Our Second show: Almost absolute chaos

I seriously thought the first show was daunting, but I was not expecting the pressure that came with our second edition. Whoever said producing gets easier once you've found your feet spoke utter rubbish. I have realised that each week a brand new challenge rears its ugly head, how to deal with these, as well as the rate of doing so is important. I can safely say this week was chaotic, but never the less Tshego and myself walked out of it in one piece.


On the Tuesday we had the workshop as planned. Tshego recorded Luto saying the second audio blog while I took the rest of the teens for our usuall discussion on what questions the guests will be asked. This is where I feel all the girls really contribute to our show. Despite their nervous attitude when it comes to being on the microphone, they are very talkative when it comes to ideas. To be honest for a bunch of fifteen year old girls they are asking questions about "love" and "finding their right partner" at a shocking early age. i realised that on many occasions i was butting in illustrating these girls are looking far too deep into the issue and they must just relax as they still have their whole lives to find a boy friend. As much as i try and mentor them, i still allow their serious questions to be asked, such as 'what is the difference between love and lust'. Wow, at the age of fifteen I don't think I even knew the very word "lust", once again this shows the alarming maturity of these teens. I was to meet with Xolelwa the next day to record the Archie Mbolekwa choir, this was her school and seemed very excited for this prospect.

Wednesday went as planned aswell, this was brilliant, we were having an almost flawless week! I was really hoping it could stay this way! i realised why Xolelwa was excited. The recorder was an instrument of power that she had, i could see the choir looked at her with respectful eyes while she held that recorder. It also gave her confidence - something Xolelwa has but not in front of a lot of people. I was happy to see that the choir looked at her with respect, and not jealousy. The recording went off well, and after leaving I realised we were incredibly ahead of schedule, all we needed to do was arrive on Thursday and record the studio discussion and we should be done...Well..I thought it would be that easy...

Once again one of our guests simply did not arrive on the day, this habit must seriously stop. I have realised it is because we are not taken seriously by some members of Grahamstown, some guests do not seem to care when they are told that they will be working with young people. This is the very attitude we are trying to knock out of the older population who, I think, are not taking the youth as seriously as they should. So i eventually found a Photo journalist student who has hadto learn many things about the opposite sex, i realised he has had a lot of experiebnce in the 'relationship game' before, and wanted him to tell the teenagers it is not as fun as they think. Our other guest was a SHARC representative who I feel really made our show. She was a hip young girl who instantly knew how to connect with teens. Even in the car on the way back the girls were teasing Olwethu who seemed to have a little crush on her (how ironic seeing we are dealing with girls vs boys). If it weren't for our two guests being so superb I think I would have lost the plot...

Firstly Olwethu, our main anchor did not write up an intro and seemed very unphased by this. I have noticed that now he has become 'comfortable' in his position he is trying to take advantage, as he feels his position is cemented, well this certainly isn't the case. He arrived with a very arrogant unreasonable demeanour, and even demanded a pen and paper to write his script on from one of the girls. For the first time in the three months of working with the team I gave Olwethu a few stern words, indicating that he does not talk to a girl in that manner and how dare he even asked after he did not bring his own piece of paper and pen after we tell him countless times to do so. Thankfully this incident did not happen when the guests were in the room. I feel that we need to be stronger with Olwethu as slowly over time he feels that he has got a hold on Tshego and myself, this could be partly our own fault as we have not put him in his place on a few occasions before. After that incident I typed up Olwethu a new script and he constantly complained about not being able to say the sentences properly, I could see he was trying to embarrase me in front of the guests instead all it did was create a very awkward atmosphere as the guests literally just repeated what i was saying, and only then did he understand. I could see Tshego was also getting annoyed with him. This attitude could be heard on the radio aswell, and it sounded nothing like the atmosphere that we usually have. As I said above, thank goodness for the guests!

Another problem was the fact that the technical board had been changed that day, so we had to ask the guests to listen to the packages in the labs before we aired the discussion, once again thankfully they understood that the situation was not our fault. Gcobisa once again wowed me with her talent behind the microphone, i am really thinking of making her the new DJ, Olwethu should have been accompanied by Werner but unfortunately he had tennis trials on this day...

Looking back I have realised that despite the horrendous instances with Olwethu I am happy I was challenged by another individual in my team, as this is what i will be dealing with in the real world. Tshego and myself are both going to have a talk with him next week , as I do feel we have failed in the fact that we let him get like this. I also feel that we must not let first impressions leave such a mark on a person. As Olwethu was chosen because of his awesome audio diaries, now that he has had to work under pressure his character is being revealed, and to be honest Gcobisa's character has shone. In the future I will be more aware of the quiter individuals in the corner, who arent talking because they are shy, but because they are thinking. Olwethu was the opposite he was reeking in confidence and a 'dont' care' attitude, which I feel is the imagery for RMR. I do believe in Olwethu, i just think he needs to be put in his place, next week is his last chance to impress. I really hope this week is not repeated... We will just have to wait and see

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