Why I Set Up An Arts Production Company (And What Happened Next)
The story of Island Life Productions could potentially start in several places. It could start in the rice fields of Bali, Indonesia where my sister and I decided we wanted to make something together. It could also start in the theatre office where I began life as an arts professional. For the purposes of this article however, our story begins on September 1st 2020 as my partner and I step off a train from King’s Cross to begin our life together in Scotland. We had a place to live but other than that, we had no job or professional leads to follow, just a rent to cover and a hope to put our years of arts training to use.
Upon deciding to move up to Scotland, I also came to the decision that I wanted to start the company co-founded by my sister and I as a Community Interest Company, highlighting our not-for-profit status and making us eligible to apply for funding. Up until this point, Island Life Productions was the brand we used to share our work and make us seem organised but having held it close for several years, I decided that the time was right to share our story, philosophy and brand with artists and audiences alike and that Edinburgh was the perfect place to do it. What caused it? I worked full-time in the outreach department of a major regional theatre, achieving what I assumed was the ultimate dream, only to find that my opinions didn’t matter, my degree was worthless and that I as a team-member was totally dispensable. This is an experience that I know to be shared by others and the injustice at play was utterly infuriating to me and to top it all off, they paid me minimum wage for the privilege.
So as I filled out the necessary forms to set up a Community Interest Company, I began considering how this company could best serve emerging artists who felt as under-valued and under-appreciated as I did? The answer ended up being very simple. You needed to pay people for the work they were doing, it didn’t need to be loads but artists needed the experience they did to be valued as professional and in order for that to happen, it was essential that they got paid. The problem was that by this point, I was still unemployed, desperately hoping that the massive nearby Sainsbury’s would give me some hours every weekend. After grafting out a hard-fought job search, I was eventually hired by Travelodge as a night shift hotel receptionist twice a week. It wasn’t glamorous but it paid extra for night work and would give me full access to Edinburgh’s creative scene during the daytime as long as I managed my waking hours.
Now that I just about had a plan and a means of achieving it, I needed to figure out what I was actually going to do. Theatre was where most of my background was but by the time rehearsal space, venue and actors’ time were added up, things became prohibitively expensive. The company had done films in the past but I knew how much work that was going to be given the relative return. In the end, podcasts were the obvious way to go; free for audiences to download anytime from anywhere in the world, inexpensive to make, very much a platform on the rise and I already had a decent microphone around. I set the wheels in motion to begin making a non-fiction podcast called ‘Passport People’ in which I would talk to people from around the world about the places that mattered to them. This would give me some practical experience of podcasting as I began applying for the funding for a full-scale fiction podcast called ‘Welcome to the Quids Inn’, the story of five young people simultaneously hired as reception staff at the Edinburgh branch of a fictional chain of budget hotels (not sure where I got that idea from).
Once I figured out the format I wanted for ‘Passport People’, it was fairly simple to organise. I asked ten people from around my network if they wanted to do it, I gave them all the option of where to talk about, I prepared some questions on each place, pressed record for an hour and then edited it down afterwards. Even beyond the people I already knew, Edinburgh is a fantastic place to network, not too big that you get lost in a sea of activity happening but not too small where there aren’t a lot of cool people and organisations to explore and learn about. At that point, finding a spare hour to put everything together wasn’t difficult, especially as working nights left my daytime mostly free. What was harder and what continues to haunt me even now is funding applications. I applied for the Nurturing Talent fund for under 25s and although it was time-consuming, I got it completed and sent off with few concerns. Creative Scotland (our equivalent to the Arts Council) on the other hand have an Open Project funding application form that will invade your nightmares.
Despite its 27 pages and vast amount of information and documents it asked for, I set out to climb the mountain and after several weeks of answering complicated 800-word questions during hotel night shifts, I finally reached the end of the form only to learn that Creative Scotland (or the Arts Council) fund any sort of student participation. This is a ridiculous rule for emerging artists seeking to get off the ground who rely on talented students being part of their projects, particularly a company like mine dedicated to showcasing high quality new talent. So the whole 27-page application died a painful death but two weeks later, we learned with delight that the Nurturing Talent fund application had been successful and that we would have £1000 with which to make ‘Welcome to the Quids Inn’ and pay the writer, producer, myself and six actors who would make the performance.
By this point, ‘Passport People’ was beginning to take off and we had something to get the word out about what we were doing. Every element of the strategy around podcasts worked perfectly and meant that as we did the casting call for ‘Welcome to the Quids Inn’, plenty of people were learning about who we were and what we stood for. Despite existing for a handful of months, we had almost 75 online auditions for the 6 roles we had but we whittled it down to our 6 based purely off of each actor’s voice and what we envisioned for the role. In the end, we had a fantastic mix of people. Five students, a recent graduate, a film worker, a theatre ticketing assistant, a voice-over actor and myself made up a fantastic 11-strong team.
We set out to record all eight episodes in March, allowing for a release sometime in May. After four episodes however, the pandemic made in-person recordings completely impossible and the project was forced into a state of hibernation. I edited the four recordings we had, very keenly aware of the possibility that those episodes would never see the light of day. After all, there was no point in releasing four episodes of an unfinished radio series and by the time it was possible to record, there was a very real possibility that my actors would have left Edinburgh. Nonetheless, summer came, the restrictions lifted and we were able to finish the recordings in person with the exception of the final episode which was moved onto Zoom (and worked into the hotel storyline). This project is now out, it’s called ‘Welcome to the Quids Inn’ and it is available on all podcasting platforms.
I am writing this article at the end of September 2020 and what a difference a year has made. Alongside three seasons of ‘Passport People’ and ‘Welcome to the Quids Inn’, I worked with my brilliant partner to set up ‘Join the Island’, our dedicated Patreon scheme allowing people to support the talented emerging artists we work with on our projects, ensuring that they are respected for the work they do (something too often undervalued in the arts) for as little as £2/month. During the COVID lockdown, we also secured some more funding to create ‘The Blindfold’, an interactive, pick-your-own audio adventure focused around the effects of Coronavirus on society (due out on Rakuten Kobo on November 29th 2020).
I am writing this article because I know that there are many emerging artists out there feeling under-respected in their field and scared about what COVID will mean for the industry we love. I encourage you either to get in touch and come collaborate with me or to be brave enough to start your own company. Yes, it’s a mountain to climb and it is exhausting but as somebody standing at the summit, looking out at the view, I have to say it’s pretty incredible up here!
Written by Fin Ross Russell
Fin Ross Russell is an Edinburgh-based arts producer, workshop facilitator, writer, podcaster, West Ham fan, dog lover and Eurovision enthusiast. Fin works with emerging artists and members of the public to create high quality arts as part of his company Island Life Productions. He also works as a workshop facilitator for organisations around Edinburgh including Edinburgh City Council, Lyceum Theatre & Strange Town.