Learning the Ropes: Communication in the Entertainment Industry

by Robine Jean-Pierre

I am majoring in Entertainment Technology here at City Tech, and I have spent the last three years getting to know the entertainment industry. I have remarked that it takes a team to put on any production or performance; there’s hardly such a thing as a “one man show.” Think about the credits at the end of a movie; all of those names represent someone who contributed in some way, whether as an actor or a makeup artist.

Because it takes a team of people who specialize in different fields, all working together to make one big project come alive, communication is very valuable to this industry. My major requires me to take four semesters of Technical Production, a course that allows me to experience what it’s like to work on a real crew and put on real productions in our school. This is the class where I have learned most of the communication norms and standards we use on site.

Danger!

Being in the entertainment industry can actually be dangerous. We are often dealing with ladders, heavy objects hanging in the air, electricity, and power tools, just to name a few things. The primary need for effective communication is to protect everyone’s health and safety.

For example, above the stage area of the Voorhees Theater hang two long, lattice-like structures called trusses. These trusses are attached to motors which enable them to be raised toward the ceiling or lowered all the way to the ground. They are used to hang lights or other equipment. Since the trusses are huge and the motors are very powerful, the person operating the motors typically alerts everyone in the vicinity by saying in a loud and clear voice, “We’re going to be lowering (or raising) the truss.” That would be the cue for everyone else to move out of the way. (Generally, the other crew members shout back “thank you” as a courteous gesture.)

Moving Heavy Objects as a Team

the Yamaha PM5D mixing console on a stand

courtesy of SoundBroker.com

Sometimes it takes four or five people just to move one piece of scenery or equipment. Take the huge Yamaha PM5D sound mixing console, for instance. Just opening up its protective road case and lifting it up and out onto a table can take five minutes. Our professors, Erica Stoltz and John Huntington, kept repeating to us that before we did anything, someone had to take initiative to be the leader, announce the method of lifting/moving, and then count it out (“on three… one, two, three”).

One method we often use (perhaps unofficially called “up and over”) means lifting an object straight up and then sliding it over horizontally to its desired location. It’s important to first state the method and also count it out because if everyone is in sync, the job will be accomplished more smoothly, but most importantly, the chances of someone getting hurt will be reduced.

Ask for Help

One thing I have appreciated about the professors in the Entertainment Technology department is that, for the most part, they do not believe in “dumb questions.” Many of them are accomplished technicians with loads of experience and knowledge; as intimidating as they might at first seem, they are not shy about sharing it. In my Technical Production Skills and Health and Safety courses, we were constantly reminded to ask for help if we needed it. It is way safer to consult the teacher or a fellow classmate on how to use a radial arm saw, than to just wing it and risk losing a finger!

What are some other industries or disciplines you can think of in which communication is crucial? Do you feel as if communication is very significant in your major? How so?

Live Entertainment

This summer I attended my very first concert .. but it wasn’t your ordinary concert in an arena setting, it was at an outdoor stadium! I went to see one of my favorite “electronic duo” artist. It’s that funky music that gets you up and in a good mood. The atmosphere was filled with young hipster looking individuals that didn’t seem to care about anything but enjoying their time.

a large concert crowd

I recommend anyone who has never been to a concert to do so! It doesn’t even have to be a famous artist. It’s more about being surrounded with hundreds of people who have a common interest as you in an artist and their music. Also, who wouldn’t enjoy jamming to LIVE music?

Now I know concerts could be pricey, even for the “underground” artist but if you set aside $10 a week in a jar, you can reach that goal soon enough. For now, I can recommend you to attend a FREE not concert but Talent Show!

This Friday, Student Government is hosting their 5th Annual Spotlight – Talent Show in the Voorhees Theater from 6pm to 10pm. With 20 contestants on the program showcasing their talents in dance, rap, singing, step, spoken word, and more! Come out and see the talents your fellow peers have!

Although it is not a concert with artists performing their songs, it is a composition of various forms of live entertainment that you may enjoy.

a flyer for a talent show called "Spotlight"

Pros and Cons of Blogging

A blog is information or conversation that is published online. Having been blogging since about 2010/2011, doing my beauty/hair blogs, as well as reading the blogs of others, I noticed some great things and some wow factors. Therefore, I have comprised my first list about the pros and cons of Blogging.

PROS

  1. There is a market for everyone: What ever you think about, hope to be, or have an interest in, can be the topic of your blog. There will be several other people who will be interested in that information as well. If you google cleaning with lemons, thousands (made up figure) of blogs and individuals asking the questions will pop up.
  2. Easy to start: All you have to do is go on Wix, Blogger, WordPress, Facebook, or have your own site and start writting. There are several free and paid avenues to start from. I started with Blogger and WordPress before publishing my own site and adding a blog to it. All were free.
  3. It is a great marketing tool: If you have a product or service you wish to spread to the masses, just blog about it. You can post video, reviews, comments and more. Share it on social media, advertise on craigslist, and/or post links and ads to your blog or the blogs of others.
  4. You can make an additional income: Speaking of advertising for other blogs, you can use the your blog to get paid and advertise for other blogs, services and products. You can get paid or get free products to review products and share it on your blog. For example, I was sent a hair product to review for my beauty blog.

CONS

  1. People have freedom: With freedom comes responsibility, or one would hope. Some people post Lies, degrading things and disgusting things. Either way, because there are no limitations, they have that freedom.
  2. It can be hard knowing who or what is credible: With the freedom to post, people try their best to decieve others. They may have fake facts, fake logos to make you think its a known site, and other ways of deception. Make sure before you take ideas you do your research.
  3. Without a following you can be your only subscriber: For sometime it may seem like you are the only one reading your post. You maybe, just share it and market your blog. You can become an affiliate of another company also and get paid, which I spoke about in previous post. You will eventually get some people to comment or follow you.
  4. Self-ran: You have to put in the work on your own, unless, of course, its a team of bloggers like THE BUZZ.

For help with your blog, advertising, or more email me at amonib.biz@gmail.com


QUESTION TO THE AUDIENCE: What do you think are pros and cons of blogging. ?

Victory, The Victorious

a young man in a red hooded sweatshirtThis weekend I spoke with the underground musical artist, Victory. A awesome jaw dropping lyricist, with an interesting hobby. Check it out:

a man wearing large black headphones, in front of an image of the word "Victory"

How did you get your name? Actually the way I got my name is because my rap name use to be Flawless Victory but I just shorten it to Victory

How’d you describe you musical style? / What sets u apart from the artist out there? I would describe my musical style as fun and energetic and what sets me apart is that I won’t rap about what typical rappers rap about because I’m not a trap type of rapper so it forces me to be creative

I  a lot of your music can be comical and jaw dropping… Do you think most lyrical artist sell out from their original genre and fall to mainstream artist? I don’t think most lyrical artist sell out to maintain stream but I do think that they try to go with the times because you don’t have to change what you want to say you just have to update how you say it and most artist don’t realize that

 

What else do you do? I also make clothes and I edit videos also

a man on a tv screen

I love your designs and I watched the amazing growth… How did You get into fashion / what sparked your interest? I originally got the idea by making a shirt to promote myself as a artist and people liked the design and started requesting it then that’s when we really started getting into the clothing aspect

a man in sunglasses and a T-shirt

Is there anything you’ll like for the listeners to know? I would like my listeners to know that I’m working there’s a lot of good music coming with some great visuals so stay tuned

seven young men and women of colorthe back of a man wearing a black sweatshirt that says "Just Us II" in white letters

I wish him good luck on all endeavers.

How To Sew A Handbag

Can you sew? Would you ever try creating your own hand bag?

There was a time where I, Amoni B, did seam-stressing and designing. I self taught myself to create handbags, purses and more. Being an activist of sustainability, I started creating bags from reusable, recycled and second hand materials. Today I’d like to teach you guys how to create your own bags. Below are two videos, for the beginner and intermediate. You can use your own materials, I sometimes even use old jeans and dresses, which can be seen HERE.

Video 1: Yankee Tote | Video 2: Motherland Scrunch Clutch

 


QUESTIONS TO THE AUDIENCE: Do you have a hobby, trade, or interest? What is it? | Have you ever created anything? What?

Easter Recap and Fun Activities

On this Octave of Easter I will like to back track to show some Easter Activities. And if you guys aren’t tired, I know Easter was yesterday but I’m pretty sure you guys are still dolled up with tons of left overs. I spent most of Easter Weekend, from Friday night, with my family in Maryland. Saturday went as followed: family talks, breakfast, doing each others hair, shopping, making Easter things, bbq, games, bbq, chilling, and my departure. It was awesome for the most part, especially helping create the Easter Eggs and Easter Baskets. (Duh the Barbecue was the best but it’s not a food blog, lol.)

My aunt, owner of Kreative Kisses, brung all the ladies together in efforts to make Easter Awesome for the little ones. Easter eggs are usually a tradition in my family, making them and hunting plastic ones with money or candy. But we were also able to help with her usually $25 basket creation. The kids really loved it! Here are some images:

Easter eggsa collage of a woman posing with a young girlhidden Easter eggs

As a female who loves makeup and all things beauty, of course my face was beat to the gawds fir this occasion and I had pink Easter nails with sparkles on Saturday . However, I want to show you guys how to create marbled easter nails, which I did Sunday. If you want the kids to enjoy you can also cut a water-color shaped egg for them to marbelize. Watch Here:

Post dedicated to my family.


QUESTION TO THE AUDIENCE: How did you spend Easter?

HOW TO GO VIRAL

Today half of the population wants to go off grid and the other half wants to GO VIRAL, a phrase used to convey the act of gaining, usually quick, popularity online. Going viral can happen by mistake or on purpose. What do I mean? Sometimes users post things on social media with no intent of many people seeing it.

However, if it is controversal or identifiable enough people will start viewing or sharing the post until it spirals out if control, causing a once internet “nobody” to gain a following on and offline. On the other hand, people who yearn for attention or for people to actively follow them for whatever reason (ie: sales), will put in the hard work and even money to show up on social media feeds and gain popularity.

Here I explain HOW TO GO VIRAL:

Examples:a Facebook screenshot of a young womana screenshot of a young woman in a video a screenshot of a young woman in a video about hair extensions


QUESTIONS TO THE AUDIENCE: Have you ever gone viral? How? | What do you feel about what I am saying?

NEXT: Get A Steady Income ONLINE

Timing is Everything – 5 Steps To Be On Time

You are told that unless you arrive at a location by 6:00 am on the dot, and not a minute more, your favorite person will be slaughtered. You arrive at 6:01 running in to find a pool of blood and no one in sight. Is it your fault?a pool of blood on a wood floorimage credit

I know the scenario is dramatic, but timing can be sensitive. I’ve had my times where I double booked, cut things close, or arrived late due to outside sources. How ever, I still consider it my fault. Maybe blogging can help me outline some problems. There must be a way to assure timing. Let’s see…

  1. When setting appointments make room for any occurrences. You never know if the train will mess up, which usually happens because the universe is messing with you for not being prepared.
  2. Yes, being prepared will definitely aid to timing. Days before figure out your route and possible complications, know your attire, set out prepped clothing, add the appointment to your agenda, and what ever else.
  3. Maybe it’s timing on when telling someone something, like a giving a heads up to your life partner about coming home late or going out. If that’s the case don’t wait till the last-minute or after the event happens. This will cause the other person to feel duped or unimportant. This also goes for being a no-show at work or school.
  4. When you have little time and a group project must get done, for example two cousins preparing for an event, remembering TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK. Having someone to help means you can be two places at ones and divide tasks. Looking back on a recent event, while Indiyah, my sister-cousin, was getting her makeup done I could have gotten the shoes to save time.
  5. And always understand “Early is on time and on time is late.” A saying I learned while in my NEW training. Which means, if you have to be somewhere at 6:00 am, act like you really have to be there 5:45 or earlier. Sometimes I trick myself when setting appointments and alarms by putting an earlier time.

QUESTIONS TO THE AUDIENCE: how do you stay on time/ early? | How does it make you feel when someone tell you news in an untimely fashion? | As an employer how do you feel about lateness and absences?

I post every Monday. In the meantime check out these post:

5 Steps to Start A Business 

7 Steps to Run a Marathon 

8 Steps Towards a Happy Life

The Hot Wings of Willoughby

The Most-Made-Dish-for-Events award goes to….. HOT WINGS

     ♫ [Wings] [wings], their good for the heart…The more you eat, the more…  ♪ 

… If not, at least, they will make you happy.

I eat hot wings at least once a week, regardless of the after affects. : ) Besides home cooking, I’ve tried the spicy poultry meat from various restaurants, groceries stores, and pop-up-shops. However, today we will analyze the different hot wing dishes that can be found in a small sector, Downtown Brooklyn on Willoughby Street and Jay Street, right down the block from our home at City Tech. (Disclaimer: I am not advertising for any one, just giving you my thoughts and a simple DIY recipe. I have also took all images featured in the post)

the outside of a wings restaurant

Buffalo Boss Organic Wings & Things usually has long lines of people waiting for their orders. This is its second location Downtown Brooklyn, originally it sat on Fulton Street and Flatbush Ext.  I tried it a few weeks ago for the first time at this new location on Willoughby and Jay St. The service wasn’t the best. They are known for their wings and they have a lot of sides, including sweat potato fries. I was allowed to choose from variety of sauce types. When I was also told I had to pay for dipping sauce, I was turned off and I didn’t buy the ranch. I decided to get rice, hot wings, and a drink, which totaled about $7.  The 5 spicy wings, served in a small black styrofoam, tasted okay. They were fried hard and dipped in hot sauce. I remembered a better tasting experience before.

the outside of a restaurant

Yummy Taco always come through with my craving for asian-mexican-american dishes. (laugh) They, also, usually have long lines and hit-or-miss service during lunch time. Thankfully I got there early. Their $6 wings (8) and fries really filled me. The wings were fried slightly hard with a hint of spice. wings with French friesIt may have been more then a hint, considering the nose drool.

the outside of a restaurant

Super Taco is another great asian-mexican-american spot. I frequent there as well when Yummy Taco lines are long. The wings there were about $6 and came with celery. The taste seemed strikingly familiar, it seemed they have shared the recipe with Yummy Taco. 😉

the outside of a restaurant

The Dining Room seemed to be a whole in the wall. I must have passed it several times before realizing it was there. It is a restaurant/bar. Inside is usually quite unless there is a group of friends that comes on their lunch break. You can sit at the bar or tables. I sat at the bar. I order wings, water, and fries, which totaled 9.80. The 8 wings was boiled, fried lightly and soaked in mild hot wing sauce, my choice of sauce type. It came with vegetables as well. The wings had so much meat on it and more juicy compared to the other places. wings and friesa cooked chicken wingMaybe thats the reason it costs more. It was like no experience I have ever had, I revisited two more times.

the outside of a restaurant

The 99¢ Fresh Hot Pizza’s hot wings is currently a mystery to me. But I thought I’d add them in since they, too, rests on Willoughby Street. If you know how the hot wings taste please share. After my Dining Room experience I was addicted. Don’t Judge me.   


TRY YOUR OWN:

Hosting and need a delicious homemade meal? Try making your own Hot wings.

Ingredients / Precursors:

  • Separated precooked chicken wings (can be boiled or fried)
  • D.I.Y Your OWN Sauce (optional ingredients you can use: dry pepper, hot sauce, honey, bbq sauce, ketchup)
  • Metal pan (aluminum) big enough to lay each flat while baking
  • Bowl for sauce
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  2. Place your pre-cooked wings in your metal pan
  3. Coat the sauce throughout the wings
  4. Bake for 10 minutes
  5. Flip the wings, coat the chicken and bake for another 10 minutes.
  6. Continue to flip and bake until the chicken reaches creates your desired crisp.
  7. Serve while hot with a side of ranch dressing. (…Or blue cheese I guess, I am being bias.)

NOTE: It’ll taste so good, you can serve them cold.

 

 

“Don’t Take it Personal”

six runway models

Boston FW by Luke Aaron/Jenny via CC license

February isn’t only Black History Month or a time for award and sport shows. It’s also about FASHION. This Winter’s month is when designers and artist show their latest styles for Summer, creating a constant flow of castings and events.

I have been modeling since Winter 2010 and partaking in entertainment since youth. I’ve appeared on local television, national television, independent films, and local modeling/fashion circuits. Now-a-days I cherish the few gigs, or jobs, I obtain here and there, especially being enrolled full-time. (Fun fact: I will be in the CityTech’s Spring Production “the falling Sparrow”)

.                         704664_10151360682268921_2078211220_o                      a model

 Amoni B | Photography Credits L-R  Garden of Bathsheba & Entertainment Vibes

Last year I joined a booking agency for natural hair models. They emailed about a casting for $500-$1000 to be apart of a DVD or Webcast. Models allowed to attend would be considered for the job. I was confirmed and I was excited! I even avoided getting my hair done with my newly purchased internationally imported hair wefts.

I went to the casting after class, traveling to Lower Manhattan Gansevorts’ Meatpacking District on the West side near 14th street. It was snowing, I was cold, I got semi-lost, yet very determined. I managed to arrive before call time. To my surprise, because of the STORM, the casting was delayed. I canceled my sub-sequential appointments.

Models of various shapes and sizes poured into the mini elevator, then headed to the penthouse suite. I saw some familiar faces and several new ones. There were models conversing with new found friends; models sitting on couches dreaming away; models standing against walls; models sitting and gazing at those walls; models on their phones avoiding looking up at the surroundings, models preparing their newly painted masks in the restrooms, models changing garments from their winter-barriers to runway ready attire, and models disappearing due to the wait.

A couple of hours later, a male appeared. He laughed at the site and asked for some more organization. He separated us by our current hair length: those with long hair went to the right and those with hair above the shoulder went to the left. Having my hair in its tightly curly state I went to the left. He disappeared and there was a large waves of chatter. 20 minutes later he reappeared with a female companion. She further grouped us by hair color: brunettes to the right; blondes to the left; red heads to the back center; those with bobs or who will cut their hair to the back left; an those who would color their hair in any of the previously mentioned go to that group. I didn’t want to cut my hair so I went to the rouges, showing an open mind. The pair looked in the crowd of eager faces. They walked the room choosing those they saw fit. They ran their hands in models’ heads before putting them on a lifted platform.  They disappeared and deliberated, upon returning they dismissed us. Of the 30 models on stage, all were female, Caucasian, long hair, straight, maybe with a slight wave on some. Most were brunettes, 3 blondes, and one model had short gray hair in a bob.

two models

Backstage by Barnadette via CC license

The minorities looked at each other and at those on the platform. Some faces looked upset, others looked used to the turn out, and other visages remained blissful. I hoped at least one any minority, long or short, straight or curled, would be chosen. I felt even though we was allowed to attend this “equal opportunity” casting, there wasn’t an authentic place for us.

When leaving, it was as if we were on 42nd street during rush hour packed in a cramped corridor. People went to the elevator and some searched for stairs. While I waited online for the elevator, a feminine Greek-like statuesque consoled her tribal match, yet curly red-haired friend. She said, “Don’t take it personal… they usually go for people with straight hair. I’ve been chosen several times before when my hair has straight so I won’t [take it personal].”

I was conflicted. I was taking it personal. I thought of how I was screened for the casting and had hopes of being chosen. I thought of discrimination. I thought of being of color during Black History Month. I thought of breaking out of the African-American circuit and being internationally accepted. I thought of straightening my hair.


QUESTIONS TO THE PUBLIC: Do you feel there is a STILL a gap in the beauty industry?  |  Have you partook in fashion shows, what was the casting process?  |   What is your take on Mercedes Benz Fashion Week vs. Couture Fashion Week vs. Brooklyn Fashion Week vs. Urban Fashion Week?  |  Should models take castings personal or should the artist choose their subjects?  |  Should castings be regulated?

a young woman

Amoni B by Heaven Sent Photography