LIAM WELLS COURSE LEADER: BA (HONS) FILM AND MOVING IMAGE PRODUCTION NORWICH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF THE ARTS THE PRODUCERS PANEL ENHANCING FORMATIVE

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1 LIAM WELLS

2 CONTEXT The Pilot Project. In a pilot project run with Level 2 Film and Moving Image students in 2009/10, students were asked to develop a story-pitch for a WebTV series, providing a format for each show, and a story arc for the whole series. A pitch document was then required to focus upon the specifics of a pilot episode that the student production team then fully realized across the unit. In this specific instance, each production group developed two pitches for two different web-series. The Producers Panel, consisted of a BBC producer and an independent WebTV creative director, selected one web-series to go into full pilot production per team, based on the strength of the pitches. The decision was based upon the originality of the project, potential online economic returns and potential audience. During the presentation, the producers provided formative feedback upon aspects of the pitch that were directly linked to unit and course Learning Outcomes.

3 OUTLINE OF PROJECT The ADM Fellowship project will enable the development and enhancement of Year 3 curriculum, using the Producers Panel as a model for the research and development of Final Major Production films. Industry professionals will work closely with student production teams operating as autonomous production companies in the development and selection of film projects, centered upon the group critique as a method of testing ideas in a industry relevant context. The project will make connections between studio practice and business and professional skills areas of the curriculum, to ensure students are experienced and equipped with the skills to successfully pitch their creative ideas to an industry audience. Students will develop industry standard pitch documents for each production. Each production team will present 5 film pitches to the Industry panel. The Industry panel will recommend which projects the team should allocate resources to, and green light productions based upon external industry contexts (e.g. audience, financial returns etc).

4 PROJECT AIMS to explore the Producers Panel as a model of the group critique, as a forum for industry focused learning opportunities; to enable students to develop and test ideas through verbal and visual presentation to an industry audience; to engage students in the visual and textual delivery of their proposed studio practice in group critique through the development of industry specification pitch documents; to prepare and rehearse students for the industry practice of story-pitching in a supportive work-related learning environment; to encourage students to consider a wider view of external contexts for their studio practice; including audience profile, media/ format, industry, economic and ethical issues.

5 PROJECT OUTCOMES the enhancement of the student experience, curriculum and staff development through industry input; the development in Higher Education of models of the group-critique that have currency in industry; engagement in a group learning opportunity that reflects industry practice in a supportive learning environment; engagement with potential external and industry audiences, formats, ethical and economic contexts for film and video; an electronic story pitch document; development of verbal and visual presentation skills that are both industry-specific and transferable.

6 PROJECT DELIVERY In the development and implementation of the project we faced several challenges in working with industry (more on this later) In order to meet the aims of the project, we shifted focus away from Year 3 students to Year 2 student, in order to better prepare them for a full version of the IPP in Year 3, The course team felt that due to the relatively untested model of the IPP, that it was too soon to directly involve Year 3 in , and to use the project to embed the story pitch and presentation process in Year 2 students working practice in order to enhance their knowledge and experience in preparation for Year 3 study. Running a more self-contained IPP project with Year 2 students (rather than running across an entire academic year) enabled us to evaluate and enhance the process for , where it was envisaged that the process might be embedded across all three levels of study.

7 PROJECT DELIVERY: STUDENT FEEDBACK Preparing the pitch document and presentation and then choosing for us which film we are going to make was a really good approach. We then had no idea which one would be picked and it was not up to us to make that decision. It gave us all a real taste of what its really like in the industry Student 1 [The Producers Panel was] effective in preparing us for future pitches and employment. [It ] gives us a chance to experience what it is like in 'the real world' and how to prepare for a successful pitch Student 2

8 PROJECT DELIVERY: IPP MEMBER FEEDBACK. The Industry Producers Panel was effective in helping students develop presentation skills, which were consistently at an industry level. Whilst students were clearly thinking about the economics of the budgeting of projects these were (in some cases) unrealistic. The panel suggested linking the costing/ allocation of production resources directly to the productions (see developments for Year ) The pitch document is effective in delivering relevant information regarding most aspects of the production, but most IPP members felt student spent too much time focusing upon reading through script extracts and provided too much character biography. The model pitch document should be refocused to de-emphasise these aspects That the course could investigate the use of production management software to enable students to present clearer (more realistic) production schedules. (see developments for Year )

9 PROJECT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES Initially when attempting to run the IPP across an academic year, with Year 3 students, it was difficult to get consistency and long term commitment from industry panel members. We lost several members of the panel due to shifting work commitment (short term/ freelance working) and in some instance due to the closure of production companies. This in part led to the shift of emphasis to a more self contained version of the panel, requiring less longer term commitments from panel members. The sustainability of the IPP across an academic year is potentially problematic (particularly at a time of industry upheaval), and thus this version of the project has refocused in order to nurture and develop a more sustainable panel for full implementation in Developing and maintaining relationships with industry panel members and sourcing the right mix of panel members is time consuming, particularly in context of increasing workloads for academic staff.

10 PROJECT DEVELOPMENTS AND THE FUTURE OF THE IPP In , Year 3 students will work with the IPP across the Pre-production of their final projects (Sept Dec) In response to feedback from the IPP, student production teams will be allocated finite production resources and asked to generate a model for the use of these production resources in response to the feedback from the IPP members. In , Year 3 students will use CeltX Production Studio to generate more effective production scheduling and allocation of technical and human resources across their productions. The system will operate as an online cloud storage system, with IPP members able to access the virtual studios to offer advice. The IPP will be used for both formative and summative assessment of Year 1,2 and 3 students The course team will continue to develop and maintain new industry links to ensure the project is sustainable.

11 The IPP : Recent Developments of the Project. A HPL Member of Staff has been appointed to manage the IPP implementation for , enabling a wider range of panel members to be invited to join and ensuring consistency across the academic year. IPPs have continued run with Year 2 students on the WebTV Series and this has developed the Year 3 version of the IPP. The IPP has been implemented across Year 3, with a revised model based on industry feedback. Sustainability of the project is a key concern for , with costs no longer covered by external project funding.

12 The IPP : A Revised Model for Year 3 Implementation. Students work together in small production teams. Each team is responsible for the research, development and pre-production of a short (10 minute drama, 25 minute documentary) by each member of the group. The team works as a autonomous production team, with a finite production period to allocate to their productions (Mid Jan Mid Feb 2012). The team is given a technical budget (on paper). This production budget buys the team production resources to allocate to all of the films to be produced by the team. (In response to IPP feedback in ) Alongside academic support from the course team, the student production teams pitch their work to the IPP 3 times across the academic year. Rather than the IPP or academic staff selecting which films go into production, the student production team uses the advice and feedback of the IPP to make decisions about the productions which go forward past pre-production. This enables the students to consider the use of resources, and which films are viable or not. The three pitch model is broken down into specific areas of the development process. Each pitch is designed to offer specific types of advice at key stages of the process. 1. Concept Pitch November Production Presentation January Post-Production Presentation - March 2012

13 The IPP : A Revised Model for Year 3 Implementation. The panel of Industry members is selected based upon their experience/ role within industry, appropriate to the activity of the pitch. For the concept pitch we employed four members of the panel a screenwriter, a producer/ director, a member of the UK Film Council short film completion team and an independent producer. The members of the panel shift and change across the year, with one member of the panel remaining a constant to chair and ensure continuity across the year. (This member of the panel is the independent producer.)

14 The Concept Pitch: Process. Students are briefed to deliver a 3 minute Concept Pitch for each film the production team wishes to present to the IPP. A Concept Pitch document was designed by the course team in response to feedback from Year 2 IPPs over the two years. The pitch document is circulated to all year 3 students. The document contained the following components; Concept Outline Step Outline Production Design/ Pre-visualisation. The document was designed to enable students to consider how to communicate their short film concepts quickly and concisely. Each student in the production team needed to deliver an outline/ overview concept for the film, a breakdown of the narrative and a visual aid (still image/ video clip/ storyboard etc) to give a sense of the visual style of the film. The pitch was designed to communicate the idea effectively and quickly, whilst removing much of the detail required by the earlier model the story pitch.

15 The Concept Pitch: Process. Each production team is allocated 1 hour with the IPP. Each pitch is formally presented to the panel in turn. student groups chose either to individually pitch their own concepts or One member of the team (the producer) pitches all of the concepts to the panel (this was the most successful model) Following the formal pitches, the production team is invited around the table with the panel for a Q & A and feedback, focusing upon each of the concepts in turn. At the end of the Q & A, the panel informs the students of their opinion of which of the concepts the team should focus upon.

16 LIAM WELLS Examples from Student Pitch Documents.

17 Feedback from Panel Members Does it feel robust enough for an industry pitch? It does. Although, I wouldn't encourage the use of PowerPoint because in a pitch you'd not have the time/resources for this. And it definitely became a hindrance. I would also let each person shape their own pitch, because they were all following a template and that wouldn't happen. (Producer/ Director) What is the one thing that makes a good pitch? The opening lines. The project has to hook you straight away. You don't want a massive explanation or something that needs explaining. That s not to say all ideas can be neatly wrapped up in a tidy snappy line. More interesting and challenging work requires greater thought in pitching. But this can be done using tones and moods rather than snappy concepts. (Screenwriter) Do these pitches/ presentations of work in progress really simulate an industry approach? How could the process be made to feel more like industry.? Yes, although I d expect the pitch to be more set up in an office environment or boardroom to create the right dynamic rather than the academic surroundings and vibe.

18 Stage 2 & 3 Student Pitches. Using feedback from the panel the course team are developing two more pitch tasks for year 3 students. Production Presentation January 2012 This pitch will take place 2 weeks before a 1 month production period. It will focus upon a presentation outlining the production team s plans for shoots for all of the work to be made by the group. The requirements of the presentation will be based on the requests for information from the IPP. This includes; full shooting schedule call sheets crew/ cast information storyboard The format for the presentation will be more like a progress review. Following from feedback from the previous IPP, each production team will have a 1 hour meeting with the panel. The meeting will take place in an office environment, as a formal meeting. Students will be given guidance notes on what to present, but will not be given a template. The panel will consist of an independent producer, a director, a cameraperson and location manager

19 Stage 2 & 3 Student Pitches. The final editorial presentation will be designed in relation to feedback from the second panel. Post-Production Presentation - March 2012 Production teams will be required to present rough edits of their output to the panel for editorial input. The format is currently up for negotiation. The panel will consist of an editor, a sound designer and an independent producer. We are hoping to add a fourth member with experience of selecting student film for national festivals.

20 Project Benefits. Business and Professional Skills Curriculum development and enhancement; alignment of student feedback processes with client/ producer feedback processes from industry; students taking responsibility for feedback, making decisions based on industry recommendations Enhanced teaching materials - electronic story pitch documents (although note not all panel members felt this was a good outcome) students experience professional forms of presenting creative ideas, enhancing their visual and verbal presentation skills. Potential Projects Issues project is expensive to run in terms of staffing the IPP. It is doubtful that the project could be funded without external funding, as this would rely upon PT teaching budgets being directed away from other areas of the curriculum. a lack of consensus from IPP members a wide ranging set of criteria set by different members of the panel, which means feedback has often been conflicting. Some prefer longer character driven pitches, others short instant idea based pitches. maintaining networks of IPP members is time consuming and resource intensive. The allocation of a member of staff to the process has worked this academic year, but only due to external funding.

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