The week of our seminar! This week was really hectic trying to get everything in order. I was asked to contact David Delmenico (our designated host) so that I could organise a meeting time with him and usher him into the Seminar. I contacted David on the Thursday before to make sure he knew what time he had to be in the city and he had told me no one had messaged him for weeks about the seminar. It made me panic a little since he almost pulled out from the seminar completely, however I managed to convince him that we really needed him (which we did since he was in our promo video) and luckily he agreed to still do the show. The people in charge of contacting him had proof they had contacted him earlier so I think it was a little bit of miscommunication however it ended up okay!

Since David was really nervous about the seminar since he hadn’t practised or anything, my full attention was given to him in the final couple of days. I made up some run through sheets and cue cards for him, booked a room for a rehearsal where I joined him to work on his performance, all while doing last minute edits to the script to include the third guest.

I joined Max in introducing David to the guests before the show and they seemed to get along fine so I brought David into the seminar room where everyone had done an amazing job of setting up and baking food and such. I helped him get miked up and ran him through the seminar and where everyone was going to be.

During the seminar my job was to make sure David was on time with all the segments. I learnt it’s very difficult to get an actor to understand your lipreading from stage. Although I was signalling at times that it was time to wrap it up, the guests loved to talk!

I think overall our whole group did really well. We put together a great seminar and I heard heaps of great comments from fellow students. Our guests got along great as did David who learnt everything very last minute and I was very grateful for it!

This week we had a meeting to discuss how much we have all done in our roles. I have written up a draft and very brief intro however there isn’t much I can do until our guests are locked in. I have also got some general questions to ask the guests that are particularly beneficial to students graduating:

Did you ever complete an internship when you were starting out? How can you ensure that you stand out and do the best you can in an internship?

When was a time when you thought to yourself, you had made it in the industry?

I think questions like these will be a lot more beneficial to students rather than questions that ask about the guests current jobs. Although it is interesting where our guests are at in their career, personally I’d like to know a few tips of getting my foot in the door!

Within this meeting I worked with a couple of other students to plan the structure of the overall seminar. I suggested that we do a ‘Graham Norton’ show layout so all three guests can talk to each other and bounce off each other’s answers. It would be a lot more engaging to hear the three guests interact about their experiences rather than them almost give a speech one by one.

I also offered a discount I can get at Krispy Kreme donuts for catering during our event and am looking into prices of that currently.

This week we discussed our roles in the Seminar. My group have the topic of Television which I am super excited about since I aim to work in the television industry. I have interned with TV Production companies like Princess Pictures so I have a few contacts I could perhaps get to come down to our seminar.

My role is to write up the script for the seminar and plan the questions. Since I am really interested in scriptwriting I put my hand up for this role. I have a little bit of experience in it as well. I also have heaps of questions since I want to work in the TV industry. We have a lot more to organise like the layout of our seminar and audience interraction.