Insightful Interview Into the Life of a Former Project Manager

For my next blog installment, I wanted to interview a project manager that worked in the entertainment field, and below are brief excerpts from the in-depth conversation the two of us engaged in. Topics ranged from challenges he faced as a project and artist manager to the lost values of art in and of itself in this day and age. All statements are summarized or paraphrased unless quoted.

Q: Can you please state for the record your name and title?

A: My name is Mr. Hariz Farid and I am a screenwriter/director/film producer who was formerly an artist and project manager in the entertainment industry amongst other things.

Q: What are the names of some of the organizations you are affiliated with?

A: Foremost Films is my company and for over twenty years I have been executive director of the art based, non-profit organization called No Cane that looks at the issues that effect young people and promotes self-awareness, self-reliance and self-esteem. My team and I go into various schools and tie art into social service and teach film lessons.

Q: What types of projects have you worked on in entertainment?

A: I have previously worked as an artist manager, primarily for young hip-hop artists, My father was a musician and I am an artist myself in the film industry so I have experience in many facets of the entertainment industry.

Q: What skills/job requirements should a Project Manager in entertainment possess?

A: Hip-hop artists need to respect you as a person, a human being, before they will respect you as a project manager. “A project manager has to manage his own life first before he can manage someone else’s.” In order to manage others, one needs to be grounded and have self-centeredness. Secondly, a manager needs interpersonal skills because you are marketing and promoting for your artists, negotiating and networking with industry professionals, agents and executives. Third, you have to be able to speak and write effectively. There are a myriad of skills required of a PM and each day is different because one day I am playing babysitter to an artist, the next psychologist and brother.

Q: What challenges have you faced as a Project Manager?

A: Being “ready to grow and learn other areas and skills besides what I was used to as a project manager.” I had a lot of responsibilities and had to learn a lot of things as I was in the business and doing it constantly. Everyone needs a mentor with experience in this business.

Q: How did you motivate people and reward them as a manager?

A:  Some artists’ successes come so fast that they lose motivation and the will to continuing working. You can look at the difference between Motown era artists such as Marvin Gaye and a popular hip-hip artist now and see the lack of polishing and artist development that we see present in this new culture. “Art, culture, and community go together.” They are not “ appreciating the blessing” and so I gave them “ the history of the industry” to remind them of how it used to be.  I told them “ work should be a labor of love”. That is the true reward. Teaching them about the legacy established through blood, sweat and tears and the struggle others had before them.

Q: How do you stay organized within a project?

A: I would say surround yourself with a team that has a definite aim and purpose. You need to have a sense of commitment larger than yourself.  You have to know what you want to do and have to learn how to say no. Give the project the proper nutrients like a plant needs water and sunlight, As a PM, you have to have people around you who know their places and the rules.

Q: What else do you enjoy doing in the entertainment field?

A: “Art should be utilized to inspire, to encourage, along with entertain.” With No Cane, I like working as a motivational speaker and “moving people” and this is also why I started making films and teaching film in schools for the young. “Young people need to feel how much you care when you are talking to them, it’s not just about what you know.”  I would like to say also “ that there could be no change, unless you change the culture.”

Q: What did you like about being a Project Manager?

A: It was very exciting and hard work but I also got to see the “magic” happen in the studio and see the creative side of music. It made me appreciate art.   I became a project manager over time, I did not choose this at first but it was my way to get into the other outlets in entertainment.  Nowadays I only manage myself but I do like to hire and manage people still but just not on an everyday basis like before.  I work virtually as well online with other filmmakers and industry professionals.

This was a very engaging interview and I will be contacting him again in the near future for advice and to help him and his organizations. I agree with him when he says, “ Poetry is a musical thought.”- Author Unknown. Below is  a preview of Mr. Farid's documentary film that is currently being adapted for the stage and for a book. 

Mr. Hariz Farid can be reached at formostartist@msn.com and http://www.nocane.com for information and updates on his upcoming films, projects, events and programs. 

Project Budgeting for a Singer-Songwriter

As I was exploring the internet searching for articles to catch my eye, one popped out from Blue Cup Magazine called “Project Budgeting” under a section titled “Tools for Songwriters” and I said wow, this is good to know information for any singer-songwriter working on their first project in the studio! It started off talking about how most artists nowadays self-produce their own albums and is responsible for budgeting and scheduling themselves, compared to the record labels having these responsibilities. It is true that an artist has to be educated about the recording process and research and understand about how much money and time will be needed to record their projects. The article begins with the six stages of album recording and these are key in trying to “avoid costly mistakes and/or delays” (Ferguson, n.d) in the recording process.

            Briefly, the first step is Preproduction, where artists write and record, along with rehearse and practice songs in advance before actually recording them for a cost. Second, Tracking, is very important because this step helps give the feel and tempo of a record and are the basic tracks that are later used in the overdubbing stage. Next in the recording process is step three, Overdubbing, a time when artists and producers can experiment with sounds and layering on top of those basic tracks I mentioned earlier. Fourth comes Editing, Comping, and Tuning, where you can improve on your recordings. The fifth step is Mixing and this is done after everything has been recorded and this “is the process of combining all of the individual elements into a single stereo mix”(Ferguson, n.d.). Mastering is the sixth and final step and the individual song mixes are fixed up to sound better with equalization, compression etc and sequenced in their final order to later be sent out on a special disc to a replication plant for mass production and mastering should be done in a studio built just for this final stage. 

(fotosearch.com)

            The bulk of the remainder of the article delves into studio budgeting for a project because that is the most expensive element in recording an album and gives tips on what to do once you approach each of the six stages I previously mentioned.  It gives thought to whether a singer-songwriter could possibly get away with recording an entire project at home or does some steps require a professional studio and my answer is yes to utilizing both. The author (who is an engineer and artist himself), talks about when to use outside engineers and when to pay for help and deciding if your album even needs to be mastered, a possible huge money-saver until the time is needed to do so! The author repeatedly mentions that recoding a project will take longer than you may originally think and to be prepared because mistakes can happen or you can run out of money to give a few examples.  He uses a spreadsheet displaying an example of an “”imagined indie budget” for a singer-songwriter and it gives great illustrations on how to look at costs and time of a project and helps one calculate these figures more efficiently if any changes should occur.

Great source of information, please read…you will save money and in this recession, any extra change in a songwriter’s pocket is a blessing! Happy Thanksgiving :)

http://www.bluecupmusic.com/Project%20Budgeting.pdf

Simple Tips When There is No Music!

I just came across a random article about tips for how to write a song without music and I just wanted to see how the instructor was going to break it down into layman's terms. I knew it would have to be something brief particularly if the audience you are aiming for are new, struggling lyricists and possibly even those who have been in the game for awhile. This lesson was on a guitar lessons website so I was even more curious to see if there really was much difference between writing a song that would later be accompanied by an acoustic instrument or not and it appeared not to be the case with this quick lesson.

First, she talks about how one can use a beat and drum track to help one write and this is true whether you have a melody in your head or not. You don't have to record and edit right away, just jot down and brainstorm to the drum track. In future articles I will revisit this in more detail but for now I am just responding to the simple tips I saw in this lesson. Next she talks about melody and how one can just mumble nonsense over the beat and later build on that. I think even the mumbling has to make sense at some point! You can create a melody without having a music theory background but it does take some music knowledge about pitch, rhythm, and tone to help get your point across through chanting or singing.

The instructor then points out lyrics and structure and recommends to listen to how other artists in your genre structure lyrics, what a chorus is, and if you want to sell commercial music to keep the lengths of your songs at three minutes. Its true that one of the best ways to learn how to write in any genre is to follow other successful formats and structures from that genre and because of radio formatting, songs cannot be more than four minutes long on the radio. I will talk about this and the value of a chorus in future articles. These tips were very useful as one person commented and are a good starting point for any writer but of course one needs to really research this topic some more and practice writing without music to make that smash hit before the music arrives!
(In this photo, Luciana Segovia, Singing Instructor for GMC Staff)

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=13163

1st Website Review, SongwriterUniverse!

As I searched for my first website to review, I happily stumbled upon SongwriterUniverse, a site I had briefly looked over a little while ago. I really do not know why I have not been visiting this site more often because it is amazing! It has everything a new songwriter could need or want, all in one place. The homepage is laid out in a colorful way that brings you in and is up to date. I like how the homepage has archived and recent articles on it and I enjoy the idea that they have stories and articles right up front of established songwriters from when they were first discovered! They have a link right in the middle called Inside SongwriterUniverse Magazine that lures you right into them and they had a best song of the month contest going on when I last visited that naturally as a songwriter you’re going to want to check out and listen.

They have a number of tabs with sub links on the very top of the website that are truly very helpful such as resources, which had title links varying from a list of music publishing companies to collecting your royalties. Another favorite tab of mine was Song Evaluation/Consultations, which was a very unique feature but extremely beneficial for a new songwriter and/or artists because one can submit a certain amount of songs or lyrics for a price and receive “comprehensive” evaluations and feedback from top veteran A&R and music publishers from the site before one goes out and spends so much money on recording any of these tracks.

I saw plenty of music related ads including one for Full Sail’s Music Business online degree! The whole site is dedicated to the songwriter so it was great to see links to other sites advertised that one could upload their music to and the site made it very clear how to follow them on social media sites such as Facebook and to contact them for any questions one may have. Overall I will give this site a honest A because even I will find this website useful in my own progression as a songwriter and I am inspired by the stories and articles from the past and present of some of my favorite songwriters in the industry. SongwriterUniverse really does empower the songwriter as its motto states on the site!

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/index.html

1st Current Event Post! Pandora is Taking Over

As I was browsing through ASCAP’s Headlines the other day, I happened to come upon an article in its Daily Brief’s section about Pandora (an internet radio service) and how it may be to blame for the demise of am/fm radio. The article itself was from a tech website called Ars Technica and I thought I should check it out because Pandora is playing a huge role in how people listen to radio now and how artists, songwriters and publishers get paid. The article talks about how ‘net streaming services have taken over the radio listening market tremendously and a report titled “ The American Youth Study 2010” by Edison Research showed that “20 percent of consumers age 12 to 24 say they listened to Pandora radio over the last month”, based on their study, and claims only six percent of those listened to online streams from am/fm radio the week they were studied.

The article then gets into how compared to ten years ago, young listeners have deserted morning radio and are spending more time on the internet, something that only this digital “turnaround” has created. We see the effects of this in our everyday entertainment lives, from how we purchase music on iTunes to how we watch movies for free or little charge now on Netflix…we don’t even have to budge or move around until its time to pop some more popcorn in the microwave! The draw of Pandora is so high because one can sit down and create their own special radio stations revolved around the artists they like, let alone being able to skip songs and have less commercial interruptions than what traditional am/fm radio stations present. I have this service downloaded on my Blackberry and its great for all the above reasons but its not where I go when I want to hear the newest music available. According to the Edison report, I am one of many listeners who feels this same way and they found that over 51 percent still has listening to the radio as their source of hearing about new music while only 14 percent use ‘net radio station for this same purpose.

I agree with the article that a DJ’s opinion on a record will always dominate over what a digital radio station decides is hot and sometimes we just don’t want to hear what we pre-selected but rather something new to our ears!  The author Matthew Lasar also brings up the fact that most people still hear about concert information from old-school radio rather than through social media outlets and that we “would be very disappointed if the AM/FM radio stations [we] listen to no longer existed." That is very true, but only time and Pandora will tell how this tug-of-war for radio listeners will turn out in the next decade or so we’re going to have to keep those antennas up!

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/are-the-likes-of-pandora-poised-to-kill-amfm-radio.ars

My 1st Liner Notes!

Hey fellow music lovers of the world, my name is Qadriyyah. This is my very 1st post for my very first blog(yayy) and I am excited for what is to come! I'd like to dedicate this blog to all the aspiring songwriters, composers, arrangers, lyricists and perhaps publishers (myself included) that are ready to make their "cut" in the entertainment industry..whether they want to work in music, film, or some other fascinating sector of entertainment. I will talk about new industry-related events, give the "hook" up of who is doing what and where in the songwriting industry and what awards they may have won recently, and just general information that a new songwriter needs to know to get started the right way.

Although this blog is primarily for songwriters, I will have have posts and sidebars on other aspects of music and entertainment ranging from new software and tips in music production to video editing techniques that I have used and were successful with. I will have links to other useful sites for any newcomers to check out in the industry along with a new word or quote of the week that I may stumble upon while I too try to find my special place in this ever-growing fast paced world of entertainment that we all want to be a huge part of. I will try my best to keep things updated every week for all my readers and and allow myself to learn a thing or two ( or three or four) about what it takes to be a successful and sought after songwriter. This blog is going to be a revealing journey of what is currently happening in my life as it happens for everyone as I grow into who I want to be and what I want to be remembered for in entertainment. Let's listen and hear what happens shall we.. here we go!!!