1. 76200-3905251914525-3905253803650-472440<br />Report On the Festival<br />Main events<br />On Saturday the 2nd of July 2011, our International Festival at Cranford Community College took place from 8-9 in the morning when we arrived till 7 when we finished packing up.<br />The morning started off finishing what we started the day before. I was in charge of decoration’s at the front once that was finished me and other’s added extra black cloth around the stage to cover up the scaffolding also adding some extra colour’s and bow’s to really make the stage stand out. Me, George and Navina stuck up all the Tar pooling to help make the green room.<br />I helped black out the stage to cover the cables. I also helped Mr Bray and other stage hands to help stick down the lino mats very smoothly without any bumps for health and safety once the lino mats were flat we stuck it down with duct tape to make sure it stayed in place. The stage at the front had some scaffolding sticking out so we had to cut up bubble wrap and wrap it around the scaffolding neatly to make sure it was safe, then we covered it with coloured material to make it presentable.<br />Once I had finished the main roles I was given job to help prep the main stage, I helped Mrs Joyce put up all the signs that Parnyan had made, all around the school to help give people guidance.<br />The last hour left till the festival opened ,the stage manager weren’t through our roles one more time and gave us a rough idea of what we were all doing during the day. After everyone was aware of their jobs everyone was given the running order on a laminated sheet and went through it all together I was given the role as Host, so once he told me that most of my time was on stage, I had to help test out the Microphone and make sure it was loud enough for when I made my first announcement.<br />364807513335Before the first act came on stage the parade came in and paraded around the school and then came back to the main stage where Kile represented the Olympic torch to Mr Prunty to officially open the festival, just before the steel band came on I had to work with the DJ to work the track order so there wasn’t any hassle and everything was ready for act when it was their time to come on stage and perform.<br />523875-666753009900-57150<br />As my role was the Host, first I welcomed everyone to the festival then I introduced all the acts and encouraged a round of applause after each one then moved on to the next act just before I announced acts coming on, I made small announcement’s telling what time act’s would come on stage to perform, My role also involved making announcement’s for Mrs Joyce; telling people about the activities on show around the premises, if there was a change in any plan and calling staff to certain areas.<br />-55880106045As a host what was required of me was to have; a clear and well-paced rhythm to how I address acts and for when I make announcement’s, also my confidence and enthusiasm to make sure the audience was entertained and aware of what was going on, be well organised and know what acts were coming on and off stage, keeping track on time also feed backing to stage hands for what was needed or if there were any problems. Overall I think I achieved all that was required of me but I would improve on how talking to the audience more between the performances to keep the audience aware of what is going on.<br />During the festival I also helped other creative media diploma students with their role, I helped to look for acts that were coming on stage soon, I also helped set up mics and equipment needed for the acts performance and at the end the creative media came together for the last performance with the metronomes.<br />3295650113665Once people had left the carnival, we had another meeting together at the end where we were assigned jobs to help pack up everything, I was told to start with taking down the decoration’s, once that was done I helped take down the sign’s then once all equipment was put away and there was nothing on stage except for the scaffolding and lino mats we came together again to work as a team to strip of the mats then take apart the scaffolding and take it back to the concert hall.<br />Problem’s we Overcame…<br />On the day we came across some problems but we overcame them quickly working together.<br />The first problem we came across in the first hour or so was that because this was our first time everyone was a bit nervous and everyone was running around everywhere taking care of things so some of the creative media students had to cover other people’s role, for example I had to cover a stage hands role and find the metronomes explain what was happening and set up their equipment, but this wasn’t such a big problem as I knew what I had to do but it did waste a bit of time.<br />I personally think one of the major problems were communicating with each other as it was really hard to find each other, and we didn’t have time to go and find the person we needed, it would have been helpful if we had a radio where we could call up the stage hands when we really needed them.<br />Another major problem was that we wasted time looking for acts, like when we had to find the French singer’s which was 15 year 7’s, but our team worked together with stage hands, me and runners spread out to go look for them. Some act’s like zumba who were 15 minutes late on arriving and because the act that was before them were finishing we made the decision to carry on with all the act’s but the Zumba dancers appeared so we had to work with them and sort out the tracks, so at that moment things were running late and becoming a bit unorganised but once we worked out the tracks they gave a great performance and it was worth it even though we had to make them finish early as the schedule was over running, which was a shame.<br />With the performers “Ladyz” there was a sound problem, but I went on stage made sure that everything was in check and turned it off and on again, and the problem was solved.<br />For our last performance who were the steel band, because they were allocated on the playground after the opening act we had to move all the equipment back on stage, but some of their equipment was missing so again C&M team went on the look, this wasted a lot of time as they couldn’t set up with what they had but once everything was sorted they gave a great performance to close the show which encouraged the audience to join in and dance.<br />Sometimes throughout act’s performances, people came to close to the stage which led to some decorations falling off but we gave regularly announcements and explained what could happen if they got too close<br />3295650119380During one of the performance’s one of the stage hands noticed that one of the planks of wood which were put there to help support the stage had fallen off , so just before the next act came up on stage we called caretaker’s and other members of staff to help resolve what had happened.<br />One of the Level 1 student’s weren’t at the parade, so they were nowhere to be found so we had to help look for them, but as the festival didn’t really start at that time it gave us enough time to look for them.<br />We were told quite late that one of the teacher’s that were meant to be performing dropped out so we had to rearrange our times a bit, but this problem also helped us by buying us time for any acts that went over time in their performance, so it wasn’t all bad.<br />As we had to cover each other’s roles, sometimes we didn’t always have a member of the group covering the door’s so no one could enter restricted areas. So sometimes some people came to rooms and we had to explain that they weren’t allowed in there.<br />What went well…<br />The day had few flaws that were quickly sorted was a great success and a day to remember and was a great experience. The festival ran smoothly and we didn’t have to rush any performances as it ended just on time.<br />As I have never hosted anything quite so big, at first I felt nervous as I made my first announcement but everyone really motivated me and encouraged me and helped me improve for the next time I used the mic, but I announced everything very clearly with a lot of confidence, which came across to the audience really well.<br />Our goal was to show Cranford’s talent and we accomplished that, every act from which we chose performed their act brilliantly without any flaws, even though one member of staff couldn’t perform as they weren’t in any condition to, everyone was very impressed with the standard of talent and how well everything was organised when it came together. We also had external acts, but they really appreciated how we organised everything and were impressed with how we dealt with them.<br />I introduced all acts with great enthusiasm and made sure all the audience were up to date with what was happening. I also made a variety of announcements which turned out incredibly well and kept a big audience to help support acts while they performed for them. And closed the festival with a round of applause and thanking the acts and audience for attending and taking part.<br />Improvements<br />If I were to have any improvement’s I would have some sort of device, preferably radios so ,the host, the stage manager and stage hands could communicate with each other and locate where everyone is.<br />Another thing I would improve is making sure all acts are on the premises at a certain time, as you can see with zumba who arrived quite late because they thought that since there performance was later in the day they didn’t need to be early.<br />In my personal opinion I feel as if the day couldn’t have gone better, even with the problems we came across, I happy they happened as it made everything more of a challenge and just gave the team more of a drive to work hard.<br />