Independent Study Update #6

This week, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Alex Lee, an executive producer at Sony. This interview helped to show how varied the styles of production are amongst different people. I feel that Alex's background and personality directly affect the way he produces his project teams.

Originally, Alex worked in the stock exchange in London before turning his attention to game programming. He worked on several high profile projects, including many 2K Sports titles and Spore while working for Maxis, and now works at Sony. Alex's background as a programmer greatly differs from Karin Ray, another producer I talked to this semester, who used to be an art designer. This fundamental difference between them accounts for their different styles of production. Karin is more given to subtlely telling someone that their behavior is negatively affecting the project, and she will go out of her way to set that person on the right path. Alex is more blunt in his interactions, directly stating the problem and telling the offender that they have a certain period of time to correct this. This directness has garnered respect from his teammates since he is honest about he feels about a topic and has no hesistation in informing you. This keeps everyone else honest with each through example.

The main takeaway from this chat is that there is no one true way to produce. It really depends on your personality and how you best interact with others.