Garfield Productions' Next Top Rapper

It is always fun to work with talented performers; and, it is always more fun to create a new talent. Here in this blog, you are going to discover how we create a new talent from scratch within a month. Stay tune!!!
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:29 pm Post subject:

What to bring to audience?

When I received a request to provide performers in the show on November 24, I have a meeting with the performer coordinator. The request did not specific on what kind of performers they are looking for, that is all our jobs to find someone to target the audience mix.

The show is a cerebration of the 10th anniversary of a local restaurant. The audience is a group of mid-ages, mostly Cantonese speaking. Think about it, if you are thirty, forty year old, going to a cerebration of the 10th anniversary of a restaurant, what would you expect? Some good food, some little entertainment, some performers singing songs from 80s and mid 90s, a magician to do some tricks, birthday cake cutting, blah, blah, blah... That's about it. However, we come up with different ideas. We feel like something different, but how?

What else can we perform to the group of mid age audience? Do we really have to stay inside the box, providing them what they are expected? What "difference" can we do, which is still within their comfort level? We came up with lots of ideas, like, fashion catwalks, hip hop dance, Irish dance, etc etc. However, the stage is extremely small, plus there is a live band there already, no room for big dance performance on stage, what should we do?

To be continued...
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:01 am Post subject:

The Audition

Here is the challenge: very limited performing stage, need to plan for something extraordinary, without going too far, for 300 mid age audiences. Brainstorming a whole bunch of ideas, we decided to go for rap talk. Considering the mid age audience may bring along some kids, we’ll need to find some clean raps. The next challenge is, who would be able to perform?

We have been told that the budget is very limited. It would not be able to hire a professional rapper. We need to go through the audition for amateur performers, who wants to gain stage experience and wouldn’t mind to perform at a lower budget.

Audition day comes, exactly a month before the performance day. The producer, performer coordinator, and I can’t wait to see how well everyone is doing. Audition starts, performers come and go. Lots of good talents, lots of good voices… But one after another, nothing special, nothing stands out, everyone seems to be... Until, until one talent shows up, she is not singing particularly well, she is not particularly pretty, she is not particularly tall and hot; BUT, but, she is so unique, she is so charming on stage, and she draws our attention right away. We all know, she is the one we are looking for.

But the problem is: we only have 1 month left! Should we go for a good talent with good singing skills, or should we shoot the bullet, repackage a unique individual, teach her how to sing better, teach her how to dress better, and teach her how to rap and shine on stage?

To be continued…
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 12:53 pm Post subject:

Day 1 of the real process

To build a talent from scratch within one month is totally a challenge; especially we are going to bring a rapper to a group of middle age audiences. But still, we decided to take the challenge, I believe I can do it, performer coordinator believes that we can do it, producer likes our fortitude. The very next step is to deal with the image director, Then to arrange a singing teacher and a dance teacher.

Before dealing with the house image director, I would need to grab as much information about the performer as I would.

Her name is Marcella Ng, a.k.a. Ah La. A typical Canadian Born Chinese-type of Hong Kong immigrant. She is a music DJ at Vancouver co-op radio station with good knowledge of Chinese music. Fluent in English and Cantonese, learned a little bit of hip hop dance before but has no music background.

Image director was impressed with the feature of ah la. A lot of different features can be added to her outlook to make her unique. It takes time to build an image. Here is how she was, and you will see her new image in the upcoming episode.
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