Thursday introduced those of us participating in Future Producers Plus to the Gold Arts Award.

Simply put, the Gold Arts Award is a way of benchmarking talent development programmes within the arts.  It consists of two units; unit 1, personal development and unit 2, arts leadership project.  Via this blog, I will be building my portfolio to submit as part of the award.  I’m really glad to be participating in the programme for a number of reasons, but mainly because I know it is going to encourage me to do things which I keep meaning to do; like write more, review shows, learn new art forms and develop new projects.

We’re beginning the programme with a skill swap; I’ll be giving a photography workshop for those interested in developing their photography skills and I’ll be learning printmaking from Flo, which I am very excited about!

Tuesday’s session was billed as the ‘Future Producers Programming Pitch’ and in turn, we each gave short presentations pitching for the project/season/festival we would be interested in working on.  It was great to see the different ways in which we all approached presenting, particularly after last week’s masterclass.  I personally stuck quite rigidly to the safety net of the suggested presentation structure.

We could pitch for a number of different projects; such as the Fresh Flix Selection of the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, the BFI Gothic Season – exploring the Dark Heart of Film or the Watershed project Electric December.  The room was full of infinite ideas and it was inspiring listening to everyone present.  I pitched for the Family Arts Festival; the first UK-wide Festival of family arts events which, in Bristol, will take place across harbourside venues Arnolfini, M-shed, The Architecture Centre, Bristol Hippodrome, Scrap Store, SS Great Britain and Watershed.  The challenge is to engage families in the new and emerging technologies and ideas that are being developed at the Pervasive Media Studio and I proposed that we consider producing a programme inspired by Magician in Residence.  Amy and Hannah also pitched for the Family Arts festival.  They both had some really interesting ideas and I’m excited by the possibilities of what we can collaboratively produce.

Yesterday was a pretty scary day for our group. Not only did we have to pitch ourselves, our interests in the different festival briefs, experiences and ideas to the other nineteen people in the group and a small group of experienced professionals but also to a video camera.

Even after a workshop on how to give a presentation with more structure, confidence and prowess, the one thing that I don’t think anyone was prepared for was the outpouring of brilliance and inspiration that was everyone else’s ideas. 

Nerves were there before, during and after our individual presentations, as well as the human problem of the power of hindsight and self-judgement. Yet nerves or not though what emerged, especially it seemed for the BFI Gothic group, the group I was also pitching to be involved with, was not only a sense of passion, but individual visions and ideas that could easily be intertwined, connected and fused together. Almost like we were a group of scientists each working together without knowing it to create one part of a whole monster.

Ideas included mad scientists, witchcraft and the dark arts, exploring the ideas of Gothic in literature, film, how Gothic has involved science, the idea of Gothic against horror and British Gothic. Things that would seem hard to fit into our original brief but worthwhile regardless. By the end of the seven Gothic presentations I kind of felt we had not only a festival programmed, but a fringe and a desire/interest to grab the attention of non-attenders of all ages outside of target audience group of 18-25.

The communication between our group also seemed to just start automatically from presentation to presentation. As we pitched our ideas it became nature to just link in and build those ideas on top of those previously mentioned. Pieces of the jigsaw seemed to slip into place.

From a personal stand-point the fact my presentation had to follow a succinct, in-depth and utterly brilliant powerpoint presentation with three small cue-cards at a time, that a mini-break had sort of disrupted the flow and focus on the room just before I started did leave me at first under-prepared. I don’t want to see the camera footage anytime soon but the out of body experience seemed to tell me things went as well as they could of.

In my pitch I spoke about my interest in Gothic from literature to film and that the brief would give me the chance to help work on, create and produce some form of  immersive theatre or film experience. Something I have only not been able to do with my theatre work this year. With some past experience of immersive interactive theatre-based game work that I have done within Bristol and London, my main focus was on pitching an idea that came to my head a week ago.

What interests me about Gothic is also the misconceptions of what it is and what it includes. Mainly the issue of where Gothic begin and horror evolved from. I pitched an idea for a theme of ‘Gothic vs Horror: Frankenstein Vs Zombies’ with the idea in mind of attracting young people to the Watershed and covering the ground in a very new way to what 2.8 Hours, the Bristol Zombie walk and tap into an existing market with a different idea.

I ad-libed the idea of perhaps changing that to focus on the idea of necromancy in Gothic and linking that into the mad scientist idea could be done in a sort of magic vs science theme as given how Frankenstein’s Monster is a zombie himself, there could be some interesting ways to use the concept. The one thing I was aware of and that did get mentioned is the obvious issue of the zombie genre has been done so much before…but hopefully there is life in this old corpse yet in some way…

Since the ideas of witchcraft vs. science has come to mind and an idea about a re-imagining of the legacy of Frankenstein is being to emerge thanks to inspiration from discussion in the previous weeks and thanks to the brilliance of my other Gothic candidates who I hope I’ll get to work with.

Whatever happens I know the BFI Gothic Season at the Watershed will be a a highly ambitious and fantastic event. Whether we have to scale back on our visions is one thing we might have to face, yet one thing I’ve learned working as a lighting and sound techy is that it’s better to have big ideas and know the effect and feeling you want an audience to feel. That’s something money can’t buy, plus you can cheat to create the same effect for less cost. There’s usually always a way. A monster will be created…and it will have a strong heart and soul.

After an intense session this evening of pitches and ideas about all the possible projects, my brain is slightly frazzled and needs some time to process all of the the information and condense my thoughts before I even begin writing about it. Therefore I thought I would just reflect on the past couple of sessions…

My highlights so far have been:

Programming the Fresh Flix selection for Encounters was inspiring and eye-opening. Listening to other people argue for or against a certain film, really opened up my mind to the different reasons why a film might be interesting to an audience, reasons I might not have previously considered. I came in to the session with such fixed ideas about the films we had watched, and came out again having completely changed my mind. I found the whole process exhilarating and I am very happy with the final selection of shorts.

The talk from Ian – Festival Director and a programmer and producer for Flatpack festival. I found this talk particularly inspiring because I got a strong sense of someone who had really seen something right through to it’s potential and beyond.  The fact that he is now making a living from something that he loves, and that started off so simply (using a projector to show films in pubs), really struck a chord. During his presentation, he had plenty of good advice to give whilst maintaining a real sense of humble honesty and a strong connection with why his project had come about in the first place. He also made a very good example of someone who has found a different way of engaging with his passion for film … you don’t have to be a filmmaker to put on a great film festival.

A concept that I haven’t given much thought to before, but I have become very excited about since starting Future Producers, is the concept of immersive cinema.  This is something that encompasses both my love for the visual arts, live art and performance, and also my love for film and storytelling, as well as my desire to produce events. This is why, in terms of projects, the BFI Gothic season Watershed event, which involves producing an Immersive Dark Arts Cinema event has captivated my imagination, and made my decision about which project i’d like to work on very easy. The fact that I now have a whole new form of art to explore and literally immerse myself in has seriously sparked my curiosity! Why did I never think about it before? There is so much possibility….

Our first Tuesday meet consisted of three wonderful presentations that started to shape my understanding of the role of producer. I was particularly attentive during a talk by Verity McIntosh – one of Pervasive Media Studio’s own – which illustrated the responsibilities of producer in a way that stuck with me. I was also excited to hear that she’d come from a bar-managing background, which gave me and my transferable-skills some validity! It’s allowed me to see my own experience as positive and meaningful in terms of leadership skills and gauging and engaging an audience.

Verity also mentioned that the role of producer can involve participation in the creative process which started to change my ideas as to what project I wanted to focus on. As I stated in my last post, the Family Arts Festival seemed appealing in it’s breadth, and I felt it would be beneficial to be involved in something which could get your foot in the door at any of the several venues associated with the event.

However, learning more about what is involved in Electric December seems challenging both as an overseer and as an aesthetically invested member of the group. The opportunity to work alongside a web-designer sounds befitting of myself as a practising illustrator/designer. It would also involve the curation process – something I enjoyed doing over last weekend for the Fresh Flix shortlisting. It was mentioned that this particular event is the pet project of the Watershed, which means there is a reputation to uphold – am I up to the challenge?

Certainly something to think about over the weekend!

Not very long ago, in a city not really that far away, this year’s Future Producers met at the Watershed in Bristol for their introductory weekend. There may not have been any princesses with pastry-inspired hair styles, planet-destroying space stations or scruffy-looking nerf-herders, but, nonetheless, I utterly adored my start to the Future Producer’s Programme!

So enough of the corny, Star Wars-related jokes and onto more serious matters. This weekend proved to be, as I hoped, a brilliant opportunity to meet some really talented and lovely people, as well as an exciting start to a fantastic, creative experience. It was great chatting to and hearing about some of your creative experiences so far, and I really am chuffed that I’m able to work along side my fellow Future Producers who are such impressive young people!

Our main task this weekend was in programming and selecting a collection of short films aimed at 12-19 year old for this year’s Fresh Flix as a part of Bristol’s international short film and animation festival, Encounters. We watched just over 3 hours worth of short films and animations in one of the Watershed’s intimate cinemas with the task of choosing an hour’s worth of films for the Fresh Flix programme. Needless to say, the task was an extremely challenging one, with so many talented, intriguing and entertaining applicants to choose from. It was amazing to see so many home grown shorts, as well as some brilliant international pieces; I really love seeing the products of budding film industries in countries outside of Europe and North America as it really brings home how creative humanity as a whole can be. I was particularly impressed by the amount of shorts that had been produced by female writers and directors, given how famously male-orientated the film industry currently is, with only one female director having ever achieved the Academy Award for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker) in the entire history of the Academy. I hope this is a trend that will continue and increase on into the feature film strand of film-making!

After spending an evening mulling over the films we had seen, and discussing our favourites in small groups, we were able to debate, discuss and decide our choices for the final programme of the event. I really am pleased with the programme we came up with as they are a brilliant selection of short films, and I hope our target audience will enjoy them too!

We were also treated to a workshop on pitching and presenting, which was a very useful and rewarding experience. It reminded me how presenting can be such a stressful ordeal for many people, myself included, but with the clear and helpful tips we were advised about during this session, I hope our stress levels will be somewhat alleviated in any future presentation situations.

This weekend has really got my mouth watering for some brilliant upcoming events in Bristol such as Bristol’s Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, the BFI Gothic Season, and Electric December. I am particularly interested in working towards events for Encounters and the Gothic Season, as I’m passionate about the films we selected for Fresh Flix and have a long standing fascination with gothicism as an artistic movement. I would love to get into contact with some of the directors for the short films we selected in order to coordinate events for Fresh Flix such as directorial Q & A’s, and perhaps even with some of the casts, depending on their availability. It would also be interesting to combine the mediums of literature and film for the BFI Gothic Season by perhaps organizing readings or workshops around famous ghost and gothic stories such as the works of M.R. James, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, followed by screenings of film adaptations of such works. The art of adapting written texts to the medium of film is of particular interest to me, and I would love to organize an event around such an interest to explore the origins and evolution of the gothic.

All in all, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself and can’t wait to continue!

…for the fantastic and humbling experience it has provided me with this weekend.

Arriving on Saturday morning with a sense of a doubt in my own abilities and suitability to the course seems like aeons ago. The warmth of the co-ordinators, guest-speakers and my Future Producer peers has relaxed me into my role within a strong and diverse team.

I’ve felt a welcome surge of energy that has been lacking in my recent creative endeavours – illustrating and design often calls for periods of isolation to get work done, only to share and discuss towards a finishing point. However, being able to input into group discussion and make decisions has been a liberating experience, knowing that your opinion has value and to reflect on the thoughts of others.

We put this into effect during our Fresh Flix Shortlisting Workshop, where we whittled three hours worth of short films down to an hour-long selection. I’m proud of the way we negotiated and reasoned beyond what we initially thought was expected of us. For instance, I was upset we couldn’t fit an animation in for variety – but seeing it stick out like a sore thumb in the final running was definitely unanimous and I think everyone was confident with it’s removal.

The presentation workshop was ultimately helpful – I just wish it had come earlier in the day as a hot Sunday afternoon definitely evoked the sloth in me. However, Flora was extremely helpful during a brain meltdown, and I think with her and my peers help I managed to relieve some of the pressures I put on myself before and after I make a presentation. This is an invaluable development for me as someone who is currently looking for work and attending interviews!

In regard to how I’d like to see myself progress into a role – well – I’d certainly need to fully understand the roles in question. I would love to use my illustration background to work with aesthetic and branding or marketing perhaps – however I also really enjoyed being part of a wider discussion and curating/establishing themes. This is certainly something to think about over the next few sessions as I explore my creative potential.

And I’m supposing that will also guide me towards a particular project. Although all appealed to me in unique ways, I am currently looking at the Family Arts Festival – both because I can really release my inner child and because of the opportunities that would come from liaising within a cross-venue event.

I’d like to end my post by commenting on what I think is a shared view: it’s so wonderful and refreshing to be part of such an interesting group of people! I know my experience of this weekend would be completely different hadn’t my peers offered me support and encouragement – and I hope the same can be said of me. It’s exciting to think I’ll leave this programme with some new friends and creative allies.

This weekend kicked off the future producers programme at Watershed. Here are my initial thoughts and reflections:

Film Programming

On Saturday afternoon we watched 3 hours of short films. On Sunday morning we programmed an hour of films for 12-19 year olds. I thought we’d be guided along the way, that we’d get to suggest our ideas and someone higher would validate them. That we’d be told if we were on the right path. But it wasn’t like that, we chose. We had creative control. We debated, we pushed for our favourites, and we created something that we all felt proud of. I can’t wait to see how the programme develops.

Pitching Workshop

I tend to have a lack of confidence in my ideas. I have a fear of failure.
If you’re constantly scared of failing you don’t try things. You don’t take risks. You hold yourself back, because it’s easier that way. Safer.
The session reminded me that failure isn’t something to be constantly worried about.
It taught me:

You need to push yourself out there.
You need to project confidence.
You need to be passionate.

Because at the end of the day I’d rather fail 100 times, than never try.

Projects

On Saturday Hannah explained for potential projects that we will be working on during Future Producers. The event that really captured my attention was the Arts Council family art event. Working with children and young people has always been a real passion of mine. Most adults are afraid to play, to engage and to give negative feedback, but children are honest. They interrupt shows, they shout their opinions, they laugh, cry, and sometimes they even fall asleep.

Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio provides a safe space for people to try out ideas, for them to follow their passions, to fail, to learn and to grow. We try to be open and engage with as many people as possible, but a lot of the work created is generally showcased to an adult audience. That doesn’t mean the work created won’t capture the imagination of a younger audience but with the usual limited funding and time that most creative projects face, engagement activity can often fall by the wayside. Yet engagement is such a vital part of sustaining the amazing creative culture we have. We need to show children and young people that you can take risks; you can be an astronaut, scientist, play video games all day, create robots, follow your passions, have a dream, do what makes you happy, because people will support you, and anything is possible.

Over this weekend the future producers programme commenced and what a fantastic weekend it was. It was so exciting getting to know the other future producers and discovering everyone’s varied backgrounds. The highlight of the weekend, for me, was being involved in programming short films for the encounters film festival. It was fascinating hearing everyone else’s thoughts on the films and seeing which films had the biggest impact on us all as a group.  We also had the opportunity to meet a lead programmer of the festival, who discussed her job role with us and gave us invaluable programming tips, which I found particularly interesting and am sure will be hugely beneficial in the future.

I’m so looking forward to continuing work with the future producers and am intrigued by all the areas we can pursue. The two that initially stood out to me were the Gothic Season and Electric December but I’m very much looking forward to finding out more about each of them on Tuesday.

Most people who have been to a film festival have had the experience of watching the end credits of a film or a selection of films roll and thinking ‘why was that film chosen…?’ Especially with short films, it can be difficult to see the message behind a film that you can’t wholeheartedly say you enjoyed, but that nonetheless plays on your mind. Sometimes you just hate something, and find yourself resenting its inclusion. Sometimes the message is so obvious you sort of wish it wasn’t there.

I’ve had those exact thoughts many times, and one of the main reasons I want to learn about film programming (aside from just really enjoying watching films) is to understand what’s gone on in those situations a bit more. The first weekend of the Future Producers program allowed me to do this. As a group, we selected an hour’s worth of short films targeted at young people, which will be shown at this year’s Encounters Film Festival. This process involved putting myself into the mindset of a 12 – 19 year old, and having to think about what sorts of films such an age group might enjoy, but also those films with messages that they might not enjoy, but that it would be worthwhile to provoke discussion about.

12 – 19 is a very large age bracket. Reflecting on myself at those ages, I came to the conclusion that at 19 I would have resented a program of films aimed at the 12 year old me, and that at 12 I would have been terribly scared of the films 19 year old Joanna appreciated. In the end, this was a problem we removed rather than solved. The films selected focus on themes from alcoholism to sexuality, and broken families to identity; the program will almost certainly have a 15 certificate. I am very proud of the final product.

The process of selecting the films was intriguing, surprising, exciting and surprisingly civil. It made me think that all films might be made a bit better if everyone watching them could sit down and talk about them afterwards. Though this is obviously not a possibility, it’s something I’m definitely looking forward to over the coming weeks.

Soon, it will be time to make a decision about what sort of thing I want to do over the next couple of months. Producing an event related to the BFI’s gothic season excites me with its possibility of immersive cinema. Working on Encounters or Electric December excites me because of all the programming possibilities. Do I want to manage? Do I want to get back into radio?… I am looking forward to getting some more information on Tuesday.

The Future Producers have arrived.  The introductions are over, I’ve more or less matched biographies to their living, breathing counterparts and I am excited.  Following a challenging, enlightening and all too brief weekend, the highlight for me has to be getting to watch all the films on the Fresh Flix longlist and being in on the creation of the all-important final shortlist.  The process of how programmes come into existence has always been a source of fascination and mystery for me – now I know more, I can safely add ‘programmer’ to my growing list of dream jobs.

Out of the four projects we were introduced to, I was initially drawn to the BFI Gothic Season.  I have long been a fan of the Gothic genre, from films like Night of the Demon and The Innocents to the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Sheridan Le Fanu.  I love the delicious combination of the ordinary and the uncanny – how a mundane event or that benign-looking stranger can lurch into something, or someone, terrifying.

I’d love to learn more about producing a film season like this, as well as how to go about targeting an audience.  Something that especially interests me is how old films can be brought to new audiences.  One thought would be to juxtapose different versions of the same story – for instance, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula of 1931 shown alongside Christopher Lee’s version from 1958.  It would be interesting to see what each film adds to the other and how perceptions of the underlying story have altered over time – particularly given the current resurgence of the vampire genre.

Another idea is to combine a screening with a short fiction writing workshop.  Any one of the four themes identified by the BFI (Haunted, The Dark Arts, Monstrous, Love is a Devil) would be an excellent platform for stories.  Given the Gothic heritage of the short story (M. R. James , Mary Wilkins Freeman et al.) and the many films originally based on short fiction (e.g. The Birds), a Gothic film would surely inspire some intriguing writing.  Plus, the form of the short story is provocative, versatile and very fun to work with – it always leaves space for the imagination to scuttle away into the night, where who knows what can happen…

Of course, much more mulling is needed – and in the meantime, bring on Tuesday.

This introductory weekend gave us an insight into what we can be involved in as Future Producers and swiftly threw us straight into programming a collection of films for the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival.  Watching 3 hours of short films to select an hour programme for a younger audience was a new and exciting challenge, particularly as the decision making was a collaborative process.  It was interesting to see how opinions were so divided on particular films, whereas others were firm favourites for us all.

On the Sunday afternoon we participated in a master class on ‘presenting with impact’, which I found to be particularly beneficial.  Public speaking definitely doesn’t come naturally to me and on rating my confidence at the beginning of the session, I put myself at the lower end of the scale.  By the end of the session I felt more knowledgeable about how to structure, create, prepare and deliver a presentation and consequently felt a bit more confident.

During the introduction to the programme on Saturday, we were divided into groups and given a challenge. My group was asked to design a playful workshop that we can sell inspired by the winning film for the Children’s Jury Award for kids aged 6-11.  I really enjoyed collaboratively developing our ideas, particularly because the people in my group all had such diverse creative backgrounds and were therefore approaching the workshop with such different perspectives.  Thinking ahead to the role/opportunity I hope to pursue in the programme, I would really like to be a part of the team producing the Family Arts Festival.

Would you trust this man to educate your kids?

Images can be pretty flawed in showing only part of the story and not the whole picture. This picture shows me with a very sinister almost Williem Dafoe like smile, yet I like to think that my eager/readiness, modest confidence and most importantly, passion stand out too. I hope that that the qualities rather than the smile stick out. I often tell the kids I work with that I am more than a shirt and tie and that I am also much more than a Teaching Assistant. I am writer, director, ideas guy, blue-sky thinker without limits…well sort of.

That’s so far has been what the Future Producers project has made me think about and prioritize my ambitions so far. Like the image I’m not a whole picture in the sense, that passion might be clear, but how I channel it…I’m still working on.

But, after the introductory weekend, I can’t help but think that out of the four potential festivals I could be involved with…there’s a variety of roles I could do and hopefully do well because I can be passionate about what I will do. I can see myself as a workshop facilitator, project director, producer and/or creative director working across the festivals…well within two in particular. First, the ‘Encounter’s Film Festival’ because the films we’ve picked deal with issues, themes and an audience who I identify with. Secondly, ‘Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film’ because of the idea that came into my head on Saturday that got me thinking about marketing, publicity and attracting a wider audience.

Let’s start with the former. Angry teenagers. Even the good ones are pissed about something. Correction- about lots of things. Body image, being part of the crowd, parents, the world, friends, losing childhood innocence, wanting to be grown up, being an individual, being a rebel, conforming to social norms, identity, with self-esteem is tied into all these. The shorts are stories they can know, whether or not they’ve ever had an eating disorder or lost their love of fantasy. They can relate to the ideas and the way they are told and in a world where expression via social media is also influenced by social pressures. Film is another mediums for story-telling can be a way to survive and better understand the world and oneself. Part of me is still a teenager and says this is ‘our world’…whereas the adult says it’s ‘their world’.

Another way to get it out of their system, whether through directing, writing or producing, like any art form. It would tick boxes in terms of teacher training and allow me to adapt my skills towards filmmaking. Yet like the image above, it’s one that I’m comfortable with and associated with on a regular basis.

Differently, I am also an ideas person who’s overseen productions and while I have not really been a producer, I’ve helped/helping to produce a lot of theatre shows, an anthology and book trailers. In terms of the ‘Gothic’, what stuck out in my head from Saturday’s discussion was another participant had a great idea about doing a movie monster style prosthetic workshop and the name George Romero cropped up. Someone famous for zombie horror films and not Gothic films.

This got me thinking about the blurred sometimes not to clear boundaries between the two genres and the lack of knowledge of what Gothic was and still is, especially in relation to horror. And then the concept came to me. ‘Gothic vs. Horror: Frankenstein vs. Zombies‘. Whether as the festival’s theme or a strand to label some of the event that could attract a wider audience from the horror movie and big zombie-lover culture of Bristol. In my three minute long presentation on Sunday I barely scrapped the barrel with my ideas of doing a horror film vs gothic American-style film movie marathon, a Vampire walk to oppose or run alongside the famous Bristol Zombie Walk, workshops and Q and A’s with filmmakers and artists on the two genres, interactive style theatre events…etc. 

Big ideas but as I’ve learned as a light technician; it’s always better to scale down rather than up because you can still create the same effect you want to have on your audience rather than save money. Big ideas that could use someone to oversee and direct and monitoring them which I have had experience in before. And as my peers during my peers during our presentation workshop on Sunday found out, it’s something I am passionate about and engage others on. Yet the image it sort of would create while would show my management and creative skills, would not represent all the other sides I have.

Then again images are just snapshots of points in time. Then again…I am greedy…We’ll see…I’m still young!