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How familiar are you guys with hosting a film festival? I live in a small-ish city and go to the local college, where I'm part of a film club. We're renting out the independent theater for a short film festival, and I'm realizing now how little I know about running this. Beyond everything else, I have no idea how to draw people into submitting. There are certain local filmmakers I've reached out to, and I've gotten some good stuff, but we're still really lacking.
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Nov 5, 2014 22:37
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 13:38 |
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Steensma posted:How familiar are you guys with hosting a film festival? I live in a small-ish city and go to the local college, where I'm part of a film club. We're renting out the independent theater for a short film festival, and I'm realizing now how little I know about running this. Beyond everything else, I have no idea how to draw people into submitting. There are certain local filmmakers I've reached out to, and I've gotten some good stuff, but we're still really lacking. I've worked with all kinds of events, from 30 to 30,000 people. The principles are the same, regardless of the topic. I'll give you a basic list, but you'll need to research the specifics. First, PR: 1. Learn to write a press release. I don't mean just learn the mechanics, I mean learn how to write a good one. 2. Find out all the relevant industry, community, social, and (local/regional) news organizations/publications. 3. Submit details, whether press releases or blurbs or info sheets or flyers, whether via phone, fax, or e-mail. 4. Make sure, when you send out details and information, that you're completely clear what you want to happen as a result, whether the result is "get submissions" or "get warm bodies to pay for tickets" or "increase awareness" or "find volunteers to help." 5. Tell everyone about everything you do that's worth talking about. 6. Expect most people to not care, until they do care. Then they'll care. You'll know when they start caring. Next, marketing: 1. Sell only one thing at a time. Don't send a single press release that includes every single possible aspect of your event. People have short attention spans and recipients will throw away your release if it's not short and to the point. 2. Set goals. Determine all your endpoints and desired accomplishments. 3. Form plans. Put on paper what all your point A's are and what all your point B's are, and connect them as directly as possible. 4. Organize resources. Resources generally fall into categories such as people and money, but you can categorize all resources in whatever way makes the most sense - for example, since you're doing this with a college film club, student and volunteer and college staff resources may provide different benefits and drawbacks for different situations. 5. Manage expectations. This is something that often gets overlooked - but everyone involved should have some idea of what the end game will be. You don't want film submitters to think this is the first step to the Oscars, and you don't want volunteers to think it's okay to slack off because they're not getting paid. Third, budgeting: 1. Everything will cost more than you think it will. 2. Unpaid volunteers cost money - sometimes more than paid staffers. 3. Entry fees let people know you're serious. 4. Paid admission keeps out people who don't actually want to watch the films. 5. Charge too little, and people will think you're a joke. Charge too much and you'll turn everyone away. The happy medium is hard to figure out. 6. Everything will cost more than you think it will. 7. If you are running the event, or if you are part of a group of event managers, and if you are dedicated to this, you will end up spending money out of your own pocket. 8. Always look at cost vs. benefit, even for the small and mundane things. If there is not a clear benefit to a cost, or if the benefit costs significantly more than other benefits, reassess whether the cost is needed. 9. Balance wants and needs. It's great to have reclining chairs with cupholders and vibrating massagers, but will your audience be just as happy with padded folding chairs? 10. Everything will cost more than you think it will. Fourth, personnel: 1. Have set roles for everyone. If you don't know who's job it is to do something, it's nobody's job. 2. Keep a hierarchical structure. There should be clear rank and organization so everyone knows who to listen to at any given time. If you don't know who's in charge of what and whom, nobody's in charge. 3. Don't be afraid to let people try things they haven't done before. 4. Don't be afraid to prevent people from doing things they don't know how to do. 5. Fire people who are incapable of functioning as part of the team and who repeatedly fail to produce. Yes, you can fire someone even if a position is unpaid. 6. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Everyone who wants to help and has half a brain should be given things to do - there are always more things to be done than any one person has time to do. 7. Expect strained friendships if people are emotionally close but are functionally not all pulling the same amount of weight. Your best friend may bake cookies for everyone, but that won't get attendees in the door. 8. Don't give out tasks willy-nilly. Interview and talk to people, even (or especially) if you know them well. Whoever is in charge should set up a system for divvying out tasks and titles. 9. Listen to people. I can't tell you how often someone fails in their role because they joined to use their expertise, then their expertise was ignored. If someone's dad used to bring them to work every Sunday rigging lights for the town church, then that person might know more about rigging lights than a first-year student who just thinks lighting is cool. This is hardly an exhaustive list, but it should give you plenty to think about and should help you decide what to research and act on. I've been doing events on and off for somewhere around 15 years. I know I didn't give you direct answers to all your questions - but once you get plans into place and form the machine, you'll find that the answers stare you right in the face.
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Nov 9, 2014 04:34
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