Friday 15 January 2016
Overall i enjoyed carrying out this project, as it has allowed me to partially share the experience of a variety of job roles that i have not done in so much depth before, such as casting actors, choosing filmmakers and crew, commissioning external collaborators to carry out 3D graphic work, oversees location scouting, plus much more job tasks. As i didn’t have a specific role to being with, whilst carrying out work for this unit, i found myself leaning more towards the executive producer / show runner job description, as i was primarily responsible for everything, involved in every process and decision making that had to be made, from what talent and crew i wanted in the production, the structure of the series, down to location, even down to the specific type of gun holster that i wanted attached to an actresses leg. Even though i may have mainly carried out the role of a show runner, i often found myself doing multiple roles, from the standpoint of a specific practitioner; in that i would be approaching the roles as if i was working within for example the casting department, going through hours of auditions, then tapes of the actors to decided if the talent is suitable.
What i found very useful whilst doing this project is that it prompted me to look into areas that i had not known about prior to this unit in order to grasp an understanding about the the new required information, allowing me to implement in it into my decision making whilst carrying out various tasks for the project. It also further educated me about how the television industry works, giving me a reason to research various job roles descriptions, to which, upon carrying out the research helped me understand that one job role can be given many different names for the same task (Such as Executive producer and Digital intermedia colourist).
When i initially undertook this project, i feel that i gravely underestimated the level of work and detail that needed to go into it, which lead me to bad time management over the tasks i needed to do in order to complete this unit. I also found myself spending way to much time researching to much on irrelevant stuff, that in the end did not contribute towards my production concept book. Due to misjudged time management and project coordination, it led me to leaving the laborious tasks to crucial times, when rather they should have been tackled from early, although, having gone through this experience, i definitely know what to prioritise on next time i undertake a project of this scale, plus, how long it takes me to take on laborious tasks such as the once endured whilst completing this unit.
At the beginning of this project, whilst it was in its early stages, i originally decided that i was going to create the live action adaptation series GANGSTA, for Adult Swim, as i thought that the channel would be suitable for the series since having similar content featured on there. Having decided this, i then researched into the network, finding out about their business, who owns them, what shows they have on their platform and how they brand their network. As i continued with my research in adapting GANGSTA, then getting to the casting section, it was during the casting of my crew that i realised that this series would be way to big for the network Adult Swimm, possibly making it bankrupt, as it has not had such a big series produced for its network before, and at most, they only air syndicated shows. Having realised this, i then decided to change the network over to HBO, as they have a history of producing big budget shows with similar genres and themes to those within GANGSTA. At the time, making this decision; i felt that i had wasted a lot of time researching into Adult Swim as i know decided that i no longer wanted to use that channel, although, because of the research i carried out for the network, it helped me to research for the precise search criteria in order to produce relevant research information regarding HBO, that i would not have known about prior to spending time researching about Adult Swim.
Conclusion
Having now completed this project, it has definitely taught me a lot, not only about the television industry and how it works and what is involved within the running of a network, but also about myself, and what i am capable of doing, plus how long i will take to do the work, also, how i feel about carrying out specific tasks (as in would i do it myself, or commission it to a specialist). Due to the scale of this project i have learnt so much, that it has definitely helped me further my knowledge towards television production, giving me opportunities to explore ideas and new business that i had not known about prior. Whilst carrying out this project, it also felt like it was never ending, in that there was so much more content that i could include as i learnt so much whilst working and researching, it was like a continual learning process, all the way through to the competition.
