Wednesday, 4 June 2014

My Slideshow (Oral Presentation without my Artefact Video)

Here it is, hopefully you can all access it it from here and this will help you to all understand my talk from yesterday. Let me know your thoughts?


Oral PRESENTATION WITHOUT ARTEFACT.pptx

All images within are for the use of education. I do not own any of them.


Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Oral Presentation Day

The last day finally came...

I had to be up at 6:45am due to the time difference in order to be ready.

When my time come, I felt prepared, but uneasy that I couldn't see my audience and they couldn't see my slides. I felt happy with my content, but without being able to connect with my audience, I walked away unsettled. I wasn't happy too happy with it, but distance stopped me from attending in person. Hopefully, It will all be fine and my material will stand on its own two feet. Did anyone else who performed the presentation at a distance experience these feelings?

I would like to take this time to thank who have helped my though my inquiry process here at Norwegian Cruise Lines. My friends and family for supporting me and picking me up when times I felt overloaded. My girlfriend for making take my head out of the sand and getting this all finished.
But the one person who has been with me the whole time and has been my rock is the one and only Paula Nottingham. Thank-you so much for always being there, at any time, your persistent but gentle elbow was always there nudging me. I can't thank-you enough.

It's a surreal feeling knowing it's all finished. After all this time, effort and hard work. I just hope it all pays off. We will have to hope it does. I wish I could attend Graduation that's another downside to working away. I'll imagine myself in a cap & gown, but the day I get those results I'll be wearing a huge smile instead!

JP :)

P.S - I will post my slideshow maybe tomorrow, whilst in port and hopefully the Internet is better...

Monday, 19 May 2014

My ARTEFACT!!

HERE IT IS!! Finally got it uploaded to youtube...

http://youtu.be/DtYWYOCci7E

I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts or comments...

Today’s cruise ship entertainers are no longer your tired ‘Punch and Judy’ puppet shows that used to be seen and have audiences enthralled. Today’s audiences have matured, they require more intricate, complex shows with stories that will keep them entertained every night of their cruise ship holiday. These shows are owned by Multi-million-dollar Company’s that scour the globe and hire great talent from all over the world.

After working five years at sea with some wonderful people in seven different casts with a number of sixteen to eighteen people in a cast. I look back to see why some casts didn’t reach their full potential? What factor was holding them back? Was it the lack of support from the shore side team? Or was it something closer to home? After I joined this course, it inspired me to want to understand more in my career. How can we make our current and future casts achieve their full potential?  I decided to dig in deep and question why & how? What is it that we need to do to ensure we had a stronger performance every time we stepped onto that stage?

For my Inquiry, I interviewed (15) my cast members one at a time to see what it is in their opinion that we needed to do to achieve our best outcome. Also I conducted two different focus groups with another (13) cast. These focus groups focused on the importance of team building and the outcome when we firstly didn’t work as a team, opposed to when we did work together and what we can achieve if we all work as one. I wanted to prove that if we don’t put the work in and do the necessary cast bonding/team-building exercises, then we will never achieve our full potential.

We live in the age of technology, and are constantly surrounded by it. Therefore, we sub-consciously take in the message even if we don’t know we do.

I think that today’s performers would much rather watch a short video than sit down and read a booklet. Videos can be exciting, short and yet still to the point. They are also vibrant, informative and entertaining.

Saturday, 10 May 2014

1st draft handed in

Nervous now, first draft handed in and awaiting feedback now. The due date is nearly due, and I can't believe this journey is nearly over. It's been a long process, but one I've enjoyed and learnt a lot in my chosen field. How's everyone else doing?

Sunday, 13 April 2014

My Artefact....

             When it came to my artefact, I struggled a while thinking what would be best? Who was it aimed towards? How would i present it in a form that keep my audiences attention and deliver it in an informative yet creative manner.
               I've decided that I would make a video for my artefact, its a form that I think is highly accessible to my chosen audience.  Performers use online tools to better their affiliations, they also create a profile of themselves to help sell them as a Performer be it: creating a showreel, their own website, using sound bites, contacting agents & producers, searching for audition, or perhaps putting up their CV's and head shots.
              It is also a form of media I enjoy creating and one I believe will get the information I need, out there to an audience that lives and breathes technology in their everyday lives.



Saturday, 12 April 2014

Management Troubles

A common enemy is a common issue shared… When in the face of danger, as humans we stick together, we fight, we succeed better in groups…

So, in the case of my cast & I…Our troubles with our management brought us together and we knew, that if need be we can pull it out of the bag if, we put our heads together…
We had a number of days when our management failed to step up and help us when we needed them most… What could we do? Well we had 2 options; one being we could band together to get the job that was needed, done. Or 2, fail and potentially lose our jobs.

A performers nature is a complex one. We have a desire to be recognised for our work, a desire to achieve greatness & a desire to move/please our audience. We are passionate, highly competitive, and yet rely on each other whilst we are working on stage. We know that working together at any time will only benefit us a team rather than hinder it. What is a horse without his legs??? Not much, he would simply fall and be rendered pretty useless. So, despite our competitive nature we understand our strengths and can put aside our differences to achieve our common goal. Our performance.
In our case, we listened to one another, worked out the best strategy to achieve our goal.. Practised it in our given time and Voila! we succeeded! 

But what would happen if everyone was not on the same page? What would be the outcome of the performance? Do the dynamics with a cast actually affect the final outcome?
I am looking into "How the group dynamics within a cast can affect the outcome of a performance", I'm interested to see what the outcome in the end will be? Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.... :)

Friday, 29 November 2013

Procrastinating....

I have been told I am a huge procrastinator when it comes to things I am wary of. And now the time has come to fight this, so I can pass my Module 3.

Where do I begin?

Well whilst I was on the ship I held master-classes (Focus-Groups). Which were a really interesting way of viewing how the cast works together when under stress, when they feel comfortable, and when they are put with people they don't usually work with. I put people who aren't naturally leaders in a leader position to see how the'd cope if given the chance and how the rest of the cast responded to them. I had them over 2 sessions which were an hour each. My focus was all on team-building exercises, as I wanted to observe what happened in each circumstance. It was an enjoyable experience, and an experience that was worth-while and brought some interesting questions up. To be continued....

Did anyone else have any problems finding the motivation and the discipline to sit down and focus on module 3?