Five minutes of fame
- Individually, every performer is allotted five minutes on stage.
- A duo has 10 minutes, a trio has 15 minutes, a four piece band has 20 minutes…
- There is no limit to the number of supporting roles one can play.
- The final performances are the school band and orchestra.
I. Publish: Choose the material
- Obtain rights to play & record covers or write originals and get your copyrights.
- Follow my vision approach:
- In some shows one person chooses all the material and the rest of the players are “hired guns.” Hired guns can give their five minutes to a leader to increase the length of the show, otherwise the leader has just five minutes.
- Share the vision approach:
- In contrast, many bands are democratic and choose together. In this scenario, everyone contributes one song that they want to play, and everyone puts in their five minutes.
II. Produce: Set up and run the show.
- There are many supporting roles behind the scenes of every performance. Contracts must be signed with management and crew. Who owns the rights to the video and audio recorded?
- Stage: Someone has to set up and maintain it during the show.
- Audio: Someone has to insure balance and record audio.
- Video: Three cameras must be pointed and focused on the performance.
- Lights: The stage must be well lit and affects must be controlled.
- Management: Someone must ensure all the pieces are in place.
III. Promote: Book and advertise the show.
- There are many more jobs to do long before the performance date.
- Book the venue and get a signed contract.
- Print and sell tickets.
- Create posters, flyers and business cards etc. and distribute them.
- Obtain free publicity and/or paid advertisements in local media.
- Create merchandise to be sold at the performance.
IV. Perform: Practice, set up, play & teardown.
- Create a lyric sheet and chord chart for your song and distribute them to the band.
- Practice parts until you have them and then practice from start to finish.
- Pay attention to dynamics in each song and in the show as a whole.
- Add choreography and stage antics to enhance the shows quality.
- Practice communicating with the audience… What will you say to them?
- Put your light show in sync with the music and rehearse cues.
- Rehearse camera movements, close-ups etc.
- Collect your five minutes of fame!
V. Post-production: Mold the performance into a marketable object.
- Review all audio and video footage and make note of highlights and mistakes.
- Learn from the mistakes and know what not to do next time.
- Remix and master the audio adding effects as needed.
- Remix the video into a sequence of shots from the three sources.
- Sync the audio and video together into a final version.
- Create a short commercial version and post it on your website and social media.
- Upload and sell the final audio & video versions through iTunes, cdbaby etc.
- Count up all the money and rejoice!