personal development plans: School of Satchi Review

School of Satchi
Review

School of Satchi is a TV series in which aims to find new artistic talent. I find this programme hugely inspirational for me as a designer. The programme explores different artists, from painters to sculptors and installation artists.

The series is over 4 programmes, and follows the journey of cutting down thousands of artists to one winner. They use professional artists and critics throughout the programme to judge the amateurs, this makes the programme very professional and engaging. You want to hear what they have to say about the work, and as a designer get hints and tips for yourself. Even though the programme is one hour long, it does keep the attention of the audience very well because you want to see the final product, for e.g. in the latest show they had to produce a piece of modern large scale art for the Hastings sea front.

Art and Design is a career which is highly competitive and very difficult to get your foot through the door. Therefore, this series would appeal to a large audience as not many people get the chance to get this far within art. It gives the audience an insight into what is possible which is very motivational and inspirational. It definitely makes the audience feel good about themselves, and therefore is successful as a programme because people will want to watch the next show. People will also want to see the next show because they feel they have got to know the participants throughout the first few programmes, and want to know who makes it further in the competition.

Series within this genre, in which you watch other people is very appealing. It puts the audience in a voyeuristic position. This means, we are watching what they are doing without them seeing. If they make mistakes, even though it is sometimes awkward to watch when they get upset, an audience still likes to view this because it allows us to experience strong emotions with people we wouldn't normally. Therefore allowing us to escape.

The general post production work for this series, i.e. the film edit, is quite simple and sophisticated. The transitions between the shots are simple cuts, to make the show seem believable and not edited. This is an important factor because it allows the audience to feel trust towards the show and not think that we are been restricted with what we are viewing. The title sequence however, is a bit more impressive. It includes paint splatter across the screen, resulting in the title ‘School of Satchi’. Again, it isn't too complicated, but still effective enough to look modern.

As a series, I think School of Satchi is a big success because there hasn’t been a programme similar to this for artists/designers apart from the recent show ‘Design for Life’. However, it is still popular because the genre and set up is similar to other well known shows, for e.g X Factor. Therefore it isn't too daring or unusual for people to not want to watch. As a designer, I would definitely recommend this series to other visual artists.