Lara McEvoy - 319311
Unit 13: Final Major Project
Part 2: End of Year Show - 7.1/7.2
One of the distribution methods mentioned in the previous part was the end of year show, we have used this distribution method to show our work to a specified audience. On this page you will find the process undertake to get to the end of year show, focusing on my role that I had, as well as discussing other attributes of the process. This will be shown through the meeting notes and other commentary needed.
Meeting 1
(20/2/24)
Today we had our first meeting to start producing the end of year show. In this meeting we discussed the basics of the show and what roles people would have. With the roles I genuinely didn’t know what I wanted to do because for 1, no one explained what roles there were on offer, and 2 I wasn’t sure what I would be good at or want to do. As a result of this I sat and listened to what roles everyone else was wanting to do to see what was on offer, leading me to be on the set/design team with Flossy and Molly. For the design team, at the moment, we are primarily focused on creating the decorations/aesthetic of the show as a whole. This could be seen as a big role to undertake but as there are three of us, I feel we will be able to do this well. When we were assigning roles, we also assigned two people to be leaders as we needed 2 people to be able to keep track and assign jobs.
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In the meeting we were told by our lecturer’s that the Sundial Theatre wasn’t available at all, which is where these shows have been held in the past. As a result of this we were told that we have T-block atrium as our designated venue, unless we are able to find another. None of us were really impressed at the thought of using T-block atrium as the seating in there is bad, it’s a set of stairs which are big enough to sit on but not comfortable at all, but this is something we will have to work around if we are unable to find/secure another venue. So, to make a start on finding another venue, I suggested contacting a theatre in Cheltenham called the ‘Bacon Theatre’ as they are a large venue and have a screen for projections. This wasn’t that well received as a lot of people began to complain about that fact that it’s in Cheltenham which is far for some people to go. I understand that for some it is far to go, but how some people responded made it feel like a bit of an attack and as though my suggestion was stupid, so I am hoping that this won’t happen in every meeting but due to the people in my class I doubt this is the case.
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At the end of the meeting, it was decided these meetings will be happening every Tuesday at 14:30 and tasks were assigned to each group of job roles. For myself, Flossy and Molly we were set the task of creating a mood board for the decorations/aesthetic that it could potentially be or look like. Below are the notes from meeting 1.
Meeting 2
(27/2/24)
As we had been tasked with creating a mood board for today’s meetings, we quickly made one up before the meeting as we did forget to do this before. For this we used PowerPoint and went onto Pinterest to find photos which we felt reflected the aesthetic we were going for. We decided that we wanted to go for more fairy lights, photo booths, photo frames etc. As we weren’t given a theme to go off, and we know the venue isn’t that aesthetic/easy to decorate, we really weren’t sure whether what we made fitted what the whole class wanted.
So that we could get feedback asap we put this up onto the screen so that this would be the first thing that gets discussed. Luckily for us the whole class liked the mood board and felt that it fitted the theme that they were going for, this means that we can continue to develop this as the meetings go on and decide what the decorations are going to be. A point that was made within the meeting was the fact that because of how uncomfortable the seat is, is it worth us buying cushions for the audience to sit on, however this brought up the point of budget.
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For the show, at the moment we have no budget, so someone brought up the idea of charging for seats in order to give us a budget. Now while this is a good idea, most of us were unsure about charging for seats as the money would just be coming back to us, essentially making a profit. So as a group we decided that if we were going to be charging for tickets, then we could be raising money for charity. I personally think that this is a really good idea for us to do as it would mean we are raising money for a good cause, rather than just giving ourselves a little extra money. If we weren’t raising money for charity, I am unsure how some parents would think about buying tickets as we would just be profiting from them, whereas if there is a charity then it’s more likely that parents will be happier to pay for tickets.
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To go with the idea for photos at the show, it was mentioned that we could potentially have a student photographer at the show as this would relieve some stress of one of us doing it. As this was brought up, I mentioned that I knew someone who did photography so I would message her and ask if it would be possible for her to help us out. Theres a high chance I forget to do this and end up doing it in a couple of weeks, which isn’t the end of the world, as long as I remember to do it more than a week before the show that’s okay.
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Within this meeting, as shown in the notes below, it was mentioned that tech needed to check the sound of the screen and potentially see if extra speakers would be needed. This is something which is vital as we need to ensure that the audience can hear the films being played from all areas of the auditorium.
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Overall, this meeting was pretty productive and we were able to understand how things would come together.
Meeting 3
(5/3/24)
During today’s meeting, it was brought to everyone’s attention that half the jobs that were set last week, were in fact incomplete, including my own job of messaging a potential photographer and I take full responsibility of this. However, the main point of this meeting was the name of the show. In the notes from last week, it was mentioned that the script team should’ve come up with ideas for a name of the show, but this wasn’t done, so as a class we decided it would be better for us to decided on it together. For this we brainstormed ideas and decided it needed to be something that reflects how this is the end of our time at college and our last chance to display our work, which is how we came to the name That’s a Wrap. We all felt that this title was fitting for a couple of reasons, but the main one is that its what’s said at the end of a shoot for a film/tv series, and this is the end of our project, so it fits it quite well.
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Along with this we decided on a charity that we would raise money for. The charity we decided on is called CHYP, Cirencester Housing for Young People, which is a charity which the college are associated with. This is a charity which we all feel is appropriate for us to raise money for and one which we can contact ease due to the college’s connection.
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At the end of this meeting, everyone was assigned jobs other than me. As the set/design team didn’t have much to do until closer to the event, it means I don’t have anything to do really. While some would see this as a nice thing to have, it feels as though I’m doing nothing to contribute towards the show, but I have been vocal in meetings when issues have risen and spoken when conversations have been going on. The notes from today’s meeting are shown below.
Meeting 4
(12/3/24)
Unfortunately, I missed today’s meeting as I had to leave college early for other commitments, but I was given the meeting notes. From looking at the notes I can see that the class were able to decide on the logo and title font, meaning that soon we can start to design programmes and posters ready for the show itself. Most of the other notes were related to the graphics/tech team however there was one note made that I need to message Maisy, which is true I need to do that still. Other than that, I don’t have much to say about the meeting as I wasn’t there, I just need to message Maisy by the next meeting to see if she is able to help us out.
Meeting 5
(19/3/24)
Once again, I had to leave before the meeting today, but I was able to contribute to it. Yesterday I had messaged Maisy about helping us out as a photographer, this conversation can be seen below.
Through looking at the rest of the notes that I was sent over, I can see that they created a code of conduct that the group should follow as a whole. I feel as though this a good idea for us to use because the meetings as of late have been more shouting than talking which isn’t good, so having this means everyone is aware of how to treat one another, mainly with respect.
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With this one of the notes mentions how the tickets are going live tonight so I need to make sure that either myself or my mum book these ready for the show. Also, it’s worth mentioning that in a previous meeting we decided on 3 tickets per person as this is reasonable and once everyone had gotten their 3 tickets, people are allowed to book more.
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Again, I don’t have a job to do ready for next week so I will try and help the others as best I can with their tasks if needed. Meeting notes are shown below.
Again, I don’t have a job to do ready for next week so I will try and help the others as best I can with their tasks if needed. Meeting notes are shown below.
Meeting 6
(9/4/24)
Due to the easter holidays today’s meeting was the first one in two weeks, which should have meant that all of the tasks that had been set in the last meeting should’ve been completed. However, one of the tasks had been completed, but not entirely. The only task which had been half done was the tech team emailing IT to ask for help from them on the night of the show, which they had done but they hadn’t heard back, so they left it instead of chasing them up about it. This wasn’t the main issue for the meeting though, the main issue was the fact that script hadn’t written anything once again. For this, as shown in the notes, the leaders said that this should be done by the 23rd April a the latest.
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As most meetings have gone, I don’t have a task yet again this isn’t the fault of the leaders, well one more so than the other, as most of the meetings end up in people arguing and nothing being set, or certain jobs/departments being left behind, so I had nothing to do. Starting to think that this role wasn’t the best one to choose, but we shall see how it goes. The notes are shown below.
Meeting 7
(10/4/24)
Within the last meeting, it was mentioned that we could potentially have refreshments at the show, which I feel would be a good idea as some people may want something to snack on while watching. From this 3 people went and asked at reception if we were allowed to have cold food in T-block, as we know hot food isn’t allowed, and luckily, they said yes. Along with this, it was mentioned that the college canteen may be able to help us out with food, price dependent. As a result of this, today’s meeting was called so we could discuss what types of food we may have. Shown in the notes below, we made a list of food people in the class mentioned they would want to have, which was mostly finger food such as crisps, popcorn, sweets etc. mainly cinema style food. From this someone in the class mentioned that they worked at food warehouse so they may be ablet to help us out with buying in bulk for cheaper.
Once the meeting was done, it was decided that me, Flossy and Molly would likely be in charge of refreshments as we were the most trusted and hadn’t had much else to do until now. So, because of this Flossy went with one of the group leaders to go and talk to the cafeteria staff about potential refreshments we could buy from them. This is shown I the notes above, but its note very clear. What the cafeteria were offering was £1.50 per person for a sandwich + crisps + a can of drink. Now with 80+ people in the audience this would add up to a lot and take away a lot of the money we were raising for charity, so pretty quickly this option of using the cafeteria was vetoed.
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After Flossy had returned, we had a conversation about how the decorations weren’t really needed, in comparison to the original mood board. We went back through the original mood board and decided that due to it being mid may when the show is, that there wasn’t a need for fairy lights as it would be very light anyways. As a result of this, we decided that myself, Flossy and Molly would be the refreshments team as well as decorations/set, this would allow us to have something to do, relieving the pressure off of one of the leaders.
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Seeing as we now had this new role, we made a start on searching for sweets and popcorn to see how much this was going to cost us. With the sweets and popcorn, we realised it would be cheaper and more eco-friendly for us to get small paper bags that we could put
the sweets and popcorn in, rather than buying big multipacks of both. I went onto amazon and found 100 5x7 striped bags all in different colours we could get, which were priced at £4.15. So, if we were to get one set of these then we would have 100 bags which is more than enough and is priced reasonably. Along with this they sell a pack of 100 with 5 different colours, I think that was it, so we would be able to separate the sweets and flavours of popcorn. For the sweets we decided that Haribo would work quite well as everyone liked them and a 400g tub is £2.50 which is relatively cheap. This will be bought in the next few weeks as we need to check if this is okay with the rest of the class.
Meeting 8
(16/4/24)
Once again, the meeting started out with us going through the tasks set last week and to no one’s surprise most of them weren’t done, again. This is now getting annoying as people are clearly just ignoring what’s being said and putti g it off, assuming they can get away with it. However, we were still able to have a productive meeting. In terms of refreshments, we told the group our idea of what we could do, with buying our own refreshments and organising it ourselves, and luckily the group agreed that this was a good idea, and we were to go ahead with what we were planning.
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From the meeting we were informed that our rehearsals were going to be schedules for Tuesday and Wednesday before the show, as we have the space booked out from 12:00 – 18:00 on Tuesday and 12:30 – 21:00 on Wednesday. This will give us plenty of time to rehearse ready for the show on Wednesday evening and make sure all things are technically working. However, the point was brought up that we should check if exams are going on in the day, so Aimie was tasked with this, as if there are exams on, we cannot use sound to check if it works during the day. This could mean that some people will have to stay after college one day, likely Tuesday, to check if this is okay.
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Within this meeting as the refreshment team, we were tasked with going to ask reception if we were allowed to move the table and chairs around on the night of the show. As this was a simple task Flossy and I went over as soon as the meeting was done to check if this was okay and it was. For us this means we don’t have to source tables form elsewhere, as long as we put them back in the right place its all okay, so we have a space for the refreshments to go.
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The notes from the meeting are shown below.
Not being able to present – 17/4/24
Unfortunately, a problem has arisen that didn’t think would happen, due to medical reasons there is a chance I may not be able to present my piece in person at the end of year show. This isn’t something I thought would happen however I had a call this morning where I was told the earliest date available for a procedure, I need is the 14th May, the day before the end of year show. For this procedure I am going to be going under local anaesthetic and as we don’t know the time for it there’s a chance, I will still be not with it 100% for the show. Because of this I now have the problem of do I say I'm okay to present it in person and hope for the best or I pre-record my introduction/presentation part. This isn’t something I want to do as I would much rather stand up and present it in person, almost makes it feel like there’s not much point in participating in the show, but I know I need to just means I’ll have less to do on the night.
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On the plus side, it makes my life easier and less stressful as I don’t have to worry about me feeling ill on the day, I can just take my time. As long as I am okay to put together the sweet bags for the refreshment table it will all be okay. So, while this wasn’t a problem I expected to encounter, I have been able to resolve this quite easily, my video introduction is shown below (filmed on 8/5/24).
Meeting 9
(23/4/24)
This meeting was certainly one of the longest ones, I won’t bore you with repeating what happens at the start of the meeting as it’s the exact same thing that happens every week. The main point of the meeting today was that the class as a whole hadn’t tested the screen or heard the audio, we were just going off of what the tech team had told us. Now I’m writing this it’s something we shouldn’t have done. Because we had been trusting them and weren’t confident with what they were telling us, as a group we decided it would be best to go over to the atrium and test 3 different videos, a black and white one, a bright animatic and a documentary. We chose to test these three as they are all different so we can understand what can be heard and what can be seen from different areas of the auditorium.
Once everyone was seated in different sections of the auditorium we started testing the videos, starting with the documentary. From where I was sat, I could see the documentary very clearly however the sound was a big issue, it was muffled, and I couldn’t understand what was being said at all. However, it is worth mentioning that once we tested Flossy’s we were told we had to turn the sound off due to exams going on, which we did. After this we tested the black and white one, which could be seen perfectly fine from the middle to the back, but at the front it wasn’t even visible at all. Finally, the animated music video was clearly seen from all areas, which was really good to know, but it was a little saturated, so the colours were a bit dull.
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The main issue from this rehearsal was the audio. From what we heard it wasn’t clear at all and this is a huge problem which needs to be sorted asap. This issue was one no one was aware of because the tech team had done the tests and said that it was perfectly fine, but when we asked them, it turned out that they hadn’t even tested it from different areas in the auditorium, only the front row. As this was an issue, tech was told to email someone who knows a lot more about sound to help us out with this issue. It also meant that the point of sound levels was brought up, where as a class we decided that the sound on each video needed to be between -6 and -12 in order to make it not too loud for the audience, and easier for Jon when he’s editing all the pieces together.
Creating Programmes and Posters
(25/4/24)
When it came to producing the programme and posters, Flossy took charge on this because she is way more ahead on work than myself and Molly. Flossy decided to work with the graphics team to get components that they had produced so she could make the programme fit with it. I noticed Flossy had made a start on it, so I left her to it until she asked for mine and Molly’s help. With this she had created the front and back however it looked quite bland as the only colour she had was on the logo of our little mascot. In the mascot there were 4 colours, red, yellow, green and blue – which the three of us thought could work within the design of the programme. From this Flossy decided to make these colours a little more transparent and add in 4 lines behind the work programme. I feel this worked really well and kept the aesthetic going. The design can be seen below.
Meeting 10
(26/4/24)
On Tuesday’s meeting we chose to have another meeting on Friday’s as well, which will be continued until the show is over. In this meeting Flossy, Molly and I showed the class our designs for the programme and posters to get their opinions. From this the only responses we got were that for the posters we should change the font to make it more readable. Flossy made sure to note these down for us to reflect and improve on once the meeting was done. At the end of the meeting, we were given the task of completing the programme, creating a prototype ready for the next meeting. These notes can be seen below.
Creating Inside of Programme
(26/4/24)
In the afternoon, myself, Flossy and Molly worked on the programme for the End of Year show. We had started this on Thursday but finished off the inside of it today. Personally, I really like how it looks, it’s not too formal but formal enough for it to actually feel like a programme for a show. The images show the front, inside and back, which all have colour, but we didn’t want to use print credit, so we printed it in black and white as prototype. I am really pleased with how this went and think that this will work really well for the show.
Here is the inside of the programme which I helped to design. For this we decided on one page for first half, other page for second half as this made sense to us. We added in some colour as we felt that this allowed it to look more aesthetic and match the front of it. I am pleased with how these have turned out.
Front
Back
Inside
Meeting 11
(30/4/24)
Today’s meeting was a lot more structured than previous ones as the leader had written up the points, they wanted to talk about on the whiteboard. For me the main focus of this meeting was about the refreshments, as this is now my main role. We went through the plan again of buying Haribo, popcorn, 2 squashes and water as this covered all basis. From this we then decided on a budget for us, this was decided on the prices me, and Flossy had looked at previously, so we were given a £35 budget.
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After we had been through the main checklist of things to do, we moved onto discussing job roles for the evening. As I am on refreshment organising, on the night I will be on refreshments handing out the bags of sweets/popcorn and drinks. Since everyone had been given their roles, we then worked on the floor plan, deciding where everyone was going to be. Doing this is effective because then everyone is aware of their roles, the positioning of these and who they are working with.
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Once the meeting was done, me, Flossy and Molly went to check the table arrangements to see where we could move/put them. This was pretty simple to work out, so we were done quickly.
Meeting 12
(3/5/24)
​In the last meeting, the design team were given the job to create a mood board for the dress code, so people knew what to wear. So, this was the first thing that happened during the meeting. Everyone agreed that the mood board reflected what people could wear and that that was the standard expected from everyone. I personally feel the mood board works and fits the aesthetic we are going for so I am glad that everyone else agreed.
Because a part of this show is for us to get feedback on both our pieces and the show as a whole, so we suggested that a way to achieve the individual feedback was to have a QR code each in the programme that linked to a survey for each piece. This would mean that the audience could scan them and fill them out with ease, allowing us all to have some form of feedback. Flossy and I created a rough idea of how the QR codes could work and showed it to everyone in the meeting. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, however a couple of people were mumbling and muttering under their breath how this was another thing for them to do, so because of this I offered to create a template for those who don’t feel they are capable of doing this before next Tuesday 9am. I said that all they had to do was email myself or Flossy as I felt it was wrong to ask them to put their hands up.
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Also, on Friday Flossy and I went over to reprographics to see how much it was going to cost for us to get the programmes printed. For 85 programmes in colour and 10 row posters in colour it was going to be £47.50. As this isn’t coming out of the money from the tickets, its coming out the media department budget, Nigel said this was okay to do. We just needed to get them send-off asap, so Tuesday morning we will send them off to be printed.
Getting the Refreshments
(6/5/24)
On Monday, seeing as the End of Year show is next week, Flossy and I made the decision to go out and get the food for it, seeing as we are on the refreshments team. We had originally intended to get them last week with Molly, however this would’ve meant us having to go to Cirencester to meet with Molly to get them, when I live right next to a Tesco in Stroud, which to me didn’t make sense. So, I mentioned this to Flossy, which is why we went to get them today. We met at 12:30 and began hunting for the refreshments.
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We had been given a budget of £35 from the leader of the show, Aimie, so we needed to stick to this. Previously Flossy and I had looked at what we could get for the refreshments, where we decided it would be best to have sweets (harribo) and popcorn to eat, as these are pretty universal foods which most people like; and for drinks, we had decided on orange squash, blackcurrant squash and water, as this felt like a safe decision and most people would like this. Obviously, we knew that we could divert and get other bits, budget dependent, so we started with getting the sweets and popcorn.
The sweet tubs were £2.50 each, so we got 2 Haribo Starmix and 2 Haribo Supermix, as this gives some variety, meaning we spent £10 all together on sweets. For popcorn we went for Tesco own as they were 99p each, so we got 3 sweet, 3 salted and 2 sweet & salted. We weren’t going to get the sweet and salted because we thought we could just mix the bags together, however we realised that this would cause a lot of mess when putting them into the bags, do er decided to get the two bags of mixed. This meant we spent £7.92 on popcorn, so the total of the sweet and popcorn came to £17.92. As this was the case, we moved on to getting the squash, which turned out to only be 40p each so we made the decision to get 2 bottles of lemonade as well because we realised some people won’t want just squash or water, so having an alternative would be nice. From this we realised we had a fair bit of our budget left, £16 total left, and Flossy suggested we should probably get some vegetarian/vegan sweets because harribo contain pig gelatine. So, seeing as we had more than enough left to spend, we got 4 bags of Fruitella which are a vegan certified sweet.
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This meant we spent £26 total, roughly, which is within budget. I would say that this trip was successful because we stuck to the budget, as we were told, and we were able to change some things to fit the thoughts we had there and then. I think we achieved what we were told to as our role is refreshments.
Meeting 13
(7/5/24)
Within this meeting we were able to hand out the printed programmes around the room, where everyone was happy with how they looked and that the QR codes worked. Once this was done, as a group we finished off creating the survey for the show itself as this is something we will all benefit from. Luckily this was easy to do, and everyone contributed. At the end of this meeting the only job I had to do was to make sure the refreshment bags are made up on Wednesday afternoon and I needed to message Maisy again to double check she is fine for the 15th. As we are approaching the show, it was reinforced that we are doing a rehearsal on the 13th and 14th (unfortunately I cannot be there on the 14th) where we will run through the whole show, so everyone knows what they are saying/doing.
Meeting 14
(10/5/24)
Today was the final meeting I would be attending before the show as I am not able to be in on the 14th due to medical reasons. So, before today’s meeting, we did a run through of the entire show, from start to finish, so the notes below are primarily focused on this. The main points made from the run through this morning was that some peoples sound levels need to be changed, as Jon is only putting them into the timeline together and making sure they are in the correct order, people need to work out what they are saying + make cue cards, potentially change the order of the show and the hosts need to learn their scripts. The biggest issue is the order as we have already printed all 80 programmes, meaning we have to keep the people in the first half in that half, and the people in the second half in that half. This is because originally, we organised it so that the mediums were equally split so that they audience wouldn’t be watching two short films in a row then 3 documentaries, however this meant that we started with a short film which wasn’t very uplifting. I wasn’t involved in the re-make of the order, but I know it had been changed and that the programmes still worked.
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From my view I think that everything will be fine, as long as the sound and picture work, but that’s something I won’t see now until the night of the show.
Set up and the Show
(15/5/24)
Today is show day but there was still a lot to get done, especially the refreshments department. In the morning, I was focused on getting all of the posters laminated and cut ready for the set up later, my laminator did decide to stop working halfway through but after leaving it over lunch it was fine afterwards.
Once all laminating had been done, me, Flossy and Molly started on filling the sweet bags. We did the sweet bags now as these won’t go stale whereas there’s a high chance that the popcorn will go stale if we do it this afternoon, so its safer to keep it until later. With the sweets we decided to have 30-40 bags, so roughly 20 harribo and 20 fruitella, but that’s dependent on how many we have. Seeing as we didn’t mix the sweets together, due to the fruitella being vegan, it was safer to not do this.
We arrived back at college for 5:30pm to set up for the show. As I am the refreshments team, my focus was on getting the popcorn bags done so that they are ready for doors to open at 6:30, as well as working on the drinks. We were able to get this done pretty swiftly so I helped put up some posters as well, seeing as many other people were stressed about this. Once doors opened the refreshment stand was pretty popular and people were actually giving money, which we were all surprised about, in all honesty.
As I wasn’t presenting during the show and the photographer deicded to drop out at the last minute, I was assigned to be the photographer from the top of the auditorium. Now I’m not the best at photogrpahy, however I tried my best and I was able to get a photo of everyone who was presenting with their title card on the screen. I did this so that everyone had something to show to prove that they presented on the night, even if it isnt the best, its something for them. Below are some of the photos I took during the show.
Overall, I would say that the show was a huge success. We didn’t run into any technical problems on the night, everyone knew what they were saying, and no one fumbled. I feel really proud of what we put together as a class, despite all the arguments during the meetings, we really pulled it off and put on an engaging show. I feel everyone there had a good time, both the audience and the class themselves, and we actually had a good time.
