This post delves into the various roles and tasks some of the course members from the POPULAR AND COMMERCIAL MUSIC have done for Immersed. Please take this as a homage to the core of our team, or as a sneak-peek to behind Immersed’s scenes.
There are many people that have helped put this event together, so I would like to mention and thank our two lecturers: David Coker and Lloyd George for all their patience, help and advice. This festival is part of our third-year curriculum and the above-mentioned lecturers are monitoring and helping our work. David has been the person who has helped us overcome our inner issues and conflicts while keeping us engaged and busy. Lloyd has made sure that all our finances were in order, as well as making sure that everything has been Covid-safe and socially distanced.
At the beginning of our journey, we have had the option to join one or two of four teams, which are: MANAGEMENT, PROMOTION, PRODUCTION and PROGRAMMING. Later, we needed a few more, smaller teams, within these categories because of the amount of work involved.
Before I discuss the separate teams in more detail, first, I would like to mention and emphasise the work EMMA MAE has done. She has been part of the management team, but by the end she has had her finger in every pie. Just to mention a few of her ‘jobs’: She has kept us motivated, told us off when it was needed, she has written the presenter’s script, the press release, has made sure that the communication between and within teams ran smoothly, she has created some graphics for the promotion team, liaised with the other creative courses involved etc. If this would not be enough, she has even performed at Immersed with her band, and you probably will not be surprised when I say that she has done an amazing job there too. As a team, we owe the matriarch of the festival, Emma Mae a big thank you.
Secondly, the other person that has made himself indispensable to our team is JAMES O’NEILL. He was part of the programming team, that he shortly became a leader of. He made sure that all the artists have been contacted and he organised the filming dates and schedules. On site, his work has been fantastic. The organisation of more than 30 bands, plus crew members and his own team is a very tough job to do, especially when you must maintain social distancing. After the actual filming, he has put the streaming schedule, the festival’s programme if you like, together. The Immersed team is grateful for all the work and effort James has put in!
The MANAGEMENT’S original members were the above-mentioned Emma Mae, Jessica Griffiths, Jacob Herron, James Cloutman, Josh Deen, Owen Davies, Sadie Mulholland, Zsofia Pasztori-Kupan and, Hollie Singer. Their job was to make sure that all the other team’s work runs smoothly and to organise and push the festival in the right direction.
The PROGRAMMING team’s responsibility was to book the bands, organise the filming and the festival schedules and making sure that everything happens according to that schedule. I have highlighted James O’Neill’s hard work above, as being head of the Programming Team. Therefore, it would be unfair not to mention Hollie Singer and James Cloutman. Hollie has chosen the bands and booked them for this festival, so in essence she is behind the amazing line-up this year. James has been making sure that the communication between the Management team and the Programming team is smooth and he also researched and helped set up YouTube and Twitch for the streams.
The PROMOTIONAL team’s responsibility is quite self-explanatory: they have been marketing and promoting the festival, wrote the press release and handled all the social media platforms. The core members and their roles were the following: Megan Owen has been the head of the promotion team, and just like Emma, she has had a lot of work to do. She was making sure that everything runs smoothly, she has been creating content for all the social media platforms, had meetings with people from other courses, has managed other people’s pitches etc. She also has performed for the Sofa Session’s stage too, so make sure to check her performance out on Sunday, the 31st of January! Another person from the promotion team has been Josh Deen, who has been keeping contact with local artists. He has also designed the logos for each theme of the festival and has redesigned the Instagram layout by adding highlights and redesigning the covers for them to give a more of a professional and collective look. Under the name ‘Deenio’ he is performing for our Unity theme night, which can be streamed on Friday, the 29th of January! Part of the promotion team was Petr Ricanek and Alannis Davies. Petr has helped with Meg’s hard work and sorted out the LinkTree for us. Alannis has contacted artists for promo shots, made a list of places to send our press release to, and she has also helped with the posters for the festival.
Within the promotional team, we must mention a smaller one too. This team is behind the IMMERSED BLOG, the one that you are reading right now. The blog team are managed by the wonderful Sadie Mulholland who is the proof-reader, copyeditor, and mentor of the whole process. She has been a key person within the festival, working very closely together with USW’s social media team and our promotional team. Sadie also performed at Immersed festival this year; you do not want to miss it! The other members of the Blog Team are Paul Gialanze, Mihalis Katsimigkos, Will Brown, Zsofia Pasztori-Kupan, Alex Grose and Alex Rouf. They have all worked tirelessly to provide you, dear reader, with content.
Speaking of content, to tie all these recorded concerts and interviews together we needed PRESENTERS, who were Niamh Colclough, Sally-Anne Buris and Zsofia Pasztori-Kupan. Their role was to inform the viewers of the upcoming performances and interviews, based on the script that Emma Mae has written for them. They have decorated the presenter’s room too. The band interviews have been conducted by these three magnificent ladies as well, most of which have been recorded in the Tramshed.
The Sofa session’s cosy and dreamy SET DESIGN has been Tereza Neitzelova’s, Jessica Griffiths’, Zsofia Pasztori-Kupan’s hard work. We hope that you like the living-room vibes.
The filming in the Tramshed could not have happened without the wonderful PRODUCTION TEAM, made up of Alan Van Nguyen, Tom Purves, Paul Gialanze, Mihalis Katsimigkos, Mia Duckworth (she played with Emma’s band), Jacob Herron, Nat Peters, Oliver Fecci-Chiffi. They have all helped in sanitising the stages, bringing the artists in, and making sure that social distancing has been maintained, loading their gear in and out etc. They had to make sure everyone stuck to the strict schedule, to record each band’s full set without interrupting the other artists. Ollie has been the live sound engineer for the Sofa Session’s stage and his work has required constant attention on the filming days. Nat has helped in putting together the final brief for media production to work off (with the help of Jacob and Tom), and he has set up the just giving page and the streaming accounts for Twitch and YouTube. Alan was part of the production and the programming team too. He is performing under the name "WEN" filmed in the Atrium. He also made some music for media production to use in the background for promotional material as well. ű
These people and their hard work, whether they have written Instagram posts, scripts or were loading band’s equipment, were the reason that this festival has been made possible despite the circumstances.
We hope that you will enjoy this weekend, Immersed will be on from the 29th until the 31st of January 2021. Tune in and enjoy this wonderful team’s work.