Episode 28: Spotlighting Stage Coordination in Fashion | Mastering the Production Series, Part 8

0:02 Hey, we are back continuing our series on “Mastering the Production” of a fashion show that is. We're in the midst of an 11- part series and today, we're on Part Eight. Today, we are spotlighting stage coordination, in fashion. Okay? This is very key because this is where it's all going down for the fashion show. Alright, so this episode is probably gonna be a little bit short and sweet, because it's just very to the point about what needs to happen around stage management. So let's get into the show. I'm excited to talk to you today. Welcome on into the room.

0:51 You're listening to Marketing EdVenture, the hub for business, fashion, marketing, and other CTE educators who integrate marketing into the learning experience. I'm your host, Jacque' Walker. Each week, I'll cover marketing, education concepts, strategies, tips, trends, frameworks, and other information to equip you to connect your classroom to digital natives while cultivating an engaged learning environment. So come on into the room, where your favorite beverage snacks, and even your cell phone are all welcome.

1:30 So let's get started in here. Let's get started in here. Yeah. All right, let's get started. Talking about stage coordination. We're going to cover five areas for stage coordination. There could always be more. There could be more or there could be less just depending on who it is that is producing the fashion show. I'm going off of my 12 years of experience in fashion show production. And 12 shows that I've produced student-led fashion show production. So let's get into it. I'm covering five areas. They're going to be music, props, the stage setting runway, and capturing the show. Let's go.

2:16 First of all, let's talk about music. This is a very key part of the show. Because look, you don't want your models walking out there with no music. Okay? We even have to do music selection, even before we even start the actual working on the production of the show, because we need music for our model call. Now you may be thinking, “How do you all come up with music that you're going to use?” It's simple. I let the students decide. The students know what their theme is, and they are in tune with the latest music. Of course, teachers, you have to monitor this because they tried to slip one in. I mean, one time I didn't catch it. They're like Ms. Walker, you don't hear that. I'm like, here, what? And I listened. And I was like, “Why didn’t y'all tell me that was in there?” Okay. I'm not gonna tell you the song. But it had an inappropriate word in there and I'm like, “Wait a minute, wait a minute.” So I did have to censor the music. But anyway, the students decide after they determine what their theme is going to be. They start giving suggestions of songs that they think would fit well with the show. If it's designer-focused, of course, we allowed the designer to give us an idea of what songs they would like their collection to be showcased on. And so we would use the designers’ suggestion, as well as suggestions from the marketing class to determine the music. But if it wasn't a designer focused show, then of course, the marketing students had, you know, free range of whatever they thought would fit well with the fashion show. So we had to have music for a model call. And then we had to have music for the fashion show. For the model call basically, the stage coordinator would just look for a beat or tunes that would help the models walk. A lot of people don't know this, but the model does not have to walk to the beat of the music. That's something that we had to teach. It's not like they had to be sitting here just walking like with every beat of the music. No, they just get out there and walk and the music is just the motivator. It helped set the tone of the show. So first of all, they needed to create a playlist for the fashion show model call, that's one thing. And then they had to create a playlist for the actual show. And of course, like I said the designer would have input. The fashion show production team would have some input because they were working with a designer. They had to work with a designer to come up with some music for their collection. But as a whole, there will be suggestions. If it wasn't a designer focused show, there'll be suggestions for the type of music. The stage coordinator would be the one responsible for going out and sourcing the music and putting a playlist together and handing it over to the teacher so it can be scrubbed and clean or clean versions found of that music. All right. So that's the music.

5:37 Now, at the time of the show, we would have to determine whether we were going to use recordings, and just play them. We've done this a number of ways, the equipment in our auditorium and our school, old, okay, we used to play it through that equipment until we had issues. And then we had to bring in our own laptop and speakers, and play them through our speakers. And we would just have an assigned person sitting there start and stopping the music for each segment. And then there are times when we have a DJ. And that's when we really had some money for the show, right? We had a DJ that would come in, and he had our playlist. And he would, you know, play the music that he acquired because DJs have licensed music access. And so he played the music through his player, and just added a little flair to the show by having a live DJ to play the music for our show. So that's music. Music is not too hard, you make a decision, you acquire the music, you put it in a playlist and you play it. That's music.

6:55 The next area is props. Props were fun. Props were challenging. Props are everything. Props let's talk about that. What are props, props are anything that's in addition to the outfit and the model being onstage. Anything that's on stage and it's not the model wearing an outfit is a prop. Okay, so props can be handheld. Props could be stationary or fixed in certain positions on stage. Props could be movable. So let's talk about the different types. Handheld, what can be handheld? We really didn't have a lot of handheld props in our shows, actually. But I did see some fashion shows, especially with FIDM in California where the designers collaborated with. I don't know if it was graphic design or interior design, that's what it was. They collaborated with interior design, and the interior designers created furniture pieces that the models would, I wouldn't want to say they engaged with, but it coordinated with the collection for this particular designer. That was pretty cool. And then I think it may have been graphic design as well, there was a time when they created guitars that the models walked out with as a prop. Those are types of props that fit a theme that the model could actually either carry or be coordinated with. But like I said, we didn't really do any props that had to be held. Purses or accessories are not necessarily props. When you think about props, they're just like inanimate objects that enhance an environment. They can be functional meaning they move and can be a part of the movement of a display fashion show or they're non functional. They are just stationary. It could be a plant that's sitting on the stage. It could be, I don't know, a block, that's just an object sitting there to add depth or, you know, whatever they're trying to convey with that theme. But also functional props are things like lights and things that actually enhance the environment. If they weren't there, then you know, things may not look quite right or performed quite right. All right. So those are your types of props and you got your stationary props. Like I said, things that are just sitting there that are not meant to move or really do anything.

10:01 Okay. So in the whole process of adding props to your show, they have to be developed. So are acquired. So let's talk about the development portion. For us. We've had various props over the years, we had our circus themed fashion show where there was the backdrop that was dropped down. And there wasn't necessarily a prop, that was a backdrop. We also had animals created by our construction and our architecture clusters. They created these big wooden animals. Those were props that sat on the stage, and they never moved. They were a part of the whole show, not just a segment. So we have to get those created. I suggest that if you have props that you need to have created, look at the resources that you have on your campus. Do you have a construction department? My school is a magnet school. We had over 18 magnet programs. So we had construction, we had HVAC, we had architecture, audiovisual all these different magnet programs that we used as a part of our development of the things that we needed for our show. So look at that. Many schools have art departments that may be willing to create a prop for your show that you may need. So look at those various departments that you have on campus that can assist in the development of these props. Also consider parents. We've had parents create things because maybe they worked in construction, maybe they were in architecture or various trades. Maybe they're just handy and like to create things. So look at the parents, because they are a great resource in helping to create props. And then look at what you have in your class. Because my class was so big, and we did fashion shows year after year, we continued to compile resources in our classroom, leftover things. We reuse things and use them in a different way. Painted them. Do whatever we need to do to make them fit our current fashion show. So look at your classroom and see what you have around it. So that's the development part of props.

12:28 Let's look at acquisition. Acquisition outside of developing them yourself means that you have to source them from somewhere. Whether you're paying for them, or whether they're being donated. Donations are the main thing to look at because funds are few and far between. As a matter of fact, your fashion show is likely a fundraiser. So if you look for donations, you can look at organizations that may donate things that you need in the creation of your fashion show. Maybe they already have something that's already created that you would like to use and maybe that you can borrow or they may just simply donate it. I tell you, organizations love to donate things to schools. We had a clothing store locally in Dallas, and I don't even recall the connection to that relationship. I think it was a lady who came into our class and spoke to the class and she knew someone that worked for this corporation. And that person reached out to me and said, “Hey, we're getting new mannequins for our stores or for our corporate office.” And, you know, in the corporate office, they have a setting where they dress the mannequins and set up a sample of what it's going to look like in the store. They were getting new mannequins, and they donated several mannequins to us. That was a blessing. It was our first time having male mannequins. We didn't have any male mannequins prior to that. I was able to get I think it was like three or four half male mannequins and real store mannequins. Donations from organizations that are local to you, don't hesitate to reach out to a fashion company or corporation. We have JCPenney, Haggar, Fossil. We have all these major corporations that are headquartered locally here, and they love to help out student organizations. Think about that when you're acquiring props for your show. There may be a theatrical company, there may be a stage production company. Maybe they're getting rid of things that they no longer need that are outdated. They may want to donate those to you. Definitely check those places out. Also, look at retail. You might have to spend a little money to get some of the props that you need. You may have to go shop at Home Depot to buy some things that you need. You may have to shop at a prop shop, you never know. That's another way that you can acquire the things that you need. The props you can either develop them yourself, getting your resources from wherever you can get them from, or to acquire them by purchasing them or through donation.

15:37 EdVenturous Educator, I just want to take a quick break. I have a program that will be available Fall 2024, it will provide a scope of resources to help you create and implement a successful fashion show. It's something I've wanted to do for years, because the fashion show has so many moving parts. And of course, when you're managing students who were responsible for implementing the show, it really is a project management responsibility. Now, this program will contain video and audio modules, as well as a project management framework, proprietary documents for management in all areas of the responsibilities, signature, model call framework, an outline for creating your fashion show bible of media kit framework, real examples of my productions, and highlights of my student led fashion shows and so much more. Now, stay tuned for the early bird invitation to access the program. I look forward to having you access that. And I also look forward to hearing about your fashion show productions and seeing them on Instagram. So be sure to connect with me at marketing EdVenture. So I can see all of the wonderful work that you're doing with your program.

17:11 We've talked about music and props. Let's talk about the stage, the actual stage. As I said before, we've always had our fashion shows in the auditorium of our high school. And the stage, that school is over 50 years old. A lot of stuff was outdated.. But we worked with it, we worked with it. With the stage you have to look at the lighting. You have to look at the decorations that will be around the stage, the audio, your mic, and the onsite equipment that's there, your curtains and your stage equipment.

17:35 So let's talk about the lighting. We worked with the lighting that was in the auditorium that was managed by the system that we had. So you can use that. Especially if it's up to date, it could be adequate. A lot of times I'm not gonna say for the majority of the shows, all of the shows that we had, we used the lighting in the auditorium. We didn't use any additional lighting. And over the years, the quality of that declined. Let me tell you, it's hard to get a light replaced in the auditorium when it's 40 feet up in the air at the top of the auditorium. I'm not talking about the lights that are on the stage, but the lights that are like out in that area in front of the stage where our runway pieces would be. Yeah, it was hard to get them to change that lighting up there. It was old, it was outdated. Anyhow, so your stage lighting will most likely be the lighting that you're using in the auditorium. However you could acquire or rent lighting that would provide more lighting or spotlighting to the area in which your runway is set. So just look at that. You may have to use what you have in your auditorium or the facility that you're using. Or you can go out and acquire additional lighting that will be more of a focus and spotlight on the runway in which your fashion show will be. Just consider the cost. If you can't get it, donate it.

19:44 Decorations. We would fix up our stage to represent the theme of the show whether we have stars hanging down from the poles that are at the top of the stage; whether we had decoration going along the front of the stage; whether they were on the sides or the stairs are leading up to the stage, decorations are needed to bring the stage to life for your fashion show. We've done a lot of things over the years to decorate and bring the stage to life. So that's something that the stage manager and the team will have to consider when they're getting the stage set for the fashion show.

20:36 Audio. They're responsible for audio. Again, a very antiquated system was in our high school. Sometimes we did have to use an external speaker. You plug the speaker in for the energy, and it projects out to the audience. This as opposed to the speaker system that was already set in place in the auditorium. Because it was so old, there’d be issues with the sound quality. The sound of the music could only go so high, before there was static on the speaker. So that's something that you would need to look into.Actually play your music in that facility to check the sound quality and determine if you need to use external speakers. Those external speakers are not very big, but they put out a lot of sound, and high quality sound. So that's something to consider. As always, with your microphone, whether you're using a remote microphone, or plug in microphone, definitely, that's something that needs to be a part of the stage manager's responsibility to attain. Ours was from our school. We had to check it out from our custodial staff because they were the maintainer of the mic. Because we had several mics and only ended up with one. Our supervisor of the custodial staff was like, you have to check this mic out and check it back in. So definitely, you have to look at your audio.

22:20 And then the curtains, like who's going to work the curtains. We had curtains in our auditorium. And we did have someone who was designated to pull the curtains closed and open during the fashion show. The stage manager is over the team that oversees that task for the fashion show. You have to make sure that you set the marks because you don't always need the curtains to open up all the way. You only need them to open up enough for the model's to come out; for the backdrop and the props; and everything that you want to set the tone for the show to be seen. So that's a key management portion of the show. It may seem like a small task, but it's an important task because if the curtains don't open, then it does not create a good flow for the fashion show. And if the curtains open up too far, then it disrupts the scene, the setting for the show, a very key part. They're also responsible for the stage equipment and that's just anything it could be where the sound, audio, and the lighting goes through. There's a responsibility for all of the equipment and management of those things on the stage that the stage manager is responsible for. Now, sometimes we solicited the assistance of the theater team or the theater class to come in because the stage is their baby. I mean, that's where they have their productions several times a year and so they are very familiar with the equipment with the workings and everything that has to do with the stage. So a lot of times we would solicit their assistants to play those key roles in managing the audio, the curtain of the lighting and all of that. So that is stage setting development. Very key.

24:38 Now let's get onto the runway. The runway is the show place okay. So we extended a runway from the stage. Sometimes you can just have a fashion show just on the stage of the auditorium and that will suffice However, when you're doing a major production like we did, we needed to extend our reach into the audience and really bring it to life for them. So there were stage or runway pieces that were created, specifically to fit our stage in the auditorium. As you can imagine, they were, I think they were four by eights, believe that's how big they were. Maybe they weren't, I can't remember. But they were like four by eight pieces. And we had about six of them that were created by our construction magnet program. And those things were a monster to move from my classroom to the auditorium every single year, but the custodial staff loved us. I mean, he did like me. I had a good relationship with him. But anyhow, just making sure that you have a good relationship with the people that you want to move those pieces to and from. I looked into the portable runway pieces that were collapsible, and those things cost 1000s upon 1000s of dollars, and we just didn't have that type of money in our program. So you definitely can look into that. It may be something that you want to, over the years, maybe purchase a piece at a time, or maybe your district has the money, and they're willing to allocate it towards buying you collapsible stage pieces. You can rent them, that's another thing to consider. But like I said, we had ours constructed. And we use those pieces every year. And they were sturdy, and they've lasted throughout the years. And all we had to do was just put a little black curtain around them or black fabric around them to hide all the criss-cross pieces that supported the runway pieces. So yeah, you have them, construct it, purchase, or rent them. Just make sure you get your runway that's going to be suitable for your fashion show.

27:20 Now let's talk about the configuration. Now the configuration wasn't necessarily just the stage manager's responsibility, but the stage manager was tasked with coming up with an idea of how the runway can be constructed. Then we would sit down and talk about it as a class. But it's their ultimate responsibility to draft the pictures of the runway pieces of the runway setup, and then present it to the class and then the class would discuss it and make a determination as to what they would do. What kind of configurations could you have? Well, you could do your runway in a T, which is very common, meaning that the models walk out on that lead part of the T. There's the one leg part that goes up and down. And then they turn left, once they get to the top of the T. Pose, then walk across the top of the T to the other end of the T. Pose, come back to the middle leg of the T and then walk back onto the stage and off the stage. So that's a configuration, you have a T configuration. You have an I configuration without the top and bottom horizontal legs. Then you have a U which we use a lot then the T. The T and the U are the two configurations that we mostly use. You can have an H where there's two legs that are coming off of the stage onto the runway and then you have that middle part that crosses and it just allows for some creative choreography for the fashion show. But those are your common configurations. Of course you could do any type of configuration that works for the theme and the production of your fashion show. Just know that you need to have all the pieces to put together to accommodate that configuration.

29:17 Now if your fashion show does not need a runway and the runway is the ground, then you have the freedom to configure your walk any kind of way that you want. I can tell you the longest runway that has been recorded was in Galleria Mall, in Dallas, Texas. Back in, oh my goodness, I want to say around 2016 or 2014. It was during Fashion's Night Out which was a part of the whole kickoff of the Big Four fashion weeks that start in September and they have had a runway (air quotes) that went from one end of the mall to the other end of the mall. The runway was basically this path that they had created, I believe it was like a yellow path that they had created from, I think it was Nordstrom, one of the major stores in the mall all the way to the end to the other major store. And it just meandered along the different pathways in the mall. The models had to walk from one end to the other end. There were various points along the runway where they had DJs set up. They had chairs and couches set up and little points where they were serving food; little snacks; and drinks and things of that nature. The model is walking this one runway the whole time and it's just on the floor with the little yellow path that the model had to walk. It was very interesting and very nice. So you could walk through the mall and see the model at various points.Needless to say, it was just a very long walk. That was the configuration that they used and it was a very entertaining thing. It brought out a lot of people because you know, everybody wants to see the longest runway walk in the world. So it was pretty fun. I just say that to say that your configuration can be whatever it is that you want it to be. You just need to be able to accommodate what it is that you come up with. And that is the runway.

31:46 Now the last part of the responsibility for the stage manager is ensuring that the fashion show is captured on video and in picture. Now, we had two magnet programs. One was photography and the other was audio visual. We collaborated with them to have our fashion show captured. I have years of videos, and I have a gazillion pictures that were captured from the fashion show. Tons and tons of videos and pictures. So anyway, you can check with your school to see if there is an art class that could do photography, or if the yearbook could do photography or if you have an audio visual program that could do it. Maybe the district has the availability of a department that could do that for your program, for your fashion show. Now, you could also enlist the team members from the stage management team to capture the video of the fashion show. As well as, maybe even photography because these iPhones work really well with capturing video and pictures as well as the other brands. Some of the other brands captured pictures better than Apple. But anyway, I digress. So you can use your students. But you know, most times you want to have this professionally done because for me, it was an archive of the programs that we did over the years, the productions that we did over the years. So I enjoy having that professional video, as well as professional photography. Those can be used for promoting your program. Now my program was one that the students had to interview for, and they had to have a certain grade average in order to be accepted. So we use this as a promotional tool for our students. We would show them during our open house or even when we had our magnet fairs. We would have all these wonderful pictures to show from our fashion shows that just served as a wonderful tool for recruitment. So that's also something that you could consider when you're capturing the video, and the pictures of your fashion show. It also serves as great artifacts to go along with your program to show your admin, hey, this is what my program is doing. So it also just serves as a great resource to show your admin and your counselor so they can fill your class up with the right kids, okay, and not the ones who they just put there because they needed to fill that period on their schedule.

34:58 Those are the five things for the stage manager to be tasked with, that's music, props, stage setting runway in capturing the show by video in picture. Alright, so that concludes spotlighting stage coordination in fashion. Be sure to tune in to the next week of production of the episode “Mastering the Production” series for a fashion show, because we're going to keep this thing rolling. You won't want to miss it. We only have three more episodes. Alright, see you then. I do thank you for tuning in to Marketing EdVenture with Jacque' Walker. Have a wonderfully blessed day. Thanks for listening to Marketing EdVenture. Remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with someone you think would benefit from the information shared here today. If you have any questions or want to connect with me, find me on Instagram at Marketing EdVenture. All links and resources discussed this episode can be found in the show notes at marketing edventure.com