X-FACTOR NICHOLAS MacDONALD
THE HOMECOMING. CLICK ON IMAGE
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
In 2013, Nicholas Macdonald had achieved heights of fame that any teenager could only dream of at the ripe age of 17. He was a finalist in ITVs X-Factor UK with Louis Walsh as his mentor. Not only that the school Nicholas was attending at the time, St Aidans High School in Wishaw, near Motherwell, was celebrating its 50th Anniversary and it was decided that I should hired and film this event which was set up by ITV as a build up, prior to the X-Factor final where Nicholas MacDonald would compete against Sam Bailey. The aim here was to create a documentary style story of the afternoon that Nicholas blew away his school friends with his ITV entourage.
This was a two camera shoot and we got a line out of the mixing desk and recorded on the H5 Zoom recorder. A pressure shoot all round as you had seconds to capture whatever was going on around you.
The link above that takes you to the youtube link is a record of the day and we observe Nicholas perform a few tracks in the school games hall in front of hundreds of school chums, friends and family introduced by Tony Rooney St Aidan's Headmaster.
Nicholas performed Bruno Marrs' 'Just The Way You Are and Christina Perri’s 'A Thousand Years', Nicholas had a bite to eat at the school and headed off to his home in Motherwell where he was greeted by even more fans and neighbours at his mum and dad’s house. X-Factor finalist Nicholas McDonald was mobbed by thousands of well-wishers during a special homecoming gig at his old school in his hometown of Motherwell.
The 17-year-old admitted he had to pinch himself as he met up with his favourite classmates at St Aidan’s High School. Nicholas took a helicopter ride on Tuesday morning after spending the night in a Glasgow hotel. He said X-Factor had already changed his life, saying: “When I was at school at St Aidan’s my heart wasn’t in it. I even used to dread music. I thought that afterwards I’d be on the dole.”
As thousands of fans and school pupils screamed deafeningly and waived banners, Nicholas met up with some of his best friends before heading to the school assembly hall where Highland dancers and a piper took to the stage before he sang. Nicholas, who lapped up all the attention, told his school pals: “I just want to say before I start singing Thank you to everyone who has come out to support me today and to everyone that voted.
Nicholas played a homecoming gig in Motherwell that night, and he remains to bookmaker’s second 4-1 favourite to win the show behind odds-on favourite Sam Bailey. Sam Bailey went on to win the final.
To date 'The 50th Anniversary The Homecoming' video has over 66,500 views on the public viewing link of this video on youtube. Happy to have been there to record this event for both Nicholas and St. Aidans High School on their anniversary year.
