I’d like to thank the Stagecraft club and City Tech faculty for their abundance of help and feedback that steered the project into a more challenging, collaborative, and overall rewarding experience. This has been a constantly evolving project from the beginning it was decided that it was going to be a performance in the style of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. It took a lot of time for me to find the right technical advisor that could overlook and approve all aspects of the project as well as giving critical feed back that shaped every step of production. We ran into issues during the day of recording specficically with clipping and signal to noise ratio. Though these challenges were a result of myself taking on too many aspects at once, I am still proud of the completed project and the lessons that were learned as a result of this experience. Should the opportunity arise to do something like this again, I would step back clearly define my role as either a performer or technician, but not both at the same time. With that being said, I’ve been asked to perform for Kevin Perea’s culmination project and I am more than happy to be the performer while he focuses on the technical aspects of his project. It’s an honor to be asked to help out and give back as others have done the same for me and my project. Lastly, I’d like to say that the summation of all the skills and wisdom passed on from all the ENT faculty at City Tech has shaped me into becoming not just a better person, but a better technician, friend, and mentor to others in our field.
Culmination Project Schedule
1/26 – 2/09: Topic research
2/09: Progress Report 1
2/20 – 2/23: Project proposal and agreement
2/27 – 3/2: Pre- Production (Set-list)
3/6 – 3/9: Crew Sign up and role assignment & Progress Report #2
3/13 – 3/31: Sound, lighting, video plots/diagrams. Meetings with faculty and revisions to projects.
4/26 – Record Date – Voorhees Theater
4/27 thru 5/1 – Post-Production Editing
4/27 – Progress Report 3
5/2 – Upload to YouTube
5/4 – My presentation
5/18 – Poster Session
Progress Report #3
I have successfully recorded my project and have finalized the post produciton process which included editing, color grading, and selecting the best takes. Despite running into issues, I feel very proud of the proof-of-concept that had a lot of revisions throughout the semester. Even though we ran into trouble during the actual recording of the performance, I learned a lot through hands-on experience and still managed to put out a solid video that encapsulates the bigger picture of what I was trying to achieve as well as the hard work of the talented crew members that helped me. If i had to do it all over again, I would define my role more clearly instead of wearing too many hats at once since that contributed to a lot of the issues that I ran into during post production. Nevertheless, the objective was achieved to a certain extent despite our issues with the audio. Having spoken with CLT’s and faculty at City Tech, they have given me a lot of feedback that I can take with me into the future as I finalize my degree. The only thing that’s left is to present my project at our poster session!
Progress Report #2
At the moment, we are scheduled to shoot the Tiny Desk video for the end of March, before spring break. We have a small 4 person crew to help set my levels and operate the cameras while I give my performance. My technical advisor that will be looking over my project is Professor Matthew Werden. He’ll make sure that I stay on the right track and help with any audio-related questions that might come up. The location hasn’t been solidifed yet and neither has the equipment until I hear back from the faculty regarding a time when we can rent it for a couple of hours. On my end, I have been practicing a rough draft of a 3/4 song setlist which keeps changing as I have more time to think about how it should flow. For now, progress has been made in some areas but could be better in others with the recording date coming in a couple of weeks.
Progress Report #1
It took me several weeks going back and forth with other classmates and faculty over what kinds of projects were the best fit for me. Eventually, I had decided on recreating the format of NPR and their Tiny Desk series and adapt it to something we could do here at City Tech. Progress was slow in the beginning and eventually I missed the deadline for my first check in. Despite this, much progress was made in the laying the foundation of the production. I made A/V System and Stage plot diagrams, an equipment list, and with the help of the Stagecraft Club at City Tech, we have begun compiling a small crew to operate the equipment during the show. Professor Matthew Werden will be my technical advisor throughout the project in order to make sure I am on the right track as well as giving helpful advice. For now, we wait to book a location for this to take place, preferrably inside the Voorhees building.
City Tech’s Tiny Desk: Senior Culmination Project
After going through several ideas and revisions for weeks on weeks, I decided that I wanted to do a take on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. This would consist of myself performing a set list and having some classmates help me set up a simple A/V system that we can record and edit to YouTube.
