Self Evaluation (The real final post)

So, my project is over and done with at long last. It has actually been really fun but also tiring in the end. I am glad it is over but I actually do look forward to recording more, maybe if I had a two week- a month break I could be ready to do this project all over again. Most definitely it has been my favorite school project of all time.

So, time to evaluate.
First of all, there was a time constraint. This may have been our biggest problem. Setting up 3 amps and a mic stand took a little too much time for my happiness. On the bright side, we went as quickly as humanly possible and I think with questions and setup included we kept it about 13-14 minutes long. Although 3-4 minutes over our time limit which definitely was not good, it did seek to enhance the presentation hopefully balancing things out in the end,
Our power-point was something I was proud of. We planned our speech according to the power-point so that as we went we could have animations make pictures and words appear as we talked making the background flow very well with the foreground. I also thought the presentation showed a lot of our progress as it had many original pictures so it accurately represented the various portions of our presentation.
Showing our product was another major success. The showing of the product also acted as a hook. At first we wanted to do the performance at the end of the presentation but we came to the conclusion, "What is a better hook than live music?". This stuck true for us as we grabbed the audience's attention for the rest of our presentation by showing our product at the same time.
Inspiring through our passion may have been a bit of a rough spot. We did focus a lot on our process and although we tried to inspire, it may have been a little overshadowed by our process explanation. That being said, I think we did a pretty good job of bringing the presentation together into our underlying theme that was meant to be inspiring.
We explained our process pretty well. Talking about complications and success's at the same time definitely helped to give a full scope of how the process of recording an album was like. Also using little jokes along the way helped to give a more realistic way of explaining how our experience was. This also served as a device to keep the audience's attention.
Our purpose (If you are passionate about something and proud of the work you do in that field, you can achieve any goal) was brought together pretty nicely at the end of the presentation. However, I would have liked to hint at it a little more throughout the beginning of the presentation as well as the end. Although not a travesty that this did not happen, it would have been nice to have people come to the purpose at the end along with us instead of us explaining the entire thing. Having people have an understanding of our purpose before the ending was something a little rough through the presentation.
Our organization came together pretty well. Having a musical intro served as a nice hook and I think starting with inspiration, then complication, then our experience, and finally our purpose served well as an order of doing things. Transitions are the only part that could have been slightly smoother. Although certain times they flowed, such as from inspiration to complication, there were other times the transitions were a bit rough. A good example of this was from our recording experience to our underlying purpose. That could have been done a bit more artfully.
Delivery was probably a strong point. Owen presented very well and I think my speech was pretty clear and accurate. I tried to be genuine as well as professional to associate with my audience while still educating. The only real complication here was leaving my notecards on the table below the stage while setting up (I was in a major rush to get everything set up). This may have set me back a bit in the beginning from nervousness without them, but ended up being fine as I had everything I would say basically memorized.
As far as the Ted commandments goes, I tried to follow them as well as I could. Although time ended up being a slight issue and my speech may have been a bit stammered in the beginning, all told we tried to follow the commandments to the best of our ability.

So, all being said and laid out on the table I would say this was one of the best presentations Owen or I have ever given. Not only was the project long and hard (yet rewarding) but this presentation took a lot of discussion and set-up. That being said, I am very proud of all the work leading up to this presentation (from writing to recording to planning for the Ted Talk) and am happy to finally have done it.

Out of thirty I would give us either a 27 (90%) or 28 (93%). This actually depends on how bad it was that we took up extra time. Obviously, I am not the one running things under a time constraint so in my opinion it was not a huge deal. But, of course it could have been a major nuisance and I just don't know what it's like to run a show under a time limit.

Thanks again for reading my blog over these past weeks and accompanying Owen and I on our journey to record an album.

It's been fun!

Bye everybody!

~~Max

Revisiting the old for their new progress!

Today I have revisited several older blogs that I commented on earlier in this blog.

Let's see how they have been doing!

Jenny's Blog: http://designsbyjennyd.blogspot.com/

John's Blog: http://johnrecording.blogspot.com/

Owen's Blog (Although I have never commented on his before, I worked with the guy through the entire project and read his posts without commenting to him (unless in person) so it feels like an old blog to me):Pearisapunkpalmerisagod.blogspot.com

The Finale of all Blog Posts! (Except the one I do after I present the Ted Talk)

It sure has been a long journey. Together, dear reader, we went through hell and back; we learned reaper, we learned trombone, we learned to sing, and we learned how to be rock stars.
With that, I leave you all.

Me when in concert.

APRIL FOOLS (Sorry, I couldn't help myself hahahahahahahahahahaha)
So anyway...

Yesterday and today, Owen and I have been planning our Ted Talk. Basically we have a couple points already plotted out (ready for some Process Analysis? Yeah, you're ready).

1. Live Performance
First we will spend roughly 1.5 minutes doing a live performance of our song titled: Elemental Time although it won't give the song justice, it will be a nice acoustic set. What is more of a hook of a presentation than music? That's right, absolutely nothing. Also, remember when I said I was the sex symbol of the band? Well that is coming back in this performance at a full scale! Basically the point of the performance will be to display what we have been doing over the past times and how much hard work we have put into writing and recording the music.
2. Speak of inspiration/goals from the start

We just got a record label... cause that still exists...

Second, we wanted to talk about how we inspired each other to start a band and the our goals once we had done so. Although this would be a shorter segment we would also discuss how this was a great passion of ours that finally pushed us towards the end goal. Speaking of passion would also lead us to our point: follow your passions and you will achieve your goals.
3. Complications
Because I had a post literally titled "Complications Galore", you can tell this was a major problem with the amount of complications we ran into. I will discuss these various ones such as the musical, lessons, and of course Florida. Also, to show our underlying theme we will discuss how these may have hindered us, but in the end we were proud of the three songs that we did record and it ended up being enough.
4. The recording experience (It's actually our Jimi Hendrix cover band name)
During recording a lot of interesting things came up that fed into our overall theme of don't get knocked down and follow your passions. It ended up taking so long to record a single song that we ditched our 8 song album in return for a 3 song one. This ended up being the exact right amount of time to write a 3 song album verses an 8 one. It took about 8 hours per song all told which was just too ambitious for the amount of time we had to record.
5. Our overarching Theme
Overall, the point we wanted to get across was how if you follow your passions and you are proud of the work you have done, you can achieve any goal you wish. In our situation we were knocked down multiple times throughout the presentation but in the end, we came through and did work we were both proud of.

So, of course, I also read up a bit on how to make a good Ted Talk that interests your audience. The sources I used were http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/05/making-presentations-in-the-ted-style.html and http://www.wired.com/business/2010/02/ted-2010-how-to-ace-a-ted-talk?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+wired%252Findex+%2528Wired%253A+Index+3+%2528Top+Stories+2%2529%2529. These two sources taught me about how to spend equal amounts of time on my process and my passion and application. At first, I planned to have the bulk of the project be about how we wrote the music and how we recorded but in the end, it turns out spreading your message is just as important. I added in several more times we mention our overarching theme than before because of these helpful links.

Well, sorry for the extremely long post that was not quite as full of jokes as the last post. Ted Talks seem to be pretty serious verses these awesome blogs written through my voice!
Anyway, if you've stuck with me all the way through, I hope you enjoyed reading what I've had to say. It has been a long and fun road dear reader! Wish me luck!
The final recap of everything will commence tomorrow!

Until then,
~~Max

These blogs are pretty skippy!

I thought these blogs were skippy dippy lippidee bippy (whatever those  other adjectives mean).

Will's Blog: //learning-woodworking.blogspot.com/

Chris's Blog: http://kuroy22.blogspot.com/

Drew's Blog: http://sundrew.blogspot.com/