B2- Personal Project

The start of the limbic lounge | May 2024

AC1   

PURPOSE OF PRODUCT

My personal project is called Limbic Lounge. This will be a platform in association with b2 radio, which will produce content about music. My primary location for distribution will be YouTube due to it suiting the content the best. My idea for this has huge influence from radio one’s YouTube. They use their page to share clips from the show, VT’s, interviews, and live lounge performances. I wanted to almost create that for b2, however Limbic will have a very different demographic. With Birmingham being the heart of the student radio station, we wanted to put focus onto talent within the west midlands, Birmingham being a main local resource. BOA is also a hub for rising talent and crew for the creative industries, therefore it would be silly not to use the platform to support introducing talent and generational influenced content.   

It will Essentially be a channel on YouTube, with other social handles, that will produce content under the limbic name. this will include content such as live lounge performances with introducing talent, VT’s exploring the industry behind music, charity work, science investigations, historic references, and interviews and guest speakers. Limbic will be the platform for introducing and up and coming talent in the west midlands but each guest will all have one thing in common, music.  

Limbic live lounge. So, this is where the project splits into two. Limbic itself was my idea which I pitched to Sam after going through idea generation, and he loved it. the idea for this was that we could both gain music industry experience, Sam could gain his presenting experience and I could take on live events management. To meet the desired aims of us both, we decided to split the project into two. The limbic live lounge will be a 15–25-minute, live lounge inspired performance, showcasing a total of 1-2 performances from different bands and artists in the area. the basis of the show is b2 radio live - upcoming & introducing. the listeners of our Friday slot on b2 radio will be immersed into 1 room live at boa stage and screen! the event will raise money for a chosen charity and be recorded with a multi-cam setup. if the one-off special goes well this idea could turn into an occurring show, showcasing monthly introducing talent and monthly music round ups.  in-between acts, jess and Sam will host the evening, with interviews, interactions with other hosts and guests, as well as VT’s, ranging from exploring music stations to sketches and charitable stories.  

This will be logistically tacked through a multicam prerecorded set up, which will run exactly like a live event but with live aspects to suit sams presenting aims. We also aim to use the footage and condense it into shorts for the YouTube channel. We decided to do it like this as it was the best way to split responsibilities and fit it around our availability. I needed a project I could do around my schedule and responsibilities I could do remotely; Sam, however, wanted a big focus project that he could plan, set up and deliver as one combined project, therefore we compromised by splitting the two between us. Sams focus is the limbic live lounge and mine is the limbic platform.   

My main aims as touched on before are to work with musicians and bands, learn more about the technical elements of producing an event (such as equipment, set up, logistics), to create an accessible platform and to finally give brummy introducing talent a space in the media. Regarding a successful result, I would be satisfied if I finished the project with a YouTube channel called the limbic lounge, which had two VT’s, two live performances, and an interview. To exceed my expectations, I would also love 3 live performances, a promotional Instagram and TikTok page sharing more about b2 and more VT’s/ performances from other performing arts specifications (a dance performance, prerecorded singer, or a rap artist).   

This project represents my desired industry perfectly. If you were to ask about my dream job, I would tell you with confidence that I would like to work as a coordinator for radio one live events. Whether I ended up in PR coordination or events producing, if I’m working at radio one events, it would be a dream come true. With that said, I know my development now needs to have focus on the music and events industry, which is something I currently lack. I have skills in coordination for entertainment and media, however, I know hardly anything about the music or events business. By producing a platform or telethon, it would give me first-hand experience in my dream job, if I could demonstrate my skills in creating a platform, with inspiration from radio one, and could maintain content and engagement, then I’m one step closer to feeling more confidence in doing it as a permanent role. By doing this project I am also demonstrating my passion for the music and events industry by also utilizing local resources, proving my sustainable approach and logistical mindset.  

BRIEF AND CLIENT

The creative brief was to create a project with an industry client that would relate to a role you would like to pursue in the future, which also uses your skills developed over the past two years.   

Our primary client is B2 radio. B2 radio are a student radio station in association with BOA. The reason we chose B2 was due to its huge link with introducing talent in Birmingham. Sam and I also present and produce a show on a Friday morning every week, which means our audience is already there and waiting for more content! I say they’re our primary client as due to it being an outreach channel, we will have external secondary clients such as talent. We are hoping to also get a charity involved with our telethon; therefore, they will be a huge contributing client. The good thing about doing a project with such versatility means we have flexibility to work with different people and take opportunities as and when they pop up. Sam and I have had huge success through networking, and we feel it will develop a strong point within this whole process. Through future and past networking opportunities we can use our contacts when searching for talent, we can then also find more talent by communicating through others, therefore expanding our network and reach when casting.  

With B2 being one of our own products, we have just as much freedom with this as we do with our show. This is exciting as we can articulate our idea and vision, exactly how we see it. The brand is also a company that we feel passionate about therefore we are happy to heavily promote b2 through this platform and event. The charity, however, is not currently confirmed, so I’m unable to st

As this is a project about music, they will include things such as artist audiences and introducing talent. From our research so far, we have realised that a lot of emerging talent is pop and indie, therefore this would fit into our Psychographics. Festivals would also be relevant psychographic as this will be a huge influence on our multi-cam show, alongside this for a similar reason, those interested in telethons, like children in need or red nose day, would find this engaging and entertaining.

Representation is not really a huge concern of ours as we just want to invite people to be themselves, therefore the representation then is down to our guests. To create this inclusivity and diversity we will open casting up to everyone with no limitations. If we were to talk specifics, we want to keep things based in the west midlands; culturally things will be focused on Birmingham and the black country. Despite not much input into representation, I do understand its importance.

ate any requirements set by them just yet.   

TARGET AUDIENCE

Our target audience is based on our current listeners at B2. After running a servery, we noticed that our listeners were mostly teens/ young adults (ages 14-25) due to the heavy pop and indie influence. The majority is also boa based; therefore, it would make sense to involved boa within the creative process to expand that reach. We already know our content does well at boa, so by using other content from other boa musicians/ artists, we would then be able to reach their audience to combine audience totals.   

On a wider POV Limbic can literally resonate with anyone and everyone. Our music taste together is a huge mix of old and new, therefore we hope it could also attract viewers from all ages. It will be a family friendly telethon, however, I would like to aim the platform at young adults, as I want our interviews and VT’s to be engaging with 14-25, Therefore some topics and language may come with a disclaimer. This age range is engaged by real, naturalistic content, which is why I like the idea of keeping things an unfiltered as possible. The unfiltered Content is also what does well on YouTube, as YouTube has a huge demographic aimed at 16–25-year-olds.   

The Demographics are as mentioned teens and young adults but also aimed at music lovers. The purpose of this project is to celebrate the connection between people and music, therefore its self-explanatory that the subject focus is music. Other demographics mainly include things like b2 radio listeners or introducing talent/ crew, as this could also be used as a platform for talent scouting, as we will work to promote introducing talent. psychographics is mainly based in music and or entertainments. As this is a project about music, they will include things such as artist audiences and introducing talent. From our research so far, we have realised that a lot of emerging talent is pop and indie, therefore this would fit into our Psychographics. Festivals would also be a relevant psychographic as this will be a huge influence on our multi-cam show, alongside this for a similar reason, those interested in telethons, like children in need or red nose day, would find this engaging and entertaining.   

REPRESENTATION

Representation is not really a huge concern of ours as we just want to invite people to be themselves, therefore the representation then is down to our guests. To create this inclusivity and diversity we will open casting up to everyone with no limitations. Limbic is all about celebrating everyone and everything, so the more variety of talent the more engaging our product will be, and the further our reach will be. If we were to talk specifics, we want to keep things based in the west midlands; culturally things will be focussed on Birmingham and the black country. We will do this by featuring brummy accents more on camera and filming in iconic locations. Regarding gender, things will be incredibly mixed, one example being two presenters of opposite genders. Sexuality and race again do not matter to us and is left up to our guests with no intention from us. Age is aimed at teens and young people due to the link to boa and students.   

Despite not much input into representation, I do understand its importance. Our true focus is Birmingham so we will definitely try to incorporate this as much as possible.   

Representation for our audience and contributors is a huge priority of ours. We will ensure we are making this platform as accessible as possible; including making our content accessible. Ways we aim to achieve this are by adding a subtitle option on our videos for those who require it or alternatively making each piece of content audible friendly. For example, our podcast or live lounge does not need visual attention to be enjoyed. This platform is all about celebrating the connection between people and music, so inclusivity is at the heart of everything we aim to do. Our inclusive casting is demonstrated through our current artists, as they are all different ages, ethnicity and genders.  

Making sure our casting was as open as possible was also a huge intention of ours. Ethnicity, gender age or religion, in a respectful way, means nothing to our platform, therefore casting is open to everyone. No discrimination of any kind will be tolerated and any crew or cast member who demonstrates such behaviour will be immediately removed from the production under the equality act of 2010. 

IDEA GENERATION

FORMATS

Formatting the project will be done in two ways, one into short form content designed for socials, and one being a multi camera prerecorded edit that will be about 25 minutes and will be designed more for tv use. With that said, we will more than likely upload the final edit onto YouTube.   

At first, we aimed to film our live lounge via a multicam set up, however, when it came to the day of filming we were limited to equipment and recourses and had to fall onto contingency. We originally wanted to do this really down to ease. If we did a multi cam set up it would mean would be able to vision mix it right, there and then and would save so much time in postproduction, but in the end it didn't take much longer and i actually enjoyed matching and mixing the footage myself in post.  

Short form was evidently the best way to upload the content. Due to each piece being very different and varied, we wanted to create multiple versions of the same idea with different people and/ or topics. This way we could also continue the platform after college, if we had any more ideas or created appropriate content. Short form is also incredibly popular at the moment and has proved so much potential for bigger platforms in terms of promo and reach. This would be the quickest and most convenient opportunity for us, in order to grow the channel. The content pitched and produced is also just a create fit for said platforms and will hopefully allow it to achieve its highest potential.  

The actual format of the product will be shorts in HD colour. We filmed each shot in film on the Blackmagic pocket cameras, then put them into daVinci and converted them into video and then adjusted the colour accordingly. We then had to export the videos as MP3 ‘s as the files were too big to transfer from the SDs onto a USB for editing. This worked fine, it probably would have been better in BRAW, but it still worked well. The final export was matched in post and the podcast and video podcast was exported as an HD MP3 to upload onto YouTube.  

The reason we chose this format was again just down to practicality and recourses. Had we had bigger storage on the SD’s we could have filmed at a higher quality, or a hard drive, we could have edited at a high quality to avoid disruption or pixelation on the final product, but it is what it is, and in relation to circumstances from the production process I feel we achieved a solid result.  

BRAINSTORMING

When brainstorming ideas, I ultimately ended up with 5 different versions of what limbic could be, I started with the concept of a huge live event with different acts showcasing local talent, however, I was told that it was too big of an idea and that I needed to be more realistic. I took on this advice and gradually made my ideas more and more achievable, this led to ideas 4 and 5. The first considerable concept was the telethon, which was what was pitched to Sam the second time around, he fall in love with the idea, however, I started to realise that unfortunately this now wasn’t going to be possible due to my availability up until the deadline, I then had to figure out a way we could still achieve a similar result with a more relaxed and flexible approach, which is where I decided on creating a digital platform with short form content.   

My ideas were a 30min live show, a documentary, a telethon, a live lounge, and a YouTube platform. The live event was ruled out due to safeguarding concerns, Sam didn’t fancy doing another documentary, which left the last three, which we then merged to create the final idea.   

I evidently decided on this idea due to practicality. If it were up to me and I had unlimited time and access to locations and equipment, and most of all money! Then I would of 100% gone with my first idea of a concert. The concert was the baby of limbic and my whole motivation for this celebratory event, however, I am happy with this chosen idea, and I feel confident that if we can use this as a base for concert, we can gain that audience and reach, which will give us a one up when running with the live performance idea in the future; I will take my first idea forward with me into my career and university studies.   

As mentioned, money was a huge factor in the development of said ideas. The potential of each idea would be limited by its financial support, and that is the same as anything. We have no money. No money means we could produce an average result that looks low budget, or we could be smart about it and use the expenses via our current contacts and resources. Boa is going to be a huge contributor for this project, one reason being their equipment and locations being a free offering for us, and the second reason being the easy access for free crew and cast. There is so much talent and space potential at boa so it would be silly not to utilize this before we leave in May.   

Ideas generation   

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF3vh2zY2Y/UcZmuYdnS7xiD9qqxk3zAQ/view?utm_content=DAF3vh2zY2Y&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor  

RESEARCH

Link to full research doc : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tk_2R6-bi8sYqPZiP-YqyPnakTxGJm86NcGovT5kWBA/edit?usp=sharing 

Small incite: 

 I initially came across Limbic when trying the figure out my own mind. In 2020 I was diagnosed with ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. This affects concentration, organisation and social detection. A year later, during my GCSE I had a seizure at school, which was put down to stress, but we later learned that it was epilepsy. What was different about this diagnostic process against others, was that after two years of intense testing, trialling and investigations, due to more frequent episodes, it was discovered that I had ADHD rather than ADD. In comparison, they are not much different, apart from ADHD, the desperation for that dopamine hit comes out in energetic bursts or emotional dysregulation. It was found that because I had pushed back all the anxiety, stress, emotional exhaustion and hyperactivity, it had basically, scrabbled my head and caused my cognitive receptors to glitch, leading to irregular electrical activity and therefore epilepsy. Complicated right? Well, imagine receiving all of that information at 16 years old. I was and still am so desperate to understand how and why stuff like this happens.  

With that said, this does relate to the limbic system. The strange thing that consistently showed up in my EEGs (electroencephalogram) and trials, was that the only thing that seemed to regulate my electrical activity and my BPM, was music. I was a dancer, and to be honest, dance was the only time through all of these health complications, that I could switch off and feel normal, but it was also a moment/ situation where I’ve never had a seizure. The strange, mind-blowing indication was that at each recurring instant where an episode would arise, I was relaxed, and in a stable environment, but the key emerging factors were that beforehand I was either incredibly bored or in a heightened moment of confinement or emotion dysregulation, such as needing to concentrate, sit still for a long period of time or often overwhelmed. In a one-word summary, I just needed to stay away from Exams. I now know of course that it could have been easily avoided, through communicating with others in moments of stress or anxiety, or keeping active/ knowing it was okay to fidget or get up and walk about; but at this point two years ago, I didn’t even know I had ADHD never mind a life-long seizure disorder, so as you can imagine, no one knew what was going on.  

After my diagnosis, I began to research and found that it was more explainable and common than I thought. I have left temporal lobe epilepsy but in general Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common epilepsy in adults. The way my epilepsy is affected by my ADHD is actually through the limbic system. Although my seizures are not triggered by musical responses, the electrical and anatomical abnormalities are disrupted due to an emotional led frequency, which happens through or in the hippocampus, amygdala, frontal cortex, temporal cortex, and olfactory cortex. The limbic system is also responsible for the function of anxiety disorders, PTSD and depression. It can work by in my case disrupting receptor frequencies, or in others being responsible for blocking out emotions or memories, which can disturb the natural function of chemical balances and cognitive decision-making, leading to environmental disorders such as anxiety or depression. ADHD however is not caused by a fault in the limbic system, it affects the limbic process by having an enlarged hippocampus. The hippocampus is the reason we feel things so deeply when we’re upset, overwhelmed or anxious, which is why it’s said that people with ADHD feel things at a greater level, and can sometimes come across as sensitive or dramatic. This is because we actually feel things 3x more than neurotypicals, as our hippocampus has a volume of 3.35 compared to 0.02. So next time we seem a bit too much, just give us a bit of credit, our brain is a lot more busier and emotional than yours.  

So, what does the limbic system have to do with music? The thing that is key in the brain’s emotional, musical resonance is limbic. Limbic is the neural pathway where emotions and impulses are transmitted. The amygdala is responsible for emotional processing and the hippocampus is integral for activating memory, so when music is introduced it enhances the effects of the amygdala and hippocampus, reaching the maximum potential of the limbic system. Auditory stimuli can transport you right through the system and can create visual memories provoked by those emotional responses, leading to enhanced creativity, passion and feeling. The emotions then created send signals to your temporal lobe, sending physical reactions such as goosebumps, chills or that heavy feeling in your stomach. This all works through emotion, and lucky for us, music is one of the easiest ways of conveying that. Whether a piece of music is attached to a memory or not, it still has the power to create feeling; frequencies in music have the power to raise dopamine levels to boost mood. My next question then was why does some music make you feel sad? Most research suggests it is due to memories and associations through watching TV and films growing up. The stereotypes of slow music at a funeral, or most slower songs being about heartbreak, I guess the association started from when we were young. However, I like to listen to ‘sad songs’ when I’m studying or out for a walk because it helps me think. Thinking in my case could be anything, but nine times out of ten, if I’m on a walk its because I want time to think and it’s usually something I’m feeling pretty emotional about, therefore I think I’ve answered my own question.   

Limbic Lounge was created through something very close to my heart and I’m excited to see it blossom into something incredible for all to celebrate.  

PITCH

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF6sjAnvQ8/JHQ8e9CmzLfuiUSQ15O4tw/view?utm_content=DAF6sjAnvQ8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor  

Pitch video link -  

https://boaacademy-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/jessicachloe_watson_boa-stageandscreen_co_uk/ES_vJV0wyHZEq5cerawIRpIB_h3_6zZOO5BhEBIafUV1hw?nav=eyJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJPbmVEcml2ZUZvckJ1c2luZXNzIiwicmVmZXJyYWxBcHBQbGF0Zm9ybSI6IldlYiIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXciLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJNeUZpbGVzTGlua0NvcHkifX0&e=IgQUHS 

FEEDBACK

Crewing was a huge area of feedback as it was a clear factor that we learnt from our previous project. Due to myself and Sam leading each project we do; we tend to have no or minimal crew. This leaves us issues when we are the ones who want to produce a mas scale product or present in our product. The easiest place to start would be to talk about the original idea and how we had to minimise this due to crew. As previously mentioned, we wanted to produce a multi camera telethon style event which would be sponsored, and exec produced by Tonic (music and mental health charity/ organisation). Even though we had a meeting with said company discussing logistics, we did confirm to them that this idea was still in the planning due to uncontrollable and unreliable circumstances at our college (Ofsted, other projects taking place in college, lack of members of staff). The issue we evidently were left with was down to safeguarding. We could find the crew, however because the crew were external, college would require a chaperone over the entire project. This was more presentable the further we got into logistics, as not only were all our teachers out on the year 12 projects filming, but then the following week we had a Suprise visit from Ofsted. As frustrating as this issue was, it was unavoidable, and we needed a project done a submitted that week. This required us to quickly go back to the drawing board and reshuffle our ideas.  

We then settled on a compromise with our college that we wouldn't get in any external crew but only 3 external contributors within an hour and half after college hours. This was as good as we weren't going to get in during the busy few weeks, so we settled with this. We then took that information and created a schedule and content plan where we would produce shorts instead of a long multi cam shoot. We could film this ourselves without additional crew, then edit it amongst the two of us. We did however need a hand setting up the technical elements such as lighting and sound. They were great, I sent an initial email asking for support and the tech students within our college arranged a get in and helped us set up the equipment. We then shot the product and did the get out ourselves and returned the borrow kit the tech the following week. This did also give us a great opportunity to learn about the live event tech and has developed my knowledge that will enhance my position going into the industry of live events.  

Casting required so much feedback from staff members, not only down to safeguarding but also logistics. As we needed a chaperone in order to have external guests in the college, we then needed to find a teacher that was willing to stay with us. It seemed to be the situation of our department staff were saying we needed someone to stay but all stated there was no one to stay. Leaving us with a contrasting situation with little resolution move. Our teacher in the end in a sense said that we needed to call off the production and find another project a week before filming. We were not going to do this. Comprehensive planning and preparation had already been conducted, including, but not limited to, casting and scouting research. The even more disappointing idea of this project getting demolished so far into the production process, was that this teacher knew about our plans with the production and knew this was the plan/ idea from the start. It was no shock that we were going to work with external a guest and use the college studios. We then received the conclusion that the only reason this wasn't possible was due to the example they were trying to set for Ofsted regarding safeguarding and child protection. Again, totally understandable but then the argument to that from our side is that, if this is something you require from your side of the cooperation, then this is something you need to sort not us. If you require a teacher to be present out of hours to continue said plan, then this is something you need to arrange, as you changed your word on the plan last minute. We then received an interesting comment that we should've let them know about this safeguarding issue well in advance, to which I pulled up several emails and conversations about this said issue, from 5 weeks in advance, proving this issue was between the Commnication of their team not ours.  

Due to the scale of the project, we pitched to the teachers, who again were apprehensive and sceptical regarding logistics. This was expected as we always strive beyond expectations and sometimes come across ambitious to others, however, if I may say so myself, we always execute these ambitions with Emene execution, organisation and professionalism. We explained the ideas eventually to 5 members of staff. Our core teacher miss Hurdiss immediately shut down the concept and stated if we wanted to proceed with the platform, we would need to consult someone with high authority, but she had concerns regarding the execution. we took the pitch to our assistant principle to check the proposal and he loved the idea and collaboration of technical and broadcast. We stated we needed to take it to our head of department as the pitch was very good. Our head of broadcast also liked the idea and told us in order to get the green light we needed to take it to the head of stage and technical to check about logistics (equipment, availability and resources), we then took the pitch down to her and we discussed the concept and what we required from her department, she told us it was totally possible and to keep chasing the potential. After all the feedback provided, we felt confident that we could respond to the feedback given and could adapt to the limitations and concerns presented by these members of staff. Call us stubborn but this did give us the drive to execute it with full potential and prove our capabilities.  

Feedback was going to be a huge focus of our next project together due to our last project. On the documentary which we produced the previous term, we didn't work with the members of staff at the academy to our best ability. I do think this was down the previous let down by these mentors and the resolution of previous issues between ourselves and them. We felt after that project that by presenting said members of staff with an issue in our product we seemed to leave with more issues alongside the originally stated issue, which resulted in myself and Sam just removing ourselves from the guidance of the college and moving independently to finish the documentary. I feel we did finish the documentary with an exemplary product, however i do regret the ending relationship it had between staff and ourselves.  

After that project we decided to repair said relationship and create a project that would make us both happy. This project would provide we and the limbic lounge huge success, but also provide the college which identical consequences. We would be giving them a platform to promote their brand and give other students/ partners the same opportunity we wish we had maybe got in our first year at boa.  

Booking equipment was one issue but the most surprising booking problem we faced was down to locations. We originally booked out the main technical studio downstairs for 3 days, which was already a quick turnaround time, but we planned and prepped knowing the challenges. A week before this we received news that the space now was booked out for the year 12s collaborative project. Understandably this is a priority for the academy, however, after the feedback received from staff stating we needed to book the space out way in advance if we needed it, then for it to be booked by them the same week we had reserved it was frustrating. We then had to book another smaller space and delay filming by 3 weeks down to availability. This not only delayed the production but again the same thing happened. After the clear factor stating if we required something it needed to be reserved, again, we booked out this space 5 weeks in advance for the whole week. Now a week before filming we went to double check logistics of getting equipment ready and checking out the locations, we received news that even though we booked out the space we were now unable to have it for the whole week, as again the year 12s needed it, which can i add they did not book this space out and expected us to sacrifice production dates for our personal project to fufil their lack of preparation and organisation. we compromised as we had no choice over the matter, we were then given 2 days to turn around the production, including a get out, get in, podcast shoot and 3 live performances. The issue with this location was also that it was smaller, and it was upstairs, making transporting kit so much more difficult.  we did achieve this however an additional problem arises the week of filming due to the Suprise Ofsted visit, which meant teachers were now saying we needed to be in lessons to ‘boost numbers’- which we responded that these two days were the only days we had the studio space and we needed do get it done to achieve a final result by the deadline. Due to the high-pressure environment, we gave the staff the benefit of the doubt and compromised that they would clear a date where we could have the studio an additional date the following week, which they did do once we followed up this request to additional members of staff.  

Equipment, another shambles. Due to the impact of Ofsted the teachers disregarded any other concerns except tutor. This meant due to said pressure, all of our booked-out equipment prepared to collect the week of the shoot had been forgotten about/ disregarded. We had tuned up the day of the shoot, immediately began setting up the tech and set for the day, as we were in too early to pick up the equipment straight away. We popped down to grab the equipment ready to set up, which we were then surprised to see no equipment had been left for us, and all broadcast teachers were out on location filming with the year 12s. There were then left with no members of staff available in our department to ask for support or advice, and all of the external or higher departments were all busy stressing about the Ofsted visit. We were then again on hold, delaying the production even longer. We eventually went to our pastoral teacher who saw us wondering around the college looking for a teacher, she of course, the legend she is, helped us to find some equipment and resolved the issue the best she could, despite no knowledge in broadcast She rang the head of stage equipment after the head of broadcast equipment responded to the problem with “i don't know guys” and hung up. The equip manager told us all to grab anything which was there, which was great but eventually didn't work out as there was nothing left, as everything was on location with the year 12s. The situation become clear that we were not going to film on that day, and we had to just continue to prep for the following day and resume our plans then. We were so disappointed as again this proved the same issues that occurred during our documentary filming from the co-dependency of our college. This was unacceptable, so we took the issue to our head of department after Ofsted had left. She was also disappointed in the way staff delt with this issue and tried her best to sort this issue for us. She rang the head of broadcast and demanded that we had equipment and the space to film the next day. She repeated how unacceptable it was and apologised for how the situation had played out. I can't fault this resolution and i was impressed by the sincerity from higher members of staff. 

Equipment was also a huge aspect we needed feedback on, as me and Sam are technical to an extent, but we didn't have the knowledge to execute and achieve our aspirations. We were happy to film this with the skills we had however, after speaking to different members of staff they said that the easiest and best way to execute our idea would be to do it through a multi camera set up. I have no idea how to set this up which is when i said that to them, and we communicated the ideology that if we were to do this, we would need their support to do this. Our head of broadcast had said that we would set it up for us or get another student to do this the day before the shoot, or on the day. We questioned this, as I'm glad we did as stated in the paragraph above. He stated to leave this with him, and he would get back to us later on in the day of discussion. We did not receive a response, we also did in fact not receive any support with the set-up of this, nor any equipment to even set up this multicam shoot, even if myself and Sam were willing to try and set it up. Overall, our experience in trusting the feedback from members of staff was disappointing. We did then end up getting rid of the multicam concept and worked with the equipment that we had, which was the three-camera pocket camera set up with the podcast mics and road caster sound desk.

AC2

PROBLEM SOLVING

PRE PRODUCTION

https://jessicachloew.wixsite.com/boayr2/portfolio 

RISKS

Our personal project raised so many concerns for us as a team. These came down to many factors but raised an even bigger concern due to the responsibility of the project falling on just myself and sam. If one of us went down, it became a 1-man graft, which left the weight of an entire project on one person. Partially down to this issue our main risk was that Sam, and I were the crew, and for the podcast, also the cast.  

As slighting touched on, if one of us wasn't available then the issues would fall onto one person or delay the project. When we started with this project after idea generation, we sat down together to discuss logistics, such as schedules and dates. We soon realized our availability would pose a huge risk to the project's scale. At the time Sam was off for the foreseeable, down to a landslide blocking his transport into Birmingham, and once he was back, I would be out on external work commitments. We had no time within the next four weeks where we saw fit to produce this project. This also took a toll on our well-being as we were both so excited and passionate about getting this production lifted, that it caused stress on ourselves as we were frustrated, we couldn't meet, and that our schedules contrasted. In the end we both had to give up opportunities and clear a space to get it done. It was evident that it was a good job we did this, as we then faced so many scheduling conflicts due to unavoidable external complications, which delayed the filming of the production. 

Due to the minimal nature of our team, it also meant that it took longer for things to get done as there was no one to delegate tasks to but us. We were left with huge to-do lists on both sides, in order to meet the standers to greenlight filming. This led to burn out and loss of interest in myself and sam. We began so frustrated because of last minute changes that we just ended up limiting the scale of the project more and more as it progressed. An example of this would be how we originally pitched a telethon and then ended up right back down to short form content. It took us alot of resilience to continue which such changes happening on a daily basis, but in the end, we loved filming our projects and found that it all worked out for the better by producing the short form, not only due to workload but also on a more personal level in regard to actually enjoying our final project.  

Myself and sam thrive on the idea of keeping that relaxed, non-competitive vibe, we deal with an issue as and when it comes up and just get on with it. The mentality that feels limited our wellbeing risks was just sticking to the ideology that what will be will be. We found from our last project that our enjoyment and passion diminished the more we let the high-pressure situations get to us, but by dealing with issues together and seeing the bigger picture, we were able to create a hard-working environment with minimal stress. I still carry the quote our teacher told us in first year; “were only making a bit of film and tv- were practically playing make believe.” and it's so true. Wellbeing is so important to me in terms of limiting risks and i feel a state of someone's wellbeing within a team could determine the scale on an external risk. For example, we said we needed a risk assessment completed in a tight time frame to shoot the next day. Instead of getting stressed and then potentially delaying the issue further, posing another risk to the original risk. Take a step back, work together to propose a plan to priorities and chill the f out.  

On the topic of minimal crew and wellbeing, the clear issue that we were most worried about came into play a week after we were meant to film. After wanting to film the previous week and failing due to issues with our college, everything was delayed by about a week, then due to us now having to still film our podcast and rearrange logistics and documents for the following week, we also had loads of editing to do from the previous week, plus external college work and a looming deadline. This was all scheduled to avoid this said issue, to prevent a buildup of work, but this production delay cancelled out our contingency. Due to us now being exhausted from late nights competing work and long days for filming, sleep soon caught up on us, and unfortunately for me triggered by epilepsy. This then caused all sorts of issues regarding my neuro and cardiac health which is not down to a direct link of college work but unfortunately led to interrelating factors between work, education and home life. Due to this now bringing an unreliable risk and concern on the already delayed production; it meant the admin of the production was slowed down drastically as I would either be recovering from an episode still or at hospital appointments. We also had to be very careful with filming, as i couldn't do anything that could impact any seizure triggers, such as tiredness from long days, or long periods in hot situations, or even certain modes of lighting. We adjusted to this and ended up in a great position. It would maybe just mean us implementing things like no lone working or taking naps before or after intense filming/ admin, which seemed to work. It posed a huge risk on things, but luckily due to Sams help we pulled right through and got this project done and wrapped up on time.   

Our main risk in terms of completion was time. It was not only down to our team availability and locations, but also just down to the time we had left on the course. We soon realized after planning commenced, that we were going to be signed off from college at the end of May. This gave us 5 weeks to plan, film and produce our product. The time frame was a huge risk as if we didn't complete it on time, we were told our grade would capped at a merit if the project was submitted late. We didn't want this at all. Not only do i feel that would massively underestimate the potential of our product, but wouldn't justify the hard work we put in. The issue with this tight deadline was that we had to make sacrifices on the logistical aspects of the production. Such as a minimal technical set up as the get ins an get outs were a quick turnaround, and also casting, if we had more time to focus on talent scouting, we could have massively bulked up our live lounge line up and potentially could have had guests to feature of our podcast. The risk was that this production just wasn't going to be completed in time.  

I have previously touched on the risks regarding safeguarding but from our own personal perspective this did become a concern going into the project. Not only was it a huge risk due to the college housing students 16-19, but for our own welfare it needed careful contingency. Its always a risk working with contributors who you don't know, so it's important to follow those procedures. The way we went about this was by making sure all parties involved in this production agreed to the terms and conditions set by myself and sam. This involved a contract and brief before each session/ shoot. As production manager i feel i fulfilled this responsibility very well. Before the shoot i would brief Sam on his rights Aswell as others within the production. An example of this could be inappropriate behaviour. As mentioned, any kind of discrimination or inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated. If Sam were to receive any offensive comments or felt uncomfortable at any point in the process, He has the right to report the issue to any trusted support lead of his choice and suggest the termination of said team member, dependent on the issue. On the contrary, Sam also in this brief and contact will accept that if he was seen or heard displaying any inappropriate behaviour, he understands his contract will be terminated on the spot with immediate removal from production. This ensures the risk to safeguarding is reduced.  

Another way we reduced the risk to the safeguarding of our team was hours on set and implementing social media policies. Keeping records of our hours on set was so important especially as i was working with under 18s. It is a legal requirement that anyone under 18 must have a break from work every 4 hours and no more than 8hours work a day. When we were doing a full shooting day this just meant that we scheduled breaks to make sure cast a crew were getting their breaks on time and meeting legal standards. I would also check in with people throughout the day to ensure they were well rested and fit to continue work. If deemed unfit, we would follow the contingency plans. If deemed unsafe to themselves or others by carrying on work they would be sent home, if deemed fit to work but seemed mentally or physically tired or unwell, it would require mandatory relief for said person, then a reassessment would be carried out after said relief. This sounds all very legal and complecated but essentially it is making sure you and the cast or crew members are protected against any further risk to the production or team member.  

The social media policy also ties in massively to the risk of working with children. Although each contributor was of an age to make their own decision, it would become an issue if said person was to later backtrack on their decisions made on the process. Regarding any content being shared online, it was all about making sure everyone was on the same page. If someone was to post something online, as stated by the contract, each post wishing to be posted would need approval via the production manager to check confidentiality and disclosure of the production. Regarding personal risk, if a post had someone else from the production in it, the person wanting to post would need permission from the member in the content. This approval would not be covered by the limbic lounge and any future altercations regarding the post would need to be disputed between the two individuals. Again, if a post needed to be removed, the limbic lounge has the right to request removal of any post featuring the company, production or anything that could be associated. This post would need to be removed within 24hours of notice. Having this in the contract protects our back and prevents our contributors from being shocked if an occasion was to arise.  

THE LIMBIC LOUNGE CONTRACS.docx 

Trust also became a huge risk to our productions. As mentioned, the relationship between us and college hasn't been impeccable. Not that we don't get on the teachers as i think they're all legends and weve been told a few times that they respect us for pushing the boundaries a little bit and having passion and determination for a project. Nevertheless, the rules tend to get in the way of our plans, which is why sometimes we do tend to bend them slightly. Teachers are extremely busy people, especially our teacher mr Mahmood who grafts day in and day out, single handedly, helping four broadcast classes achieve their highest potential, so big shoutout to him. However, because our fabulous tutors are always busy, we were of course not at the forefront of their minds. This is frustrating when you're relying on them remembering their promises. One example being the issue we had with equipment back at the beginning. Lewis was incredibly busy at the time and forgot to arrange and leave our equipment, leaving us with no equipment on the day of filming, delaying production and then causing more risks and problems for us. It became clear that if we wanted to make sure something was going to be reliable and get done, then we needed to do it ourselves. This is what led to us just doing everything we could to get it done. The lack of trust left so many risks to the production; added pressure of time, crew availability, welfare and locations. Everything had a roll over affect, if one risk played out then it would bring on another straight after.  

Our contingency plans put in place just became lists of “if college do not follow through with this” which shouldn't have been the case but unfortunately it was. As we learnt about this risk in past projects, we were less surprised to see things follow the same pattern in this next project- but at least we were prepared for these risks.  

LIMITATIONS AND ISSUES

A limitation we faced was again mostly time as when we began to have issues with locations, we then had to delay the production to the following week which gave us limitations in n terms of post-production. We had to limit editing time which reduced quality as it was then rushed in the space of three days. Despite the limited time I feel we still achieved a good result, it just meant that a few details weren't as executed as I would have liked them to be. For example, the advertisements and graphics were often not as refined or detailed. I would've like to of had a nicer looking video by editing with the BRAW footage, however due to time we just had to export them and edit with the MP3 versions, as we didn't have the time to try other options or wait for a hard drive.  

Legality was a huge issue during the development stage. We had been drafting names for ages regarding the brand and segment. We eventually settled on the limbic lounge. I did plenty of research regarding brands and other similar names and found nothing alike. However, i randomly decided to do an Instagram search and came across an account with @the_limbiclounge. My heart honestly dropped. How can two people come up with an identical name for two very different things. I immediately found the founders contact info and dropped her an email regarding the domain. She stated that she did not give permission for us to use the name for our brand but wishes us luck on our project. We didn't ignore this and decided to look at other names. Sam then suggested we look more into the legal properties and ways of claiming a domain. The tricky situation is that this company did not own any kind of legal domain over this name, she simply just had the same name. So, legally if i brought the Uk domain for the limbic lounge, then i would own the domain even if your business had been established before mine. I really didn't want to do this, just incase, but we tired so many other names and just couldn't find anything that suited. This said company was also an American institution and was in no way influenced by entertainments or media, therefore even with the same name they are contrasting in many ways.  

Copyright was also a big thing for us. The aim wasn't to make money from this project, so monetisation wasn't an issue in regarding to posting on YouTube etc. Despite that we didn't want the video to get blocked, therefore any identical tracks used would need to be no more than 30 seconds. For example, the live lounge tracks would be okay, and they are not verbatim to other content.  

Again, in regard to legality it was important for us to communicate with our contributors about ours and their rights. We made it clear that the content they worked on with us and our brand, is and always will be our property. They have a right to share and distribute the work, but it will always need to have clear limbic lounge branding. If not, this gives us an opportunity to only sue them worst case scenario, but it also protects us from being used. They could if not protected, take our work and publish it under a bigger brand and leave us with no credit, disvaluing our hard work and establishment.  

Transport was a big issue and limitation. As previously talked about transport was a huge part of our planning and filming. We are both travelling from outside Birmingham and 1 hour in opposite directions. This was always going to sometimes cause complications but impacted us more over this project due to the lack of time we had. My issue for example was the increase in price of my tickets. Prices had gone from being 160 a month, to 350 a month almost overnight. I couldn't afford to keep up travel 5x a week on a 2-day salary. I had to drop down to 2 day a week in order to stretch my budget out until the end of term. College caught on about my situation and fortunately helped out massively and offered to fund my travel for the remaining 3 days per week. This saved our production no questions asked. When this issue was prominent our teacher explained it would not be possible to do this and decided to cut our project from us with no explanation. This was incredibly upsetting as we had already done all of the hard work and were ready to film. Sam and I had to fight for this project. We took this information to our head of department and explain the situation and said that we did not want to give up this project. I'm not sure what happened after that, I'm guessing they had a discussion, but a week later thankfully, the project was back on. This caused issues and risks to our wellbeing as we were frustrated and confused about this outcome, but it also again delayed the project by another week until the issue had been discussed between staff and we were green lit to continue the production.  

Overall, the project was just chaos from start to finish. Good chaos, but a lot. We just seemed to have one issue after another, which had rolling effects, and it felt like everything was just trying to delay this project. Despite that we did get it in on time and subbed before the course end. We usually do incredibly well during high pressure situations and i pushes us to achieve even better results, however, maybe it was down to my health putting me in a bit of a personal rut, but this project felt a lot harder to keep bouncing back from.  

EXPERIMENTATION

Usually, i don't have much to stay regarding experimentation, however, this time around we learned. from our mistakes of little prep. due to a lot of setbacks, it gave us an opportunity to use the time to practice and prepare. For example, when we tuned up to kit of the day of filming, we used that planned recording time as rehearsal time. We found some old Sony cameras that recorded basic video and did a few test shots. This was so helpful as we could use the cameras to prepare the camera angles and block lighting and camera equipment.  

As it was free time, we ran through the podcast structure and tested the technical set up of the podcast. The audio sounded great which confirmed there were no issues with sound. The cameras also helped us adjust the lighting. We originally wanted to just use one panel, 3 spots and two light sabers. We then decided that the light sabers actually worked really nice as a warm side light through the camera, and also that in order to not see the reflection on the tv screen of the panel light, we decided to use the photoshoot set up lights as overhead lights the light us up that way, as the reflection looked awful through the screen.  

Set design was also an element experimented with. During this planning stage we were both doing alot of remote working, therefore we were planning our set designs through a shared pitch on Canva. Sam and I would upload different but similar set ups online, then discuss a final product in person. We teste different measurements of the lights and flight cases, then measured the space on our location recce. We did change our mind when we got to space, but it worked to our advantage as we had more space than we thought we would have, therefore giving us more opportunity to put more details into the shot. Another Canva trial and error was logos. This took forever to decide on. We started off with icons and then moved onto embellishing the name into the design. We eventually realized the vibe we were looking for was minimalistic and classy, so we eventually just went with the name in black and white. However, the text thing was to figure out fonts and sizes. Again, we just did this on a shared pitch on canva and then decided together on a logo.  

The very first area of experimentation initially started with our idea generation. This included so many ideas, some include: 

Limbic. This is what we began with. In association with b2 radio, producing content about music. The primary location for distribution will be YouTube due to it suiting the content the best. The immediate idea for this has huge influence from Radio One’s YouTube. They use their page to share clips from the show, VT’s, interviews, and live lounge performances. I wanted to almost create that for b2, however Limbic will have a very different demographic. With Birmingham being the heart of the student radio station, we wanted to put focus onto talent within the west midlands, Birmingham being a main local resource. BOA is also a hub for rising talent and crew for the creative industries, therefore it would be silly not to use the platform to support introducing talent and generationally influenced content. The question remained, what format was limbic? Limbic Live Performance – It will be a live 35-minute orchestra performance with a choir, band, mini orchestra, singers and dancers. It will consist of 3-5 different orchestra covers of popular songs, each with a unique twist within each company – dance, drama, acting, music, vocals. There will also be a pre-recorded version of each song and Vt for every 

company involved. 

Limbic Hybrid Documentary – This will be an expository and participatory documentary that will focus on 3 different key areas – dancers, singers and musicians. It will last around 25 mins, with segments celebrating each artist and their area. The theme will be ‘a performance in a day’, with the documentary ending with all 3 areas coming together to perform Collaboratively. 

Limbic Charity Telethon – This charity telethon will feature all things music – 3 performances, 2 personal stories/VTs, with fundraising and charity’s being at the heart of it. IT will focus on performances, as a celebration of music but also explore mental/scientific situations. The telethon will run for around 30 minutes. 

The Limbic Live Lounge – The limbic live lounge will be a series of performances from different artists/talent that will feature all things related to the limbic system. 

Our final idea then came to us. We decided to mix all aspects of our ideas together to come up with a platform, The Limbic Lounge. The platform will involve performances, VTs, interviews along with a telethon to open the platform to the public. It soon became apparent we did not have resources for a telethon, so instead we came up with a re-occurring podcast to open – tentatively named ‘The Limbic Lounge Podcast’. 

Experimentation was a huge downfall of our last project, so it was important for me as production manager to make it a priority. Especially with the issue being technical base done our documentary and down to the pure fact of us not testing the video and audio before filming, it was necessary for us to be extra careful this time. I educated myself on technical areas of production, such as using daVinci to edit the luts and format. I also had learnt lot regarding camera settings from filming the doc, therefore it pared me when setting up the iso, fps, audio output etc. We also had a backup camera and mic just incase this time around. Even though it was a pain when the documentary didn't go as planned, everything happened for a reason, because without that i wouldnt of had the excuse to learn more about the technical elements. 

FEEDBACK

We received so much feedback that made a positive impact on our project but also aided our professional development. Although we had worked with professional clients in the past, we always misjudged our capability to manage the project as a professional. This meant that putting our foot down was something hard. One example that i found difficult was a conversation with one of our live lounge contributors. The contributors loved the idea and were eager to get on board, however after a phone call, the management stated that the artist needed a stage to continue this project. We did not argue with this requirement even though in sounded odd to us. We attempted to arrange a stage, by speaking set, taking measurements and sorting out the equipment. Unfortunately, it just wasn't logistically possible to get a stage in the new studio space, especially with the small-time scale we had. I had to then ring the management and let them know about this resolution, to which they were understanding but not happy. We then came up with a solution and suggested that we create a group level stage with enhanced lighting to create that lift effect. The management agreed to this compromise and still wanted to be involved in the project. This was a great result for us, as I found this new breakdown difficult as we didn't want to lose the talent. We already had limited time to find new people, so if we lost one down to this issue then we would have even less contributors.  

Crewing was a huge area of feedback as it was a clear factor that we learnt from our previous project. Due to myself and Sam leading each project we do; we tend to have no or minimal crew. This leaves us issues when we are the ones who want to produce a mas scale product or present in our product. The easiest place to start would be to talk about the original idea and how we had to minimise this due to crew. As previously mentioned, we wanted to produce a multi camera telethon style event which would be sponsored, and exec produced by Tonic (music and mental health charity/ organisation). Even though we had a meeting with said company discussing logistics, we did confirm to them that this idea was still in the planning due to uncontrollable and unreliable circumstances at our college (Ofsted, other projects taking place in college, lack of members of staff). The issue we evidently were left with was down to safeguarding. We could find the crew, however because the crew were external, college would require a chaperone over the entire project. This was more presentable the further we got into logistics, as not only were all our teachers out on the year 12 projects filming, but then the following week we had a Suprise visit from Ofsted. As frustrating as this issue was, it was unavoidable, and we needed a project done a submitted that week. This required us to quickly go back to the drawing board and reshuffle our ideas.  

We then settled on a compromise with our college that we wouldn't get in any external crew but only 3 external contributors within an hour and half after college hours. This was as good as we weren't going to get in during the busy few weeks, so we settled with this. We then took that information and created a schedule and content plan where we would produce shorts instead of a long multi cam shoot. We could film this ourselves without additional crew, then edit it amongst the two of us. We did however need a hand setting up the technical elements such as lighting and sound. They were great, I sent an initial email asking for support and the tech students within our college arranged a get in and helped us set up the equipment. We then shot the product and did the get out ourselves and returned the borrow kit the tech the following week. This did also give us a great opportunity to learn about the live event tech and has developed my knowledge that will enhance my position going into the industry of live events.  

Casting required so much feedback from staff members, not only down to safeguarding but also logistics. As we needed a chaperone in order to have external guests in the college, we then needed to find a teacher that was willing to stay with us. It seemed to be the situation of our department staff were saying we needed someone to stay but all stated there was no one to stay. Leaving us with a contrasting situation with little resolution move. Our teacher in the end in a sense said that we needed to call off the production and find another project a week before filming. We were not going to do this. Comprehensive planning and preparation had already been conducted, including, but not limited to, casting and scouting research. The even more disappointing idea of this project getting demolished so far into the production process, was that this teacher knew about our plans with the production and knew this was the plan/ idea from the start. It was no shock that we were going to work with external a guest and use the college studios. We then received the conclusion that the only reason this wasn't possible was due to the example they were trying to set for Ofsted regarding safeguarding and child protection. Again, totally understandable but then the argument to that from our side is that, if this is something you require from your side of the cooperation, then this is something you need to sort not us. If you require a teacher to be present out of hours to continue said plan, then this is something you need to arrange, as you changed your word on the plan last minute. We then received an interesting comment that we should've let them know about this safeguarding issue well in advance, to which I pulled up several emails and conversations about this said issue, from 5 weeks in advance, proving this issue was between the Commnication of their team not ours.  

Booking equipment was one issue but the most surprising booking problem we faced was down to locations. We originally booked out the main technical studio downstairs for 3 days, which was already a quick turnaround time, but we planned and prepped knowing the challenges. A week before this we received news that the space now was booked out for the year 12s collaborative project. Understandably this is a priority for the academy, however, after the feedback received from staff stating we needed to book the space out way in advance if we needed it, then for it to be booked by them the same week we had reserved it was frustrating. We then had to book another smaller space and delay filming by 3 weeks down to availability. This not only delayed the production but again the same thing happened. After the clear factor stating if we required something it needed to be reserved, again, we booked out this space 5 weeks in advance for the whole week. Now a week before filming we went to double check logistics of getting equipment ready and checking out the locations, we received news that even though we booked out the space we were now unable to have it for the whole week, as again the year 12s needed it, which can i add they did not book this space out and expected us to sacrifice production dates for our personal project to fufil their lack of preparation and organisation. we compromised as we had no choice over the matter, we were then given 2 days to turn around the production, including a get out, get in, podcast shoot and 3 live performances. The issue with this location was also that it was smaller, and it was upstairs, making transporting kit so much more difficult.  we did achieve this however an additional problem arises the week of filming due to the Suprise Ofsted visit, which meant teachers were now saying we needed to be in lessons to ‘boost numbers’- which we responded that these two days were the only days we had the studio space and we needed do get it done to achieve a final result by the deadline. Due to the high-pressure environment, we gave the staff the benefit of the doubt and compromised that they would clear a date where we could have the studio an additional date the following week, which they did do once we followed up this request to additional members of staff.  

Equipment, another shambles. Due to the impact of Ofsted the teachers disregarded any other concerns except tutor. This meant due to said pressure, all of our booked-out equipment prepared to collect the week of the shoot had been forgotten about/ disregarded. We had tuned up the day of the shoot, immediately began setting up the tech and set for the day, as we were in too early to pick up the equipment straight away. We popped down to grab the equipment ready to set up, which we were then surprised to see no equipment had been left for us, and all broadcast teachers were out on location filming with the year 12s. There were then left with no members of staff available in our department to ask for support or advice, and all of the external or higher departments were all busy stressing about the Ofsted visit. We were then again on hold, delaying the production even longer. We eventually went to our pastoral teacher who saw us wondering around the college looking for a teacher, she of course, the legend she is, helped us to find some equipment and resolved the issue the best she could, despite no knowledge in broadcast She rang the head of stage equipment after the head of broadcast equipment responded to the problem with “i don't know guys” and hung up. The equip manager told us all to grab anything which was there, which was great but eventually didn't work out as there was nothing left, as everything was on location with the year 12s. The situation become clear that we were not going to film on that day, and we had to just continue to prep for the following day and resume our plans then. We were so disappointed as again this proved the same issues that occurred during our documentary filming from the co-dependency of our college. This was unacceptable, so we took the issue to our head of department after Ofsted had left. She was also disappointed in the way staff delt with this issue and tried her best to sort this issue for us. She rang the head of broadcast and demanded that we had equipment and the space to film the next day. She repeated how unacceptable it was and apologised for how the situation had played out. I can't fault this resolution and i was impressed by the sincerity from higher members of staff. 

Equipment was also a huge aspect we needed feedback on, as me and Sam are technical to an extent, but we didn't have the knowledge to execute and achieve our aspirations. We were happy to film this with the skills we had however, after speaking to different members of staff they said that the easiest and best way to execute our idea would be to do it through a multi camera set up. I have no idea how to set this up which is when i said that to them, and we communicated the ideology that if we were to do this, we would need their support to do this. Our head of broadcast had said that we would set it up for us or get another student to do this the day before the shoot, or on the day. We questioned this, as I'm glad we did as state in the paragraph above. He stated to leave this with him, and he would get back to us later on in the day of discussion. We did not receive a response, we also did in fact not receive any support with the set-up of this, nor any equipment to even set up this multicam shoot, even if myself and Sam were willing to try and set it up. Overall, our experience in trusting the feedback from members of staff was disappointing. We did then end up getting rid of the multicam concept and worked with the equipment that we had, which was the three-camera pocket camera set up with the podcast mics and road caster sound desk. 

AC3

TECHNICAL SKILLS

EQUIPMENT AND SET-UP

As it was the two of us in charge of the technical set up and delivery, the pressure was on to execute the standards we had set for production. These were all expectations we knew we could achieve by ourselves, but it definitely didn't make things easier as there was always a bit of self-doubt on myself in regard to technical ability. Securing equipment was also so difficult due to every man and his dog needed equipment that month. We had all year 13 personal projects being completed and year 12 projects all going on at the same. Again, unavoidable due to deadlines and timings, in my opinion i think this was poor organization from the college in that respect but again, people probably didn't consider the high demand for borrowing broadcast kits.  

Our camera set up in the end were the Black Magic Cameras. we did our test shots with the Sony’s due to having no other kit, but we discovered the quality of these compared to the black magics was awful– we did not want to sacrifice our result with these. On the cameras, we set them up to record best in the low light with the iso, iris, and white balance adjusted to visual satisfaction. We altered the fps to 50, to ensure that we could use some of the footage slowed down if we ever needed broll etc. for the podcast, our cameras were set up as 3 static cameras, with all audio coming from the podcast deck, with a backup shot gun which helped when matching the footage in post-production, however for the live lounge, we had 2 static angles, along with a track in the corner to try and gain some moving shots to switch things up.  

For the lighting on the live lounge and podcast we used the NEWEER panel lights in the studio as our main source of lighting. These worked well as a main lighting source, as it was easy to maneuver, especially when we had to avoid reflecting the lamps into the TV. we also used some soft box lights to fill out the shot, with these lights being overhead, it acted as our‘fill light’. The NEWEER lightsabers for the live lounge added great atmosphere and royalty to the final look, along with some uplift spots on the curtains at the back of both productions. These lights were prominent in our set design, as adding colour and depth to the black curtains made the set pop. We were impressed with the lighting outcome as in the end everything tied in together very nicely, ensuring that both our artists, myself and sam were well lit. We did also receive some help from the Technical Theatre students, for our live lounge performance who helped us set up the moving heads, which beamed from side to side across the studio creating movement to the images.  

Sound was an area i was most nervous for but ended up working well. Everything in the live lounge was linked up to these Bluetooth speakers, with microphones being linked through an XLR cable. The reason we recorded audio outright was due only due to the room not having the facilities or having enough crew to link the audio through to the stream deck. This meant audio in the room had to be clean, and the surrounding sound was quiet. While the speakers were practical, they also played a huge part in making our set look professional and exciting. Amps were used for show, along with the flight cases being there to hold the moving heads. In the podcast, we wanted to mirror the set by using the same equipment, but we did want this to have a more relaxed, naturalistic feel to it. This was done by adding the two chairs, the podcast equipment (which I will get onto) and tipping the flight case onto its front to hold onto the deck. Once again, the podcast equipment looked professional but also practical when recording our audio for the MP3 version. We were skilled with how to use the podcast deck – we had already completed test recordings and used it throughout the day when we filmed with the artists. 

EDITING

Surprisingly this time around i actually had a say in the editing of this project. Due to us creating short form content as opposed to a long form the editing was very freelance. This means that we edited content as and when it came to us. While the podcast was edited as a long-form video, the performances from the artists were really simple to do. There was huge time impact on this for promotional purposes and for the podcast advertisements the edits needed to be ready fast, so it was ideal that they were easy to do. 

I used adobe creative in post production, including after effects and Premiere Pro to edit everything. Sam on the other hand with graphics used Canva, and added them onto premiere by using the ‘colour key’ effect to remove the green background. While the graphics for some reason appeared cleaner when done directly in Canva, the software did not have great speed or memory to process a video at a large MP3. For the podcast, the main thing was ensuring that the sound recorded from the mics was in time with our camera footage. I matched these up, to the frame in post production by using the audio to match the clapper board snap. which set the rest of the footage up for sam to go over with the graphics. Initially I cut between the angles throughout the entire video depending on when each person spoke. The multi-cam angles helped us to make the cuts that we wanted and pictured. Then came the audio – when cutting, sometimes it was obvious and jumpy–sounding. The best way that sam could resolve this was by using the effect ‘constant power’ on premiere pro. This merged in the audios from the two clips, making it sound smoother.  

It was important to prioritize the audio and video when editing, as this would ultimately be what was uploaded onto Spotify for distribution. Sam and I had split responsibilities for this – sam edited a trailer for the documentary to insert into the pod, and I needed to do the Limbic Live Lounge ad. This splits up the segments of the podcast really well. At the beginning of the adverts, sam also added the ‘Limbic Exclusive Advert’ graphic that made the video look so profesional. The other graphics that were added were the ‘listen on Spotify’ and Instagram @, which both appeared in the left-hand corner of the screen. It gave us promotion for other platforms and broke up the visual aperance on screen to keep engaement. Creatively there wasn’t loads that we could have done. 

The Limbic Live Lounge was edited with more of a quick turn-around. In a similar way to the podcast, at first, sam just made sure that the multi-cam angles were edited together, so that refining the edit was easier afterwards. The interviews we filmed on the day would be edited at a later date for the social media promo. The most important parts to fix in the live lounge was the audio itself – since we recorded the studio instead of the tracks and then the vocals separately, sometimes the audio had to be repaired to sound the best quality. This involved using many of the premiere pro audio effects that are available on the platform. I have listed below the effects I used and the reason why I used them:  

Dynamics Processing – used to lower the dynamic range of the vocals or the instruments. This essentially balanced the levels of the vocals and instrumentals by compressing, expanding or limiting the audio.  

AU Reverb 2 + Studio Reverb – simply used to add reverb to the audio – adding depth to the audio.  

Hard limiter – used to set the audio level – limited audio from peaking and controlled the audio to not be distorted.  

Multiband Compressor – this controlled range by dividing the audio into bands that could be individually adjusted. This meant we could control audio levels, noise, and other specifics.  

With all these effects, it was a case of adjusting the different levels and working out which levels made the audio sound the clearest and cleanest.  

Colour correcting was best to do right at the beginning of the process while the miles were still BRAW and MP3 to ensure minimal damage was done to the actual video. We achieved a nice look by playing around with basic correction tools and curves until the light and colour looked correct. Sam used the curves by getting the colour of the project correct, due to the low-light conditions where we had on set of the live lounge. Once colour had been done, there were a couple more issues that had to be fixed – being the flicker of the screen on the camera. This was resolved by adding the AU flicker corrector effect to the video. This resolved the issue mostly after adjusting the percentage on effect controls, which was easy. 

The edits turned out great and eventually came together. Depth to the production was created via the various shots, along with timing these shots to the music made for a more engaging result. The podcast looked super professional as pitched, and was a funny watch back, which was a nice way to look back on our development through the course. I kind of regret not doing it sooner. Having the audio edited for Spotify makes the podcast fit for all audiences as well linking back to the importance of inclusion and diversity, making that connection so accessible for everyone.  

FINAL PRODUCT

Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSfKDK5F9Lg  

Live lounge –   

https://youtu.be/Uh9FpNUorkA?si=PKFsx-BIHoiCbzmqSfKDK5F9Lg  

https://youtu.be/vAi0Ra9QICU?si=jnW2ZjG1TubVTF_j  

https://youtu.be/6dnYakAyXRk?si=npaekAK4Kvt5Q-wh  

https://youtu.be/rR5aOJXymvs?si=2cJOt7lOJckJ5LGy 

AC4

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

ROLES

Production manager, presenter and co- founder were my three primary roles. However, as mentioned Sam and i did everything. Whether it was additional responsibilities of sound operating, camera operating or editing, I feel by being hand on, it made me a better coordinator and presenter, the hard work always paid off and by being in the center of it all, i really appreciated each and every element that worked to create the final result.  

As a production manager I impacted production by looking after logistics, this includes handling the financial aspects of production. My daily roles included organizing, managing, monitoring, forecasting, and implementing the budget and outgoings. This then included planning schedules and sorting cast and crew according to budget limitations, as well as being responsible for identifying and addressing any financial risks or concerns that may arise. Fortunetly for us we were creating a nonprofit project therefore no contribution fee or staff salary was needed. 

My responsibility was to make sure all aspects of the production ran smoothly. This included coordinating crew members, completing and distributing necessary paperwork, managing working time, especially for the under 18s, overseeing equipment and locations, organizing transportation, and ensuring that all necessary elements are all accessible on the day of filming. It’s also important for me to understand relevant laws and regulations regarding external collaborators and social media laws. The need to also ensure everyone complies with health and safety standards, data protection, contractual rights, copyright requirements, and other legal obligations throughout the process. By ensuring all paperwork is up to date and adheres to industry regulations, this not only limits potential risks and legal issues now but also in the future. 

As previously touched on, a huge aspect of my work is looking after the wellbeing and mental health of the team working on production. needed to be approachable to ensure if a situation did arise, others would feel comfortable discussing any problems or issues they may be facing, to me or sam. By adopting a supportive work environment, we could maintain a positive atmosphere through the entire process. It was also important for me to meet sustainability targets on this production. limiting carbon emissions by incorporating sustainable practices into our project, we could help reduce the environmental impact within the industry. This was an area I took time to educate myself on within this project. I am about to go on an internship with a company called carousel who did the marketing for victorious festival, who are a leading festival in the sustainable events industry. This industry fascinates me and i was curious to see the interrelating factors between the events and media industry. I found that both industries have a dramatic effect on our global footprint, and that it could be reduced significantly by taking simple steps at a mass movement scale. This encouraged me to apply it in my production. Small changes such as using public transport, recycling, hiring instead of buying equipment, becoming paperless and watching our electricity usage (e.g. turning plugs and lights off when it wasn't needed. All these changes made our platform production apart from the small changes, mass movement idea, which makes me feel very proud as an emerging production manager.  

Presenting was probably the easiest roles within the process as i could just be myself and chat rubbish. Our impact as a presenter was to engage the audience and create a connection that will keep our audience interested and invested. engagement is crucial for maintaining viewers and promotional development. The ideal vibe is to be a huge charismatic presenter as it has the potential to evoke emotions in an audience, making content on the platform more relatable and memorable. It's evident that by having that emotional connection, it can heighten the effect of dramatic or comedic moments. Sam and I as presenters are also the face of the brand. This was important to me, as it was our concept and casting someone that would convey the Sam passion would have been too difficult in so little time.  

RESPONSIBILITIES

My PrMy Production Responsibilities: 

• Meetings with Sam and teachers to review ideas, logistics and production next steps. 

• Pitching the idea 

• Creating shooting schedules, risk assessments, contingency plans and estimating budget. 

• Hiring crew, talent scouting and managing contracts. 

• Approving bookings, negotiations, equipment hire and pick up postproduction 

• Organizing and booking locations, permissions, and risk assessments. 

My Production Responsibilities: 

• Making sure the production ran on time to schedule and within budget. 

• Coordinating the production team and addressing any issues that arise. 

• Ensuring health and safety regulations, copyright laws, and union agreements are being met and adhered by  
  

My Post-Production Responsibilities: 

• Editing the rough cut 

• Advising on graphic design  

• Filing contracts and communication to contributors  

It was my job to make the project successful. The pressure within the role of the production manager is that if something doesn't go to plan or something goes wrong, then it's down to the failure of the pm. We are there to fix issues that arise and be prepared for all scenarios to make sure the production gets completed within legal and moral standards. An example where my responsibilities made sure the project was a success was my responsibility of locations. 

It was my job to book locations and liase with teachers to ensure we had a space to film. Evidently, we faced issues in this area, however if it wasn't for my role as production manager, we would’ve had no back plans to counter this issue and the production would have ceased filming, potentially stopping the project completion. As we had risk assessments and contingency plans in place for an event of location cancelation, we were able to act quickly with minimal delay to the project, ensuring its success.  

Our personal list: 

Co-Ordinator (s)  

Jessica-Chloe Watson – jessicachloew@gmail.com 

+44 7913 637070 

Samuel Lewis – samalfredlewis@gmail.com 

+44 7398 273978 

As coordinators, Jess and Sam had to make sure that they would stick to  deadlines and targets to ensure a smooth run in production. They were  responsible for all aspects of production, from creative aspects, to  technical, to health and safety, to post scheduling. Everything that you will  see online will have been made by the coordinators and planning prior to  the final result. 

Camera Operator (s)

Jessica-Chloe Watson – jessicachloew@gmail.com 

+44 7913 637070 

Samuel Lewis – samalfredlewis@gmail.com 

+44 7398 273978 

The role a camera operator is to ensure action is being captured at a  professional standard, in the right focus, frame, zoom and level.  Responsibilities include assembling and setting up equipment, planning  and preparing shots, being in contact with production gallery over radio,  and essentially capturing all the show. 

Presenter (s)  

Jessica-Chloe Watson – jessicachloew@gmail.com 

+44 7913 637070 

Samuel Lewis – samalfredlewis@gmail.com 

+44 7398 273978 

The role of the presenters is to ensure that the podcast runs smoothly with  a structure. While this is the basis, the presenters also have to make sure  That they remain entertaining and funny. They have to be the link through the camera, and ultimately make the podcast. 

Artist/Performer (s)  

Stacey & Tracey Williams  

 stacey.williams@boa-stageandscreen.co.uk 

tracey.williams@boa-stageandscreen.co.uk 

Lily Poston – lily_freya_013@gmail.com 

+ 44 7769 986998 

Paradiso (Danny, Jacob, Frank, Louis) - paradiso.musicc@gmail.com 

+44 7865 665378 

The role of the artists/performers is to perform their talent in front of the  camera and ultimately enjoy their time in the studio. They will boost  onto the platform with open arms and we cannot wait to hear them  perform their music. 

ORGANISATION

Organisation is also a key area of production management that i feel me and Sam execute with great attention to detail. Not only was it important in terms of preventing risks, but it also proved our professionalism to our contributors. We often received feedback saying how organized and professional our production was, and that they had high hopes for the future potential of the brand. This was nice to hear as organization doesn't come around without hard work. 

pre-production was the foundation for our organization and essentially our production bible when staying on top of the endless amounts of paperwork. I really enjoy paperwork, so by taking the lead on this area of production was where my strengths could help. It is also a great aspect of production that can be down from home or on the go, which fit around our availability and transport issues towards the start of the project. As previously talked about Sam and i do work better when working in a relaxed environment, so we set targets and distributed pre-production before starting. We would work together on elements or split off. For example, i would complete the legal aspects such as contracts, sustainability reports and risk assessments, then sam would file things such as kit lists, rush logs, call sheets etc. This was mainly down to our minimal crew, as we needed to distribute tasks to stay on top of work. However, if for whatever reasons we did not manage to reach targets, it would mean that we would then have contingency time to turn this around. The best way to explain our environment would be almost like a ‘freelance work environment’, where as long as it was handed in within the deadline that we had previously agreed on it didn't matter when or where it was done. This was primarily because we still had issues with transport, by splitting responsibility it gave us all peace of mind that the work would be completed in time. We also didn't have to worry about the work that was not delegated to the other pm, as that was the other person's responsibility. We were also then more motivated to do the work, as it would not only affect my work but also the other person if the work was not completed in time, and we couldn't afford to delay production any longer than it already was. 

 Communication was the key to the success of our organization. If either one of us had concerns it would be raised during production meetings and briefs to prevent unresolved issues. I took the lead on pre-prod as i trust Sam more in regard to technical elements so this gave him more of an opportunity to focus on those elements while i could work on pre-production. Another area of pre-production that enhanced our organization from my side was the communication between our contributors.

For me, keeping up to date and extra on it with external cast or crew is so important. Not only does it give us clarification that they're still 100% invested in the production, but also provides them with reassurance on the process and are 100% clear about what's going on. Trust disappears once flaws in a productions organization present themselves, therefore we did not at all want this to show, as we needed our contributors to complete our project.  

Distributions and schedules were consistently communicated between the two of us, which made the process very organized and maintained that stress-free environment the entire time. The project's nature was unpressured, to an extent, due to it being short-form content, except the podcast. On shooting days, we stuck to schedule and ensured call sheets were distributed to each person on set. We also carried on the typical tv and film etiquette in order to keep professional and maintain the correct pace. The schedules were attached to our call sheets. One amazing thing sam did in regard to shooting schedule and shot lists this time around was adding ‘contingency time’. This was a huge lesson we lead from our last project, after creating very tight schedules that always ran over late. It turned our that we didn't need the contingency time allocated, however, it was always great to have that safety set, keeping us organized and prepared incase of an issue. 

Within our role as presenters, we made sure to stay organized and prepared, this allowed us to stick to schedule but also prevented us from rambling too much on the podcast. Sam had ensured this preparation by printing my script onto easily accessible cue cards, that looked good and unnoticeable on set, we ensured we were well organized ana already to keep filming. It limited the pauses in filming as we could just film continuously through the shoot and get it down as quickly as possible. This was an occasion where the contingency time paid off, as we had zero time to waste or run over, again commending our organization.  

We had issues with our organization during the early stages of pre-production. If we were to have done this again or in the future, we said we would make sure that we booked our locations for shooting before anything else, due to the availability issues within the college around peak exam season. While we were happy with the studio that we eventually secured, trying to do this earlier would have helped us get a larger space. We could've even filmed earlier than the week planned. The issue we had is that we didn’t have a venue until the first week of May, which was the week of the deadline for our personal project. We didn't at all want to have an extension and would've much rather had this project submitted with plenty of time for altercations and adjustments. It was just thankful that no resub was needed, which meant everything was in just in time by the scrape of our teeth. it would have been ideal to have this stress taken from us and given us more chance to experiment with graphics and effects to add into the final edit, but we can't get worked up on things that could've happened otherwise we would have regrets about everything. I'm just proud and impressed that we always kept our cool and enjoyed our last project together. 

PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE

Maintaining proffesional etiquette is required for me standard practice whether it's a small or vast project. In the world of freelance you are always being watched and judged, therefore maintaining that employable attitude and work ethic should be proven in everything you do.  

Luckily Sam is the same. We don't put up for anything that isn't professionally executed. We believe strongly in standing by our individual rights but also are open to viewing the bigger picture from external inputs.  

The ways our professional etiquette was demonstrated in this project was through confidentiality. Again, as we were working with under 18s it was important to maintain an extra observant hand in etiquette. We were not able to let down the professional guard as we were around children. Safeguarding procedures are as ‘professional etiquette’ as it gets. Watch you language, be a clear communicator, sticking by rules such as no adult should ever be left alone with a person under 18, any Un tolerated behavior will result in contract termination etc. With all of these in place it again made no room for lack of professionalism. 

On one side we are also representatives of our college. This was hard when ofsted caused issues to our personal project, as we were understandably frustrated and annoyed at this altercation and impact on our hard work. Yet, we could not communicate this to anyone due to the presence on ofsted. One moment that strikes me was as issue i had with one of my teachers during this exact week. Myself and said teacher get on but have had communication issues in the past regarding last minute changes and availability etc. However, I consulted to this member of staff after waiting for them to become free for 1 hour and 45 minutes, due to an ofsted observation. Again, totally understandable, I then asked said teacher if they had a spare moment within the day to double check some of our equipment we had set up as an image on the camera was appearing unrefined. This would take no more than 2 minutes. This teacher dismissed me and told me that no one was available to help us. This was the tip of the ice burg for me as this was the response after 4 occasions of them delaying production. In a nutshell I explained that said teacher was the only broadcast specialist in the entire college and that we didn't know what to do next or who else to go to. I was then very unprofessionally told that i needed to figure out how to learn to adjust the camera myself, that i should’ve learned how to do all of this in my first year at boa, and no help from our only teacher would be offered throughout the entirety of the day; also explaining that achieving a high ofsted score was more important than us completing our final project on time, after said teacher was complaining our personal project deadline wasn't met. The final resolution stated that i was not to bother or ask any teacher for help over the next two days that ofsted were in, as they didn't need the extra pressure of helping us out. This left me so deflated and disappointed in my college, i understand the pressure they're under and the implications of receiving a bad Ofsted report, but after so many issues from their end causing issues to our production over the previous 4 weeks, it was the first time where i fully experienced the mental effect of high-pressure and very nearly gave up on it all. 

Professional etiquette was also communicated via our contributors as most communication prior ro the production was over texts, calls or emails. I was to maintain spoken and written etiquette. This maintained and allowed us to form professional relationships and form new connections, enhancing our position in the industry and a creative. One example of maintaining a proffesional look for our brand and individuals was emailing sign offs. There's was simple but effective and made our brand look well established and well designed. I would also refuse any communication via social media and keep to business phone numbers and emails to restrict personal intertwining. This was difficult as our contributors were thankfully very informal and would drop comments and follows on socials. I don't mind this at all, but it was just important to not assume that relationship from the start as some others may view it as inappropriate or unprofessional. Accepting people's boundaries and own professional standard is a great look on our brand as it implements an ideology of experience and that we know what were doing in terms of legality and brand awareness. There's really no reason for us to not act professionally, as it just then completely takes away from the whole point of us learning on the job at college. It would also look bad on us from our contributors if we acted in an unprofessional manner. The whole production was important, but especially the actual shooting week, where set etiquette was essential, to make sure that the production ran smoothly, for us and the contributors with clear communication.  

AC5

COMMUNICATION

MEANING TO THE AUDIENCE

Research was the foundation to this project and initially sparked the project. The platform's purpose is surrounded by the idea of the limbic system, which is how the brain communicates external factors to the body, including music. Without getting to technical, the audience takeaway for us is to again Celebrate the connection between music and people. We plan to do this through producing trending and engaging content that can resonate with everyone. Whether you’re into live performances, podcasts, interviews, game shows or just enjoying a cheeky VT, you can find something you can watch at the limbic lounge. We want people to see the limbic lounge as a platform to feel connected. we will celebrate the connection music has within every aspect of the world. This could mean exploring the connection between music and dance, the link of poetry and songwriting and even the science behind the emotional connections from music. Initially, the first thing that came to mind was to establish a relationship with audiences. Whether this was with us as hosts or our performers, I think that audiences would feel more of a connection with these guys if we could actually hear their stories and opinions, before we hear them sing. We planned to do this by incorporating small interviews on the podcast microphones with our artists, which will be scheduled to go up before we post their music. This way, audiences can learn about the individuals that are performing the music, and perhaps what it means to them to sing and make people feel a certain type of way. For Jess and me, we essentially dedicated the entire podcast to audiences getting to know us. A podcast is such an intimate thing, you are pretty much sitting in on someone’s conversation, so we needed to try and make that connection with the audience through the camera, as well as it being between the two of us in the room. 

Not only did we just want our audiences to feel connected with our artists and hosts, we want people to connect online, ‘celebrating the connection between music and people’ as they experienced. Whether this was through communication from the limbic lounge, or even not even knowing about the connection they had with another audience member. The emotions provoked from watching the content is a connection. We wanted people to celebrate up and coming talent in the industry and give new people a chance to shine in online spaces and be noticed for their work! The aim was to create a community that could provide the same support for local talent and get inspired by new talent, even if the genres of music and performance that we enjoy are all different.  

The key messages and themes in the project are to support local upcoming artists, and to celebrate the connection between music and the people. When this is the tagline for the brand, it’s kind of hard to avoid. Especially in the podcast, this was communicated a lot from the platform's hosts and founders. All of these things were said and made clear in the project that would have helped connect our audiences, even if they didn’t initially come to mind when watching or listening.  

Regarding visual aesthetics If our set was not strong then there may be reduced interest in the videos, and with minimal interest comes minimal emotional connection. It would be a disservice to audiences, but also our artists if we were to provide them in a boring black set with just a microphone, as the power of their voices needed to be heard, but also seen with added dramatics and cinema. With the cutting of the cameras to view different angles the performance, we got to see a lot more of them, and therefore establish a deeper personal connection to the contributors.  

The Platform will feature different segments – initially being the Limbic Live Lounge and the Limbic Lounge Podcast. The limbic Live Lounge will feature short performances of different local artists performing their music/covers, in a private, live lounge. There will be an interview posted after their performances to the platform, so that we can see their 

personality also. The Limbic Lounge Podcast will feature Jess and Sam talking all things music, delving into new industry news and information. This will be a re-occurring thing, however, the time scale is not yet decided. The aim is to connect our audiences together creating a platform for everyone to enjoy and relate to.  

Our target audience is based on our current listeners at B2. After conducting a survey, we noticed that our listeners were mostly teens/ young adults (ages 14-25) due to the heavy pop and indie influence. The majority is also boa based; therefore, it would make sense to involve boa within the creative process to expand that reach. We already know our content does well at boa, so by using other content from other boa musicians/ artists, we 

would then be able to reach their audience to combine audience totals and ensure the appeal and engagement of our target audience. 

On a wider POV Limbic can literally resonate with anyone and everyone. Our music taste together is a huge mix of old and new, therefore we hope it could also attract viewers from all ages. It will be a family friendly telethon, however, we would like to aim the platform at young adults, as we want our interviews and VT’s to be engaging with 14-25. Therefore some topics and language may come with a disclaimer. This age range is engaged by real, naturalistic content, which is why we like the idea of keeping things as unfiltered as possible. The unfiltered Content is also what does well on YouTube, as YouTube has a huge demographic aimed at 16–25-year-olds. 

The Demographics are as mentioned teens and young adults but also aimed at music lovers. The purpose of this project is to celebrate the connection between people and music, therefore its self-explanatory that the subject focus is music. Other demographics mainly include things like B2 radio listeners or introducing talent/ crew, as this could also be used as a platform for talent scouting, as we will work to promote introducing talent. Psychographics are mainly based in music and or entertainment. As this is a project about music, they will include things such as artist audiences and introducing talent. From our research so far, we have realized that a lot of emerging talent is pop and indie, therefore this would fit into our Psychographics. Festivals would also be relevant psychographic as this will be a huge influence on our multi-cam show, alongside this for a similar reason, those interested in telethons, like children in need or red nose day, would find this engaging and entertaining. 

Representation is not really a huge concern of ours as we just want to invite people to be themselves, therefore the representation then is down to our guests. To create this inclusivity and diversity we will open casting up to everyone with no limitations. If we were to talk specifics, we want to keep things based in the west midlands; culturally things will be focused on Birmingham and the black country. Despite not much input into representation, I do understand its importance. 

In terms of the wider target audience beyond the radio listeners and BOA kids, I think this platform will be easily enjoyable for young adults that we are marketing this towards, essentially because it is right on their fingertips. With a few clicks of a button, they can be taken to the Limbic Lounge platform and thrown into the content. Young adults are the generation who have grown up in the development of social media and understand it potential more than anyone else. There has now been a huge influx in the number of podcasts across many different platforms. Especially with the fact that Sam and I are so raw and unfiltered on the podcast, we hope it will resonate with our target audiences. 

MEETING INTENTIONS

I think that we successfully achieved the codes and conventions of a podcast demonstrated in our final edit. We managed to keep ourselves unfiltered while keeping balanced towards audiences. In my opinion the connection was well established through our intentions. We wanted it to be as real as possible which is why our script was such a topic guide rather than scripted word for word. As hosts, i hope our audiences receive our communicated intentions through balance, bias, opinion, and subject. These are all elements of a podcast that I think we managed to achieve. By having two hosts, we could maintain a balanced opinion. Once the edit was complete, the results that we managed to get aligned with the codes and conventions; using the multicamera edit we created an engaging podcast. The live lounge was a piece of short form content, showcasing musical talent which was uploaded to the intended distribution platforms that we had chosen, proving our actions matched dour intentions. 

 We received great feedback from our clients at the live lounge after showing them the initial cuts of their performances and our podcast, saying they were impressed and amazed with the outcome,; happy with their videos they have now used our project to showcase their talent on their own portfolios and showreels which also makes us feel proud of our work, and confident in our professional practice. Hard work pays off.  

When we had to downscale the production during the idea generation stages i am kind of glad, we did go with this concept. It suited our intentions perfectly as i feel short form in this generation is so much more relevant and engagement and the perfect way to establish connections with so many types of people on so many types of platforms. The live lounge and podcast are two aspects of the platform that were originally intended but were made better when being split into shorts, as we then had the freedom to do new topics each week instead of scripted and tailored content.

Overall, we were very happy with the result that we managed to produce especially considering the challenges and issues concerning the amount of time that we had to pull it off, and I think we managed to leave with a successful podcast, live performance recordings, and multiple short form posts for our platforms. I originally started boa with the intention of being a dance or live events videographer and had not yet had the chance to do that. This project was the perfect chance to cross those objectives at once. I love and aspire to pursue a career in radio or live events, so this project has allowed me to present and chat all about music, set up a live events venue, coordinate a live music performance and of course still have that element of broadcast. Its been a fun way to end the course but also a well-represented way to showcase Sam and I's potential and mark on the course. Here to many more exciting projects in the future.  

PLATFORM AND DISTRIBUTION

Distributions will be on the platforms. This project was produced to create a platform that houses content, which works very well in our Favour when it 

comes to planning the connection. The plan for the next 2 years is to trial and error where the content succeeds. The initial plan is to use YouTube as a primary distribution platform, but we will be using other platforms, Instagram, x, TikTok, to trail the content we produce and the audience it attracts. We may find in the first year that people prefer 1-2 min videos rather than 5-10 min videos, therefore we can then shift the focus. We could also find that the TikTok demographic would be more popular than YouTube. So, although the idea is to use YouTube, this is just a development era. 

So why YouTube? YouTube for us is a great alternative to tv. The content we want to produce will be designed as light entertainment, therefore it will have influences of channel 4, ITV 2 and potentially bits of BBC three inspired content. The idea would be to create a presence that is very Like what BBC radio has done. We are inspired by the engagement they have managed to produce on the external platform and how their socials have almost become a separate production in comparison to their radio show, which is impressive. They have created themed content with influences from tv but aimed at the younger generation, but also resonates well with social media. The file will be exported as an mp3 HD which will suit the platform well due to upload capacity and quality. 

Promotions are also important for the limbic lounge. We will rely on promo to gain an audience and fan base. The issue we face is that this platform will need engagement to enhance its growth and presence. If we cannot lift this project, then the reach we can gain from bigger artists will be limited. We want to eventually have the chance to work with multiple artists and bands, and to gain respect from talent, we need to be able to offer a platform that has an audience. 

On the plus side, with our distributions being already on socials, it gives us automatic exposure in the forms on promo content. Promo is now seen on socials as shorts, reels, photos, stories, and graphic content, therefore from just hitting our distribution aims of uploading onto all 4 of our bases, we will also be releasing credited promo. To boost reach it's also important to mix up the socials by creating audience engagement techniques such as story Q&As or create graphic posts about relevant news and stories. It also ties in with keeping trends and incorporating trends with the platforms existing and future branding. However, with that said we want this project to be developed with success and passion in mind, we don't want our content to seem forced to hit targets, therefore balance as well as maintenance is key. 

WRITTEN BY JESSICA-CHLOE WATSON