I asked Miss Forsyth about it she said that there was no need for us to worry as she had this sorted.

Press: Colette contacted the Greenock Telegraph during the week of our “Final Showcase” and it was confirmed that a photographer would be coming along to take photos on the day for the telegraph. The journalist couldn’t make it on that date, however a few phone calls were exchanged before and after the event to find out about our Creative Project and to get all the information needed that would be put in the article.

Note: There were no costings and/or legal constraints involved in our Creative Project.

Overall Event: Our “Final Showcase” went really well! All the students who performed were fantastic and the judges were blown away by the level of musicianship these children have. Colette and I compared on the day which was a bit daunting because we had nearly 100 pupils staring back at us who came to sit in the audience!! The whole day went really well and all the staff, pupils and judges seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Organizing an event like this made us both realise how difficult and time consuming it is! However I’m sure that will not put us off doing it again in the future!  

My GANTT Chart

Here is a GANTT Chart I made up to give you an idea of the things that have had to be done for our Creative Project and the timescale each activity has taken/will take to complete.

Creative Project Poster #2

Here is the poster I created on my computer with Microsoft Publisher which was used to advertise and give more information about our "Final Showcase"! 

I just used the same colour scheme as last time and included our logo. 

What we have been upto since we finished the plan in February...

Our Creative Project plans were due to be handed in to our lecturer David on Monday 18th February 2013, which we passed! 

Before our plans were submitted, Colette and I had a meeting up at Clydeview Academy on Wednesday 13th February to talk to Val Forsyth (Head of Music Department) to discuss what our Creative Project involves and if it was possible to go ahead with it - she was delighted that we wanted to hold this recording competition within the school and involve the pupils in this exciting opportunity. 

The three of us discussed what dates would be suitable, and we came to the agreement that we would hold auditions before the pupils knocked off for their Easter Break and we would decide over the holidays who would go through to the "Final Showcase" which would be held on the first Friday lunchtime after the holidays.

Originally the plan was for Colette and I to go upto Clydeview Academy to audition pupils over four days at lunchtimes. However, not many pupils put their name down to audition (our worst case scenario!) so it turned out that we only had an "audition day" one lunchtime. 

The pupils that turned up to audition were all 1st year students and they were fantastic! We were truly blown away at how enthusiastic they were, and we were so pleased that they made the effort to come along and "gee it laldie!"

Due to the stress of SQA exams approaching, no senior students had prepared to audition... however we managed to persuade some to audition, the week we go back after the holidays before the "Final Showcase" on Friday 19th April 2013. 

Creative Project Poster

Here is the poster I created on my computer to be put up in Clydeview Academy! 

I created the "JWC Creative Project 2013" logo back in March when I made the Facebook and Twitter pages. I used the original James Watt College logo which was the colourful coat of arms and added an effect to it to give it that "faded" look. I then inserted a text box and typed the title on it. 

When I created the posters, I tried to use all the colours which are in the logo so that it would all tie in nicely and make it quite eye-catching. This was then sent to Val Forsyth (Head of Music at Clydeview Academy) and she printed some off and put them up in the school to advertise our competition 

Note: I made an error with one of the "Dates for your homework diary"! It should have said Friday 19th April, NOT March.

Creative Project Plan

Here is the plan for our Creative Project! This will give you an idea of what we are hoping to achieve in the next few weeks.

Project Brief:

For our creative project we have chosen to organise a recording competition at Clydeview Academy for pupils to compete in and the winner will get the opportunity to record and release a single with Clydebuilt Records within James Watt College. We have chosen to do an event like this because we are very familiar with Clydeview Academy and we know that there are very talented musicians in this school who would appreciate this competition.

Marketing Needs and Dynamics:Target market: The main target audience and the people who would be most interested in this competition would be the pupils – this competition is for the pupils and out of this, one artist or band will be chosen as the winner of this exciting competition. 
Market needs: The reasons why pupils would be interested in this competition could be because: they enjoy the experience of performing to others, want to become more confident performing to an audience, interested in studying music once they are finished school and are eager to become a musician when they are older. 
Market dynamics: We know from our experience within the school that without this project the pupils would not have an opportunity to better themselves in this field. Without our creative project, we feel that this chance of getting to release a music record is very rare for young people to get involved in. Competing in this competition may help persuade pupils who are interested in music to just go for it and see what happens, even if they are only interested in gaining confidence to perform to an audience. 

Sources of Information:
· The main person who we will be contacting on a regular basis about the venue and musicians will be Valerie Forsyth (Head of Music at Clydeview Academy).
· When the winner has been chosen, we will be in contact with David O’Hagan for help about releasing the single with Clydebuilt Records.
· Sound production students and/or staff to help with the recording of the single.

Legalities:
· Disclosure Scotland – We are aware that when working with children, a Disclosure Scotland form has to be filled out in order to make aware that there are no safety issues with us working with them (eg. criminal convictions etc).
· Photograph permission – Nowadays it is essential for schools and outside parties to get the permission from a child’s parents as to whether they allow their child to be photographed.

Initial Project Concepts and Outputs:
Our product idea in a nutshell is this – We plan to hold a competition in Clydeview Academy, inviting pupils from all year groups in the school to perform as a band or simply sing solo in front of an audience and be judged. The winner of the competition will receive the opportunity to record a song with Clydebuilt Records and then have their song published on iTunes.

Concept for Development:
For the development of our project, there is a chance that we would be able to do a competition similar to the one we are doing in Clydeview, but in different or all the High Schools within the area. There is also a chance that we could hold a competition in a local hall where different acts in all of the local High Schools can compete against each other in order to win and having their song put out onto the college Record Label – Clydebuilt Records.

Introduction

My name is Nyree Marsh and I am currently studying HNC Music Business at James Watt College in Greenock, Scotland. For part of my qualification this year, I must complete a "Creative Project" which is based around a theme I have chosen, which is Live Events. 

One of my fellow students Colette Saunders had the same ideas as me, so we have been paired up by my lecturer and are now doing our Creative Project together.

I have decided to use blogger.com as a way of keeping track of our progress and to show you what we have been upto. I do hope you enjoy reading through some of our blog posts! Speak soon, Nyree.