On the 12^th of March I attended a talk by Christopher Jarvis, a freelance audio-fiction producer and editor working as a professional within the media. Jarvis’ talk was focussed on what freelance work is like as well as the role of audio producers within the media, including his personal roles such as creating an official full-cast audio drama based on the video game Elite: Dangerous. (The Radio Theatre Workshop, n.d.) A key focal point that interested me within this talk was the emphasis on time management. As stated by fellow industry professional Abigail Hilton, certain projects such as audiobooks can take nearly 35 minutes of work per finished minute of content. (Hilton, 2014) Jarvis’ talk seemed to back this up as he explained that sometimes projects can take several months to complete. This was intriguing in relation to freelance work as he also suggested that the best way to work as a freelancer is to plan projects out in advance before completing another due to the time needed to focus on one project as well as the idea that freelance professionals don’t have much time to pick and choose specific projects. A specific example that Jarvis gave was that sometimes when working on audiobooks, freelancers may start recording their next project whilst finishing up the current project as. This talk made me reflect upon my own time management skills, as Jarvis is able to produce professional standard work whilst being limited on time. As a result, I decided that I need to work on planning and organisational skills as a training professional in order to meet both the quality and timeframe expected of a high-standard project.

References:

Hilton, A. (2014) How Long Does it Take to Create a Fullcast Audiobook? [online] available from < https://www.abigailhilton.com/abbies-blog/2014/3/27/how-long-does-it-take-to-create-a-fullcast-audiobook.html> [12 March 2020]

The Radio Theatre Workshop (n.d.) About RTW [online] available from <http://www.radiotheatreworkshop.com/p/about-rtw.html> [12 March 2020]