PRP: Artefact 3 - The Evaluation

For my third artefact I visited the Birds-eye View Women’s Film Festival and used this to test the representation of women as directors. The under-representation of women as directors was highlighted as an issue at various sessions in the festival. However I found that there are women directors in the industry who are passionate about the role.

Through my findings I discovered that confidence, mentoring and parental responsibilities are three main factors that influence the role of directing for women. I found that the women that were able to manage their career and be a parent at the same time were able to progress in the industry and implement their career aspirations. However this is an element of lifestyle that would be difficult to test within the time frame and practicality of this research project.

After speaking to various practitioners in the industry it is evident that mentoring is an important and influential foundation that has enabled a sense of confidence in women. Therefore this is an area that I will be exploring.

In relation to this I will be setting up a mentoring scheme for first and second year Multimedia students. Mentoring is a concept that requires time to build a relationship. The effectiveness of this can only be tested over time. For this reason I am beginning to implement the idea from now so that I can fully explore the idea for an artefact further into my research.

For my fourth artefact I intend to concentrate on the idea of confidence. I will be exploring how this is related to technology and film directing. This is a subject that focuses on the psychology of practitioners. My aim is to test levels of confidence and evaluate how these levels are influenced.