The Importance of Team work (Feat. the Queensland Wind Orchestra)

Team Work, whether you are gods gift to earth or not, is difficult. Organisation is key and communication is crucial when it comes to working with others. Our Group, James Reynolds, Keely Menzie, Callum Hicks and Myself learnt this lesson very quickly this past Sunday. We were chosen to record the Queensland Wind Orchestra for their performance on the 11th of June at the Old Museum in Brisbane City. Together we thought nothing would go wrong, the plan was indestructible, well, it didn't take long for us to be proven wrong. In this blog I will be covering several issues that arose during the recording event, analysing the cause of these issues, seeing what possible solutions I had for each and then reflecting upon these aspects in terms of my own role and my teams.

SAE Tech Department

What was the problem?

The first and major issue was a huge slip in both organisation and communication, I arrived at SAE at 2pm, to find that nobody was on campus. The Tech Staff were not informed about the recording, thus nobody was there to lend out the gear we needed.

How did this happen?

It seems that early into the planning stage, James Reynolds discovered that the date for the recording was wrong. He informed Adrian upon finding out and that is where the slip up occurred. Adrian had not passed the information across to the tech department, meaning we were unable to get the gear we needed to record.

What was the Solution?

The solution we came across was to contact every member of staff we could. This included our peers who had connections to staff, messaging the staff themselves and relentless calling of SAE phone numbers. Eventually Callum got a hold of Stephane Elmosnino, luckily for us Stephane was willing to sacrifice some of his weekend time off to help us out.

Reflection:

Looking back at this event, I can see a clear indication on we, as a team, went wrong. Together we relied too much on our lecturer, Adrian, instead of confirming our plans with those who needed to know, i.e. Tech Department. This came down to our own lack of communication and organisation, usually on a project of my own I would make sure everything is sorted out and confirmed days in advance, I feel like I had let down my team and myself by not making sure I covered all aspects, Like I usually do. It is apparent that we treated this project as though we are doing something for uni, not for ourselves, and that is something I wish to change in further projects. Our collective lack of foresight nearly lost us the entire recording opportunity. Maybe a Pre-Production plan would have helped us, thinking of and problem solving these issues before they arose. But we didn't create a Pre-Production Plan for the same reasons this problem occurred. All in all, it is good that something like this happened while we were studying, giving us enough time to work out these issues and make sure we approach every aspect our the productions we work on with the same level of focus we would on our own personal endeavours.

Down Stage Centre Microphone Placement

What was the Problem?

Following from the first dilemma, we didn't have the right equipment needed due to the tech team hiring out the gear over the weekend. This caused us to change our microphone placement last minute due to not having the correct stands available, specifically, the centre ORTF Neumann's.

How did this happen?

There are two reasons this became an issue, the first as stated above, we did not have the correct gear. The second reason though, was because of the Local Sound Team. They had set up their own Down Stage Centre ORTF Microphones for the PA.

What was the Solution?

We didn't have many options available to solve this, so we ended up setting two Neumann's either side of the conductor. Thanks to Callum and James, setting up those still resulted in an accurate sound and good recording. While waiting till the show started, I realised that the local tech team might have a Auxiliary send available from their current microphone setup. Although they did, which was awesome, we didn't have the correct cables to run the send to the interface.

Reflection:

This is a situation I don't like to be in but is one to learn something great from, always come prepared! Taking extra gear, cables, adapters, stands, etc. Would have improved our chances for getting a great recording. Our issue feeds back in from the first example, we had a lack of foresight to see what could be a problem. I am pleased in my own personal problem solving, inquiring about the Local Tech Teams Sends would have been a smart move. The Result of this problem is not too catastrophic, we achieved a sound that differs our original practice recording, which isn't too bad, but might cause some issues when taking this recording into the final mix.

All in All, there is a lot to learn from this past recording session. Whether that is to have foresight to our projects or to be prepared for any circumstance, it has been a good learning experience. I would like to quickly thank Adrian Carrol for setting the session up, Stephane Elmosnino for helping us out, and of course my team; Callum, James and Keely.