Creativity Works: Audio Production Final Week & Showcase Round-up

4 September 2023

Written by Alex

Monday

Monday marked the beginning of the final week of the course. It was a day off after handing in our projects. We had time to reflect on our progress, the experience of creating our pieces and the lessons I and everyone else had learned over the past six weeks. It was heartening to know that we’d all come together and produced pieces that we were all very proud of in such a short time. The excitement of being able to see what those works sounded like and the experience of putting them out into the world, beginning with the upcoming preview event on Thursday, gave a sense of satisfaction and a slight amount of anxiety.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning’s check-in gave us time to reflect as a group on our progress before an online presentation workshop led by Jayshree Viswanathan. Her background in advertising and pitching to large clients gave us insight into how to sell ourselves when presenting and giving our ideas their due level of passion when talking to others about them. These tips would come in handy as we were to do a small introduction to our work on the evening of the preview.

We then moved on to a panel with Dan Moss and Ami Bennett of Colour It In Studios about the business side of audio and the daily reality of running an audio production company. They had great advice in terms of questions about employability and reminded us that the best thing we could do was work hard and be nice to all of those around us for the best shot at gaining opportunities. It was incredibly useful to have a renewed focus on how to get ourselves work, now we had completed our pieces and had a tangible asset to add to our portfolios.

Wednesday

We were online on Wednesday for a Marketing workshop with Raj Pander. Through this workshop, we looked at how to promote and market work both professionally and personally. Raj shared her experience of working on large campaigns for the likes of ITV’s Love Island and on pre-recorded content across the BBC’s radio platforms. It was really engaging to see how these projects are worked out from concept to completion and it gave us all some valuable tips on how best to promote our pieces when putting them out into the world.

Thursday

Thursday night was the showcase evening for our audio pieces. A panel of representatives from Mixcloud, Spotify and Reduced Listening listened to our work and provided feedback after we had stood before an assembled crowd of course members and guests to discuss our projects and play a 90-second teaser.

The evening was an enjoyable moment to reflect on our achievements with all those in attendance and to congratulate each other on the completion of a set of brilliant and beautiful sonic explorations. Opportunities to present, network and talk about our motivations for our projects gave the feeling that we were showcasing all the elements of the course together whilst celebrating our success.

Friday

The final day of the course brought about a bittersweet feeling. We had all created something new that we were proud of and had met wonderful people along the way and now we were tasked with taking those lessons and moving onwards and into the unknown. The lessons learned and care developed for each other motivated the day, and we concluded with writing messages of appreciation for one another to keep with us as we moved forward.

I am hoping that we all find a way to use what we have learned here to motivate us creatively and hopefully to find ourselves work in whatever avenue we choose to pursue, audio or otherwise. I want to thank everyone who helped put this course together, contributed to it and to everyone who attended, I am proud of what we have achieved together, and I cannot wait to see what we all do next.