This week there was one presentation by Amy Simmons who works at M&C Saatchi as a creative producer, I just read through the transcript of the video as the presentation wasn’t working. Amy gives a breakdown of her role as art producer/art buyer and the role of art director. I was very interested in hearing what the art producer does, Simmons says “The process: with an advertising campaign there’s a whole bunch of stuff that goes on behind the scenes before I would necessarily get involved in that campaign. Usually, the art director will have come up with the idea or the concept for the campaign that will have been approved by the client, and then that’s the point where I would get involved. They already have a good idea of what it is that they want to do, what that campaign is going to look like and maybe where that campaign is going to sit – whether it’s social, print, out of home. At that point I’ll be looking at what are called ‘scamps’. These are rough sketches or layouts, sometimes they can be fully designed: I see something that’s very finished, other times they can literally be a scribble on a post-it note. The art director will take me through that and what it is that they want from a photographer in that instance. They will give me the brief as to whether they want a project photographer or a landscape photographer, how they want it lit and all of those kind of details, and then that’s when I start to get really involved in the process and I actually source the talent.” (Simmons, p2, Falmouth)
This sounds like a perfect job (creative producer) to me, I struggle sometimes with coming up that creative concept but given a rough brief I am normally quick to adapt and achieve the client’s needs. With my day to day job it would be my job to sort out everything for a shoot big or small and then the distribution of image following certain quality/security checks to social media or our online database. It’s interesting to hear certain skills I have acquired over years would suit this role.
These next couple of weeks we have encouraged to work on 3 things a portfolio, website and social media. This is what I have so far…
Portfolio: Just 8×6 prints which I carry with me if I go to event days for networking etc my plan for the next few works is to produce prints of my project in a more formal layout, with contextualisation. Maybe a sort of dummy book. I also will prepare a pdf of this if portfolio couldn’t be delivered face to face. At this time, I do not wish to create a portfolio with work from my MOD career as I wish to focus 100% on my project. The types of markets to view this would be galleries/fine art buyers so I don’t think my day job would be relevant at this point.
Website: I have a website but so far it has just displayed WIP for whatever module I have been working on. Currently displaying a short about page with a map for context and Module 3’s WIP. I need to fill out my website with more information or do I? I quite like that is simple at the moment and as I will only have one project on there. I think I need to include more projects but at the moment I don’t have time so it maybe a while before the website takes shape. https://www.lauraframe.com
Social Media: I currently don’t have any so as my website will take a while to develop due to lack of content this could be a great option, keep it up to date with frequent, less formal images and ideas. I intend to create and document my process with my FMP also to try and appeal to Living Legacy’s audience as they will be funding my output and perhaps an events day.
Critical Research Journal 