The Making of Project 3

Originally, my second project was to film my friends and I going trick-or-treating.  However, when I forgot to bring a big flashlight to light the dark night, and my video turned out awfully, I had to change my idea and fast!  During this time, I had already started working on my third project.  As it turns out, pre-production became its own project.

It took a lot more work than I thought it would.  First, I had to make sure I could garner enough support to pull it off.  I had talked to some classmates well in advance because I have been wanting to do this for two years now, and I just never had the guts. So when Sandy said, “Risk!” I wondered when I’d get a better excuse to do what I was always too freaked out to do. When I discussed my idea with some of my fellow classmates and performance lovers from Madrigal Dinner (who are like a family to me), I found out that a lot of people would be willing to help me out. 

But first, I had to find a song.  After two weeks of racking other people’s brains and playlists, I had nothing.  So, I was dejectedly driving home one night when my song came on the radio – “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by the Mamas and the Papas.  The words, the potential for harmony, the meaning of the song – it was perfect.  Now, I just had to arrange it. 

Unfortunately, I did not have much experience with arranging music beyond the random harmonic phrases I find myself singing in shower.  Luckily, I had a friend who was experienced with Sibelius, a music-arrangement program.  I asked for his help, and he eagerly agreed.  He showed me different techniques of arranging musical harmony – homophonic vs. polyphonic, SATB parts, etc.  So, the song was broken up into four voice parts for anyone who would be willing to learn.  Thank you, Joel Nesvadba. 

Then, I scoped out locations around Austin.  I made a list of all the places that people would like to hear singing.  I also drew plans of optimal places for people to sit and spread the love of music.  I made example layouts of a campus bus and the Renaissance Market on the Drag. 

After sending out many emails about who would be interested, I had a number of people email me about helping me out. I made a list of all those people and (embarrassingly enough) forgot to get their contact information beyond their emails.  This small oversight reared its ugly head when my computer crashed on me, and I lost my list of emails of people who were interested.

Fortunately, I still had numbers for some people, so I called them up.  My friend Justin Burniske offered to film us with a Canon XL-1.  As much as I had originally wanted this project to be more covert, I could not pass up the opportunity to capture this moment with such a beautiful camera.

 

Over the course of three weeks, I got on buses and sung under my breath.  I figured out that campus buses were the best to test this project on because bus drivers tended to be more tolerant of student antics.  The Forty Acres bus route between the Blanton Art building and Dobie was the longest bus route that didn’t run into street lights, which tended to be a mite unpredictable.  If I started singing halfway between stops, I could plant other people at other stops who could get on the bus and start singing along (an ingenious idea by Brandon). 

I tried setting up several meetings and rehearsals, but no one really came.  I worried that I might have to pick another song that was more popular and scrap the harmony idea.  Fortunately, the song ran about 2:20 minutes, depending on how fast I sang, which would be plenty of time to catch people at the stops (which were anywhere from 1:30-4:05 minutes long depending on how many people had to get on or off). 

The day of the test run went a little differently than planned.  I had scheduled the actual run to be on a Monday, so I wanted to try it out on Sunday.  None of the people on my original list ended up doing it (either because I couldn’t get a hold of them or they were busy), but 4 people ended up showing up to help me sing.  When we were meeting, my friend, John Bonds, suggested that we should do a Christmas song, in honor of the holidays and the fact that we could get more people singing if we sang a song that few people wouldn’t know.  So, we picked “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, “ which turned out to be even better because 1)  “Rudolph” is part of public domain, and 2) we only needed one rehearsal to get the words right. 

We also had to change to the West Campus bus, which was the 2nd choice, because it was closer to where we met (that route was also a long one without lights).  Three strangers sat around us, and two strangers sat in the back.  One girl turned her back to us and pretended not to notice.  One guy on his cell phone told the person on the phone what we were doing and tried to continue the conversation.  The other guy in the back just stared at us; I couldn’t read his expression.  However, one guy, Jeff, joined right in and even requested the next song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”  One girl wanted to join in, but she was from Venezuela and didn’t know any of the words.  I could tell that their moods were lifted, which made me feel really good. 

We got together again and tried the same route.  This time, there were many more people on the bus.  Unlike the night before, I got freaked.  Suddenly, I had this horrific fear that they were going to stare and disapprove, which was not in the spirit of the project.

vs.

That day, I learned the difference between stage and street performance.  It is one thing to get up in front of an audience that is expecting you to do something.  This unexpected performance was MUCH more terrifying.  I almost didn’t go through with it, but I knew that I was already in too deep.  People who were kind enough to give me their time were expecting something. 

Alas, the second time did not go as well as the first time.  There were too many people on the bus making too much noise, so it was harder to really sing.  Also, even though I started the song later than the night before, by the time the passengers got off and on, I was already done and my planted singers hadn’t even gotten on the bus yet.  The footage caught is only of backpacks and backs, so it looked pretty bad. The second test was an overall flop, which taught me the value of “Less is more.” 

However, I am glad that I did all the pre-work beforehand, or I would have gotten screwed soooo many times. And I certainly learned a LOT. 

Thanks Sandy, Joe, and Brandon.  This class was awesome.