I think it goes without saying, Jamie Hammond is a remarkable woman and an excellent model for the purpose of our class as a whole. The opportunity to both absorb all the information she shared with us about her career in the entertainment industry, as well as the chance to individually discuss our group project with someone with 35 years experience was truly invaluable! I found it extremely fortunate to have Hammond as the last presenter in our series of guest speakers. It was interesting to draw parallels between Morris, Chang and Hammond alike, as well as see where their approaches differed.
In Hammond’s case, I felt like there was a whole new perspective of the industry brought to like in addition to several small details our group had looked over completely. On the financial front in particular, we had given hardly any consideration up until this point. Luckily though, this newly registered cost-awareness was spurred by an expert in the field, who helped us immensely with concepts for budget control. With her finance background as an asset, Hammond was completely on the ball in helping our group come up with quotes for cost and even went as far as promising to send us a budget analysis from one of her own productions. Additionally, the insights she shared in finding and retaining investors was also very eye-opening as a producer-in-training. I knew that we would be needing money and that it was pertinent to sell to those who ultimately provide, but I hadn’t taken into consideration the amount of maintenance and management doing so would incur. Again, invaluable information for our own concept creating.
Another thing that really stuck out to me with Hammond’s speech was the emphasis on flexibility and keeping up with times. I thought that it was interesting that way back in 1995 Hammond and her team for “Billy Nye” made the decision to shoot in HD, in what she called “staying ahead of the game, not following the pack.” Until recently I was completely clueless as to what it even meant to be an HD production, so the fact that she had the foresight to predict future trends was especially impressive to me. Although we’ve been drilled to keep up on the times, Hammond’s own reinforce offered an added content to the sentiment.
One thing that has seemed to be a common theme amongst all of our guest speakers, as well as our own class lectures has been the idea of finding the “need” of a network. It seems like such a basic concept, but one that could easily be overlooked if it weren’t for the insights we’ve been offered. Like Morris and Chang, Hammond also put emphasis on finding what is missing within the lineup of the targeted network, or a void in programming on television as a whole. She used the example of “Bill Nye” as a premise that was desperately needed, thanks to new TV regulations promoting educational programming, and was not being aired currently. With the repetition we’ve seen in respect to this focus I believe it’s safe to say that we as producers need to be giving special care to our research and analysis of what’s happening in the market.
All in all, I would say that each one of our guest speakers provided us with valuable information for moving forward. Hammond in particular was a helpful source of knowledge and individual insight for our group. I think that we are on a great track with our program concept, and have a fairly clear direction of where we need to go in the next couple of weeks. We will be focusing on the story-telling premise that Hammond suggested to our group, and developing this portion of the production as well as the details that will ultimately make our pitch a realistic and thorough concept.
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