Reflective Summery

Callum Price

I believe this has been my most successful university project to date. From the initial idea to the creation of not just a product but a potential company.

My main role throughout this project was production. I was in charge of the recording sessions as well as the mixing and mastering of the material. I also created and designed the website as well as the logo and the product album artwork.

I would say the main strength of this project was its idea. Joe had the original idea of creating a showreel for the college as when he was a student there he thought it would have been good. As we were dealing with a client we decided to set ourselves up as a proto-company. This would aid us in branding the product and make us appear more professional.

As the project went on and as we did our research we found that there was a potential market for our product idea. The idea of a showreel became more of a mobile recording studio for schools. Both from a musical background we felt that having recordings of school projects would have been a nice memory.

The main weakness of the project was potentially the planning of the project. Having to organise multiple bands through the college was challenging as they were slow at replying to emails causing us to miss studio dates. This was quickly solved by us going to the college to secure dates. Another issue with planning would have been to have more time when recording and with the launch event. Due to studio issues, our recording sessions could have gone better but we are happy with the outcome anyways. Having more time for the launch event would have allowed more potential clients to potentially come.

We managed to be very successful with this project in terms of the contacts we gained for the future. We have also been able to secure work with the college and a graduate company. These will give us more material to add to our show reel helping us achieve future business.

The problems we encountered in a real world aspect would not have existed. Having our own space would have solved the recording problems and the timing issues. We would hope the communication issues would get better with paying clients as they would be interested in getting the material.

If we were to repeat this project we would have made more of an effort early on to get the recordings. Having them done earlier would have given us more time to promote ourselves as a company for the launch event.

Overall I am very pleased with how this project has gone and what we have achieved because of it from both a personal and business point of view.

We hope to continue this company past graduation.

http://www.circlestudiosproduction.co.uk

 

Learning Outcomes

Callum Price
  • LO1 – To mix and master diverse material so that it can be presented on a compilation audio product to a client.
  • LO2 – To research how to present products in a manner that is appealing to the education sector.
  • LO3 – To research and price up options and tariffs for creating final products.
  • LO4 – To research and practice the internal dynamics of running a production company.

LO1 – Summery

Callum Price

To mix and master diverse material so that it can be presented on a compilation audio product to a client.

 

I have learnt a lot throughout this project about mixing and mastering the material. I did a lot of research on both sides of the process. This helped me further my skills as a producer as well as to create the best product I could.

I learned how compilation CD’s are done by creating fluidity between the tracks through volume and dynamics. This was something I tried to capture when mastering the CD together.

I am very pleased with the quality of the product as the work has been featured on BBC introducing and has been praised by Dave Mallett.

LO4 – Summery

Callum Price

To research and practice the internal dynamics of running a production company.

 

Having studied business studies I had a rough idea of how to run a company.

The more I looked into smaller businesses the more I found that the set roles given were not really stuck too. During the project I found this to be very accurate as Joe and I would help each other out in multiple different ways.

We evolved the way we worked through this project with first being very separated in our tasks. This seemed to make us slower and less effective. As we continued and started helping each other with work we became a lot more productive.

The testimonial from Dave highlights our organisation and ability to continue when problems arose.

 

LO2 – Summery

Callum Price

To research how to present products in a manner that is appealing to the education sector.

 

The biggest part of researching selling to the educational sector was how big the market is. I never realised how many businesses helped other businesses target them.

Although because of all of these factors researching how to sell was very easy. I found countless websites who all spoke of very similar aspects when selling to schools.

Being educational, affordable and efficient. These are all aspects we have attempted to incorporate into our product. From new pricing plans to getting all the recordings done within hours. We also offered the stems to the bands in case they did want to mix their work themselves.

We found CD’s and USB sticks are the most popular forms of distribution for this style of product, so these are the methods we looked into.