Evaluation Of Diploma Festival

The Diploma Festival proved a success. Finally, people could appreciate our two years of solid hard work, and I got the impression that all the visitors thoroughly enjoyed viewing our displays.

Diploma Festival Photos

Below are some photos of the second day of our Diploma festival.

Festival Advert Poster

Above is one of the planning stages for my Diploma Festival Advertisement Poster. I added various images off the internet, relating to creative aspects including a paintbrush representing art, film reel, Bottom's Head for the Performance Unit, and a photo of Salford Quays at night for the Scene Unit. I added an explosion in the centre for dramatic effect.

 

Above is my final poster to advertise our Diploma Festival. I added a tint to make it more extravagant and stand out.   

LO1: Tmac Diploma Festival

Artistic Policy: The work of Diploma students, as a celebration of what we have achieved over the course of two years.

Funding: £130 for large cardboard sheets, refreshments etc.

LO1: Research Into 5 Festivals

LO1: Research Into Various Festivals

Preston Guild:

·        Historic celebration since 1179 when King Henry II gave Preston the right to have a Guild Merchant.

·        Unique- only guild still celebrated in whole of UK

·        Once every twenty years

·        2012 next festival

·        Each Guild- own identity/ over 800 year heritage

·        Lots of people get involved including artist/ businesses, athletes and performers.

·        Evolved over centuries.

·        Always been about people including those who plan, participate in and promote it.

·        Will be known as an ongoing thing and previous Preston Guild festivals not forgotten as stories are passed on from grandparent to their children and grandchildren.

·        Traditionally carried banners/ trade emblems, and wore colourful costumes.

·        18^th century- increasingly elaborate with decorated platforms.

·        Various trades involved, some always involved (carpenters, butchers), cotton industry (first time 1802), then new trades such as nuclear power, male order catalogues, electronics and aircraft building more recently (1972/1992).

·        Always drawn large crowds of visitors.

·        Balloon ascents, feasts etc.

Target Audience:

Everyone can take part as there is something for everybody, not just people of Preston.

Artistic Policy:

·        Something for everyone

·        Floats, walking groups, musical accompaniments.  

·        Costumes

·        Bands/ marching processions representing schools, the voluntary sector, communities, charities, youth groups, sports clubs etc.

·        Any kinds of trade

·        Imaginative

Funding:

·        Council funding

Kumbh Mela:

·        Hindu pilgramage

·        Largest gathering of people for religious purposes in the world

·        Gather at the Ganges River

·        3 types- Normal Kumbh Mela every three years, Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela every six years and Purna (complete) Kumbh Mela every 12 years.

·        In addition to the three above, the Maha (great) Kumbh Mela is held every 144 years and is held at Allahabad, previously attended by more than 60 million people in 2001, largest gathering ever recorded at time.

·        Last Ardh Kumbh Mela held over 45 day period, with 70 million Hindus partaking in 2007.

·        Bathe in River Ganges, to become free from their past sins (Karma), with a pure lifestyle required afterwards

·        Any Hindu can attend, young or old, rich or poor

·        Market areas, entirely vegetarian food, snake charmers, singing, religious discussions.

·        Dates back to India’s Vedic period where River Festivals first organised.

·        Hindus believe that after a fight involving the Gods and Demons for the pot of amrita (nectar of immortality), Lord Vishnu flew away with the Kumbha Urn, causing drops of this to be spilt in four places Prayag, Hardiwar, Ujjain and Nashik, where the Kumbh Mela are held.

·        Kumbha- Sanskrit for Pitcher (round pot with no handles), and Mela means a gathering.

·        Kumbha- zodiac sign for Aquarius in Indian Astrology for Aquarius.

Target Audience:

Hindus

Artistic Policy:

·        Some unusual things such as snake charmers, elephants, camels etc.

·        Market stalls- but strictly vegetarian food

·        Believe in bringing Hindus together as a group for activities, as that is what the Gods would want.

Funding:

One Big Weekend:

·        Held in Bolton, at Leverhulme Park

·        Thursday 16^th September 2010 and lasted four days.

·        Over 4500 visitors.

·        Events included Tower FM Live Show, Big Foot Monster truck show, Emmerdale Celebrity Support etc.

·        For the whole family, bringing the people of Bolton together.

·        Amir Khan, the Mayor, and Paddy and Marlon from Emmerdale started proceedings at 5pm on the first day.

·        Organised by Henry Hill- Bolton Northwest Funfairs.

·        Money raised from the event to go to Mayor’s Charity, Royal Manchester Hospital and to help victims of the floods in Pakistan.

·        Included two firework displays, Bolton’s very own beach complete with sand, as well as things to appeal to youngsters such as a Children’s Inflatable Play Area and a huge funfair.

Target Audience:

Mainly people from Bolton.

Artistic Policy:

·        Radio stations such as Tower FM live show.

·        A few celebrities such as Amir Khan and people from Eastenders.

Funding:

·        Officially sponsored by Metro Salvage- Scrap Removal Specialist

Cannes Film Festival:

Established to rival the Venice Film Festival, by Jean Zay, Minister of Education And Fine Arts

First edition originally set for 1939, but put back to 20^th September 1946 due to the war.

Held every September from then on (excluding 1948 and 1950), and every May from 1952 onwards.

Lots of various sections including:

The Official Section: the festival's main event

Parallel Sections: dedicated to discovering other aspects of cinema and non-competitive

as well as other Sections and events.

Juries are chosen prior to the beginning of each event and appointed by the festival's board of Directors. They are chosen from an internationally wide range of artists, based on their work and respect from peers. They are solely responsible for choosing which films will receive Cannes awards. There are juries for various sections such as Feature Films, short Film etc.

There are many awards awarded at the festival, the highest being the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for best film.

Target Audience:

Strictly film professionals only and those who are invited.

Artistic Policy:

Both feature length and shirt films, with arthouse cinema as well as the more conventional. 

Directed just at film professionals.

Glastonbury:

Best known for music, but features dance, comedy, circus, theatre and cabaret among others. 

Largest greenfield music/ performing arts festival in the world- more than a mile and a half across with an eight and a half mile perimeter.

Accommodates all musical tastes with acoustic and Jazzworld for the more laid back listeners as well as more heavy rock music.

Lots of different areas and stages like the two mentioned above, Dance Vllage, Pyramid Stage etc.

Festival began 1970, the day after the death of Jimi Hendrix.

Target Audience:

Try to make it appeal to both younger and older people with different sections for each

Fans of music in particular, but also a wide range of performing arts including dance and theatre.

Artistic Policy:

Music- all different types of genres

Theatre

Dance

Circus

Theatre carabet

Funding:

All money raised goes to charities, with over one million pounds each year been given to them. 

Patrick Johnson 11S1

LO4: Role During Festival

LO4: Role During Evening Festival

Just before the evening festival began I was asked by one of my fellow Diploma classmates if I could transfer his film onto my pendrive and put it onto a spare computer in the library. Unfortunately, this took rather a long time to do, between ten and twenty minutes, so I missed the start of the Festival. Once I had transferred his film from my pendrive onto the computer, I headed downstairs in the hope that I could welcome people in as they arrived.

It was then that I had the brilliant idea of getting my trumpet and playing it as the arriving guests made their entrances, which was, unfortunately not approved by one of the Diploma teachers Mr Bigland.

However, I was not dispirited, and had another idea of singing when people came through the main entrance with the lyrics:

Welcome to Turton,

Turn left by the sign,

And you’re sure to have,

A wonderful time

This, with the addition of a few kind words informing them that they would need to go up the stairs and that there would be refreshments at the top proved a warm welcome which served to astonish, bewilder and thoroughly entertain our arriving guests. I also had company from fellow students with different people popping down at different times.

After Liz went home about half an hour before the end, I took over the role of interviewing parents with a video camera about what they thought of our festival. Although rather stuck for what to ask at first, I soon got the hang of it, asking parents questions such as “What did you think about our festival as a whole?” “Did you realise how much work was involved as a whole for the Diploma course?” and “What Did You Think About The Layout Of Our Festival?”, amongst others, as guests left.

Patrick Johnson 11S1 

LO4: Preparation Role

Festival- Preparation Role

Another role I had to fulfil in Festival was to collect all the group’s documentaries together and set them up on separate computers dotted around the library. As I had recently bought two 8GB pendrives, it seemed the obvious choice to use them to transport the documentaries from the computers in the diploma rooms to the ones in the library.

The first thing I did was to see Mr Bennett, one of Turton’s media technicians who already had about four of the existing documentaries. Together with the addition of Ben Sofield, we went down to L12, one of the Diploma rooms, where Mr Bennett logged in to the computers, as an Administrator. This meant that he could access any work which had been saved onto these computers by any user.

As I knew quite a bit about how to use iMovie and iMovie HD6, I set to work converting the files from their existing format to Quicktime, which meant that they could be played using media players on the library computers. To do this I clicked “Share” on the bar at the top of the screen, and clicked “Export Using Quicktime”, then “Full quality”. I did this for all the computers Mr Bennett had logged onto in the room. Once they had finished converting to Quicktime, all the documentaries needed to be put on my pendrives and then either given to Mr Bennett or taken up to the library.

A problem then surfaced- I had only brought one pendrive to school, which meant that we could only transfer one film at a time. However, as we could still carry on doing it for a few hours at least, and as it did not slow down the time taken to convert each documentary into Quicktime format, it didn’t prove too serious. Once one of the documentaries had finished converting, I put my pendrive into the computer and started copying the file.

Each of the documentaries took between ten to fifteen minutes to convert into quicktime, and about six to twelve minutes to copy onto my pendrive. As I was just waiting and doing nothing else whilst I was waiting for each film to copy to my pendrive individually, I decided to go with Ben to help out with any other jobs which needed doing. As Ben had offered to help me in my role, I helped him in his, which was transporting props from the Record Unit up to the Library, each time going back every ten minutes or so to set the next documentary up on my pendrive and so on. I also helped transport other things such as large cardboard boards which needed two people to carry each up to the library.

After a while, I found that another problem had arisen. Each film took up between the space of 1 and 2 GB on my pendrive, and after five films the space ran out. However, I went over to Mr Bennett’s office where he removed the documentaries from my pendrive and stored them on his computer, ready for me to get going with another five or so more.

After I had got all the documentaries off the computers in L12, I moved over to L10, where there were four or five more for me to copy. However, by this time I was running out of time, as three and a half hours had already passed and I wanted to get everything finished in the day. Furthermore Mrs Kearns set us a challenge of having everything completely ready by half past seven, which gave me an hour to complete my task.

However, when I had completed my second to last lot of documentaries, I went to find Mr Bennett to create more free space on my pendrives and discovered that he was nowhere to be found.

Of course, I didn’t know if he was coming back to school or not, so I prepared for the worst, and remembered that he still had at least five documentaries on the computer in his office which was still locked. It was then that I had the notion of copying the original five films I had done in L10 to a second pendrive while I took the other pendrive up to the library to get them deposited there instead.

First, I needed to free up my existing pendrive, so went up to the library where Mr Bigland transferred all the documentaries off there onto the reference drive, which meant they could be accessed on any computer.

Secondly, I needed another pendrive, so I dashed home to get one, and back to school again. However, the moment I got back, to my relief, I passed Mr Bennett in the corridor, so I didn’t need to copy those films again after all. I then went back to L10 and, using the other pendrive, copied the remainder of the films.

Once all the remaining documentaries had been copied onto the reference drive, myself, with the help of Mr Bigland and Shaun logged in to the computers in the library, and set up the documentaries on each one using VLC, as Windows Media Player and Quicketime Player proved rather jumpy when playing.

I fully completed my role just five minutes before half seven.

Patrick Johnson 11S1