Friday, April 13

A new phase in life

9 weeks of internship at Yellow Box Studios have ended for me... it's both a happy and sad "ending" - happy because I can finally return back to school to be with my friends and learn more new stuff, and yet sad because I'll miss my working environment, friendly colleagues and the fantastic myriad of eateries around my workplace in the city area.

Enter a new phase in life. It's the final Year 3 of my polytechnic education. Forecast: an extremely hectic year to give a final push. Many commitments have been made this year and it's my responsibility to balance all of them. Sigh... a re-enactment of my secondary school years where I nearly died juggling all my commitments. Oh well...

WELL, I just completed this competition and did my school proud =) TEAM 6FM (6 For Music) DOES SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC PROUD by being CHAMPIONS of their category (Polytechnic) in the first-ever-of-its-kind Inter-school Artiste & Repertoire Challenge (ARC) - they also garnered the "Best Music Business" award. Organized by Virtuoso Arts and 77th Street in support of Creative Community Singapore, the competition aims to increase awareness of the various supporting creative industries behind artiste management. It is thus a useful and innovative platform that allows youths to explore and realise their dreams in music recording industry, while at the same time, developing potential creative entrepreneurs and mentors who can contribute their experience and skills beyond the boundaries of the challenge.

Artiste and Repertoire (A&R) is essentially the research and development arm of a record company. In addition to being a talent scout, the A&R person is also the crucial link to getting the music record produced: from choosing the songs among the repertoire and helping to decide whether an artiste is going to do a cover, to deciding which producers are most suitable for the artiste and finding engineers and sessionists for the recording of the album. During the challenge, each team member was assigned a specific role in A&R and underwent mentorship with industry professionals to learn the art of the trade. After the training, the teams had to complete different tasks in the areas of music production, music business (marketing/promotions) and artiste’s image (fashion/styling/make-up).

Team 6FM consists of six students from different diploma courses but with a shared passion for music, thus the team’s name – 6 For Music (6FM). Not surprisingly, these six students were also members of the cast of Singapore Polytechnic’s first musical, Superstar.

The road to the Finals was not easy, with the team even going the extra mile in the production of the album. Instrumental and choral arrangements were made for the single, and recording and mixing took place over several weeks. Not content with just a single for their demo, a music video was shot over one weekend, and these were compiled into a CD and bonus DVD for their album. The business side saw the team churning out market survey and research, advertising and distribution strategies for the album, budget and sales reports and a full press kit that included information, photos and other promotional materials.

For more details, you can check out Reyza online at http://rizahamizan.multiply.com/.

I must say I'm very grateful to my team for all their efforts through this competition. Also loads of thanks to our music video crew, supporters and fans! We would not have made it without you all. Look out for the upcoming ARC Album in August 2007!

P.S. This competition really took up much of my time and effort in the period December 2006 to April 2007. Now that it's finally over, I can move on to my other commitments in life... more competitions, music exams, gigs and school work... =D