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This was our first week discussing the final project for college. Our group will be providing technical assistance for the Level 3 Musical Theatre production of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! The Musical. We went through the assignment brief for the project with Chris, who gave tips for each of the activities and explained what was expected for us to submit. This was useful and it gave me a base to work on. We looked at some ex-student’s Unit 12 websites to get inspiration for our own websites and get us on the right track. We got the template for our first activity, the project proposal, sent to us to fill in with explanations about why you want to do the role, including some proposed research. For this production, I chose sound because I would like to be a live sound engineer in the future. This production will be invaluable in experience and research, and give me the opportunity to work on an extended project in the sound department. It will also give me another project to add to my CV and portfolio website to show future employers/clients. We also had the links to our websites shared, so we can start working on those. I created an action plan for what I plan to achieve each week from now until the final hand-in of the project. This will help give me a structure of what I need to do in a given week and to ensure I know what needs to happen and I don’t fall behind.
I started a Padlet board to upload ideas and research to. This gives an easy-to-follow look at all my research as I add it in the upcoming weeks. I completed some research of the writer, Lionel Bart, and about the Oliver production, and added it to my Padlet board. We had an ex-student, now industry professional, Jonah, come into the college this week who shared his experience with the transition from the college world to the work world. I asked how different the two sides are, to find out more about my role and it’s future.
I discussed with Chris about ideas on my personal project, which could be to do with learning new software, using OSC and MIDI, and looking into speaker mapping by adding spot speakers in the set. I made notes of this conversation as it will help me to build a personal project over the next few weeks.
I read through the script and produced an Actor Scenic Breakdown, a table showing who speaks in what scene. This will be very useful when marking my script to quickly know which mics will be needed per scene. I quickly realised in doing this that there are many extra ensemble roles, potentially requiring a radio mic. This may be a developing problem in the amount of radio mics available that I may be able to fix with mic swaps. I created a scene sheet as I went through the script to have quick access to page numbers of each scene and musical number.
On Friday, the staff meeting for the Oliver production was held, from which we gained more details about the specific needs of the production from the director. It was here scheduled that we would have a student meeting on Monday at 12:30, which will be useful to build my plans and ideas more. I came up with a list of notes to ask Dan, the director, in this meeting to make sure I get the most I can out of it as my plans cannot currently progress further until I know the show requirements. From here I can take his ideas into account as the show comes together.
On Monday, we had our first student production meeting with Dan, director and Alfie, production co-ordinator. I used my list of notes to ensure everything I needed to know was asked and to make notes on the responses I received from Dan. This meeting was invaluable to allowing progress of my plans as I shared my ideas and got other opinions, although there are still questions raised such as which actors will switch to play smaller characters later in the show. Once this information is known I can progress with my microphone plot.
The ex-student Jonah returned this week. I discussed my plans with him and where I currently was in the production process. He approved my work and gave tips on how to improve it, such as making sure plans are updated as often as possible if necessary.
I received a query from a member of the public who wanted to know if there would be an induction loop available for the show for those who are hard of hearing. I want to make sure that the show can be as accessible as possible so I communicated with Tom Hatch, the venue technician, about whether this would be possible. I am currently waiting on his response.
I did some research on my Padlet board on the historical period, Victorian England; the West End Oliver sound designer, Adam Fisher; previous productions of Oliver The Musical; and more about sound design and what my role involves. This research will be useful in building my understanding of the show and how it has been pulled off in the past. It will also help me in becoming a better sound designer and the essentials I need to know.
I talked with Chris about my next steps and where to research next. We had a discussion where he shared some sources of where I can research and we found some sites I could look into. This was a very useful conversation because I gained a broader idea of where to go next with my research and planning.
I started working on a full analysis of the script to get a bigger understanding of the story and the practical needs of the show. I completed all Act 1 scenes and I plan to finish this next week.
This week we had extra-curricular activities at college so I mostly completed my Unit 12 work from home.
I spent some time doing more research online looking over some of the sites and documents Chris provided, including plans made by Tom Hatch of the Olympus Theatre space. This will be helpful in building my own plans on the space and developing them further. I also completed some of the Shure Wireless Masterclass online training. I started this training a while ago as it will be essential for my career and I decided to pick it back up as research for Unit 12. This course will help me learn the best ways to position antennas, coordinating frequencies and understanding how the system actually works to get the most out of it.
I previously planned last week to conduct some primary research on the sound store and create an equipment list of all the equipment in the store. This was postponed due to external productions using the theatre, so I am hopeful to be able to complete this next week.
I heard back from Tom Hatch regarding the induction loop driver. He said the system should be working fine and he will test it soon as it barely ever gets used. This will be useful primary research to allow me to go back on the public query.