sgstingrayhustles

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Closing Reflections

Throughout the past month of preparation towards Choppa Festival 2024, I have learnt and experienced a lot, from planning to execution, rehearsing to performing. I personally found that this year's Choppa out of the 3 that I have been a part of, is arguably the best one yet (biased opinion), in terms of the Acts presented, the turn out rate, the set design & sound design, marketing, as well as the behind the scenes prep work. I have to give thanks to everyone in EM who gave their all during the week of Choppa to get things together as well as my own batch the 4 of us for running the production of the festival. This process came with its ups and downs, mostly ups. I really enjoyed myself, a great distraction and "excuse" to put other school relating work "on hold". Seeing everyone enjoying themselves and have so much positive things to say about their experience is definitely a moment that I feel very proud of, knowing that I had a part to play in providing this positive experience for the attendees as well as production members of Choppa.

I hope that we did Brian proud with this year's Choppa Festival!

AND I hope Brian would invite us back to perform for future Choppa! :)

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Week Day Final [30 Sep]

Came back to the Cube for one last time to put back the Nevos and chairs and reset the Cube to its default layout. We were able to get this done in an hour thanks to everyone's participation.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Week Night 2 [27 Sep]

Final night of Choppa Festival 2024.

I tidied up the stage cables in preparation for the 2nd show. Coordinated with Ian (sound engineer) to fix up some of the patching in relevance to the 2nd night's show.

Soundcheck went by smoothly, I decided on the stage layout of each acts based on convenience and the amount of setup the acts have, after every acts' soundcheck.

Before we went for dinner break, I briefed everyone on the things to take note of during the show as well as tear down matters (following the instructions that were given to me by the TO). Right before doors open, I briefed the stagehands on the procedure of the stage's setup and tear down.

Tear down was rather smooth, we cleared out the Cube well before 11pm and we were able to account for all the equiment that we loaned out.

Reflections: All in all, I felt that this day went by successfully, everyone is in high spirit as it is the final day of the month-long preparation for the festival. Thanks to the mistakes that happened on Night 1, we were all able to be better prepared for Night 2. I felt that proper and clear communications was the key to ensuring a smooth sailing process. It is more so important on the last day of the festival where the tendecies of everyone just switching off is very common. Constantly reminding people that the show's not over, to end the show on a high note is the motivation that everyone needed, me included.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Performer (ORRA) [26 Sep]

ORRA & Valencia - Show Day.

Soundcheck for our act went by smooth as butter, everyone sounded great and our visuals were looking amazing!

My setup for our performance, had to strike a balance between aesthetic and comfortability of performing with the setup. My setup consists of: No-Input Mixer Board going though Kaoss Pad processing & Ableton processing controlled by an iPhone (via Max for Live), Monologue (bassline).

The amazing team - Ray, Ozi, Ahamed, Rhei, Valencia (front to back)

This brilliant shot by Sol during our performance. We were fully immersed in the performance and did our very best to bring forth an audiovisual experience to the full house audience.

ORRA & Valencia

Reflections: I feel that our hard work has definitely paid off in putting up one of our biggest setup performance to date. The feedback from the audience were all great, they enjoyed it and I am very grateful for that. Thank you to Brian once again for allowing us to grace the stage of Choppa for another year. I hope we did him proud with the piece that we presented that night :)

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Week Night 1 [26 Sep]

The plan for today is to use ORRA's setup to run the system test to prepare for the soundchecks ahead. I felt that by doing so we were able to have a smooth check and ensured that everything was up and running ready for soundcheck by the other acts. 

I also had my stagehands to prepare the relevant mics and equipment needed by the other acts in advance. I felt that by doing so we were able to be better prepared for when the artists come for their soundcheck. We were able to set things up for them quick so that they had more time for their actual soundchecking. 

The stage layout was planned and designed in a way where the acoustic sets from Black Zenith stays on stage thoruout and the setup for ORRA will be preset at the start but after their set is done it will be removed off to the sides of the stage. The other 2 acts' setup will be placed on stage but flushed to the back and brought forth when doing the changeovers. Everything that would be moved on stage are marked out with tapes on the stage for easy reference and positioning. This process of marking out is done after every acts' soundcheck.

Reflections: Overall, it was a successful first night. We had a huge crowd, full house thanks to the great efforts on the social media team. We really went in harder on promoting Choppa, which I felt was very meaningful because we were able to expose more audience to the experimental & abstract sound experience. There was a mishap that happened for one of the acts where the mic lines were patched in wrongly by the stagehand, which caused some confusion with the mix on the sound engineer's end. I was unfortunately not aware of it when the cables are patched in, neither did I double checked. It was a great lesson learnt for me as the Stage Manager, I need to ensure that everything on stage is ready to go, everything is double checked before proceeding with the act. We are given the flexibility of a reasonable changeover duration for Choppa, so I need to make good use of that advantage and make sure I ensure everything is ready to go before we clear the stage for the next act.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Week Day 2 [25 Sep]

Briefing for the day ahead.

Patched up all the xlr for the 2-days acts into the junction box on stage. Took the Level 1s and showed them the signal flow of the console to the Rio and amp racks. Also got them to help out with the patching of the lines together with 2 Level 2s.

I felt that we worked very smoothly together with the sound engineer, both sides were able to convey instructions clearly and we were able to also rectify any issues on the go as it comes along.

It was great help that we had the addition of the projector and screens this year, we are able to project out the techrider for easy reference, everyone could see the information clearly. 

After the patching was done on stage the sound side was a bit slow because of some issues the sound engineers had with the recording. In the end we asked Herman for help and we managed to get the recording to work. 

Reflections: I plan to give out clear instructions and objective for the next day to ensure that we are able to work fast and efficiently. As the next day is going to be a long day with many work to be done, I think we need to constantly be ticking off agenda after agenda.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Week Day 1 [23 Sep]

Bump In week starts.

Although many were late for call time, which was quite disappointing, but because of proper role delegations, checkout process was fast and w managed to be ahead of our scheduled timing even.

For myself I managed to once again re-familiarised myself with the RIO patching and the amplifier racks for the speakers. I felt happy that I remembered the routings after getting my hands on with the patching and connectivity. 

The entire day I had to make calls and decisions as the Stage Manager. To be honest I did not go in to cube with a game plan, so I had to play it by ear. But thankfully the set up is not all that complicated, so it is still rather simple for me to decide on the spot the sequence of event for the set up. 

We have a competent sound engineer, Ian, which makes the process so much easier for me as we were able to link up and talk through the plan so that I could assist him to ensure the sound system set up was as smooth as possible. 

The Level 3s, we discussed with Brian on the stage performance layout for all acts for both nights. It was really great to have that discussion because it helps us to better iron out how we will go about with each changeovers and positionings.

Reflections: Everyone was really great, being on the ball and doing the necessary work. Successful day 1, we ended on time and cleared everything that is needed to be cleared and much more. I feel very excited to see the final end product and look forward to the amazing acts for this year's Choppa!

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Week Preparation [22 Sep]

Briefed the EM cohort on things to expect and what is expected of everyone in preparation of going into Choppa Week. (20 Sep, Fri Ensem Class)

On this day, I sent out the delegation of roles as well as some instructions for all 3 batches of EM to take note of in regards to the upcoming week of Choppa bump in. I noticed that for previous years, not much information was disseminated to the Level 1 & 2s, which resulted in a very clueless and inefficient work flow during the bump in process. As such I took it upon myself to ensure that instructions were made clear to everyone prior so that evryone can be mentally prepared and know what they are supposed to do.

I sent out the Equiment List that is required for Choppa, assigned ICs to take charge of the different catergories of equipment as well as give the ICs a few helping hands to form a team, and each team's job would be to collect the equipment that they will be in charge of. I figured that this will ensure everyone to know what needs to be taken from the SIA inventory during the equipment checkout process, and we will not face instances where people just standing around unsure of what needs to be taken or what has yet to be taken out.

Full look at the Equipment List done up by me. I made sure to appoint the ICs to be made up of the Level 3s and our Sound Engineer, Ian, and Assistant Stage Manager, Brandon. I try to ensure each team consists of at least 1x Level 1 & 2, so that they all are aware of the different categories of equipment that is needed. When it is their time to produce Choppa, they would be referring to what we have done as reference guide and I hope that at least they would be able to come together and recall on the different equipment they individually were in charged of taking.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Performer (ORRA) [20 Sep]

We performed a shorter version of our set in ensem class. The feedback given that struck out to me the most: too much reverb.

Reflections: I felt that I went too much on the reverb without realising it, so moving forward I have to be more precise with the usage of the reverb. Striking a balance between letting my sound cut through the mix and sit in the mix.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Performer (ORRA) [19 Sep]

More discussions over the visuals and more practice over our set piece.

Reflections: I think that we are moving at a very good pace, most of our performance aspect are already solidified. We just need to practice over and over to get ourselves familiar with it. Other than that, I am very excited to present this performance at Choppa!

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA 5th Meet [17 Sep]

Met up with TO to confirm request forms, made some changes based on TO recommendations & feedback. 

Reflections: We gained more clarity to what needs to be done.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Performer (ORRA) [11 Sep]

We tried out ORRA's full complete set up and firmed down on performance piece structure.

I helped our visual artist, Valencia, to map touch designer to a midi controller & we discussed over the visuals for our set.

Reflections: I feel that the act is slowly taking its shape, we are all working very hard to get everything together. It is not easy with the amount of things and ideas we want to showcase for this round of performance. However, I am confident to say that all of us are excited and wants nothing but the best and to put up the best performance we can. We definitely are aiming to outdo ourselves from last year's performance.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA 4th Meet [10 Sep]

Met up with Choppa's sound engineer (Lvl 2 - Ian, Fish). Going through the requirments for sound system. We also went through the request forms matters, going through the equipment that we need for the show.

Reflections: I was able to firm up the equipments that we needed when the techrider of the acts are in. I also referred a lot on the previous year's Choppa equipment list as a guideline, which definitely helped me in deciding the equipment and quantity needed for our show this year. It is definitely good practice to archive these stuff proper so that the next batch can have a much smoother process producing the show.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Performer (ORRA) [6 Sep]

Performed Choppa piece, without Rhei. Received feedback from peers about the piece.

Reflections: Because Rhei was unfortunately not able to be present for this ensemble class, we were not able to showcase the full spectrum of what we our piece would be like. It definitely felt like we were missing a portion of our performance, and that is when I realise how much of an importance each and every single one of us plays to the sonic signature of ORRA.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA Performer (ORRA) [5 Sep]

CRT TV setup and planning (with Ahamed)

Reflections: Both Ahamed and I were very excited to see the CRT TV setup being a success because we really wanted to include it in our Choppa performance this year. Thanks to Brian's video synth and video kit, we were able to do the necessary connectivities we needed. I proposed the idea of each one of us having 1 TV taking our instrument's audio signal straight, it creates an effect where the audience will be able to relate through the visuals of the TVs when we are producing sounds.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA 3rd Meet [3 Sep]

Meet up with TOs to clarify on the audio inventory list, also clarified what needs to be submitted to them and by when. We were told to get clearance from facilities for the haze machine.  

Reflections: As the SM, it is time for me to take helm of the matters that needs to be sent to the TOs and get things moving along.

[sgstingrayhustles]

CHOPPA 2nd Meet [29 Aug]

We met internally without Brian. We properly decided on roles and delegations of work, and I decided to take on the Stage Manager role. We also proceeded with planning out timeline for Choppa, and address queries/ unsure matters with each other.

Reflections: I decided to take on the Stage Manager role was mainly because of my past experience in Live Sound. I felt that I would be able to contribute significantly if I take on the SM role. This role is both technical and also administrative, while I have to deal with what goes on on stage during the festival, the back end administrative work leading up to the festival will also have to be planned by the SM. I am willing to take on this challenge because I want to make the best out of my final year as a Choppa production member.