The Water Street Project Week 2: Web Design and Event Location
The main thing that I worked on this week was continuing the process of reserving a space on-campus to host my performance for my thesis project. I did, however, get to make some progress with framing my content for my website update and choose my pieces for the performance in April.
After learning of a conflicting event on the same day as our showcase, I have decided to schedule the performance on Friday, April 20th, one week prior to the showcase. Reserving this space is actually a more involved process that must be handled by the IMM Department as opposed to an individual student. I have spoken with multiple staff in the department and at the Brower Student Center about moving the reservation and the event forward. I would like to speak to other students with similar projects and see if some of them would be interested in presenting their projects alongside mine on the same night. I believe that by highlighting a few presentations ahead of the actual showcase, we have a greater chance of generating student and faculty interest. The April 20th performance would also act as a “dress rehearsal,” for the performing students, and give fellow IMM seniors a chance to see some of the finished projects of their peers.
Another decision that I have made for the April 27th showcase is to rent a smaller lighting system to still be able to demonstrate my finished Max patch live, in addition to the recorded demo and finalized band content. I am estimating renting two lights and a small board to cost around $100-$125.
Song choice was another difficult decision that I took my time with this week. Out of some 20 Water Street songs and 50 covers, I narrowed down my selections to four songs. I tried to pick songs that are simple enough for the Max patch to adapt to, yet dynamic enough to push the boundaries of the lighting cues (since I’m trying to have the stage effects embody the music and the performers).
Lastly, I have started to map out the look of our new website. Initially a nine-page website, I chose to condense the site into four, more user-friendly pages:
Home Page: Includes recent videos, music, photos, upcoming shows and links to other social media (eliminating three pages from the old design). I also made a php file that will remove show dates from the list once they have occurred, and I am looking into how to implement that within a template-based website.
About Us: A short bio of the band and its members (this will be updated and may even be put on the home page to simplify the website even more).
Merch: Links to CDs, shirts, etc. This will be the hardest page to implement because it will require setting up an online market for users. I will search for simple ways to do this.
Contact: The only adjustment I need to make for this page is to set the outgoing messages to the correct address. However, I would like to talk with a couple professors about spam-proofing the code a bit more so that our email address won’t become filled with random coupons.
Most of the music, text and design work is already in place for the final website. What I am lacking is visual content; updated photos and videos that will give the pages new life and get people excited about our upcoming music.
My next goals are to prepare cameras to film the presentation at Traditions if and when the date is confirmed. I would like to approve a few days with the Student Finance Board where I can meet at the space with Dr. Nakra to test the functionality of my code as I develop it in the coming months. I will also start working on more of my visual content for the project. Lastly, I would like to begin building my Max patch now that I have a clearer picture of what equipment I will be using, as well as the pieces I will perform.
