FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING TEAM

As part of our production company “MOVE Film Collective” we set up our own crews within the company for example (Gallery, Festival, Fundraising, Social Media, etc.) we decided the best way to go around choosing teams would be to apply as you would for a regular job through a job application, all applications being sent to our tutor Loran Dunn, I personally applied for Festival programming team as I felt this role fitted me best, my application went as follows:

“I’d love to undertake this role as I feel it would be a great opportunity to gain extra experience within the industry, I put my whole into everything, I’m eager to explore new ideas with enthusiasm; this job role ignites my interest and fascination for creating and releasing something eternal.I trust that I’d be a great asset to the festival team, communication is my strong point, always being a helping hand for all people and collaboration is key. I’ve studied Film for six years now, and have a complex understanding of the industry and theory. If you’re looking for a coordinated, naturally attentive and helpful individual then look no further, I have gained extensive experience, offering advice and having a broad range of skills.

The department jobs all focus on aspects of filmmaking I pride myself upon, devising methods of selections for showcased films, designing and branding the festival such as name, brochures, posters, and trailers, organizing photo-shoots and sending out industry invites. All of these are aspects I can do extremely well and feel I could help make the showcase an inviting and exciting environment to share films within. In preparation for this I wanted to further my investigation into my skills, in order to do this I paid to do the ‘Clifton Strengths finder’, this is a test that allows you to see your skills and how to maximize your strengths, from this test I found that I am indeed the following:

· Learner: Always drawn to the process of learning, the process being as exciting as the content and result, my learning skills enable me to thrive in dynamic work environments.

· Empathy: Sensing emotions of others emotions around me, feel what they’re feeling as though their feelings are my own, able to see the world through another’s eyes and perspectives that help within this particular industry.

· Achiever: Achiever theme helps explain my drive, describing the constant need for achievement, the need to achieve something tangible, Pushing me to do more and achieve me, The achiever aspect brings energy to work long hours without burning out, the jolt I count on to get started on new tasks and new challenges, the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity

· Strategic: This theme enables me to sort through the clutter to find the best route, not a skill that can be taught, a distinct way of thinking a special perspective on the world, allowing me to see patterns where others simply see complexity.

· Input: I’m known to be impulsive, collecting information, words, facts, books, and quotations. The world is interesting for its infinite variety and complexity.

Other skills include punctuality, communication, work ethic, I’ve worked around different parts of the industry from directing, producing, editing and marketing within work experience, I often find myself juggling multiple tasks without issue. For example, I'm currently in the process of planning four music videos for John Robb from the membranes, this particular project takes a huge amount of planning on my behalf yet I'm dealing with the pressure extremely well, managing to do essays throughout.”

One I had sent out my application I had a reply within a month and found out I’d mad it into the team, once starting back for 3rdyear we met up with our new groups, my group personally was made up of myself and four others, we sat down to decide who would be the head of festival programming, this was something I really wanted to do as I feel I have pretty good organisation skills, I was chosen for the role and we started planning our festival programming strategies, to start out we had a meeting with HOME cinema organiser Jen and she gave us all the information we needed to set up the festival, we started planning the festival and decided we would have two hour slots that in total show 18 films, the next obsicals for us was deciding what 18 films get chosen out of the 30-4- films that would be submitted, we ran through multiple ideas such as having a voting process of films or allowing tutors to pick, although we decided people may have biased films and vote or choose films from people they personally like, there for we decided to look into festival curators and we found two great people for the job Johnny Bradshaw who has worked at multiple film festival curating the shows and Pippa a friend of our tutors who is also working within the industry.

The programming teams next job was to design and film the festival trailer, something that is currently still in process, we are creating our very own Rube Goldberg machine out of film equipment something that has taken a lot of time and effort although were hoping will be worth it when we have the finished product, the next step was looking into booklets and posters for the gallery show and festival for me this part is super interesting and I cant wait to start designing although the costs of these things are really pushing our budgeting so this is where the fundraising team came in to help.

Throughout the past four months we have been setting up fundraising events alike pub quizzes etc. that actually raised us a bunch of money to go towards our production company and festival/gallery show, I decided a cinema night might work so I organised the event, we got popcorn, pop, blue ray DVD of Jurassic park, I made multiple posters that we plastered across MMU and Manchester city centre in hopes to make more money, we hope to do much more fundraising in the future to help make money for booklet etc. Another way of fundraising was we decided we would add fees to submissions, we set out individual emails that went as follows:

“I’m messaging you privately just to see if you want to be a part of the Festival that we hope to run around the time of the Degree Show it is a great chance to showcase your work outside of the Show to professionals but it is not without costs, we have estimated £1000, so to entering it we will require a small financial contribution to one of 3 possible options*.

Anyone who wants to purchase any of these options should pay online to Victoria's account and make it clear which option is chosen at:

VICTORIA DAHL

ACC. NO.: 01894558

SORT: 04-00-04

OPTION 1: (£5)

This Membership Fee will give you:

- space for your profile and presence within the Production company Website and Booklet

- your film's inclusion in advertising

- personal detail for professionals to contact you

- Social Media Coverage, such as Facebook and Behind the Scenes on Instagram

- Crew interviews about the film and production

OPTION 2: (£5)

This Submission fee covers:

- The submission of your film to the Festival itself as well as any relevant advertising

- Consideration for festival Awards

OPTION 3: (£10)

This option is a combination of options 1 and 2, for those who want both packaged together.

All options include free headshots, which can be used for professional profiles and social media advertisement. Every penny spent will go towards funding and improving the Festival experience for all involved. Please if your interested reply as soon as possible letting us know and the deadline for payments are Monday 4th March 2019”

These emails really helped get our fundraising up and will help us ensure the festival runs smoothly and in an organised manner.

A job I personally have as head of festival programming is to help certificate each individual film for HOME Cinema, I sent out emails and notifications to everyone submitting films in hopes to get there certifications and then we will review them all before sending them off to be curated.

Overall I’m really happy with where we are up to now and I’m looking forward to see where this takes us and hopefully we will have an incredible Film festival at HOME cinema Manchester on 10th June 2019