What a wonderful couple of weekends with the Future Producer’s I have had, even if punctuated with small bouts of illness and delirium.

I have somehow managed to absorb so much information already, as well as kick around a lot of baby-new ideas and eat really great free food. I’ve also had the opportunity to listen to amazing talks by very knowledgeable and charismatic people; those that have come in from outside the programme and many that are part of the programme themselves. I am constantly witnessing my team-mates conjure up amazing ideas, questions and conversation and we all seem to have cameloid abilities, which is super. I certainly, a couple of years ago would not have been able to talk in front of a group of people and actually say words in the correct order, with sentence structure, without throwing up and wanting to set fire to everything, but this experience is enabling me to evolve and learn the skills, so that’s something that’s been great for me.

During the first weekend we were the audience to Sarah Ellis, a digital producer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. She spoke about the work she had undertaken, her process and the many different roles that are involved with being a producer. She made it very clear about how crucial considering the audience is in every-step of the process. This notion has been re-iterated throughout the weekends & it may seem obvious, but there are many small areas where you can get carried away, and the audience left behind without realising. Sarah illustrated a project that she was part of and I was intrigued by the use of social media and integrating mobile phone use within the performance and have begun sketching out ideas how this could also be added to Fun Palaces, a strand I’ve chosen to work on.

Another great workshop that occurred in the first weekend explored experience design. This was led by Tom Metcalfe. It was the first real time we had in groups to generate and explore ideas using a post-it note and brainstorming activity. It was really useful and also really great seeing the many themes that were being considered by all groups. It also showed, how, when broken into a group; each finds its own formula. One would have 12 or so vague ideas that got condensed into one or two very clear outlined ideas, and others would be very specific themes that developed into more vague and larger topics. All were unique from the other, but provided great results.

During the Sunday of the first weekend we were introduced to the strands and took part in workshops which explored each one in an interactive and creative way. Charades and Pictionary was played for the BFI strand, an app that was in its development stages was a fun game for the family arts festival, and for the Fun Palaces strand we were able to get a first glimpse at the public’s responses to what they wanted to see at the event. This workshop got me feeling excited and inspired me to pitch for the event the following weekend. But only just. I found it hard to put BFI down.

The following week we were given the task of writing our pitches to perform in front of Katherine Jewkes, Matthew Austin, Victoria Tillotson, Laura Kriefman, Jess, Hannah and Roseanna as well as the rest of the future producers. Unfortunately from around Thursday I was cast down by an evil bug and didn’t end up putting full effort into my pitch,writing it grey-faced and sickly. I managed to pitch nonetheless and unfortunately had to leave the rest of the session for sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep and..

The following morning I was back in my usual body and wobbly head and I managed to slip right back into the programme. It started with a talk from Kim Plowright about Project Endings and Emotional Journeys and I found what she was saying very interesting. I feel like she removed some rose-tinted lenses I was wearing and gave us some realities behind the job, at the beginning this worrying for me but by the end of the talk, it was very beneficial. Being realistic about the role as well as about what you’re producing will prove the best results. She also asked us to deliver a story & a process about an event or app etc that we had been to/used recently. This process allowed us to visualise the different steps behind realising them and it opened up the journey the creators and users go on, there were elements to this I had not considered but will do so from now on. (what happens after the event, when the user can be forgotten, being afraid to delete or not sign up etc)

During the latter of the day we formed back into our strand groups and got stuck into ideas and considerations for the event and for the coming Wednesday, a night where we have the opportunity to speak with possible partners, volunteers and enthusiasts. I thoroughly enjoyed this very much, but on reflection worry that my enthusiasm and coming out of the sick zone made me a little too excitable and loud spoken throughout the task. I hope everyone involved felt like we got somewhere with our process and had opportunity to express what they wanted to see. I certainly felt very positive about the whole thing.

And that’s my first blog post.