OCTOBER | ME, MYSELF & I
Polly
Wilson
As a producer for Audience and
event freelancer, Wilson talks
about the challenges executing and
devising a creative vision
People hear about Secret
Cinema, or You Me Bum Bum
Train, and try to replicate a
little bit of those events, but
it doesn’t work like that. You
need an event to be creatively
driven from the top with a
clear goal and vision.
A regular project I work on
is Japan Matursi, a Japanese
cultural festival in London which
has been going for ten years.
They do all the stage shows
and food stalls, and we do the
production, styling, and licensing
for the GLA and so forth, as well
as run it on the day.
I regularly freelance, and come
from a fine art background. I
love how quickly the industry
moves, but there’s a big need for
organisers to bring on specialist
creatives. Having a really creative
lighting designer, for example,
can mean you save money as you
have someone thinking about
the problems. People often don’t
invest enough because of time
restrictions and budgets. It’s often
best to use a specialist rather than a supplier.
Festivals in the music industry get design and creative right more
often because it is expected that you will have specialist creatives,
and people are coming to the festival for that creative experience.
However, there’s now so many festivals that people have developed
set expectations over what they want to to see, and this can be
stifling creatively.
Everyone wants an immersive experience, but it’s hard to pull
off. You have to build the consumer up from buying the ticket, to
arriving, to leaving. If someone just walks past an activation at a
station, people won’t necessarily participate. You need to reassure
people and make them comfortable, which doesn’t happen instantly.
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If I’m in the studio creating
artwork, you have to visually
think of the aesthetic, and
sometimes, live, it doesn’t work.
It’s good to treat events like
an art project. Look at who’s
coming, what do you want to
achieve at the end? Then the
budget falls into line from
the vision. Make the theme
relevant to what you are doing,
or it can be too passive. Think
about what it is you are doing,
not what will look good in a photo.
Too many events are passive, and there’s no atmosphere. If you
involve people and have a stake in what’s happening it works better.
Selling ideas is a big challenge. No one can visualise things, you
have to get visuals drawn up to sell an idea in. sometimes people get
invested, then someone at the top says ‘no’. People need to trust you
can deliver something great. And sometimes you only have a short
time, maybe ten days, to do this.
The Wellcome Collection in Euston do a lot of Arts & Science
events. They always use the space creatively and deliver often quite
complex concepts and ideas in a really accessible way.