Review of Arts Challenge- Unit 1

Overall I have found the research a lot harder and more time consuming than expected. I consistently went over the time limits I imposed on each research section meaning i spent closer to 16 hours doing the challenge rather than the originally planned 13. This made me realize I did not plan times very effectively and I need to not try and cram in an unmanageable amount into each working session as it makes the work feel harder.

The research on producers in Film, Theater and Music got consistently easier as time went on, as I found that I got very similar information over and over again making it easier to do my research. I also fell into a pattern of how I researched, which made it easier. I found it very interesting how the different fields varied as well. It make me think about which field I would like to work in (mainly film and theater). I found that the initial section of finding out about different types of producers went better than the section zooming in on specific producers as I did not have to make a little informed choice about which producers to choose. It was also more easy to see what a producer does rather than evaluate which is best.

The research on producers really frustrated me at first. I found that my first list of looking at producers consisted all of white men, which really bored me. I changed the style of my research in an attempt to get more diversity for the next session, but found it didn't change the landscape much, which frustrated me more. The lack of success I met meant I had to change my plan significantly so it was less of an unmanageable task. Looking at just the 2 producers made me happiest as I could engineer it to be two women, the gender I hadn't looked at yet, though unfortunately it wasn't very multicultural. I liked looking at the variety of ways people had managed to make it into producing, though I would have been interested in finding out more about the early life of one of my female producers, but it appears she keeps the information under tight wraps.

Overall I have enjoyed my research on producers and it has greatly informed me on what they actually do, something I had no knowledge on when I started the BFI academy course. It made me consider it as a possible path. It was also nice looking at success stories. I may like to go away and look a little bit at failures at producing to see their career path and why it all went wrong.