Future Producers
Future Producers is a development scheme for 18-25 year olds
'Thank you for this opportunity, you have completely cemented my plans to pursue a career in film programming.'
Sophie Shippen, Future Producer 2012
'After all of our planning it was fantastic to see [our event] full of people enjoying their surroundings. I have learnt so much from this project and know many aspects from this will help in my future work.'
J Gibbs, Future Producer 2013
Future Producers is a unique talent development opportunity for 18 – 25 year olds to get a foot in the door of the creative industries. Mentored by industry professionals young people lead on delivering live projects with one of the UK’s leading venues – Watershed in Bristol – for real audiences working collaboratively across artforms and platforms. Through the programme they develop the broad skill set associated with being a producer in the cultural and arts sector.
In 2012 the group of upcoming producers had the chance to programme Fresh Flix, Watershed's strand of film and cross-artform events for teenagers, curated in collaboration with Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival. Watch a short documentary about their experiences, thoughts and the fantastic array of events they cooked up, from a quilting workshop to a family-friendly tattoo parlour.
In 2013 the second group of talented young producers got the chance to work on a whole host of cultural projects. They divided into teams to coordinate: a mad hatter's tea party at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio as part of the nation-wide Family Arts Festival; late-night fim screenings and an immersive event around Kubrick's The Shining as part of the BFI Gothic season; Electric December - Watershed's advent calendar of new short films from young people around the world; and again, Fresh Flix as part of the 2013 Encounters Festival. Alongside the core programme Watershed also ran Future Producers Plus which provided participants with additional mentoring so they could take on leadership roles and achieve the Gold Arts Award qualification.
In 2014 the Future Producers worked on all things Sci-Fi, for the BFI's blockbuster season, Days of Fear and Wonder. From bringing Bristol its very first Fun Palace, and programming sci-fi films for our Late Night screening slots, to bringing families arts and technology activities inspired by E.T as part of the Family Arts Festival, the cohort brought audiences something new and imaginative.
Ended in April 2015