Welcome to my mind

Matthew Slack

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Wychwood Festival 2017 Organisational Chat 

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Wychwood Festival - AS 4

Matthew Slack - Production Manager

As the M2M external Project Manager I will be taking the lead in the programming and production of this years “Wychwood FM” stage. There are a number of changes in the operations of this years event, in which UOG work in partnership with Tribe Festivals. This includes additions/upgrades to the site, stage and spectacle of the “secondary” arena. I have also been made the head of all of the Universities activities at the festival. See a follow up post for an organisational flowchart to visually represent the scale of my role. 

What will I be doing?

Stage Programming: Myself and Megan have devised this years performance program. This includes: Wychwood FM stage, Bandstand Stage, and Late Night Cafe. 

Liaison between: Wychwood FM, Wychwood TV, Tribe Festivals, Artists and Crew

Overseeing production: I am in a unique position to be representing the Universities activities at the festival, thus overseeing all departments and their relationship with the Festival. 

In addition, I will be joining the technical staff for a couple of shifts. There has been increase in “sound crew” from the 16/17 intake. For the past few years, interest in sound has been low. Good to see fresh meat wanting to get involved. I will look after my usual clients/mates.  How will do this? This is like an optimal role for me, as it’s pretty much what I do already/want to progress in as a career. I am able to use my existing skills and traits as a production manager, which include: Effective communication, attention to detail, being flexible, and overall (probably the most important) being decisive. Being decisive is tricky, because you know fine well every choice you make has an affect on a lot of variables (in this case over 60 staff and students) and being able to stand by that choice (even if it was wrong, and to accept and improve). I am already well into the planning and preparation of Wychwood, so keep and eye out for now it goes. 

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Wychwood Festival 2017 As my role as M2M Project Manager, the responsibility for organising events falls to my department. After working with her at Christmas, Megan Pendergast will be my sidekick in the programming of the NEW and improved output to Wychwood. NEW STAGES  NEW BANDS NEW OPPORTUNITIES 

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NEEDS MORE TALENT

Been a quiet few weeks in the M2M camp, well for me at least. Being a project manager with no projects to manage! To satisfy my lust for work, I have now become the ‘Head of A&R’ of the record label division. This gives me some control of the music inout/output of M2MP. My roll will consist of the following:

-Controlling signed artists -Signing talent  -Managing repertoire  -PRS, PPL and other admin With one submission already in my inbox, it’s time to give this whole process a go to work out how to replicate for future heads of A&R. I suggested a recent board meeting that we should evaluate case-by-case, allowing a comfortable and stalemate agreement between “US and THEM” 

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AS1 Review

After a pretty restless night’s sleep, I treated myself to a fry up at home before heading to the venue to begin the set up for our first M2M live event. Months of planning and preparation falls on this day, so it’s essential everything goes well. I arrive at the venue at 12:30 to find our Broadcast Producer/Engineer Ivor Richards already on-site beginning un-loading some of his equipment that we will be using for the show.

**NERDY TECHNICAL MOMENT**  Ivor is providing us with x2 16ch rack mounted passive mic splits. Split A will connect to the venue snake to mix FOH and split B will connect to a Digital stage box, with Cat5E link to his broadcast van out in the car park.The audio ecosystem was designed by Ivor and Myself in a series of pre-production meetings. 

Once the venue opened at 13:00, Ivor and I began to set up the audio equipment. (Pictured) 

 The rest of M2M arrived at 13:00 and as ranking member on site (Production Manager) and began asking lots a questions. I gave a quick overview and everyone set about their own tasks. 

by 16:00 the Frog was dressed, the lines where checked and it was time to deliver my briefing with Exec Producer, Tor Basket. This was mostly about safety and raising any issues. Once this was delivered, we proceeded to soundcheck Dan Walton.  Once completed, I gave the door staff the all clear to open the doors. We were ready. 

The night proceeded to be a repeat of the the following: Qing bands, stage tech, problem solving.  The only outstanding issue was the raffle. Nobody had really given thought to how it was going to be drawn, so I took the responsibility to work it out on the fly. Ended up holding the huge calendar and tickets onstage for Mike while Adam set up Dan walton behind us.  The raffle finished at 22:55 (15mins quicker than expected) so I have the order to start Dan at 23:00 and not 23:15. The radios made this communication quick and easy. One of my strengths as a person is being able to make quick decisions and work well under pressure in Live Music. 

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Rock n’ Roll Star

Today myself and members of the Collab Module met with the University Marketing team to discuss the possibility of our work being filmed and used in promotional material for the UOG website.  Sarah and her team came well equipped with their idea and vision (complete with storyboards) on how they wanted the videos to narrate. We were happy with her ideas and suggested ways to further benefit her using content created by students IN the collab module... further enriching the academic reward for the students involved! Great to see that our efforts in this module are now being recognised by not only the school of media but the University itself. This is probably the biggest collaboration to happen in this module to date? Jeremy? James? amarite? 

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It’s looking good.

Really good.

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23/11/16 - Snapchat Filter

Based on a design by Sophie Netter, I have tweaked the filter slightly to fit in with the %covered policy. 

Start Time: December 15, 2016 11:00 AMGMTEurope/London

End Time: December 15, 2016 12:00 PMGMTEurope/London

Area Covered: 22,310 Sq Ft

Cost: $5.00 USD

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I have created a document containing some search criteria for when M2M staff review possible music venus over the next few days.  There will be a lot of information from the list of 200 possible venues, this is to help filter and collate said data so it is easy to present and review.

Happy Saturday folks! 

[thecompanyfacilitator]

Still got it

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This is the setting for the first M2M income stream! Client has required us to provide live music in the reception area of the University of Glos Reception as part of ‘Media Festival Week’ 

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The customer value pyramid

1. Functional 2. Emotional 3. Life Changing 4. Social Aim: provide a product or service that incorporates all 4 of these actions! Can we do it?  (Source: Bain & Company Inc, 2016)

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Getting stuff done

Today at approximately 17:43 PM I was tasked with booking musicians to perform during the media festival week on campus in the reception at the University of Gloucestershire.

The time is 23:23PM and I have successfully booked all slots for the week.

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Tomorrow I will be Chairing the first Made To Measure Productions meeting under our newly founded company. Here are some items that we will be discussing!

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Today I thought I'd share with you my 'workspace' as this this where most of my ideas come to life. Everyone's space is different- how about you share yours?

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You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it "done.” ― David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

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My Aims

My aims at TPC:

-Coordinate & manage commercial projects internally and externally -Commission and manage products from conception to delivery -Provide my own skills and expertise fellow employees projects -Deliver a professional level or service to clients of TPC

By doing this, I will gain invaluable experience of small startup company operation. Small startups are possible career choices for me after graduation. I like the idea of working for small businesses opposed to larger ones, because the chance to be part of the next ‘big thing’ In an industry so saturated that change is essential to survival.

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Week 4 Recap 21/10/16

Week 4 Notes: • Form committee for Assessment points (one of each division) • Ticket inclusive of extras: £5 gets you: entry, costume item, raffle entry, drink, buffet • AMS and the company separate • Work out Collab and Prod Com relationships

My Actions: • Link AL to my blog ☑️ • Populate committee: Ad&Marketing, Business Development, Christmas • Plan Technical for Xmas Show • Oversee theme/ aesthetic/ tickets for Xmas show • Review my aims and targets☑️ • Identify key dates • Me Chris Jess Megan Oliver Katie – Christmas Committee AS1

I have a lot to do in preparation for our next board meeting in 2 weeks time. For now, Empire Strikes Back and a mug of tea!