This Time It's For Real

Hey guys hope all is going well,

So we are approaching the final hours of our placements. I would like to say a big congratulation to everybody for coming so far and getting out into the real work force and getting some serious industry experience. Everyone deserves a huge clap, but given that I am behind my computer and I’m sure you can’t hear me I will just go ahead and tell you what I have been up to instead.

I had a great meeting with my mentors on Sunday. We got a lot covered and I was given the thumbs up for my ideas and was asked to start writing up media releases right away. I did a bunch of writing and editing yesterday and it was a great feeling when I finished. I looked at my work and I was so proud that I had completed a professional media release. Good news is that we are currently setting up a meeting with the gentleman that does the publicity for Playlovers, and if I could run my work by him I would be very happy.

The hardest part with writing the media release was starting. It was very intimidating knowing that it was up to me to write a release powerful/effective enough to get attention from journalists to subsequently get the story published. Once I started it all started flowing back. The first draft was a little bit scratchy but I had the time to get it up to a professional standard. I still have one more to write before I meet again with my mentors but I am feeling much more confident about a second one. Overall I think creating a headline that I was happy with was one of the toughest parts. The last few days have been a huge learning experience for me. To put it in perspective - if I write an average media release in class it could at worst mean a bad grade, but the consequence in the real world may mean no stories will run.

I pitched my ideas of approaching senior citizens clubs, drama schools and choir groups to Maureen and she said it sounded great and wanted me to do some solid research and start thinking about exactly how we can go about it. My main idea for the drama schools and choir groups is to get a few cast members to visit these groups to act out snippets of the play, talk about their experiences and just have a chat about the play itself. We have received the posters and flyers now s we would have some material to hand out and leave behind. I am still juggling some ideas and finishing up my research on senior citizen clubs in the areas around the theatre.

We have decided not to put a lot of time into selling ad space in the programme, instead we are just going to approach the few regulars that take ad space in most of Playlovers productions. The main reason for this is that they did not want a huge programme and in addition time is starting to run out.

For now it’s back to my desk for more work.

Thanks for reading guys

Until next time,

Mark