Special Event Production: The Resources

Doug Matthews

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317664239
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This must-have guide to special event production resources looks deep behind the scenes of an event and dissects what it is that creates success. It analyses the resources and is an extensive reference guide to the technical details of a big event. It provides a thorough grounding on the specifications and performance of lighting and audio systems, visual presentation technology, special effects and temporary outdoor venues.

This new edition includes:

• New content on: new audio –visual technology, industry safety standards, special effect platforms, décor and new custom forms of staging for both indoor and outdoor events.
• Updated and new case studies from USA, Canada, India, Russia and Malaysia
• New Industry Voice feature, including interviews with industry experts from around the world.
• Comprehensive coverage of venues, staging, seating, rigging, lighting, video, audio, scenic design and décor, CADD, entertainment, special effects, tenting, electrical power, fencing and sanitary facilities in a variety of indoor and outdoor event settings.
• Enhanced online resources including: PowerPoint lecture slides, checklists, glossaries, additional questions and challenges, web links and video links.

Incorporating pedagogical features, this easy-to-read book is packed with photographs, diagrams, flow charts, checklists, sample forms and real-life examples. The vast varieties of audio-visual technologies, outdoor venues, décor and staging are presented. A must have resource for event planners, managers, caterers and students.

This text is part two of a two book set - also available is Special Events Production: The Process (978-1-138-78565-6). This book analyses the process - the planning and business aspects - to provide a unique guide to producing a variety of events from weddings to festivals.

Chapter 1
Entertainment

Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• 1. Understand and describe the different forms of entertainment.
• 2 Understand the primary reasons why entertainment is used in special events.
• 3. Understand what comprises content in entertainment, from both the audience and performer points of view.
• 4. Describe and analyze what makes a good performance in the five main genres of entertainment.
• 5. Plan an effective entertainment program.
• 6. Understand how to work with performers.

If man is a sapient animal, a tool making animal, a self-making animal, a symbol-using animal, he is, no less, a performing animal, Homo performans, not in the sense, perhaps that a circus animal may be a performing animal, but in the sense that a man is a self-performing animal—his performances are, in a way, reflexive, in performing he reveals himself to himself. This can be in two ways: the actor may come to know himself better through acting or enactment; or one set of human beings may come to know themselves better through observing and/or participating in performances generated and presented by another set of human beings.

(Turner, 1988, p. 81)

This statement by renowned anthropologist Victor Turner succinctly summarizes what special event entertainment is all about: communication. It is about live performers understanding their craft well enough to be able to communicate powerful messages, be they subtle or obvious, to their audiences. The successful delivery of a well-designed entertainment program can evoke strong feelings, emotions, and memories, and can affect many of our senses. Indeed, it is the one part of an event people may remember long after the event is over. In that sense, it is arguably the one resource that can make or break the event. Although many event producers purport to be experts in the field of entertainment (are we not all critics?), it is a complex field. Our goal in this chapter is to make it easier to understand. In doing so, we will explore: how entertainment is defined; how to effectively stage an entertainment program; and finally, how to work with performers. Along the way, we will delve into physiology, psychology, and creativity. By the end, all the pieces should fit together, making it easier for producers to create, plan, and execute a successful and exciting program, and more than anything, to understand why they are doing it.

1.1 Defining entertainment

Properly defining entertainment requires us to understand the whole package, the sum of the various components that go into making up a complete presentation. Any given entertainment, whether a single performer or a multi-act extravaganza, can be fully defined by an analysis of three components or characteristics: form, reason (or "use" by another definition), and content. We will examine each of these defining characteristics separately.

1.1.1 Form in entertainment

To really define form, we need to first briefly contemplate the origins of performance. Although it would be nice to have foolproof evidence of the beginnings of human performance, such may never be the case. What we do have, based on current research, is a general knowledge of past eras or time periods during which the archaeological evidence strongly suggests that certain genres of performance were either just beginning or were clearly fully developed.

To start at the true beginning, physiologically, it is not hard to understand that humans were capable of utilizing two basic modes of communication: vocalization and physical movement. These were not always present. It is believed that one of our related ancestors, Homo heidelbergensis, had developed a hypoglossal canal of sufficient size and construction to be able to create actual speech by at least 500,000 years ago (Tattersall, 2006).

On the physical side, the best evidence for movement resembling modern humans lies with early footprints found in Laeotoli, Africa, of a much more distant relative, Australopithecus, who seemed to walk with a bipedal gait similar to today's version of humans. Those preserved footprints are 3.5 million years old (Feder, 1996).

We now must take a leap of faith based on logic and posit that at some point in the unrecorded distant past, these basic communication skills, vocalization and physical movement, further developed into the beginnings of entertainment, as illustrated in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Origins of human entertainment
Courtesy of Doug Matthews

Figure 1.2 Evolution of entertainment genres
Courtesy of Doug Matthews

Whether these all occurred at the same time is both unknown and unlikely; however, we have to start somewhere, and lacking prehistoric archaeological evidence, this is the best place. It is also not illogical to speculate that this process was taken a step further over time, so that each of the basic forms of entertainment in Figure 1.1 probably evolved into the more complex forms outlined in Figure 1.2, to which has also been added technological entertainment from the modern era.

This, then, can be the starting point for defining form in entertainment. Form is actually another word for genre, but with the addition of sub-genres and categories. The use of form helps us understand the makeup of the entertainment itself and allows for ease of cataloguing. The proposed classification system outlined below is not necessarily the only one or the right one, but it is one that allows for easier understanding of how genres are related to each other, and it is the only one that follows most logically from the origins of each form of entertainment.

1.1.1.1 Genres and categories

Again, it seems logical to follow the original evolution of entertainment as outlined in Figure 1.2 and base form on that. We thus arrive at the following primary genres and sub-genres:

• ● Music. Music in general can be considered a primary entertainment genre with sub-genres of vocal and instrumental.
• ● Theater. Beeman (1993, pp. 381–383), among others, has attempted to codify theater itself into a number of different genres based on the type of media used, the performers, and the content. However, his approach does not look at all entertainment genres together, thus making it difficult to arrive at any sort of common classification. I propose here that theater include the sub-genres of comedy, tragedy, and general speech. This allows for the inclusion of keynote speakers and similar spoken theatrical presentations that we use in special events.
• ● Dance. Throughout my own experience of working with every type of dance in special events, the sub-genres break down easily into cultural (e.g. folk, ethnic, traditional by other names), ballet, and modern or contemporary (e.g. tap, jazz, hip-hop, ballroom).
• ● Other athletic entertainment. This primary genre covers all other physical entertainment and includes the two sub-genres of sports and physical entertainment (e.g. acrobats, jugglers, magicians, stunt people, and stilt walkers). It thus includes most modern variety acts.
• ● Technology. The expanding use of mobile devices plus the development of increasingly sophisticated lighting, touchscreens, visual presentation technology, and music have led to the creation of unique forms of entertainment with technology as the "performer" or "performance medium." See Section 1.1.3.3.5 for more information.

In order to further define any given form of entertainment, we need to add non-performative classifications that allow the form to be specified exactly. These we can term categories, as follows:

• ● Size. Size places the entertainment form in the context of a group performance. The sub-categories of size are large group (i.e. more than ten), small group (i.e. less than ten), and solo.
• ● Prop-assisted. This covers a wide range of possibilities and breaks down into sub-categories of large props and small props. Examples could be stilts (i.e. large props) for a stilt walker, balls and knives (i.e. small props) for a juggler, roller blades (i.e. small props) for a roller blade demo team, and even mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets (i.e. small props). It could even include human-controlled electronic or technological displays (e.g. lighting, lasers, music).

1.1.1.2 Classifying and cataloguing entertainment forms

Of course, any of the genres, sub-genres, categories, or sub-categories can be combined with any others to arrive at a specific entertainment form. This can work in reverse as well, taking an entertainment form and tracing it back to its primary genre, sub-genres, and categories. Let us look at some examples:

• ● A juggler. The primary genre is other athletic entertainment, sub-genre physical entertainment, size category solo, and prop-assisted category small props.
• ● Rock band with a vocalist. The primary genre is music, sub-genres instrumental and vocal, size category small group.
• ● Musical comedian. This would be a combination primary genre of music with sub-genre instrumental and theater with sub-genre comedy, size category solo.
• ● A steel drum band accompanying limbo dancers. This would also be a combination of dance as the primary genre with sub-genre cultural and music with sub-genre instrumental, size category small group, and finally prop-assisted category of small props (e.g. the limbo bar).
• ● A keynote motivational speaker using a laptop computer onstage. The primary genre would be theater, sub-genre general speech, size category solo, prop-assisted category small props.

Using this system, any given entertainment form can be defined and, if need be, catalogued. Many entertainment agencies and event producers use their own system of cataloguing entertainment using slightly more familiar terms, although the end result is still the same. All the acts available somehow need to be catalogued in order to be retrieved easily when needed. Some of the more common categories used by producers and agents are:

• ● Celebrity talent. This includes nationally and internationally known performers, who can be singers, musicians, comedians, speakers, or any of the other genres.
• ● Musical variety. This includes comedy music, background music such as instrumentalists and soloists, symphony orchestras, and marching bands.
• ● Dance bands. This can be everything from duos to big bands.
• ● Variety. These are the unusual types of entertainers such as jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, clowns, stilt walkers, and Cirque-type acrobatic acts. Comedians are sometimes categorized with this group.
• ● Cultural or ethnic. This group includes Native Indian, Asian, Latin, and all other cultural performances that stress heritage.
• ● Interactive. This covers anything in which the main goal is for people to participate such as virtual reality games, teambuilding activities, table acts (e.g. fortune tellers, caricaturists, handwriting analysts), and strolling acts who interact with people.

Rutherford-Silvers (2012) has an extensive list of entertainment resources, most of which can be categorized according to the genre and category system proposed above.

It is really only by classifying and cataloguing entertainment forms that entertainment as a resource can be useful. Most event producers and entertainment agents have enormous databases of performers of every conceivable form. Without a cataloguing system, easy retrieval is almost impossible, but it is invariably required when an event proposal must be prepared on short notice. Although most producers devise their own system for cataloguing, the genres and categories outlined above may be a good starting point.

As discussed in Chapter 11 of Special Event Production: The Process, most producers will probably use a relational database of some sort, either web-based or on their desktop. These programs are very sophisticated and are customizable to suit individual company needs. An alphanumeric cataloguing system of some sort (like any library) can be set up to catalogue entertainment genres for easy retrieval. The system proposed above easily lends itself to that. For example, a dance band with a vocalist might have the initial letters "MIVSS" for "music instrumental and vocal, small group size." After that could come the name of the group (possibly abbreviated) and/or a number that might indicate the date they were posted in the database. A combination entertainment form may have two or more catalogue numbers to allow them to be part of different lists. This is useful when, say, a comedy act is also a musical act, and both may be called upon for different events, so they need to be listed as both genres. These are only very rough examples but the concept is that a catalogue number is what permits easy retrieval using the search function of the database program. Of course, other necessary information for the performers must be included, such as contact information (e.g. name, phone, email, and address) and details of the act itself (e.g. what it includes, length of normal show, standard cost, rider requirements, and promotional material). Considering that this is at the heart of what makes entertainment resources effective, it is well worth spending time to develop an effective system.

1.1.2 Reasons for entertainment

The reason for any given entertainment concerns the overall message delivered by a performance. It is the "why" question answered. The performance must satisfy the audience and client and deliver the promised results based on the original reason for the entertainment. For special event production purposes, the audience's interests are usually represented by a single person (e.g. a client or event manager) or a small number of persons (e.g. an organizing committee) during the planning process, and it is this person or these persons who must articulate the reason for the entertainment to the producer. Here, then, are the main reasons we produce entertainment shows for special events:

1.1.2.1 Education

A powerful reason is the imparting of knowledge to an audience; it may be based entirely on learning or may be a small part of a larger show with multiple goals. Here are some typical examples that have proven successful in my own and my colleagues' experiences:

• ● Scripted show. This occurs when entert...